Ashok Sharma, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
In the coming days, India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, will have to set out exactly how he plans to fix the economy and address many domestic issues. But politics doesn’t stop at the border. Modi’s…
Getting information out of the IAEA: hard.
Andreas.Roever
When we agree to send our young men and women to war, we expect the reasons why to be made clear. At least some of us will want to subject that explanation to scrutiny at the time, and often even more…
China’s military spending has doubled over the past decade.
US Marine Corps
Ashok Sharma, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Barack Obama’s weeklong visit to Asia took in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. His trip was supposedly focused on economic issues and in particular on enhancing trade links across the…
Chinese anger at Malaysia’s handling of the search for flight MH370 has had a damaging impact on the bilateral relationship.
EPA/Kamal Sellehuddin
When Malaysian Airlines flight 370 failed to arrive, authorities at first concluded it had crashed in a relatively shallow part of the Gulf of Thailand. As the days passed more countries dispatched ships…
Kerry and Lavrov keep talking.
EPA/Martial Trezzini
Talks between US secretary of state John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Paris, followed after a week of high-level diplomacy, including a phone call between presidents Obama and Putin…
Cooperation has been key.
EPA/LAC Oliver Carter / DOD
The tragic disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has revealed some important things about China’s relations with its neighbours. The levels of tension between the states is a lot lower than some…
Assad: war crimes? But Syria is not a member of the international criminal court.
Watchsmart
Substantial evidence of torture and systematic killing of thousands of Syrian regime prisoners has emerged as final preparations are made for the Geneva II talks. The claims are unlikely to disrupt the…
Heard and McDonald Islands: no one lives there but they still have a domain name.
NASA
Claiming to be a country is an easy task. But to make others accept your claim is a lot harder. Aspiring states need favours from great powers, or sometimes even celebrities, to establish their legitimacy…
At ease: Indian soldiers deployed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
John Giles/PA
When a highly populous, rapidly developing, nuclear armed, space-voyaging and increasingly assertive Asian nation announces the purchase of its third aircraft carrier, a few months after launching its…
Getting stuck in: David Cameron and Alex Salmond.
Anja Niedringhaus/PA
I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. So Winston Churchill declared in 1942. Seventy years on, David Cameron no doubt feels something…
Taking dictation: David Cameron vists Kazakh President Nazarbayev.
Leon Neal/PA
Why do states and societies collapse? Efforts to explain the hugely complicated conflicts in Syria and Libya have understandably placed heavy emphasis on these nations’ ethnic or tribal diversity. Writers…
Welcoming the world for centuries (and causing trouble for almost as long).
aherrero
The reputation of the American political system both at home and abroad has taken a battering of late. A recent poll showed the overall approval rating for Congress at just 11%, falling from what were…
Stop “discounting the future”, work co-operatively, shake up national and international institutions, and fight short-termism were among the calls in a new study released yesterday. With the world’s richest…
If the sun sets on US dominance, what will rise in its place?
Global Jet
As autumn dawns, so does the business planning season, that time when we consider 2014 and beyond. We are used to going through this process surrounded by uncertainty, especially following the meltdown…
BFFs no more: Queen Elizabeth and former Gambian High Commissioner Tamsir Jallow in 2006.
Steve Parsons/PA
Sue Onslow, School of Advanced Study, University of London
All is not well with the Commonwealth of Nations. Gambia’s announcement last week that it has withdrawn from the association was followed hard by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying he would…
The Syrian crisis enters a new chapter. The international community has struggled to produce what may prove to be an interim solution. But this is just another crisis in the Middle East, they say. Things…
The end of the Cold War and the era of “unipolar” US dominance that followed has led many to wonder about the future of international power. Who will rival, or perhaps even replace, the US? At least one…
The state is still in control, it’s when drones and robots develop their own interests that Terminator becomes a true story.
AAP / Alan Porritt
Anxiety about lethal autonomous robots has some substance. The state of play as currently constituted, however, already provides enough cause for concern. The Terminator scenario Monash associate professor…
Russia has turned its back on marine protected areas in Antarctica. Where to now?
Flickr/US Embassy New Zealand
Russia blocked the approval of new marine protected areas in the Antarctic this week, demanding more scientific information and a definition of marine protected areas. The surprise move postpones a joint…
Growth will sort all this out, won’t it?
newsonline/Flickr
The events of the past week in Istanbul’s Taksim Square are already etched on our minds. Pepper spray, baton charges, perplexed youths lying battered and bruised, but still chanting for change. Of course…