China

The US-China relationship faces certain tension and rising competition over the next four years. While it is impossible in general to predict specific new administration policies, there are likely to be wide swings between efforts to engage China and seek compromise, with efforts to compete, confront, or even contain Beijing. President Trump will be surrounded by […]

Military aggressions and provocations by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have created one of the most dangerous security environments in decades. Making matters worse, these powers are supporting each other in their malign actions. How should we refer to this emerging bloc? Russia is waging war to make Ukraine its colony again. Iran has […]

China is steadily increasing coercive measures against Taiwan, but they remain to date below the threshold of military conflict. What is the point at which China’s coercion transitions to the use-of-military force consistent with war? Essentially, when does coercion end and conflict begin? Making that determination will be critical to United States responses. Enhancing understanding of […]

Development of the Trans-Caspian corridor would shift trade and energy routes between Europe and Asia to favor Western commercial and strategic interests. Over the past decade, global trade infrastructure has been transformed by China’s economic rise and its strategic investments in trade routes. Central Asia, the “belt buckle” on China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is […]

The United States needs to urgently reinstate the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the country’s largest and oldest trade preference program.  First implemented in 1976, GSP was designed to facilitate economic growth in developing countries by allowing certain products, such as jewelry, carpets, some agricultural and fishery products, and many types of chemicals and minerals, […]

The past two years have witnessed several failures of deterrence – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023. The invasion of Ukraine heightened global awareness that military force by a state actor is not a relic of the past and could occur in other flashpoints around the […]

“The United States as a nation has been severely kidnapped by political and other forces derived from Jewish capital,” thus said Dong Manyuan, the former Vice president of CIIS, the Chinese foreign ministry’s think tank, in a TV interview on November 1, in response to the interviewer claim that Jews “manipulate and control” 70% of […]

Africa struggles to climb American policymakers’ priority list, but it has no such problem with China.  For three decades, the Chinese government has expended immense energy courting African countries. With only two exceptions over the last thirty years, the Chinese foreign minister has made Africa his first overseas destination every year. Other senior Chinese officials […]

The difficulty in comparing America’s and China’s influence in the Middle East is that the two operate on entirely different planes. [Note: The Chinese use the term Western Asia, rather than the Middle East, to refer to a region that includes the Levant, Iraq, the Gulf, Turkey and Iran.] Despite China’s impressive naval construction program, China […]

The strategic complexion of Asia has shifted substantially in recent years. The United States is no longer the predominant military, diplomatic, and economic power across the region, as it was for the last half of the 20th century and the first decade of this century. China actively contests American leadership as it strives to restore […]

The Biden administration does not view US–China competition in the Middle East as a zero-sum prize for one side to enjoy at the other’s expense. This measured response to China’s growing influence could change, however; outlined below are factors that could shift US policy toward great power confrontation in the region. China’s President Xi Jinping […]

A Letter From the Publisher

A More Robust Role is required in Countering Iran’s Ambitions

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What made Australia withdraw from the contract it signed with France for advanced submarines?

Does the growing importance of the psychological dimension in modern conflicts put the US and its allies at a disadvantage?

Will the roller coaster ride that is the US–Pakistan relationship become more “normal” now?

Much hinges on Beijing’s expectation that time is on China’s side, but is that really the case?

A view from Singapore: How will Asian countries respond to Biden’s foreign policy?

A practitioner’s perspective: Only a militarily strong Israel can sustain its regional position

America’s adversaries are not the only ones to respond to Washington’s changing regional priorities

The political winds are blowing in an anti-China direction. Biden needs a sophisticated foreign policy strategy