Clashing Shades of Red
Here's an essay question for you. When future generations look back on our times, what do you think they'll remember as its major event? 1. the end of the Cold War; 2. September 11 and its aftermath;...
View ArticleBetween the East and the West
Though Eurasia is the world's largest unified landmass, Eurasian history has traditionally been marked by its disunity. Historians have written histories of the Greeks and Romans, and of the Arabians,...
View ArticleThe Man Who Re-Invented China
China in the early 1990s was in a precarious situation. Lingering public resentment over the government's crushing of the Tiananmen Square protests in June 1989, coupled with the collapse of socialism...
View ArticlePutting the Middle Kingdom in the Middle
As China moves closer to the center of the world economy interest in China's future place in the international community has grown. Odd Arne Westad explores China's foreign relations over the past 250...
View ArticleConflict Termination: How to End -- and Not to End -- Insurgencies
Concern over the trajectory of the on-going American military commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan has combined with memories of Vietnam and its aftermath to fuel interest in conflict termination, the...
View ArticleAfter Putin? Russia's Presidential Elections
The Russian Presidential elections on March 2, 2008 are unlikely to bring any surprises. Vladimir Putin, the widely popular President since 2000 and Time magazine's "Man of the Year" for 2007, has come...
View ArticleAfter Putin? Russia's Presidential Elections
APRES POUTINE ? LES ELECTIONS PRESIDENTIELLES RUSSES
View ArticleTaiwan's 2008 Elections: A New Direction for the 'Other China'?
In the week prior to Taiwan's March 22, 2008 presidential election, lame-duck President Chen Shuibian of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (Minjindang or DPP) declared that he might refuse to...
View ArticlePlaying Politics: Olympic Controversies Past and Present
The hot topic of this year's Olympics seems to be "boycott." Protesters argue that China's human rights policies, especially in Tibet, make Beijing an unworthy host for the celebration of human...
View ArticleClash in the Caucasus: Georgia, Russia, and the Fate of South Ossetia
On August 7th, 2008, just before midnight, Georgian forces launched an attack on Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, or what Georgians call Samachablo. Georgia claimed it was...
View ArticleMaking Sense of the 'Hermit Kingdom': North Korea in the Nuclear Age
While Americans have been focused on the economic crisis and the Presidential elections, events in North Korea have not received the attention they otherwise might. This fall, much to the consternation...
View ArticleBuilding a New Silk Road? Central Asia in the New World Order
Central Asia may be the most important part of the world we know the least about.The five countries of the region—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—are not usually...
View ArticlePopulation Bomb? The debate over Indian Population
In the weeks and months prior to the current financial crisis, much of the world media was reporting on a global crisis in food. A seemingly inexorable rise in the price of basic food supplies in...
View Article'The Energy of a Bright Tomorrow': The Rise of Nuclear Power in Japan
On March 12, 2011, an explosion rocked the towns of Futaba and Okuma in Fukushima, Japan, but few were there to hear it.The day before, the earth and then the sea turned against the towns in twin...
View ArticleWikiLeaks, and the Past and Present of American Foreign Relations
On April 5, 2008, a small coterie of Republican senators and diplomats— John Barrasso, Saxby Chambliss, Mitch McConnell, and James Risch, among others—held a quiet meeting with then Egyptian President...
View ArticleHanoi Central
Lien-Hang Nguyen's new book Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam is primarily a political and diplomatic history of the Vietnam War, centered on Hanoi and the North...
View ArticleA New World Order? Africa and China
Over the past generation, Americans have observed China’s emergence with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. On one hand, huge new markets have opened to American companies; on the other, Chinese...
View ArticleClashing Shades of Red
Here's an essay question for you. When future generations look back on our times, what do you think they'll remember as its major event? 1. the end of the Cold War; 2. September 11 and its aftermath;...
View ArticleHo Chi Minh: A Biography
Pierre Brocheux opens this tightly-woven overview of Ho Chi Minh's life on an ominous note – "This book is dedicated to the idealists of the world, for whom history always ends in disappointment." The...
View ArticleThe Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain
Twenty-first century Americans are no strangers to political scandal. Over the past three decades, headlines in respected newspapers and tabloids alike have proclaimed a myriad of scandals of various...
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