North Korea may feel that the time has come to establish relations with the United States as a hedge against unpredictable future relations with Beijing.
WikiLeaks XII: If It Had Its Druthers, Would North Korea Take the U.S. Over China?
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Asia & Pacific
Postcard from…Shanghai
This photo was taken in Shanghai’s stylish former French Concession district while, across town, the 2010 World Expo ushered in hundreds of thousands of visitors per day. The contemporary art piece on display by Beijing artist Ren Hong juxtaposes the potent political images of the Expo, Beijing’s Olympics, and the People’s Republic’s 60th anniversary celebration. The attendant moral complexities of these spectacles are filtered out through simplistic official symbols. Her work is a fitting eulogy for the Expo that closed in October.
WikiLeaks Cables Reveal Use of Environmentalism by US and UK as Pretext to Keep Natives From Returning to Diego Garcia
Cables revealed plans to create a marine preserve to keep exiled islanders from returning to Diego Garcia, site of a major U.S. military base.
WikiLeaks XI: Release of Sri Lankan Cables Timed to Shine Light on Government and Tamil Tigers Savagery
A cable by U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka reveals that neither government nor Tamil Tigers seek an investigation into civilian casualties resulting from Tiger’s last stand.
Ideas, Identity and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: The Sato Masaru Phenomenon
Sato Masaru is a name virtually unknown outside Japan (recognized by Google and Wikipedia’s English language search engines only through footnotes from earlier texts by this author) but inescapable within Japan. He may indeed be the most prolific and widely read Japanese intellectual of the early 21st century.
Transparency Fundamentalists
WikiLeaks puts the government through a full body scanner to reveal many dirty secrets. U.S. officials, not surprisingly, have responded with anger. They don’t want their “junk” exposed or touched. No one, from emperors to excursionists, likes to be naked in public. And the latest revelations are the most intrusive yet.
Kashmir: Obama and the Vale of Tears
There are lots of dangerous places in this world: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Bolivia, Iran, Palestine, Yemen, and Somalia to name a few. But there is only one that could destabilize a large part of the globe and end up killing tens of millions of people. And yet for reasons of state that is the one place the Obama administration will not talk about: Kashmir.
60-Second Expert: The Cheonan Incident
Despite the publication of the Joint Investigation Group’s definitive account of the sinking of the South Korean naval corvette, Cheonan, the South Korean public remains skeptical over its conclusion. Opposition politicians, academics, and members of the scientific community have pointed to flaws in the final report, which damage its credibility and throw doubt on its findings.
Joint U.S.-South Korean Military Exercises in Yellow Sea Raise the Ante
North Korean motives for attacking Yeonpyeong Island remain unclear, but U.S. South Korean military exercises run the risk of escalating the situation.
As Chinese Laborers Follow Jobs to Africa, African Traders Flock to China
China’s hostility toward African traders in its midst mirrors its ambivalence over its integration into the world economy.