In The News

US and China Explore New Relationship

Robert A. Manning June 11, 2013
By setting a few priorities, the top leaders of the United States and China may have cleared some misunderstandings and reduced mistrust. Still, a new type of relationship for the two countries remains “aspirational,” suggests Robert Manning, senior fellow of the Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security at the Atlantic Council. Barack Obama and Xi Jinping met for eight hours in...

A Start in Lahore

Hassan Siddiq June 11, 2013
Pakistan’s election was the first democratic transfer of power in the country’s history – and also a start in giving voice to Pakistan’s minorities, writes Hassan Siddiq in an opinion essay for Outlook India. Such minorities include bonded laborers as well as Hindus, Sikhs and Christians. Of course, protecting minority rights is work that is never finished. Ramesh Singh Arora is a social...

Is Big Data Turning Government Into Big Brother?

Michael Liedtke June 7, 2013
Privacy advocates have long been concerned about the US National Security Agency collecting data on US citizens and foreigners. Recent reports that Verizon and likely other US telecommunications firms are handing over phone logs stir new concerns about surveillance activities started under the George W. Bush administration. Individuals who use digital devices leave digital trails, reports Michael...

Xi Strengthens Ties With Latin America

Yu Bing June 7, 2013
By 2012, China was a bigger trading partner than the US to 128 countries, while the US was ahead in 72 – a reversal from seven years ago when the US was ahead in 124 nations and China in 70. President Xi Jinping, unlike his predecessors, is broadening Chinese focus on a range of practical matters around the globe, reports Yu Bing for the Washington Post, and this includes strengthening ties with...

Turkey’s Authoritarian Turn

Seyla Benhabib June 6, 2013
Parks are civic gathering places. Plans to turn Istanbul’s Gezi Park and Taksim Square into a shopping mall were weighted with symbolism – galvanizing protests and representing what “seems an effort to erase the face of the old, majestic Istanbul, which has largely disappeared in recent years in favor of shallow, gaudy, stupefied consumerism,” writes Yale professor Seyla Benhabib in an opinion...

Japan's Shinzo Abe Hails Africa as “Growth Center”

June 4, 2013
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe views Africa as a “growth centre over the next couple of decades” and advised immediate investment at a conference on African development in Japan, co-hosted with the African Union, the World Bank and the United Nations, reports BBC News. The prime minister stressed the need for industrialization in Africa, moving beyond the export of natural resources. Japan...

Vietnam PM Seeks Regional Unity as China Pushes Maritime Claims

John O'Callaghan June 4, 2013
Amid tensions in the South China Sea, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called upon other Southeast Asian nations for unity during his address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual regional forum in Singapore. According to Reuters, Dung urged ASEAN members to stay united rather than “take sides with one country or the other for the benefit of their own relationships with big powers...