China’s recent assertiveness in Asia continues to set off destabilizing consequences that are unfavorable for China’s own interests, as Michael Auslin writes in the WSJ: Mr. [Yoshihiko] Noda [Japan’s Prime Minister] has pushed back forcefully against Beijing’s pressure. He dispatched 50 Coast Guard cutters to the islands, refused to surrender Japan’s claims of ownership, and bluntly […]

The labor turmoil in South Africa is spreading to the financial markets, and South Africa’s currency, the rand, is plunging against the weak U.S. dollar.For political economists, Africa wonks, and geopoliticians, this is bad news. Just as the fabulous mineral wealth in South Africa’s mines serves as an engine for the whole economy, labor relations […]

Editor’s Note: Following is the first in a series of posts analyzing the sources of American political dysfunction and proposing a programmatic response to those problems.Some months ago my colleague here at The American Interest, Walter Russell Mead, wrote a series of intellectually high-end blog posts analyzing the collapse of what he called the “blue […]

If you want to learn how countries fail, studying Nigeria today wouldn’t be a waste of time. The BBC reports on a grisly, sad story: Nigerian troops have opened fire and burned buildings in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, reportedly killing 30 civilians.The shootings came after a bomb blast targeting the army had injured two […]

The chattering classes are moaning today about the world economy. The IMF has reduced its economic forecast yet again, lowering growth projections across the board in its World Economic Outlook. Altogether, global GDP is projected to grow 3.3 percent in 2012, down from a July estimate of 3.5 percent. The FT explains the IMF’s reasons for the downgrade: The euro […]

CBS News reports: The percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. has reached a low of 48 percent, the first time the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has reported with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop has long been anticipated and comes at a time when no Protestants are on […]

The traditionally small, inward-looking militaries of Southeast Asia are no longer relying solely on the U.S. for regional security. They have been steadily expanding and upgrading their own forces as China’s power rises and disputes over South China Sea islands heat up. Reuters has details on this change in posture: As Southeast Asia’s economies boomed, defense spending grew 42 […]

New Scientist: US fertility has been declining steadily since 2008, according to a reportpublished last week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The report was compiled from birth certificates registered across the US.In 2008, the average number of children per woman was 2.1, roughly the figure needed […]

Iraq is shipping critical fuel oil to Syria, the FT reports: Iraq is quietly shipping vital supplies of fuel oil to Syria in a deal that has triggered concern in Washington and exposes Damascus’s difficulties keeping its economy afloat in the face of a growing civil war and economic sanctions.In June and July, Baghdad’s oil ministry delivered […]

The "surge" has failed to produce an Afghan government that can stand by itself, and U.S. bureaucratic incoherence is to blame.