A primer for the ultimate Greek tragedy? On the Ides of September US President Joe Biden shifted the Great Game overnight from Afghanistan (and Europe) to Oceania (and Asia) by announcing a new informal AUKUS defense partnership. The United States…
Bending the Bamboo
Should Europe add pro-democracy protests in far-off Hong Kong to its list of geopolitical crises to confront in order to plug gaps left by America’s abdication of global leadership? Yes, say European Union foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini, human-rights activists…
Confluence of China’s Foreign and Domestic Policies
Let’s consider the yin and yang in the confluence of China’s foreign policy and domestic politics—and the parallel yin and yang in the challenge of China’s precipitous rise to America’s hegemony in the South China Sea. On Chinese foreign policy,…
Robert Zoellick for Secretary of State
If Mitt Romney is elected president on November 6, what he should do on Day One is—no, not brand China a currency manipulator—make Robert Zoellick his Secretary of State and send him to China even before taking his oath of…
Democracy in China: The Popularity of Alexis de Tocqueville in the Middle Kingdom
First there was Confucius. Then there was Mao Zedong. And now Alexis de Tocqueville tops the must-read list for avid Chinese intellectuals and bloggers. The French aristocrat who limned the definitive political sociology of the United States almost two centuries…
Urbanism on the Steppe
THE INSTA-CITY IN INNER MONGOLIA KANGBASHI, Inner Mongolia, China — At first sight, this remote outpost in Inner Mongolia looks like a mirage on the windswept, semi-arid desert. It has all the accessories of a real city. The planners have…