U.S. support for an authoritarian regime is by no means a new phenomenon nor is it peculiar to the Middle East.
As Egypt Protesters Look to U.S. in Vain, Remembering Another Lost Opportunity
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China
WikiLeaks XXXIV: Hu a “Cautious, Vacillating Leader” (Who Does That Sound Like?)
As in the United States, the military and big business in China aren’t shy about challenging the executive office.
Secret SOTU
I’ve never met President Obama, never been invited to any White House confabs. I’ve never even been able to sit through one of his speeches. But my office is about six blocks away from the White House. So, like any good Washington pundit who imagines that proximity translates into perceptiveness, I feel entirely qualified to look into the president’s eyes to get a sense of his soul. Here’s what I believe President Obama will be thinking as he reads off the teleprompter.
New Year 2011, Okinawa and the Future of East Asia
The mood across East Asia as 2011 dawns is one of foreboding. Can the militarization and confrontation that gathered momentum through 2010 in the spiral of incidents (Cheonan in March, Senkaku in September, Yeonpyeong in November) and massive regional war rehearsals by the US and its allies be halted and reversed? The fear that events might slide during 2011 into catastrophe is hard to resist.
Is China Greening Africa?
Is China smartening up its environmental and social act in Africa? It certainly wants to be seen as doing just that. One telling example was the recent Chinese government-sponsored ‘top Chinese enterprises in Africa’ competition, won by China Road and Bridge Corporation [CRBC].
The China-Philippines-U.S. Triangle
The United States is, by far, the Philippines’ most important strategic security partner. China’s ascent as a regional Asia Pacific powerhouse, coupled with the relative decline of the United States, has threatened to reconfigure this equation. Yet China’s growing assertiveness over territorial claims from Northeast Asia to the South China Sea might also unravel two decades of its relatively successful charm offensive, which calmed the nerves of many anxious Southeast Asian nations. Any display of aggression by China in the South China Sea could compromise its relations with the Philippines.
The Celtic Tiger Follows the Asian Tigers to Extinction
The financial collapse of Ireland, coming as the latest in a string of disasters, hardly shocks global public opinion. For people engaged in the development debate, however, it is resonant with meaning.
WikiLeaks XII: If It Had Its Druthers, Would North Korea Take the U.S. Over China?
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.
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.
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.