Joseph Bosco, Taipei Times
China constantly seeks out ways to complain about perceived slights and provocations as pretexts for its own aggressive behavior. It is both victimization paranoia and a form of information warfare that keeps the West on the defensive. True to form, China objected even to the innocuous reference to Taiwan at April 16's summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
C. Gallardo & S. Lau, Politico EU
LONDON — The U.K. has realized it is going to need more than James Bond to counter Chinese influence and espionage.
Emily Tamkin, New States.
Despite pouring resources into the state and staging mass rallies during a pandemic, Narendra Modi's party was comfortably defeated.
I. Rehman, WOTR
In May 1781, a cantankerous John Adams, still smarting after his public falling-out with Benjamin Franklin and humiliating ejection from the French court, sat down to write a stern letter to his teenage son, the young John Quincy Adams. Now based in Amsterdam, where he served as the fledgling American republic's envoy to the Netherlands, the classically educated New Englander was intent on...
Andrew Desiderio, Politico
Joe Biden's nascent bid to revive the Iran nuclear deal for a "longer, stronger" diplomatic agreement is already facing deep skepticism and potential hurdles in Congress — including from the president's own party.
Kirsten Fontenrose, Atlantic Council
Ongoing discussions among Gulf watchers about the need to de-escalate the protracted gray-zone conflict between Iran and her neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are really discussions about pathways to normalization. Viewed through the lens of national interests, it appears that détente, with the prospect of normalization, would carry substantial benefits for all parties.
Manas Nag, East Asia Forum
The ongoing West Bengal Legislative Assembly election has seen the defection of several state politicians from the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) to the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The state is one of the BJP's last battlegrounds. The party once struggled to set foot in West Bengal, but that may change this weekend due to growing anti-incumbency. Even if the TMC keeps office by a narrow...
Akhil Ranjan Dutta, Indian Express
The party owes its victory to multiple strategies — manufacturing social perceptions, implementing competitive populist schemes and bringing almost all mainstream tribal ethnic outfits into its fold.
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Amberin Zaman, Al Monitor
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced today that Turkey will establish a military base in Metina, a mountainous area close to the Turkish border in Iraqi Kurdistan, to surveil the broader region. Speaking to members of the ruling Justice and Development Party's executive board, Soylu said, "Metina is an important region. Just as we did in Syria, we will build a base here and monitor the region. This area is a...
Derek Grossman, Nikkei
In order to compete more successfully with China, the Biden administration has argued that the United States must strengthen its Indo-Pacific alliances and partnerships. What the new administration has not answered is a critical question on the minds of many: Will Washington prioritize national interests or national values?
Daniel Davis, 1945
How fast time passes: Exactly 10 years ago on Sunday, President Barack Obama somberly addressed the nation to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Forces in Pakistan.
Kapil Komireddi, Foreign Policy
What's unfolding in India is a devastating carnage precipitated by its self-enamored leader.
Viktor Katona, Oil Price
When writing the article on this year's Top Oil Wildcats, one of the hottest candidates had to be dropped out of the list. Not because the prospect turned out to be sub-commercial, far from it, it remains one of Africa's most interesting untapped plays, potentially opening up a new country with no previous exposure to the world of energy. As Senegal and Mauritania started to break their way onto the energy maps of...
James Leibold, The Diplomat
In January, the U.S. State Department declared that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was committing ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, something later echoed by the new Biden administration. Subsequently, the Canadian, Dutch, and British parliaments passed non-binding resolutions designating China's actions a genocide, with calls for other governments to follow suit.
Paul Goble, Jamestown
Turkey's plan to build a canal bypassing the Bosporus Strait and potentially upsetting the Montreux Convention (see EDM, February 9) along with Russia's movement of warships from the Caspian to the Sea of Azov via the Volga-Don Canal in order to threaten Ukraine (see EDM, April 13) highlight the ways in which artificial waterways can play a significant...
Mathieu Boulègue, Chatham House
In mid-April, international media reported Russia will invade or ‘go to war' with Ukraine, without realizing this is already effectively the case. Russia's annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas back in 2014 essentially created a war - although it remains undeclared - with Ukraine.
Tony Barber, Financial Times
Two hundred years after his death, debate continues over whether he was a tyrant or reformer
