Column Archive

In 1903, the novel “Riddle of the Sands” was published to great acclaim in the United Kingdom. Written by Erskine Childers, the novel told the story of a secret German invasion flotilla prepared to overrun Great Britain. The best of a large genre of “invasion literature” warning in dire terms of the threat that Kaiserine Germany posed to the British Empire, “Riddle of the Sands” apparently helped convince First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill to reposition the Royal Navy to northern bases, safe from German attack. In a paper presented at the 2011 American Political Science Association conference, Dr. […]

As part of a conference hosted by Beijing University, I spent last week conducting interviews and participating in roundtables with Chinese academics and government officials. Many of these talks addressed recent developments in Afghanistan, a country of strong interest to China due to its proximity, natural resources and historical links to regional terrorism and narcotics trafficking. Based on my conversations and other sources, it is clear that Chinese policymakers hold conflicting sentiments regarding the planned U.S. and NATO military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has already begun and will likely be completed in a couple years. Chinese officials expressed their commitment […]

Prior to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, the nuclear energy industry was poised for a global expansion of unprecedented size. Proponents of nuclear energy still see a bright future in a world where electrical demand grows hand in hand with a burgeoning global middle class and everybody wants to reduce CO2 emissions. But vociferous industry opponents now claim nuclear power has been dealt a Chernobyl-like deathblow. Unsurprisingly, most pessimists are found in the advanced West — witness Germany’s decision to abandon nuclear power — while most optimists are found in emerging economies such as China and India. […]