China’s Leisurely Aircraft-Carrier Ambitions
The enduring mismatch between the US and Chinese fleets is no guarantee of an equally lasting US naval supremacy in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Beijing is pursuing imaginative antiship missile technology. If rocketeers stationed ashore can keep the US Navy out of important waters, the Chinese Navy can accomplish its goals, even with an inferior fleet.
The Wolf, the Bear, and the Eagle: Peace in the Valley?
Turkish-Russian rapprochement should not be viewed by the West as a menace or even irritant, but rather the platform upon which regional knots of contention might find resolution. The regional political landscape of western Eurasia has shifted dramatically in the past decade; we in the West would do well to adjust our perceptions accordingly.
The Challenge of Sisyphus and post-referendum Southern Sudan
There is an intense sense of Sisyphean angst concerning the challenges facing Southern Sudan. With a reasonably fertile land, a young population, and plentiful resources Southern Sudan has the raw materials to build a successful nation, but only if it receives the support it requires.
Food ‘Security’: the need for a new framework for analysis
The last global food crisis of 2007-08 should have jolted policymakers across the globe into examining more closely the root causes and consequences of such crises at the local, regional and global levels. In 2011, global food prices have once again returned to make alarming headlines and analysts far and wide are arguing that we stand at the threshold of yet another global food crisis.
A Personal Perspective on the Tunisian Revolution
It was the first cyber-revolution, but it probably won’t be the last. While in the past it was more than common for leaders to rule their people through fear and threat, with increased education and accessibility to the internet, authoritarian leaders and dictators like Ben Ali will hopefully soon be known only in history.
The Western Balkans: The Ultimate Test for the European Union
Despised by Bismarck as ’not worth the life of a single German solider’’ and described by Churchill as ‘having too much history to consume’’, the region of the Western Balkans is returning to the agenda. The EU and the USA must step in and show that they are up to this ultimate test of bringing the last remaining non-EU island into the orbit of the Union and NATO.
Will there be war on Iran? A fresh yet divergent look at an old question
In 2002 Iran was added to the neoconservative-designed ‘Axis of Evil’ and thus declared ripe for US military intervention. Wars are often kicked off accidentally. Indeed, that an incident in the heavily militarised Persian Gulf could be utilised as a casus belli by war profiteers who have overcome obstacles on the political scene is certainly not a matter of sheer fantasy. Urgent action is therefore required to lower the temperatures.
The Poisoned Chalice of Foreign Imposed Regime Change
When the USA overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and Saddam Hussein in 2003, many hoped that America could repeat its great foreign policy successes of neutralizing Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan following World War II. Overthrowing the former permanently moved extraordinarily grave threats to international stability.
Are women important in US foreign policy?
Madeleine Bunting wrote a fascinating piece regarding the inclusion of a feminist agenda in US foreign policy (USFP) in the Guardian on January 16, 2011. Fascinating, because it forces me to assess what I think about the success of inculcating a women’s agenda into USFP.
Multilateralism: The Ideological Matrix of the European Union
The EU builds its identity based on collaboration as an element of its ideological matrix. If not as a superpower, the EU in the 21st century, could be a medium, or a multilateral agora, which through its international Kantianism, will initiate the creation of new, and the preservation of existent multilateral organizations
