A. Bowen Ballard, 1945
It is urgent that Congress make changes to the Unified Command Plan, expanding the roles and missions of the U.S. Space Command. This is imperative not only to emphasize deterring and defending American and allied space systems from hostile attack — including military, civil, and commercial space systems — but also to provide law enforcement in the space domain.
Bill Sharp, East Asia Forum
Taiwan will vote on four referendum items on 18 December, the result of which could make or break the remainder of President Tsai Ing-wen's time in office. The referendum was rescheduled from 28 August by the Central Election Commission due to the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan.
Susan Thornton et al, ChinaFile
On July 1, Xi Jinping gave a speech marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. After walking Party members through China's recent past and glorious future, Xi turned to Taiwan. "Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China,"
Richard Ratcliffe, Chatham House
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker arrested on holiday in Iran in 2016 and jailed for five years after being found guilty of undisclosed national security charges. At the end of her term, she was sentenced to another year in prison and given a one-year travel ban after being found guilty of ‘spreading propaganda against the regime'. The United Nations and British government have both rejected the charges against her. Here, her husband... Читать дальше...
Katarina Kertysova, Wilson Quarterly
When people think of arms control, it is weapons of mass destruction that typically come to mind. This is natural, given the immense human suffering that has been caused by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to date.
Jos Meester, Clingendael
The rise of China has affected trade policy and international relations in recent years, with its increasing role in information, communication and technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) causing concern. Next to economic considerations regarding the race for leadership in the sector, concerns over China's illiberal governance translating into surveillance standards have been raised.
Danila Bochkarev, RM
The European Union, Russia's largest trading partner, recently proposed a major new carbon tax that could cost Russia's economy hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars. This is just the most immediate of the risks to energy...
David Brooks, The Atlantic
The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction.
Rick Joe, The Diplomat
By 2030, how many carriers and escort ships will China and India each have on hand?
Sanam Vakil, Chatham House
The election of conservative Ebrahim Raisi as president of Iran has driven home a harsh fact for the international community: the Islamic Republic will not be undergoing its long hoped for transformational reform in the near future.
H. French, WPR
Before sitting down to write this week's column, I opened a large and tattered, white, padded envelope that had arrived from Hong Kong late last week to find the final issue of the city's once famously feisty newspaper, the Apple Daily, which was forced by local authorities to shut down for political reasons on June 24.
Jeremy Cliffe, New Statesman
The race to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor may look like a predictable affair, but there are five reasons why this election could be more volatile than it seems.
Francis Pike, Spectator
Joe Mathews, Zocalo Public Square
The recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom is being widely—and wrongly—dismissed as a peculiar and illegitimate consequence of California's strange direct democracy.
Rush Doshi, Brookings
It was 1872, and Li Hongzhang was writing at a time of historic upheaval. A Qing Dynasty general and official who dedicated much of his life to reforming a dying empire, Li was often compared to his contemporary Otto von Bismarck, the architect of German unification and national power whose portrait Li was said to keep for inspiration.1
Michael Mazza, War on the Rocks
Last month, a spokesperson from the office of Taiwan's president told China to grow up. "The [Chinese Communist Party] wants Taiwan for their 100th birthday. Just pick something else. Grow up." The statement, via Twitter, was a response to Chinese leader Xi Jinping's speech marking the Chinese Communist Party's centenary. In his remarks, Xi warned, "Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's...
