power politics

An article in a newspaper in southern China printed on its front page a cartoon that netizens say mocks former head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin.

Based on media reports, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has already gone to places where Jiang Zemin and his sons have made their fortunes.

As the BRICS Summit meets hot on the heels of the FIFA World Cup, also in Brazil, a remarkable trend is apparent.

Those who expected the summit between US President Obama and Saudi King Abdullah to produce a “reset” button after unusually strained relations between the two nations were bound to be disappointed.

Geography alone should make the Arab world Iran’s key foreign policy focus. Of Iran’s 13 immediate neighbors, seven are Arab countries.

The situation in Eastern Ukraine is turning increasingly violent and fractious, with the mayor of Kharkiv critically wounded by unknown gunmen and kidnapped observers still being held by pro-Russian militias.

For the second year in a row, the world is spending a little less on the military. Asia, however, has failed to get the memo. The region is spending more at a time when many others are spending less.

To understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin has been willing to escalate tensions in the Ukraine even after annexing the Crimean peninsula, it’s instructive to remember back to 2008 when he told George W. Bush that “Ukraine is not even a country.”

At the moment, Russia stations 100,000 troops at Northern, Southern and Eastern borders of Ukraine to intimidate that country...

Apologizing to people of other countries may be one of the worst sins a national leader can commit.

An article in a newspaper in southern China printed on its front page a cartoon that netizens say mocks former head of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin.

Based on media reports, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has already gone to places where Jiang Zemin and his sons have made their fortunes.

As the BRICS Summit meets hot on the heels of the FIFA World Cup, also in Brazil, a remarkable trend is apparent.

Those who expected the summit between US President Obama and Saudi King Abdullah to produce a “reset” button after unusually strained relations between the two nations were bound to be disappointed.

Geography alone should make the Arab world Iran’s key foreign policy focus. Of Iran’s 13 immediate neighbors, seven are Arab countries.

The situation in Eastern Ukraine is turning increasingly violent and fractious, with the mayor of Kharkiv critically wounded by unknown gunmen and kidnapped observers still being held by pro-Russian militias.

For the second year in a row, the world is spending a little less on the military. Asia, however, has failed to get the memo. The region is spending more at a time when many others are spending less.

To understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin has been willing to escalate tensions in the Ukraine even after annexing the Crimean peninsula, it’s instructive to remember back to 2008 when he told George W. Bush that “Ukraine is not even a country.”

At the moment, Russia stations 100,000 troops at Northern, Southern and Eastern borders of Ukraine to intimidate that country...

Apologizing to people of other countries may be one of the worst sins a national leader can commit.