South Korea’s Strategic Importance Forgotten Amidst the Trump-Abe Honeymoon
March 5, 2017 6 min. read

While the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye paralyzed South Korea’s diplomatic service, Japan has worked to strengthen Trump’s commitment to its defense.

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U.S. Confronts China Over Airspace in South China Sea
May 26, 2015 5 min. read

I had not given much thought to the flight plan of the airline I recently booked to go back to the U.S. from Vietnam, but recent events in the airspace over the South China Sea prompted an online search. As I discovered, my commercial flight will be flying not far from where a U.S. surveillance plane was warned on Wednesday to leave by a Chinese radar operator.

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Global media interpretations of China’s rescue of stranded passengers off Antarctica vary
January 6, 2014 7 min. read

The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long‘s rescue of the passengers aboard the stranded Russian research vessel MV Akademik Shokalskiy has made headlines around the world. Since December 24, the Russian ship has been stuck in pack ice near Antarctica’s Cape de la Motte, approximately 1,700 miles south of Tasmania. MV Akademik Shokalskiy was about midway through the month-long Australasian Antarctic Expedition, run by the University of New […]

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U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue: What Not To Do
June 24, 2013 8 min. read

Secretary of State John F. Kerry is in New Delhi for the annual U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue.  He’s receiving plenty of good advice (examples here, here and here) on what he and Salman Khurshid, the Indian foreign minister, can do to energize the nascent strategic partnership that just a few years ago looked so promising but which now is stuck […]

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The Problem With “42 Allies”
October 23, 2012 5 min. read

You might think most foreign policy wonks were looking forward to last night’s presidential debate but most I know were actually dreading it. It was well known that the difficult and pressing questions on foreign policy would not be asked, and to be honest, foreign policy requires far more nuance and complexity than can fit […]

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Child maltreatment and abuse ripe in East Asia and Pacific
August 20, 2012 3 min. read

In East Asia and the Pacific, the number of children who face maltreatment is shockingly high.  Roughly 10% to 30% of the 580 million children –one quarter of the world’s children — in the East Asia and Pacific regions are victims of forced sex and other physical abuse according to a report by UNICEF.   The […]

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Drones on the Cocos Islands: A Cat Amongst the Pigeons
April 16, 2012 3 min. read

According to a report by the Washington Post just over 2 weeks ago, US officials have engaged Australia in informal discussions over a proposed US drone base in the Cocos Islands 2,000 kilometers north-west of Perth. Allegedly, the proposed base would house a fleet of Global Hawk drones. At a unit cost of $218 million […]

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Advancing the Strategic Partnership
January 6, 2012 4 min. read

The state visit to New Delhi by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in December 2010 focused on the potential for mutual economic cooperation. Wen arrived with a large business delegation that promptly signed some $16 billion worth of deals. The two governments also pledged to take their $60-billion trade relationship to the $100-billion level by 2015. […]

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Knocking on APEC’s Door
September 21, 2011 5 min. read

Having made the calculation that America’s security and prosperity would be enhanced by partnership with India, the United States over the last decade has promoted New Delhi’s admission into global governance structures.  For the Bush administration, this meant doing the heavy lifting required to enroll India into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an informal cartel governing […]

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