Indo-Pacific

Deep-Water Oil Rigs as Strategic Weapons

By Martin N. Murphy

This, at least, is how Wang Yilin, Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), chooses to view them. He reportedly told an audience at CNOOC’s headquarters in Beijing in May that ‘large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon’.

Internal Conflicts and Defense Planning

By Derek Reveron

There are 27 active conflicts in the world today; only one of them is a traditional interstate war. 

What Roosevelt Would Do in the South China Sea

By James Clad and Robert Manning

Planting flags on islets, declaring cities where there are too few residents to fill a restaurant, and huffing and puffing over uninhabited rocks are acts more suited to a Gilbert and Sullivan farce than to nations in the 21st century. Absurdities aside, the tensions in the South China Sea could shape the balance of power […]

The Rise of Afghan Fratricide

By Joshua Foust

The number of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) soldiers killed by their Afghan counterparts has risen precipitously this year. So-called “green on blue” attacks have killed 42 soldiers, more than the 35 killed last year and twice as many as were killed in 2010. Officials are scrambling to figure out why.

Afghanistan: An Allotment in a Jungle

By Julian Lindley-French

Nothing makes my blood boil more than recently retired senior government officials suddenly changing their story once retired. Earlier this year I was excoriated for suggesting that our troops were dying in Afghanistan for want of a meaningful political strategy and to avoid the political embarrassment of leaders. Yesterday, Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles, London’s former ‘man […]

Pakistan’s Unfinished Challenges

By Shuja Nawaz

As it completes its 65th year as an independent state, Pakistan faces a host of challenges that only it can resolve, if its people and leaders have the will to do so.

India’s Economy: Unusual Past and Uncertain Future

On August 10, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center held a public discussion entitled, “India’s Economy: Unusual Past and Uncertain Future” with Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow jointly at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) and the Center for Global Development (CGD). South Asia Center director Shuja Nawaz moderated the discussion. TRANSCRIPT VIDEO (C-SPAN) Subramanian […]