As has been alluded to in earlier postings, there is an understandable tendency for us in America to have our attention drawn eastward over the Atlantic, towards our founding cultures and beyond to the trouble spots of the Middle East and Africa. But as we are looking east, The East is coming up on us [...]
Rising star of Chinese leadership falls to earth. Can the leaders in Beijing repair the hole in the Great Wall of administrative secrecy in time for the once every 10 year transition of rulers? “News of Drama in China Consulate Reached Obama” The Feb. 6 encounter directly drew the Obama administration into internal Chinese politics, [...]
“Humanity Sucks.” This from a young woman who had just told me she wished to promote human rights. Very upbeat and energetic, she had indicated she was nearing completion of her master’s degree in global studies and human rights. She was working on her thesis paper, a study of the effects of having or [...]
As a general public reader of the WSJ, I seldom wander into depths of the Corporate News section. Thankfully this day I did. It brought to the surface a concern that really ought to be making the headlines: “Ship Accidents Sever Data Cables Off East Africa” (WSJ, Feb 28, 2012). As reported in the article, [...]
“Things are real there,” quotes the Wall Street Journal* of a Chinese millionaire, referring to America. “Here you don’t know what to believe.” Well, there is one thing one can believe: some 30 years on, expansive globalization is reconsolidating. What has been proffered as a burgeoning “economic interdependence” has been in fact a dependence [...]
You know that “Ah Ha!” feeling when an answer is given to a question not posed? When it occurs, you are presented with a “Missing Link”, an insight into understanding some aspect of the workings of the world. It happened to this author during a TV interview with former HHC Secretary Tommy Thompson.* Not [...]
Where is it written that the natural result of democracy is freedom? Not so very long ago, seems like just a year or so, there was a general assumption, a belief really, that the global reach of the internet would be a democratizing tool that would lead to the rise of universal freedom. By reaching [...]
Okay, let’s play a little game of “Pin the tail on the donkey.” Here are a small handful of pins. They represent your nation’s limited military and economic resources. No blind folds here. Bring all your knowledge and information about the world to bear. Now where the map will you allocate our finite [...]
If you were asked to name just two nations that have the potential to surprisingly affect the course of world events in the near future, what would they be? This author would pick ANGOLA and VIETNAM. Surprised? So was this writer while casting about for an interesting storyline. Where on this planet does there [...]
Has the industrial and economic dominance that the United States enjoyed for the past couple of generations been because it was a period of “American Exceptionalism” or has it been mainly an Exceptional Period for America in world history? I say this as a part of the generation who came of age in the boom [...]
