Category: International Relations

  • Japan faces tough choices over U.S. alliance: Robyn Lim

    Robyn Lim, a professor of international relations at Nanzan University, Nagoya, and author of “The Geopolitics of East Asia” writes in today’s IHT. Japan and nuclear defence is the subject of the article. I believe Japan’s decision to deploy missile defence in 2007, which they hope to be independent of US missile defence, to be…

  • Cracking the Shell: Hawking says we must colonize space

    Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, in an article from two years ago, on why we must colonise space in order to survive. I would go along with Stephen Hawking, but be much more pessimistic, I would put it at 100 – 200 years, or else the human race is in big trouble.

  • America: An empire to rival Rome?

    Jonathan Marcus examines America’s place in the modern world in a new series on BBC Radio. Sounds like an interesting listen.

  • China courted by U.S. to avert new space race

    In the first of three articles, from the IHT and New York Times, Jim Yardley and William J. Broad look at space industries in China, Brazil and India, and the future of humans in space. When President George W. Bush outlined last week his ambitious vision for a new era of space exploration, one country…

  • A Caucus of Democracies : How to reform the U.N

    Max Kampelman has a thoughtful article in the Opinion Journal/Wall Street Journal on reforming the UN. This is a subject fairly dear to me, as I believe that in order for humanity to survive we must come to some sort global arrangement. Kampelman’s suggestion is interesting to say the least: In order to advance the…

  • What price a life?

    The mother of Tom Hurndall, Jocelyn, argues in the Observer today. The documentary about his killing last year had a serious effect on me. She is an eloquent writer. In the pensive hours of the night, I am struck by the varying values that mankind chooses to allot to life – as was my son…

  • American invasion plan stirs fierce Saudi debate

    So what does everyone think of this? US plans to invade Saudi Arabia some 50 years ago. Newly declassified British reports, revealing fears of a U.S. invasion of Saudi Arabia 30 years ago, are striking a remarkable chord inside the kingdom today.

  • Brazil gives the U.S. a nuclear headache

    Brazil is pursuing nuclear power in a big way and the US is not happy. Just when the Bush administration thought it had turned a corner in the global campaign against the spread of weapons of mass destruction – with Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi, of all people – we learn that Brazil has decided to begin…

  • The Law of War in the War on Terror

    Ken Roth also has an essay in Foreign Affairs. This is going to take some time to read….

  • A Strategy of Partnerships

    Colin Powell with a long essay in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs. Excellent insight into the mind of Powell. Well worth the read.