Early yesterday morning, about 150 Japanese nationalists set sail for the disputed Senkaku island chain that has caused such friction between China and Japan over the past few days. The Straits Times: The 20 vessels left the south-western Japanese island of Ishigaki at 8.30pm (7.30pm Singapore time), an AFP journalist on board one of the […]

Something positive happened in Asia this week; China’s premier Wen Jiabao has urged North Korea to embrace “market mechanisms” and to turn to such aids as foreign investment to revitalize its catastrophic neo-Stalinist economic model. At the same time, while reiterating China’s support for its difficult neighbor and client, President Hu Jintao also met with […]

Despite repeated American claims that Hezbollah is assisting Butcher Assad in Syria and preparing attacks abroad, the EU continues its refusal to mark the Lebanese group down as a terrorist organization. To defend their position, EU officials claim that because Hezbollah’s is a political party in addition to a militant group, it should not be […]

Itamar Rabinovich, former Ambassador of Israel to the United States and member of the American Interest‘s editorial board, is incredibly knowledgable and insightful on Middle Eastern history and politics. He recently wrote an astute article on the strategically important Sinai which is well worth your time. A key passage to keep in mind as you digest […]

WRM has written the lead piece in the latest issue of The American Interest, which broadly deals with the subject of race and class in America. Drawing on themes that regular readers of Via Meadia will recognize, the essay traces the long arc race relations have traveled since the founding of the country to today—four years […]

The world has been mesmerized by the revolutionary upsurge across the Arab Spring as longstanding dictatorships fell under popular pressure. But are the Arabs the only people in the Middle East to get a spring? Via Meadia was early to the story of rising tensions between Turkey and Syria, spurred on by a spate of […]

When the news broke that Fareed Zakaria was suspended from his columns at Time and CNN due to accusations of plagiarism, Via Meadia was surprised. Plagiarism is a serious transgression that should not to be taken lightly, but we found it hard to believe that someone with such a gift for writing would feel the need to […]

Two top-notch Chinese car companies are recalling 23,000 vehicles from Australia due to the presence of asbestos in the engines and exhaust gaskets—this, after explicitly stating that the cars would not contain the cancer-causing chemical.As Michael Dunne reports in the WSJ, this this may be an example of a “quality fade”: Prospective buyers initially receive impressive samples of goods, […]

Although American energy reserves have been rising steadily over the past few years and appear likely to continue to do so, American imports from Saudi Arabia have increased by 20 percent over the past year.In January, under pressure from the environmental lobby, the Obama administration blocked a permit for the planned Keystone oil pipeline (after […]

While WRM is away in India, we’ve been inviting a number of guest bloggers to add their two cents to the Via Meadia converstation. One of these guest bloggers is Chris Mead, WRM’s brother and Senior Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. He has been dominating the media while his brother is away. A […]