The current standoff in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China threatens to raise tensions to new heights.
Instead of dying, the Air/Sea Battle concept has done nothing but pick up steam. The biggest problem with it is that it forces China to feel like enemy number one. Hopefully, they won’t start acting like enemy number one.
Western commentators often dismiss BRICS as an acronym in search of an identity. Yet, as BRICS becomes increasingly institutionalized it is changing global discourse.
The best response to the crisis in Syria is the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to oversee an inclusive political process for a new Syrian constitution.
While knowledge about the impact of climate change on the role of militaries is scant, planning for a future with climate change has begun.
The Australian government will decide on a new submarine programme before mid-2012, its largest ever defence procurement. The debate is part of the discourse about China’s rise. For the first time, Australia’s major trading partner is not a member of the Western alliance.
The China–Russia veto does not prove the irrelevance of the UN Security Council. Rather, it proves that the politics of the Security Council must be got right before an R2P military intervention; and the political equilibrium should be maintained during the operation.
Inter-state war is threatening to make a dangerous come-back. But the good news is that great power war can be prevented.
Many Western analysts miss the fact that Chinese soft power is not merely a tool for building international relations. Just as important, its deployment is critical at home within the country as well as abroad. These differences are significant in practice, because they reflect the underlying differences in motivation and in stages of development.
Africa is an emerging strategic partner of China. As a result, some over-excited analysts talk of a major competition between China and the United States in Africa.
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