In The News

Xinjiang – Where China’s Worry Intersects the World

Christopher M. Clarke March 19, 2010
The recent killing of a Uighur terrorist in Afghanistan has brought new focus on the ethnic group in China’s western border region.of Xinjiang. The situation of the Uighurs – an ethnic Turkic, Muslim minority – reveals much about China’s internal conduct and external worries, according to China expert Christopher M. Clarke. Hailing from Xinjiang province, Uighurs have seen their majority in that...

Globalization in Trouble – Part I

Bernard K. Gordon February 12, 2010
From financial woes to security worries, a new world seems to be dawning in which the process of globalization risks slowing down. In part one of a two part series, YaleGlobal looks at trade troubles that may arise from a non-trade failure. For all the praise of free and open trade creating prosperity in the post-World War II, analysts often forget how the stability of the international system...

Obama’s Afghan Gamble

Bruce Riedel December 3, 2009
US President Obama’s recent decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan may be his last chance to solve the worsening situation. It is a gamble likely to define his presidency. And, as former intelligence official and Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution Bruce Riedel writes, the stakes are high: from preventing another 9/11 to the future of global Islamic jihad. While Obama...

China, India Stoke 21st-Century Rivalry

Peter Wonacott October 23, 2009
As each day passes, India and China seem closer to butting heads openly over a number of issues including contested territory, strategic relations, and trade. China claims Indian province Arunachal Pradesh is part of Tibet while India accuses China of occupying Indian territory in eastern Ladakh. Increased militarization and tightened controls at the border help to keep tensions simmering. China...

Deals With Taliban Could Be Dangerous

Peter Bergen March 12, 2009
Military intervention alone cannot resolve the unrest and violence that stem from illiteracy, inequality and poverty. With that in mind, the US considers approaching more moderate members of the Taliban to join on a political solution for troubled Afghanistan. Reporting for CNN, analyst Peter Berg offers nine reasons why such negotiations might not work, including a weak central government in...

The Struggle for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia

Togzhan Kassenova January 8, 2009
Some countries want nothing to do with nuclear weapons, and that’s particularly true of former Soviet satellites that were subjected to numerous nuclear tests during the Cold War. A treaty on a nuclear-weapon-free-zone in Central Asia, agreed to by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, 10 years in the making and signed in 2006, is about to come into force. “The...

From Great Game to Grand Bargain

Barnett R. Rubin December 4, 2008
Afghanistan and Pakistan are major trouble spots and a key source of terrorism, largely because of poverty, minimal education and economic opportunities, and training camps that blame the US, Israel and India for local problems. Yet sending more combat troops to the region won’t improve security, argue authors Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid in an essay for Foreign Affairs. “U.S. diplomacy has...