In The News

Powers Seek Influence in Burma’s Conflict

Bertil Lintner March 18, 2013
Burma’s President Thein Sein, while visiting Europe, announced that the government’s fighting against ethnic resistance forces has ended – even as the government moves more troops into the troubled areas. Meanwhile, the United States and China are scrambling for influence by brokering peace to end the ethnic conflicts. Dozens of think tanks and NGOs from the West are attracting donor funds and...

US Must Adopt Law of the Sea

Ziad Haider March 13, 2013
At a time when North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship requires a common front, growing maritime disputes over small islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea are pitting major countries against one another. Key players, including China, Japan and South Korea, are at odds and increasingly relying on military bluster. Attorney Ziad Haider urges the United States to lead in easing the tensions...

US Demands China Block Cyberattacks

Mark Landler, David E. Sanger March 13, 2013
A speech by the US national security adviser has emerged as the first public demand that China end the theft of data from US computer networks. China repeated its own denunciations of such attacks and denied that its military is involved in wholesale cybertheft from US corporations and government agencies, report Mark Landler and David Sanger for the New York Times. A spokesperson for the Chinese...

Annoyed, China Sticks With North Korea

Nayan Chanda March 11, 2013
In 1961, China and North Korea signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, committing either party to come to the aid of the other if attacked. China has since been doling out food and energy aid despite North Korea regularly issuing threats to South Korea and the US, as well as repeatedly defying UN resolutions on nuclear and missile tests. In a departure from past...

Kim Blows Up Again

March 8, 2013
Managing North Korea – isolated, dysfunctional, belligerent – is a pressing challenge, particularly for immediate neighbors South Korea and China. Another set of tough sanctions against North Korea for its February nuclear test have been imposed by the United Nations, and North Korea has responded with a threat to disregard the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War. Joint US–South Korean...

US Boosts War Role in Africa

Adam Entous, David Gauthier-Villars, Drew Hinshaw March 6, 2013
The US is providing intelligence assistance to the French in the campaign against extremists in Mali. “U.S. Reaper drones have provided intelligence and targeting information that have led to nearly 60 French airstrikes in the past week alone in a range of mountains the size of Britain, where Western intelligence agencies believe militant leaders are hiding,” reports the Wall Street Journal about...

Thais Seek Peace With Homegrown Muslim Rebels

Eric Randolph March 1, 2013
The government of Thailand has agreed to hold unprecedented peace talks with Muslim rebels who have been waging a separatist struggle in the country’s southern provinces for decades. Journalist Eric Randolph describes recent violence in Thailand’s southern provinces, not very far from beaches popular among western tourists. Yet the local conflict has not captured much international attention,...