Many Western analysts miss the fact that Chinese soft power is not merely a tool for building international relations. Just as important, its deployment is critical at home within the country as well as abroad. These differences are significant in practice, because they reflect the underlying differences in motivation and in stages of development.

Iran trudged into 2012 under unsettling circumstances. Severe international sanctions have already been taking their toll on its economy while a combination of sabotage activities, targeted killings, and other covert operations against Iranian military initiatives and figures are bedeviling its national security.

I prefer to call it Restraint, but let’s be clear, by whatever label America is pulling back. The oceans are big and protect America from much of the world’s turmoil. Being on American side of them is cheaper than being on the other side and wiser too. America is coming home thanks to the government’s budget deficit.

This in-depth study into the complex and multi-faceted aspect of the role of oil and gas in Russian foreign policy goes beyond the headlines, taking the reader through the hydrocarbon fields, and into the backroom of energy contract negotiations between the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan since 1991. It is recommended reading for all regional or country-experts and interested readers alike.

The history of US foreign policy is a violent and bloody one, although this is not necessarily the dominant perception of most Americans. It is in fact, the most warring nation in modern history. It is in this historical context that we have to try and understand its current military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Libya.