Only three weeks remain for the summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Madrid, which is expected to unveil a new Strategic Concept aimed at redefining “the security challenges facing the Alliance and outline the political and military tasks that NATO will carry out to address them.” […]
Japan
IPEF Will Be A Hard Sell In Indo-Pacific
A new economic bloc comprising twelve countries of the Indo-Pacific region and the United States was unveiled on Monday in Tokyo on the sidelines of President Joe Biden’s visit. Christened as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), it is conceived as the economic correlative of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. The Biden […]
Biden In Tokyo: Killing Strategic Ambiguity
Could it have been just another case of bumbling poor judgment, the mind softened as the mouth opened? A question was put to US President Joe Biden, visiting Tokyo and standing beside Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida: “You didn’t want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious […]
The Meaning Of War In The 21st Century
Some thoughts on the evolution of the human dimension of war. The end of industrial capitalism and the globalization of exchanges do not only transform our societies and our ways of thinking, but the meaning of all our activities, including wars.
Asian Fault Lines Of Biden’s War On Russia
The tremors of the United States’ tensions with Russia playing out in Europe are being felt in different ways already in Asia. The hypothesis of Ukraine being in Europe and the conflict being all about European security is delusional. From Kazakhstan to Myanmar, from Solomon Islands to the Kuril Islands, […]
Japan-US ‘Island Chain’ Will Roil China, Russia
A Kyodo News agency report on Friday cited Japanese government sources to the effect that Tokyo and Washington have drawn up a draft joint operation plan that would enable the setup of an attack base along the Nansei island chain in Japan’s southwest in the event of a Taiwan contingency. […]
Quad Is Turning & Turning In Widening Gyre
By coincidence, perhaps, on the same day that President Biden hosted the first Quad summit, he also cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies to return to Beijing — “removing one major irritant between the two superpowers,” as the New York Times put it. Meng Wanzhouthe’s release […]
Our Man In Washington: Morrison’s Tour Of Deception
It was startling and even shocking. Away from the thrust and cut of domestic politics, not to mention noisy discord within his government’s ranks, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison could breathe a sign of relief. Perhaps no one would notice in Washington that Australia remains prehistoric in approaching climate change […]
Cultivated Delusions At The Tokyo Olympics
Australia’s Channel 7 team was all about ignoring history as its selected commentators went into describing, poorly, the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. The trio was poorly equipped culturally, geographically and totally (the Japanese component was barely credible: “We want to make things warm for you,” she chirped), to […]
Tokyo Olympics: American Victimhood vs. Chinese Victory
Many countries in the world don’t embrace the US’ victimhood culture of unquestionably celebrating those who present themselves as victims whenever they fail to meet their goals. The Olympics should be a time of global goodwill, not political polemics, but the New York Times (NYT) attempted to exploit it in […]
Why Is The Top Chinese Swimmer Not At The Tokyo Olympics?
Primary players and acronyms: FINA – Fédération Internationale de Natation (International Swimming Federation). Established 1908. WADA – World Anti-Doping Agency. Established in 1999. Based in Montreal, Canada. CAS – Court of Arbitration for Sport. Highest court for adjudicating international sport. Established in 1984. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland. IDTM – International […]
Japan’s Defence White Paper
In mid-July, Japan’s Ministry of Defence issued a White Paper that attracted the close attention of officials and experts from neighbouring countries as well as the US. The document contains a number of features indicating dynamic changes in the country’s military and political planning, which, along with Washington’s incitement and […]
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