Global Insider: India’s Space Program, Once a Pragmatic Goal, Now a Strategic Necessity

The Indian Space Research Organization’s latest budget allocated $25 million to a plan to send an orbiter to Mars to study its atmosphere. In an email interview, Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College who writes in a personal capacity, discussed India’s space program. WPR: What is the current scope of India’s space program, and what are its priority programs, both short-term and long-term? Joan Johnson-Freese: The scope of India’s space program has recently expanded significantly. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, considered the father of India’s space program, unambiguously stated its original purpose as being focused […]

Bo’s Fall Highlights China’s Regional Governance Problem

Bo Xilai, the dismissed Communist Party chief of the western municipality of Chongqing, began his long fall from grace in February, when his police chief, Wang Lijun, sought refuge in the United States Consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Wang’s short-lived “defection” lifted the lid off a corruption scandal that is likely to complicate the once-in-a-decade transfer of power to new party leaders in the fall, drawing international attention to internal politics that party officials prefer to keep far from public view. The charges currently being brought against Bo, which include disturbing details about his […]

Territorial disputes to determine control of offshore energy reserves and multinational efforts to secure global shipping lanes are increasingly driving naval competition and international politics. Be it in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, maritime security and diplomacy will in part determine the emerging global order. This World Politics Review special report examines diplomacy and strategy in the world’s waterways. Below are links to each article in this special report, which subscribers can read in full. Not a subscriber? Purchase this document for Kindle or as a PDF from Scribd. Or subscribe to WPR now. […]

Global Insider: Despite Rising FDI in EU, Chinese Firms Keep Production at Home

Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors opened its first European factory in Bulgaria in February. In an email interview, L. Jeremy Clegg, director of the Center for International Business at the University of Leeds, and Hinrich Voss, a research fellow at the center, discussed the prospect of Chinese firms relocating to Europe. WPR: To what extent have Chinese companies relocated production to the eurozone, and what other projects are in the works? Hinrich Voss: The evidence speaks against relocation of production by Chinese companies to Europe at this stage. While companies such as TCL, Haier, Hisense and Geely have opened or […]

Bombs in Southern Thailand Kill 14, Injure 340

Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand’s restive south, killing 14 people and injuring 340 with car bombs that targeted shoppers and a high-rise hotel. World News Videos by NewsLook

Global Insider: Japan, Thailand Look to Put Disasters in the Past

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visited Japan last month in an effort to boost international confidence following Thailand’s devastating floods. In an email interview, John J. Brandon, the director of the Asia Foundation’s international relations program, discussed Thai-Japanese relations. WPR: What is the current state of relations between Japan and Thailand? John J. Brandon: This year marks the 125th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between Japan and Thailand. Bilateral ties, particularly in the economic sphere, have strengthened considerably over the past decade. With 49 percent of foreign direct investment to Thailand coming from Japan, exports up 8.3 percent and the […]

Given this administration’s resurging plans for regional missile defense schemes in both Europe and Asia, President Barack Obama’s recent open-mike admission to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he will have more freedom in his national security decision-making once he wins re-election is not a comforting thought. For a guy who promises “a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama seems awfully intent on incentivizing both Russia and China to field some more. With regard to Europe, America’s case for even limited missile defense is weak. We are told it is all about Iran and has nothing to do with Russia. But if […]

Historical antagonisms are again preventing Japan and South Korea from cooperating on important issues. Despite being neighbors with a range of shared economic and security interests, unsettled grievances continue to damage relations between two of Asia’s largest military and economic powers. Two hot-button historical issues have popped up recently, both of which have their origins in the colonial era and its hasty conclusion. South Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910-1945 and gained independence in the wake of Japan’s defeat in World War II. The first is the two countries’ long-simmering feud over the Dokdo islets, a series of rocks […]

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