Proposals for beefing up the non-kinetic side of U.S. statecraft.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is finding out who his friends really are. On the friendly side stands, loyally, Hezbollah. In a shocking display of bad timing, Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, announced his undying love for Butcher Assad on Ashura, the Shia holiday commemorating the murder of Husayn, the Prophet’s grandson. What better day to […]

An article in Bloomberg collects a number of depressing but all-too familiar stories with one common theme — young people graduating from master’s programs with low-paying jobs and crippling debt. The article reports: More people are losing the same gamble as a 33 percent jump in U.S. graduate school enrollment in the past decade, coupled […]

China is poised to become the world’s largest producer of shale gas, though that might take a few decades. Still, test drilling has confirmed the Chinese are sitting atop the world’s largest reserves of the unconventional natural gas resource. The FT reports: PetroChina, the listed subsidiary of Chinese oil and gas producer CNPC, told the […]

After the NATO airstrike that left two dozen Pakistani soldiers dead, each side predictably rushed to shape perceptions of the incident in ways which supported their self-interest. The NYT reports: The NATO air attack that killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers over the weekend reflected a fundamental truth about American-Pakistani relations when it comes […]

America has always feared that a nuclear Iran would lead to a Middle Eastern arms race. Speaking at a regional security forum in Riyadh earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Al-Faisal (former ambassador to the US and intelligence chief) stepped up the pressure. The NYT reports: Prince Turki said at the forum on Monday […]

After President Obama and Secretary Clinton announced a series of new agreements and deployments aimed at countering China’s assertiveness, Chinese President Hu Jintao has called on the navy to prepare for military conflict in the South China Sea. Yahoo News reports: The navy should “accelerate its transformation and modernisation in a sturdy way, and make […]

India’s government has fought itself to a standstill over a reform plan that would allow foreign-owned retail chains direct access to Indian markets. As soon as the reform measure passed in Parliament, the opposition Bharatiza Janata Party (and others) brought the government to a halt and Indian traders organized a day-long strike in protest. On […]

Two days ago, the Argentine coast guard boarded Spanish fishing vessels operating under license from the Falklands authorities. In response, the UK announced it intends to set up a “maritime protection zone” around its South American territories. At least one commentator has urged London to respond with force: “it should be considered an act of […]

In a lecture at Columbia University’s Amman-based Middle East Research Centre, Fayyad appears resigned to continued frustration in the Palestinian quest for statehood, despite the decision to go to the UN. The Jordan Times has the story: The Palestinian premier, a champion of institution-building as a path to statehood, said the current political conditions within […]