In The News

Obama Visits China-Tilting Cambodia

Sebastian Strangio December 7, 2012
Barack Obama is the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia and Burma. Both nations have close ties with China, and the contrast in welcomes for Obama was stark: Burmese lined streets and cheered, and Burma officials assured the president on ongoing reform. In Cambodia – which hosted the East Asian Summit attended by Obama, heads of state of ASEAN members and others in the region – the...

China’s Aggressive Stance Reveals Lack of Coordination

Terry McCarthy December 5, 2012
Growing tensions in East Asia over aggressive postures from China may stem from a lack of coordination among government factions rather than concerted policy. But that is hardly reassuring, argues Terry McCarthy. The country lacks strong leadership that can control factions competing to be most outspoken and nationalistic. As a result, the country antagonizes neighbors with far-reaching claims...

Gaza: Old Struggle, New Realities

Rami G. Khouri November 23, 2012
The Islamist-led government of Egypt has brokered a truce to end the fierce fighting and exchange of rocket fire between Gaza and Israel. Israel was poised for a ground invasion, but that’s on hold for now. The events reveal old, failed patterns in the Middle East and a seemingly endless conflict that’s has long instigated regional bitterness, determination and extremism, writes Rami G. Khouri,...

Is China Up to the Challenge?

David Shambaugh November 21, 2012
China has installed a new leadership team, but no one should hold his breath waiting for dramatic reforms, suggests China scholar David Shambaugh. China’s leaders understand the challenges of corruption, slowing growth, ethnic discontent, strained relations with neighbor states and trade partners, but may find these difficult to address. Shambaugh lists four constraints for the new generation of...

An American President in the Age of Globalization

Strobe Talbott November 19, 2012
This week YaleGlobal Online marks its 10th anniversary and coincidentally it’s also a period of global transition. In Washington and Beijing, new administrations prepare to take the reins. We begin this week with an analysis of the significance of President Barack Obama’s reelection by Strobe Talbott, the first director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, of which YaleGlobal is the...

China’s Boomerang Diplomacy

Stein Tønnesson November 16, 2012
China has long insisted its goal is a peaceful rise, but Asia’s largest economy has ruffled the feathers of close neighbors along the way. Hu Jintao, outgoing president, bears some responsibility, suggests Stein Tønnesson of the East Asian Peace program, University of Uppsala. Assertive language, including territorial claims of small rocks and reefs, and disregard for North Korea’s belligerence...

Iran’s Nuclear Program: Handle With Care

Jamsheed K. Choksy, Carol E. B. Choksy November 14, 2012
Both the United States and Iran must contend with polarized politics. Yet large majorities of Iranians and Americans do not support Iran’s development of nuclear capability for military purposes and do not want to start a war over the issue. An attack on Iran’s nuclear program, which it insists is for peaceful purposes, is useless because the knowhow is there, as it is in many other places, and...