Regions
Asia
Chongqing’s ChallengeTom MillerA Yangtze River boomtown reveals the dark side of China’s rapid urbanization. The skyline looks like another Hong Kong, with towering modern buildings and soaring bridges, but a closer look reveals worsening social stratification. By focusing on short-term economic gains, Chinese leaders risk creating divided cities with expansive slums and ghettoes of extreme wealth. Read More
Consumption ConundrumChristian Déséglise, Delfina Lopez FreijidoThe urban centers of the New Economic Powers are bent on GDP growth to become influential global cities. Yet the Western model being emulated is itself facing serious sustainability challenges. It is necessary to ask whether material possessions and use of natural resources are the best measure of prosperity. Read More
Our Vietnamese HeartsAndrew LamThose who fled the Fall of Saigon in 1975 were refugees traumatized by wars and bound by old ways of life. In the United States, they built new lives in a country known for its fabulous fantasies, high-tech wizardry, and individualistic ambition. For many, the homeland is a destination, but no longer their destiny. Read More
Tibet’s Voice of Realism Pico IyerThe 14th Dalai Lama may be a Buddhist spiritual figure, but pragmatism is all that truly matters for him. He is a doctor of the mind, determined to locate the source of suffering and come up with a practical cure. As the author observed while traveling with him in Japan, it is a message that resonates far beyond Tibet and China. Read More
Unhappy NeighborsNgo Vinh LongChina is aggressively enforcing a self-declared zone of sovereignty in wide areas of the South China Sea. Its takeover of disputed islands and arrests of fisherman have triggered growing diplomatic and legal challenges to Beijing. Without a Code of Conduct for the contested waters, the region may become a new global flashpoint. Read More
A Long March into Space Joan Johnson-FreeseWhen Liu Yang became China’s first female taikonaut with the launch of Shenzhou 9 in 2012, it was yet another sign that the country is catching up with the United States in the conquest of outer space. Concerning the military motives behind China’s ambitious program, however, it’s time to separate wild speculation from valid conclusions.
Read More
Live, from Beijing!Ying ZhuGone are the days when China Central Television broadcast nothing but party propaganda. It is a modern media empire, operationally autonomous and fending off competition from a rising number of rival domestic channels. Now, like Qatar’s Al Jazeera, it is taking on the world. CCTV is a channel to watch. Read More
Rule of the PrincelingsCheng LiXi Jinping received a strong mandate to govern during the 18th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China in November. Accelerating economic reform is clearly on his agenda. But how far will he move the country from authoritarianism to democracy? Read More
Waiting for the Next ActDorinda ElliottOrville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York, has been studying and writing about China for more than fifty years. He speaks with Dorinda Elliott about the recent leadership transition, prospects for constitutionalism, dangers of nationalism, need for greater Washington-Beijing cooperation, and this next phase of Chinese history. Read More
East and WestNabil FahmyWhile the consequences of Asia’s rise have been exhaustively analyzed in the global context, relatively few have questioned the effect of a rising East on the rapid transformation of the countries of the Middle East. Read More
Seznec on the New Silk Road Fritz Lodge There is a new Silk Road quietly emerging that connects the booming economies of East Asia with the oil-rich Gulf states of the Arab Peninsula and, through them, European markets accessible just across the Suez canal.Read More
Drone WarsMichael Burnam-Fink Meet the Predator, the unmanned attack aircraft that is defining warfare in the post-Cold War era. Initially deemed useless by the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency, it has become America’s weapon of choice in the War on Terror. With the creation of a new military bureaucracy dependent on identifying
and striking new enemies, will Predator missions ever end?Read More
India's Nuclear Power ProblemMonamie BhadraThe Indian government launched an ambitious plan to expand atomic energy output seven-fold by the year 2022. But a surprising grassroots movement has sprung up to challenge the program. Rather than focusing on worries about cataclysmic accidents, it is emphasizing citizen rights and government accountability.Read More
The Struggle for Iran's FutureThe People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future. Edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel. Melville House, 2010. 462 pp.Read More
Great Games, Local Rules Alexander CooleyThe big-power competition in Central Asia is not quite what it seems. More intriguing is how the region’s governments play the U.S., China and Russia off one another for political and economic gain.Read More
Arab Spring Seen From TehranTrita Parsi The geopolitical contest for the region’s hearts and minds Read More
Asia Model for Arab ReformEllen LaipsonPresident Obama’s May 19 speech about change in the Middle East raises some important and enduring conundrums about politics and identity that apply to Asia as well as the Middle East. The U.S. wants to be on the right side of history, and has newly embraced the demand for reform and democracy as a higher-order determinant of U.S. policy priorities than the earlier emphasis on stability.
Read More