Geopolitical Challenges to Implementing the Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities
After a failed effort by the EU in 2011, the international community will once again take up the issue of a Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities at the UN in October. Diverging national interests threaten to derail the talks.
Review – The Wars of Afghanistan
Peter Tomsen has provided a comprehensive account of Afghanistan’s recent conflicts and illuminates aspects of this history in ways that only he could really achieve.
Making Sausage
IR scholars rarely have access to real-time “insider” data on climate summits, though it is telling that virtually all of the world leaders make claims that we would have expected.
Regional Responses to the DPRK’s Satellite Launch
The international community approaches North Korea with a poor tasting carrot and a broken stick. This gives Pyongyang a great deal of leverage in regional diplomacy.
India’s Iran-Israel Balancing Act
Amidst growing Israeli-Iranian animosity, India’s traditional policy of compartmentalizing relations with each nation is becoming untenable.
Why Australia Fears China’s Rise: The Growing War Consensus
Inter-state war is threatening to make a dangerous come-back. But the good news is that great power war can be prevented.
India’s Time to Think Strategically: Is domestic politics holding India back?
Domestic political developments – which have important implications for the type of state and society that India wishes to create for itself – have led to a neglect of any major debate on foreign policy at a time when India is in the process of emerging as a major Asian power.
Chinese Soft Power Starts at Home
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.
Libya: The Coming Peace
No peace is perfect. But a flawed peace is probably better than no peace at all. Contingency peace plans are not guarantees of success in such war-torn countries as Libya, but neither are they idle dreams. The international community needs such a unified plan to secure a better peace in Libya. If they fail to plan a post-war peace in Libya, the intervening powers are planning to fail.
Multilateralism in everyday diplomatic life
There are lessons to be learnt for future Asian architects when studying some of the ways and means (if not the entire recipe) of the Helsinki process. The frequently heard argument that Asian states are supposedly too different for anything like ‘Helsinki’ to work simply won’t wash. Yes, there might well be a ‘right’ Asian security architecture; it’s our common task to find it because the alternative is worse.
