Category: Blogs

China in the Regional Order: It’s not about Parity

By Robert A. Manning and James Przystup

To answer Hugh White’s initial question, ‘what is America’s ultimate aim in Asia today?’, there is no mystery about American aims in Asia: it is simply a rules-based order with unimpeded access to the global commons.

Advice to President Obama on Syria

By Fred Hof

At a recent conference I was given the following question to answer: “What advice would you give President Barack Obama and his military advisers as they consider military and diplomatic action with regard to Syria?”  Here, for better or worse, is how I responded:

Jakarta’s Counterproductive Counterterrorism Approach

By Tyler McBrien

Opacity, lack of accountability, and extra-judicial killings are not criticisms reserved solely for US counterterrorism policies. The Indonesian government faces similar grievances, domestically and internationally, in its own counterterrorism campaign. With the ongoing pivot to Asia, the United States is looking to Indonesia, already a regional economic powerhouse, as a like-minded democratic partner. Encouragingly, Indonesia’s […]

Echoes of 2011: Media Freedom in Egypt

With former president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, Egyptians who took to the streets have bristled at the description of the events as a military coup. They argue that millions called for Morsi’s removal, so it should be described as a popular revolution. The definition of July 3, however, cannot be limited to one […]

President Obama’s Syria Confusion

By Rajan Menon

President Barack Obama’s Tuesday evening speech explaining his plans for a military strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, though deftly delivered, will not put to rest the doubts that a large majority of Americans have about what the president aims to achieve with what he insisted would be a limited, targeted operation.

A Plea for Caution From Russia

By Vladimir Putin, New York Times

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage.

Britain and Poland: Europeans Need to Strengthen Their Defense Capabilities

By William Hague, Philip Hammond, Radoslaw Sikorski, and Tomasz Siemoniak

Europe is facing a number of complex and inter-connected challenges.