In The News

Vietnam’s Economy Needs Reoriented Foreign Policy

David Brown February 20, 2013
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the country’s Communist Party embraced a Soviet-style economic model. By the mid-1980s, the country’s elites could not help but compare results of Soviet and Chinese economic models and undertook Chinese-style reforms to enjoy globalization’s benefits. The surge of foreign investment capital since has led to reckless credit expansion and inflation. Businesses...

Will China Ever Be No. 1?

Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill February 20, 2013
Speculating on economic growth of nations has become a sporting event – with diplomats, policymakers and investors “placing their bets,” suggest Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill in a Foreign Policy essay, introducing the thesis of their book about Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. As prime minister from 1959 to 1990, Lee monitored and advised Chinese and US leaders. Lee contends that China’s rapid...

Shadow of 1914 Falls Over the Pacific

Gideon Rachman February 19, 2013
Nationalism and tensions in the Asia Pacific over small islands echo the mood prior to World War I, argues Gideon Rachman in Financial Times. He compares China to Germany in 1914, a rising power worried about competitors blocking its ascent. A US delegation has advised Beijing and Tokyo that a Chinese attack on the islands would trigger US security guarantees to Japan. “The obvious danger is that...

In Egypt, The Kids Are Not All Right

David Ignatius February 19, 2013
Protests for representative government and human rights in Egypt have given way to thuggery and lawlessness, suggests David Ignatius in an opinion essay for the Washington Post. He compares “soccer thugs” roaming Egypt’s streets, defying authority, to the aggressive youth gangs in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. “They seem to disrespect their fathers’ generation for having...

An Interview with John Dramani Mahama

John Dramani Mahama February 18, 2013
In an interview with Nayan Chanda, Ghana's Vice President John Dramani Mahama, now President, says how stigma of homosexuality hampers fighting AIDS, talks about the role of telecommunication in political transformation, voices concern about NATO attacks on Libya, and Ghana's effort to avoid the curse of wealth from natural resources. – YaleGlobal

WNSA: “We’d Rather Be Called Re-Emerging Powers”

February 18, 2013
Some officials in Asia are bristling at the label “emerging,” especially when used by western media to describe nations like India and China with their long histories. Instead, “these countries [are]in the process of restoring the historical norm in the international hierarchy and distribution of power,” notes the Hindu Times. According to the report, India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar...

N Korea Sets Stark Policy Test for China

Leslie Hook February 13, 2013
International observers had hoped that the Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader since 2011, would be less belligerent and more open to cooperation with neighboring countries. Instead, the country has launched a nuclear test, in violation of international law, once again challenging China, its key ally: “[T]he relationship has started to fray after a series of diplomatic snubs by Pyongyang since [Un...