July 03, 2011

Afghanistan, logistics, geopolitics, war, peace

The WaPo's Craig Whitlock has an informative piece in today's paper about the many continuing challenges the U.S. military has faced as it attempted to provide logistic support to the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:32 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

June 29, 2010

Obama 'wilfully' provoking Beijing?

China Hand (Peter Lee) has a post today on what looks like a really important story: the eruption of a startling new war of words between Washington and Beijing-- a...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:54 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

May 19, 2010

China's confused role on Iran sanctions

China Hand has a great post today about the notably muddled-looking role that China's been playing on the Iran sanctions issue. CH notes that while it's understandable (given the exigencies...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:06 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

May 18, 2010

Obama cool toward 'mid-size states' deal

Pres. Obama's spokesperson Robert Gibbs was yesterday extremely cool toward the agreement that Turkish PM Rejep Tayyip Erdogan and Brazil's Prez Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva reached with Iran concerning...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:26 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

May 17, 2010

Midsize, non-nuclear powers enter world stage

Treading where the U.S. and its European allies have failed to make any significant headway, the leaders of Turkey and Brazil have now engaged personally in dealing with the globally...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:50 AM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 08, 2009

China and the US in Afghanistan

It's good to put yourself into the shoes of others from time to time. For a while now, I've been trying to imagine the conversations that the Central Committee of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:08 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

May 01, 2009

The Year of the Ox II

First, going back to the year of the Golden Snake (nothing personal, George) -- April 26, 2001: REPORTER: Do we have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese? GEORGE W. BUSH:...
Posted by Don Bacon at 01:07 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

April 24, 2009

Sort of catching up here

I've been battling the flu for the past week. It made me feel mentally debilitated and above all TIRED. Since I've also been trying to write a big piece for...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:33 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

March 05, 2009

The Year of the Ox

The Chinese new year of the Ox began on January 26th, and it portends to be a year of change for China-Taiwan relations. The Ox is thought to be the...
Posted by Don Bacon at 02:00 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

December 30, 2008

Gaza: US blocking power eroded; Quartet calls for ceasefire

Back in the 33-Day War of 2006, the Bush administration was able to block the Security Council and the rest of the UN from issuing a formal call for a...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:08 PM | Fulltext link (25 comments)

December 18, 2008

Somalia and an international community in disarray (again)

So here we are, sixteen years on, and we once again have a major crisis of governance, civil chaos, and human suffering in Somalia; an international "community" that's completely incapable...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:43 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

December 14, 2008

My CSM piece on Obama, America, and the world

... is here. Also, archived here....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:39 PM | Fulltext link (24 comments)

November 21, 2008

US power declining. Duh.

So the US's National Intel Council has finally released the 'Global Trends 2025' report that its analysts have been working on for many months now. Gloom 'n' doom for many...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:20 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

November 07, 2008

First big global challenges for Obama

While Ahmadinejad and Hamas are making nicey-nice in their first overtures to President-elect Barack Obama, leaders in Russia and China have sent their first rhetorical "shots" across his bows. The...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:41 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 08, 2008

Financial crisis and world power shifts, pt.2

In this recent (introductory) post on this topic I wrote, "The US financial system's current woes have accelerated the decline in American power in the world that has already been...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:02 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

October 06, 2008

And that $25 billion for Detroit...

In all the publicity around the $700 billion bailout for wall Street that became law last Friday, the fact that Congress last Tuesday also appropriated $25 billion to prop up...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:41 AM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

October 05, 2008

The financial crisis and world power shifts

The US financial system's current woes have accelerated the decline in American power in the world that has already been underway for several years now. This is so for a...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:52 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 20, 2008

China and Japan's stakes in the US financial crisis

Did you know that China has over $900 billion of exposure/investment in US Treasury bills and in debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-- and that the Chinese government...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:49 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)