The Paradoxes of the Pacific Pivot

Posted by on Apr 10, 2013 in Articles, Asia, Featured, Korea, Uncategorized, US Foreign Policy | 0 comments The “Pacific pivot” of the United States is nothing new. At the same time, it doesn’t really exist. And yet, even though it doesn’t exist, this pivot is partly responsible for the escalation of tensions in and around the Korean peninsula. How can all three of these statements be simultaneously true? Such are the paradoxes of the U.S. shift in attention toward the Pacific Rim. The Obama...
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From Pacific Pivot to Green Revolution

Posted by on Oct 13, 2012 in Articles, Asia, Featured | 1 comment Written with Emanuel Pastreich The low rolling hills of the Dalateqi region of Inner Mongolia spread out gently behind a delightful painted farmhouse. Goats and cows graze peacefully on the surrounding fields. But walk due west just 100 meters from the farmhouse and you’ll confront a far less pastoral reality: endless waves of sand, absent any sign of life, that stretch as far as the eye can...
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Frenemies

Posted by on Jun 13, 2012 in Articles, Asia, China, Featured | 0 comments We won our independence from the British in a hard-fought revolutionary battle. Today, no hard feelings: the Anglo-American alliance is strong, we all love Downton Abbey, and our skirmishes are largely confined to disputes over which version of The Office is funnier and how to spell and pronounce the word “aluminum.” We fought the Germans, the Japanese, and the Italians, and these...
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Asia Is Up In Arms

Posted by on Mar 26, 2012 in Articles, Asia, Featured, Security | 0 comments The geopolitical centre of gravity, as measured in arms spending and transfers, has shifted to Asia. The top five arms importers over the last five years, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), are from Asia. And, led by deep-pocketed China, Asia is poised to overtake Europe for the first time in modern history in overall military spending. The...
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Beyond the Golden Couples of Pyongyang

Posted by on Mar 8, 2012 in Articles, Asia, Featured, Human Rights, Korea | 0 comments It’s not likely that an Occupy Pyongyang movement will set up tents in Kim Il Sung Square anytime soon. Protest, after all, is virtually non-existent in that society. But the same widening inequalities that plague the United States and the global economy can also be found inside North Korea. What was once a relatively equitable society, albeit at the low end of per-capita GDP, has been...
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Our Man in Beijing?

Posted by on Feb 21, 2012 in Articles, Asia, China, Featured | 0 comments When Hu Jintao took over as the leader of China in 2002, U.S. companies welcomed his accession as a “good sign for American business.” Political analysts described Hu as a fourth-generation member of the Communist party leadership who might very well turn out to be a “closet liberal.” Playing it safe, the media tended to portray him as a pragmatic enigma. In the wake of 9/11 and...
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