In The News

Kyrgyzstan Turmoil Puts US Base and Afghan War in Balance

Dilip Hiro April 12, 2010
Landlocked, lacking resources that typically attract notice of distant powers, the Kyrgyz Republic holds a strategic position. Not far from war-torn Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda hatched plans for the 9/11 attacks, Kyrgyzstan remains a nation of interest. Russia gave the go-ahead to former Soviet republics to assist in the US-led effort against Islamic extremism, explains author Dilip Hiro, but...

China: Defending its Core Interest in the World – Part II

Guobin Yang April 7, 2010
Media reports on Google’s redirecting internet searches by Chinese authorities to its uncensored site in Hong Kong have largely presented it as a conflict between two global titans. But the narrow focus of such reporting overlooks that Google’s pull-out was limited, leaving many services in place, and that Chinese authorities have not acted to shut down the company’s Hong Kong detour, notes...

China: Defending its Core Interest in the World – Part I

Orville Schell April 5, 2010
China has shown increasing intransigence towards the world in the defense of what it considers its core interest. This two-part series analyzes how China’s hard line policy may not have helped its best interest. Recent developments in the US-China relationship – both in politics, with the rocky start between presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao, and in business with Google’s partial retreat from...

Iraqi Elections Have Not Set Off a Democracy Contagion

Fawaz A. Gerges March 29, 2010
US policy in Iraq following the 2003 invasion focused on imposing democracy. But this policy has only served to perpetuate sectarian allegiance divided roughly along religious or ethnic lines, according to Middle East expert Fawaz A. Gerges. The effects endure today: the recent Iraqi parliamentary elections demonstrated that Iraq’s political system remains fragmented, inhibiting the formation of...

Anti-Immigration Backlash Roils Ties between Australia and India – Part II

Sadanand Dhume March 8, 2010
Australia and India are spending more time mending relations between the two nations than reaching a consensus on major international issues, according to journalist Sadanand Dhume. In part II of the two-part series, Dhume notes that despite Australia being the most popular Western country in India after the US, the violence against their countrymen there has appalled Indians and damaged...

Israel Presses China over Iran sanctions

Geoff Dyer March 4, 2010
Israeli officials are in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders about Iran. It’s just one of many recent indications that China, which has a critical Security Council vote on Iranian sanctions, needs to step carefully in the Middle East. Beijing has largely supported Iran thus far having inked key oil deals, but also sharing similar attitudes towards what it considers international interference....

Is There a Chinese Model?

David Shambaugh March 2, 2010
China's extraordinary growth in recent years has led many to wonder if a model can be erected based on this development. In China, though, scholars disagree whether a “Chinese model” of growth exists sufficient to export to other developing countries. According to David Shambaugh, director of George Washington University's China Policy Program, one must isolate four key elements of any...