Latest Archive

Thousands of people have clashed with police outside the Greek parliament over proposed new austerity measures to secure a bailout. World News Videos by NewsLook

BEIJING — China’s long-standing policy of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other nations is a cornerstone of its Peaceful Rise foreign policy doctrine. But as recent events have brought sharply into focus, the current approach fails to protect China’s expanding overseas interests and has caused a trust deficit with regard to China’s intentions at an intergovernmental level. This raises the question of how long the non-interference policy can be sustained, and whether Chinese interests would be better served by abandoning it for a less rigid position. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which have guided Chinese foreign policy since […]

The four-decade-and-counting saga of the A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft continued last week, when the U.S. Air Force announced that it would cut five A-10 squadrons as part of its effort to reduce costs. The 246 remaining A-10s will, according to the Air Force, continue to perform the close air support (CAS) mission until they are eventually replaced by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Defense wonks met the announcement with a storm of criticism, but little real surprise. The long-running fight over the A-10 represents not so much a disagreement over technology, but rather a bureaucratically driven dispute over the […]

One of the most important developments in the Middle East during the past decade was the remarkable expansion of Turkey’s relations with its neighbors. After ignoring the region for decades while trying to integrate into the European Union, Turkey devoted the past 10 years to improving its ties with Iran and Arab countries, while taking the lead in the mediation of several regional conflicts. This was a visible break from the past, when Turkey played a more or less subordinate and supportive role to U.S. and European policies in the region. In recent years, Turkey has asserted its own independent […]

Russia has adopted a surprisingly firm stance regarding the ongoing violent crackdown on domestic opposition in Syria. Despite facing a solid bloc of Western and developing nations calling for strong action against the brutal regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow defiantly vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution this weekend that would have supported the Arab League’s efforts to secure a peaceful transfer of power. Russian officials claimed that the resolution represented a masked call for “regime change” that would only help fuel the conflict. Although China also voted against the proposed resolution, Russia would probably have cast the sole […]

BBC’s Paul Wood reports from the Syrian city of Homs, where fighting is fierce and people are under attack. World News Videos by NewsLook

Over the past 10 days, 54 Chinese nationals have been taken prisoner in Sudan and Egypt, putting greater pressure on China to protect its 800,000 citizens working overseas in resource-rich but high-risk investment environments. On Jan. 28, rebels allied with South Sudan seized 29 Chinese construction workers building roads in the Sudanese border state of South Kordofan. Three days later, Bedouin tribesmen kidnapped 25 Chinese cement factory workers in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The prisoners taken in Egypt were released the next day, and those in Sudan were freed Tuesday — after more than a week in captivity — following the […]

Both the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on Dec. 1, 2009, and the effects of the sovereign debt crisis that has ravaged the European Union for the past two years have considerably changed the union’s functioning. The Lisbon Treaty created the position of a permanent president of the European Council, tasked with preparing and chairing the council’s meetings and shepherding working committees between summits. As expected, this helped the summits of EU heads of state and government gain steering capacity and political importance in the decision-making system of the EU. But the sovereign debt crisis further established the European […]

The European Union’s stuttering economic recovery and ongoing debt crisis have called attention to the significant economic and commercial imbalances that exist within the union. In particular, Germany has been pointed to as a model of fiscal and economic governance, both for its strong GDP growth in 2010 and 2011 after the severe contraction of 2009, and for the surprisingly favorable conditions in its labor market. German employment has expanded over the past three years to well above precrisis levels, contrasting markedly with the experience of other European countries. Whereas in 2008 Germany’s rate of registered unemployment was roughly the […]

Germany’s handling of the sovereign debt crisis gripping the eurozone has led some to wonder whether Germany has lost interest in Europe, or in the role it has historically played in the European Union. But does Germany really believe it has other, global options for a more unilateral foreign policy? Is Berlin falling prey to an Eastern temptation, whether from Moscow or Beijing? The answer is clearly “no,” but it is a no that has shades of gray. And those shades of gray are now combining to cast a shadow over the skies of Berlin; German foreign policy is no […]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for “friends of democratic Syria” to unite to stop funds and arms shipments to President Bashar Assad’s regime. US News Video by NewsLook

Arguably the greatest strategic gift offered by America to the world over the past several decades has been our consistent willingness to maintain a high and hugely expensive entry barrier to the “market” that is great-power war: first by deterring outright war with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and then by maintaining a lopsided and unipolar military superiority in the post-Cold War period. However, a case can be made that in recent years, the greatest threat to this enduring component of global stability arises from within the United States itself — namely, a national security establishment intent on […]

Recent Iranian saber rattling about closing the Strait of Hormuz is yet another reason for the U.S. to look north to Canada for oil imports. Military confrontation or a perceived threat of it in the strait — the route for almost 17 million barrels of oil daily — would wreak havoc on global oil supplies. The effects for the United States would be particularly severe: 75 percent of oil from Saudi Arabia, which at 12 percent of net U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products is our second-largest supplier, passes through this strategic waterway. Occasional threats to global oil […]

In January, the U.S. and several partner states announced a wideband global military satellite communication partnership, valued at more than $10 billion. In an email interview, Joseph N. Pelton, the former dean of the International Space University and director emeritus of the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute at George Washington University, discussed the Wideband Global Satellite Partnership. WPR: What are the main objectives of the Wideband Global Satellite Partnership and what countries are participating in it? Joseph N. Pelton: For more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Defense has developed a new strategy of “network-centric warfare” centered on […]

India commissioned its first nuclear-powered submarine, the Russian Akula-II class INS Chakra, last week. In an email interview, James R. Holmes, a specialist in Asian sea power at the U.S. Naval War College, discussed the Indian navy. WPR: What is the current force structure, capability and focus of India’s navy? James R. Holmes: Taking these elements in reverse order, India sees itself as a natural, benign, nonaligned hegemon in the Indian Ocean region, much as the United States saw itself a century ago during the age of the Monroe Doctrine. Accordingly, India’s 2007 Maritime Military Strategy (.pdf) defines the navy’s […]

Now that the United States, France and other Western powers have endorsed the Arab League’s call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down — even if that formulation is ultimately edited out of the final draft of the resolution pending before the U.N. Security Council — it is time to start making plans for the various contingencies that may erupt on “the day after.” Most Western policymakers, at least in their public rhetoric, continue to cling to an optimistic scenario in which a broad-based, inclusive opposition takes power in Damascus after an initial transition from Assad’s rule. Reassured of […]

Political conflict is escalating in the normally peaceful West African nation of Senegal, with protests turning deadly earlier this week as paramilitary police opened fire on demonstrators, leaving two dead. The protests came in response to the constitutional council’s ruling that 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade could seek a third term in elections scheduled for Feb. 26. Wade had argued that the two-term limit imposed in 2001 does not apply to his first term in office, which began a year earlier, and the council, whose five members were picked by Wade himself, agreed. From Dakar, the capital, the ensuing protests quickly […]