American Opinion

Discontent postponed

2012-04-19T11:29:14+10:00

So far, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has exercised power well—by the standards of the former Soviet republics. His administration has presided over quite impressive rates of economic growth (admittedly aided by high energy prices), and has not been as oppressive as the Central Asian regimes, as corrupt and chauvinist as the Caucasians,… more»

Drawing the line

2012-04-19T10:34:22+10:00

From coup rumours in China through crusade-mongering in Africa to revelations of revolution in the US State Department: social media is cutting a trail of creative destruction across international affairs in 2012.… more»

The Pakistan precipice

2012-02-25T20:56:57+10:00

The growing confrontation between the United States and Pakistan is one of the most dangerous security threats in the world today. It also illustrates the dysfunctionality into which US strategy has fallen. For, US pressure is exerted on Pakistan in order to support their efforts to create a state and… more»

Online eavesdropping

2012-02-25T20:51:12+10:00

Toward the end of 2011, the Minnesota congresswoman and then Republican presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann had an interesting idea. Admittedly, interesting ideas are one of the things for which Bachmann is well known, and this one is fairly modest by her standards. Nonetheless, it’s one that deserves some consideration. The… more»

The Midwestern swing

2012-02-25T20:12:59+10:00

The American presidential campaign, having given Iowa its prolonged season in the spotlight, moved east to New Hampshire and other states with primary elections. But it will be back to the Midwest soon enough—this time to stay. The 2012 election will be decided in the Midwest. Iowa and its neighbours… more»

Change under pressure

2012-02-24T16:55:29+10:00

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar at the end of November 2011, attracting considerable media attention because it was the first such visit by America’s top diplomat in half a century and might herald substantive political reform in a country that has suffered under the yoke of military… more»

The showdown

2012-01-31T10:54:30+10:00

During the tense budget talks that bought the United States to the brink of sovereign default in July 2011, Barack Obama tossed a barb at Republicans, reminding them they had already voted to cut healthcare and other government programs. “Excuse us for trying to lead,” shot back John Boehner, the… more»

War tweets

2012-01-31T10:15:10+10:00

Perhaps history never quite repeats, but now it definitely retweets. Thanks to Twitter and some hardworking and entrepreneurial researchers, students can relive some of the epochal wars of the past, one foggy moment of farce and tragedy after another. Since August 2011, World War II has been reported in real… more»

The chameleon

2011-10-11T10:14:32+10:00

Barack Obama was once memorably described by a biographer as a shape-shifter, a political being whose racial background and peripatetic upbringing and education gave him unique skills to inspire and ingratiate himself with a new breed of voters. Three years on, the president is shifting into a different sort of… more»

Mainstream madness

2011-10-11T10:12:09+10:00

The 2012 presidential campaign has begun in the United States, at least for Republican Party hopefuls. Too often, the rhetoric reminds me of a bad time in the American farm belt and especially of a young, unhappy farmer who had lurched to the far fringes of the ideological spectrum, if… more»

Private punishment

2011-10-11T09:43:09+10:00

Private Bradley Manning was arrested in May 2010 and charged with transferring classified data onto his personal computer and disclosing defence information to an unauthorised recipient—namely, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame.… more»

Roadblock in Okinawa

2011-10-11T09:00:00+10:00

Yoshihiko Noda, Japan’s new prime minister—the sixth in five years—has been handed a poisoned chalice. At 54, he inherits all of the problems that his predecessor Naoto Kan was grappling with during his 15-month tenure. His Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) remains divided and unpopular, the economy and overdue reforms… more»

The diplomatic tweet

2011-10-10T08:22:40+10:00

The boundaries between journalism, intelligence, diplomacy and think tank analysis are dissolving at a rapid rate, thanks to the unstoppable advance of social media. It is not entirely an original thought—Daryl Copeland, the Canadian diplo-wonk and author of the book Guerrilla Diplomacy, has made a similar point recently (and on… more»

New kid on the block

2011-10-10T08:10:56+10:00

This past April, a momentous anniversary passed by entirely unremarked upon. The 16th day of that month heralded 10 years since the word ‘blog’ first appeared in the pages of The New York Times.… more»

Pacific power to the rescue

2011-08-20T08:53:12+10:00

Last June, the then US defence secretary and former head of the CIA under George W. Bush, Robert Gates, launched a rhetorical missile at America's NATO allies. In a speech in Brussels, he warned the allies that American exasperation with European military weakness might one day spell the effective end… more»

Big trouble in Lake China

2011-08-20T04:55:22+10:00

In 1980 I attended a graduate seminar focussing on rival claims over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea, and recall the professor suggesting that there was little to worry about for the next few decades. It turns out he had it right, but now there is… more»

In poll position

2011-08-20T03:57:52+10:00

In an interview before a rapt crowd at the Aspen Ideas Festival this July, Bill Clinton wound up a high-toned discussion about global philanthropy with some political-pro handicapping of the upcoming US presidential race. "On the facts now," he said, "the person most likely to win the Republican nomination is… more»

The jasmine journey

2011-08-20T02:33:34+10:00

The Arab world is in the grip of critical structural changes. The current popular revolts across the region mark an unprecedented awakening of the Arab people in modern history. The revolts have already resulted in the overthrow of the dictatorial rule of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in… more»

Advance column

2011-08-20T01:01:32+10:00

Foreign policy wonks in droves are turning to Twitter to make their ideas travel faster and further. In just a few years the technique has become so commonplace that established magazines such as Foreign Policy now annually publish guides to the top 100 twitterati—and these lists are of course hotly… more»

No turning back

2011-08-20T00:00:47+10:00

"Germany's nuclear energy blunder" read the headline in a lead Washington Post editorial. "Panicked overreaction isn't the right response to the partial meltdown," it went on to say. In the New York Times, Alan Cowell sought a psychological explanation for Germany's "apocalyptic" decision to phase out nuclear power: "What is… more»