In The News

China Dips a Toe Into Middle East Peace

Edward Wong, Chris Buckley May 9, 2013
By hosting Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu, China may be considering a more active role in Middle East diplomacy. The leaders of the Palestine Authority and Israel did not meet in China. “As China’s economy, national strength and international status grow, Arab countries are looking more to China,” suggests Guo Xiangang of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing. China...

Expanding Civil War: After Syria, Iraq?

Mohammed Ayoob May 7, 2013
Intervention and war are a way of life in the Middle East. With intervention fueling conflict, sectarian tensions reemerge and leaders restrict basic rights and freedoms and even resort to using force to restrain their own citizens. A recent example is the Iraqi government kicking out Arab television networks. Old behavior patterns are igniting unrest, civil war and new types of intervention,...

Cameron's Rift With China Could Cost UK Billions

Malcolm Moore, James Quinn May 7, 2013
China’s tough reaction to international leaders’ meeting with the Dalai Lama threatens to hit where it hurts – the economy, reports the Telegraph. British Prime Minister David Cameron met privately with the Tibetan spiritual leader in 2012. The Chinese foreign ministry then summoned the British ambassador to China and explained that “meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader had ‘seriously...

Japanese Consortium Set for Turkish Nuclear Power Deal

Daniel Dombey, Jonathan Soble, Hugh Carnegy May 6, 2013
Ample energy is necessary for strong economic growth, and Turkey is moving ahead on a deal to construct a second nuclear power plant in cooperation with Japan and France. It’s the first overseas project for Japan since the Fukushima disaster in 2011 and the second nuclear plant for Turkey. Russia is constructing Turkey’s first nuclear power plant and is absorbing all risk to establish itself as a...

Myanmar Morphs to US-China Battlefield

Bertil Lintner May 3, 2013
The international community is encouraged about fledgling democracy in Burma, or Myanmar as renamed by its leaders. Once isolated, denounced for human rights violations, the Myanmar government depended heavily on China. Hoping to reduce dependence on China, the Myanmar government eased repression, and the US responded swiftly. But this development adds to new US-Chinese tensions. “Rather than...

End the Campaign to Spread Democracy

Dov Ronen May 1, 2013
Global citizens are familiar with democracy’s joys and pains, and there is no need for proponents to promote the system of governance. Citizens in any given land must exercise self-determination in selecting a government, argues Dov Ronen of Harvard University. Referring to Woodrow Wilson, who as US president prioritized self-determination in the Covenant of the League of Nations, Ronen suggests...

Lone Wolf Terrorists – No Easy Catch

Bruce Riedel April 30, 2013
Vigilance and a global crackdown on terrorism have so far deterred those trying to plot attacks on a grand scale in the US. A bigger challenge may be impromptu attacks by disgruntled young men, like the bombing at the Boston Marathon by two brothers, young adults whose Chechen immigrant parents had largely deserted them in the US. So far, the surviving suspect claims the attack was not part of a...