Obama’s Stealth Sanctions Against Russia Are a Dirty Trick
These are fast times for Ukraine. The crisis over its future between East and West suddenly has more momentum and more chance of resolution than it has in many months. But it is newly fragile, too. A false move now…
Next on China’s ‘My Way’ List: Hong Kong
Push is rapidly coming to shove between China and Hong Kong, which bills itself as the “World City.” If the world doesn’t sit up and take notice soon, the political future of the autonomous territory could be imperiled and things…
Iraq: We Broke It, but We Can’t Fix It
As Iraq descends into a sectarian war that could prove more gruesome than any other that has befallen its people, two questions face the Obama administration. When and why did the mistakes begin? What’s the smart choice now? Answer the…
Japan’s Pivot Away from the West Leads Back to China
Japan-watchers have asked since the “bubble” of the late-1980s, “What are the Japanese going to do?” Now Shinzo Abe, the bluntly nationalist prime minister, is making this clear, prompting a new question: “How will Americans and Japan’s neighbors handle what…
China’s Strategy Has Completely Eluded Washington
The Chinese dragon, awake and alert for some time, is suddenly stretching its arms and embracing what it thinks with conviction is its destiny as a Pacific power. Will the American protectorate in place for 70 years hold, they ask…
Cold War By Other Means
Ukraine: the Crisis in Context It is never easy to see the present as history: Being inside events, being the stuff of which events are made, makes distance and the perspective that comes of it difficult. It is not a…
The Fight to Win the Confidence of the Continent
Elections to the European parliament ended Sunday with far less commotion than those held in Ukraine the same day. In Ukraine, the polls were no more than politics as war by other means, while the EU just registered a seismometer’s…
India’s New Leader Risks Violent Disruption for China-style Growth
Indians made a potentially fateful choice when they voted Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party into power in stretched-out elections this spring. With the BJP’s victory official as of late last week, India is now a nation…
Ukraine’s Choices: Unity or a Fractured Federation
The referendums in Ukraine almost nobody wanted are now part of the story, and they have little meaning but some significance. Let’s explore the difference. One way or another, the two votes on Sunday bring the nation a step further…
The Sanctions Against Russia Are a Dangerous Game
Crunch time in Ukraine approaches. This is not simply because the country’s east and south are “essentially at war,” as Vasyl Krutov, the general who leads what the provisional government in Kiev insists is its “anti-terror” operation,acknowledged on Sunday. The…
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