Hardly. In a conversation decades ago with an old Asia hand about differences between India and China, my friend claimed her pursuit of knowledge on China was so much easier than anything similar for India. There, she said, everything had … [Read more...] about India – A New Beginning?*
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South China Sea Territorial Disputes
"Vietnamese Riot in Industrial Zones in Anti-China Protest," Reuters, Hanoi, 14 May 2014. Thousands of workers took to the streets to demonstrate against "Chinese oil drilling in a contested area of the South China Sea." It did not take long before … [Read more...] about South China Sea Territorial Disputes
“No Place to Hide”- A Must Read Review
'Glenn Greenwald believes the government’s goal is the ‘elimination of electronic privacy worldwide.’ In a 1964 essay, Richard Hofstadter described what he called "the paranoid style" in American politics, a mode of analysis and rhetoric employed by … [Read more...] about “No Place to Hide”- A Must Read Review
Studies of al Nusra and Foreign Fighters in Syria*
Studies and bulletins dealing with the growing strength of al-Qaeda and the global jihad in Syria -- The Meir Amit Intelligence and Information Center Overview 1. On May 13, 2014, the ITIC issued a new study (112 pages long) about the phenomenon … [Read more...] about Studies of al Nusra and Foreign Fighters in Syria*
Syria: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham and the “Cleansing” of Deir ez-Zour
This piece is the first in a brief series of publications that examine activity by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is active on both sides of the border, executing complex attacks in Deir ez-Zour and organizing local … [Read more...] about Syria: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham and the “Cleansing” of Deir ez-Zour
Jihadis Returning/Redeploying from Syria
Several years and many thousands of jihad fighters from at least 70 countries joining the Syrian blood-bath has finally raised the alarm that Syria has replaced Afghanistan as the new training ground for al Qaeda and its like. Western law … [Read more...] about Jihadis Returning/Redeploying from Syria
Putin’s Regime and the Russians
The original foreign policy neocons were right to argue that the character of a country’s political regime could tell one a good many things about the motivations behind its foreign policy. How the U.S. could have ended up with a 21st-century … [Read more...] about Putin’s Regime and the Russians
Putin, Bluffer-in-Chief
The current extremely successful campaign of aggression by Russia’s dictator-candidate Vladimir Putin illustrates two of the fundamentals of geopolitical history: * A demagogue’s capability of achieving remarkable results through bluff. * How … [Read more...] about Putin, Bluffer-in-Chief
Weekly Briefing – May 3 – 10, 2014
U.S. National Security's Achilles Heel - The Electromagnetic Spectrum - - Rachel Ehrenfeld - On December 23, 2013, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency issued a solicitation “to … conduct satellite system performance modeling, satellite system … [Read more...] about Weekly Briefing – May 3 – 10, 2014
U.S. National Security’s Achilles Heel – The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Over the past four years bills on cybersecurity, Electromagnetic Pulse threats, and other forms of "purposeful interference" with U.S. cyberspace have been introduced only to go nowhere. By now it has been well established that EMP, whether in the … [Read more...] about U.S. National Security’s Achilles Heel – The Electromagnetic Spectrum