In The News

Can Asia Step Up to 21st Century Leadership?

Amitav Acharya December 1, 2011
Global power is shifting, particularly in economic matters. Asia’s emerging powers seek enhanced leadership roles in world affairs, yet those roles may not be warranted until the nations take on more responsibility for regional and global governance and security, argues Amitav Acharya of American University. “Asia’s role in global governance cannot be delinked from the question: Who leads Asia?”...

Toppling of Libyan Dictator Legitimizes R2P Doctrine

Bennett Ramberg November 29, 2011
The war in Libya broke new ground, lending support for the international community to take a strong stand against dictators who threaten their own people. Bennett Ramberg, formerly with the US State Department, analyzes recent wars and how intervention in Libya compares. After horrific massacres in Rwanda and Srebrenica, the Canadian government took the lead in 2001, convening diplomats in...

Why Did the Arab League Tyrants’ Club Finally Turn on Syria?

Shashank Joshi November 22, 2011
Member states of the Arab League are notorious for harsh treatment of their citizens and nonchalance about neighbors. But greater concern about regional stability and its effect on their own power have transformed attitudes. In March the league supported Western intervention in Libya and in November voted to suspend Syria for its relentless crackdowns on protesters. Civil war in Syria would be...

The Arab Past Meeting the Arab Future

David Ignatius November 17, 2011
The Middle East could be transformed if the Palestinian group Hamas renounced violence, accepted Israel’s right to exist and supported the past commitments of the Palestinian Authority, writes David Ignatius for the Daily Star. Ignatius lists several recent events, including Hamas’ support for Syria’s opposition movement and its ongoing dialogue with Egyptian officials, that signal the group is...

World Anxious as Iran Inches Toward Nuclear Bomb

Leonard S. Spector November 14, 2011
As the international community seeks ways to reduce nuclear weapons, the few nations that defy this common goal are targets for ire, monitoring, and escalating sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported evidence that Iran is continuing to build the technical skills required for producing nuclear weapons and accumulating stocks of partially enriched uranium. Nonproliferation...

Wary of China, Its Southern Neighbors Court India

Harsh V. Pant October 28, 2011
China’s rapid ascent, along with the flexing of its muscles, has worried neighbors. They chafe at becoming too dependent, and a loose, yet perceptible balancing coalition aimed at curbing China has emerged. With the United States reorganizing its own priorities, India is viewed as an ideal partner for providing strategic balancing, explains Harsh V. Pant, a defense specialist at King’s College....

What Does Gaddafi's Fall Mean for Africa?

Mahmood Mamdani October 21, 2011
The brutal end of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is a warning for despots who resist reforms. Too many African leaders follow the personality-based model of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah rather than the state-building model of Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, argues Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia and Makerere universities in an essay for Al Jazeera. Failure to establish sustainable institutions breeds...