In The News

US Draws Together South Korea and Japan

Richard McGregor and Simon Mundy March 25, 2014
The United States is urging its allies in the north Pacific to forge closer ties: “Barack Obama used Washington’s clout with both countries to persuade Shinzo Abe and Park Geun-hye, the Japanese and South Korea leaders, to have a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague,” report Richard McGregor and Simon Mundy for the Financial Times. The meeting, the first...

Why "Iran Style" Sanctions Worked Against Tehran (And Why They Might Not Succeed With Moscow)

Suzanne Maloney March 24, 2014
In responding to global crisis or conflict, leaders must choose measures that have a reasonable chance of success. The United States and the European are applying sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the abrupt, forcible annexation of Crimea. Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, writing for Brookings, details conditions for how sanctions pushed...

NSA Breached Chinese Servers Seen as Security Threat

David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth March 24, 2014
US officials long blocked the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei from business deals for its supposed link with the Chinese military. “But even as the United States made a public case about the dangers of buying from Huawei, classified documents show that the National Security Agency was creating its own back doors – directly into Huawei’s networks,” report David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth...

Turkey's President Gul Challenges PM's Move to Ban Twitter

Rory Cellan-Jones March 21, 2014
Those who try to shoot messengers often appear guilty, frustrated and infuriated about getting caught. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to wipe out a social-media site and “took action against Twitter after some users had posted documents reportedly showing evidence of corruption relating to his office – a claim he denies,” reports Rory Cellan-Jones for BBC News. “His spokesman said Mr...

Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says

Neil Gough March 21, 2014
The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. waved a white flag over news coverage on China – and suggested that investigative journalism is inappropriate for a company that sells expensive business terminals. Peter T. Grauer’s comment as reported in the New York Times – “Our approach is pretty much to tune out all the news about weaknesses in the emerging markets” – implies that the company can sell a product...

Why You Should Embrace Surveillance, Not Fight It

Kevin Kelly March 20, 2014
Monitoring and surveillance by corporations and government will be the norm by 2060 if not now. “The internet is a tracking machine,” writes Kevin Kelly. “Everything that can be measured is already tracked, and all that was previously [unmeasurable] is becoming quantified, digitized, and trackable.” Kelly argues that human propensity to share trumps privacy. Individuals can improve by learning...

Cooler Heads Need to Convey Japan’s Message

Sadaaki Numata March 20, 2014
Rational players in the North Pacific seek stability and reliable partners who share the same concern. “Today, there is a concern as to how far the ‘new model of great power relations’ between China and the U.S. may develop, possibly to Japan’s detriment,” writes former Japanese diplomat Sadaaki Numata for the English-Speaking Union of Japan. “Ironically this time it is the U.S. that seems...