“One can date precisely China’s debut as a great power,” writes Fareed Zakaria in the latest issue of Newsweek. “It was the evening of Aug. 8, 2008 – the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. The event perfectly symbolized China’s rise, a spectacular and expensive feat of mass organization, directed by the country’s highly competent […]
Who will emerge stronger after the crisis? China or the United States? The New America Foundation and Foreign Policy hosted a debate on Tuesday about how the Great Recession will alter the global balance of power. “Which economy is poised to recover from the deepest recession since the 1930s? Who will be on top? Who […]
The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan met in Tehran on Sunday to discuss shared challenges and how the countries could work together to address regional issues. President Hamid Karzai, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to jointly tackle extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking. Although largely devoid of specific measures, the summit […]
North Korea performed a nuclear test this weekend which, according to various seismic tests, amounted to a blast of somewhere between 4 and 20 kilotons (possibly larger than the US’ bombing of Hiroshima in 1945). The significance of the test cannot be discounted, as Pyongyang’s 2006 blast was a mere 1 kt. With increased missile […]
206. On Friday, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as India’s prime minister. Mr. Singh is the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after serving a full five-year term. The Congress Party unexpectedly romped to victory by a big margin in the world’s largest exercise in democracy. Instead of an unwieldy and […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys and author of Imagining India, spoke with Fareed Zakaria about India’s economic potential on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Nilekani argues that India’s democracy is a strength in economic development, the country’s population is an asset not a liability and its “strategic opportunity is […]
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> United States President Barack Obama recently nominated Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as the next ambassador to China. President Obama reached into the Republican ranks for a key foreign policy position and likely removed one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign. During the […]
Yesterday, the Czech Republic hosted a joint EU-China summit that was originally scheduled for December. The meeting was delayed then because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. This time, China made clear to tell the EU to stay out of its internal business. 2 main topics were on the agenda: the […]
Moody’s reports that, since the onset of the crisis, Latin American and Caribbean sovereigns sustained negative rating actions in only 5 out of 27 cases, versus 12 out of 21 in Eastern Europe. Similar trends can be found at the other major rating agencies (S&P and Fitch).
Nuclear-arms talks between the United States and Russia get underway today in Moscow. The negotiating teams are discussing a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) that expires in December. Talks will address stronger verification procedures and might also tackle the issue of reducing both deployed warheads and stockpiles held in reserve. […]
The biggest land grab since the scramble for Africa is taking place under the sea. Last Wednesday was the ten-year deadline for most countries to submit claims over seabeds. States that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are able to claim extensions to their continental shelves beyond the normal […]
The internal power struggles in the Kremlin are still surprisingly hard to understand and predict. President Dmitry Medvedev was Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor (Putin was constitutionally prevented from seeking a third consecutive term in office in 2008). At the time, many outside analysts and experts believed Medvedev would simply implement Putin’s desired policies and actions. […]
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