Russia was a key player in the nineteenth-century Great Game, and now it appears to be toeing the waters of the modern, sea-based version. Three Russian ships docked yesterday in the Philippines, including the anti-submarine warship Admiral Panteleyev. Russia’s envoy to the Philippines emphasized the cooperative and peaceful nature of the visit: I’m confident that the […]

On February 5, 2012, the New York Times carried a story about a Confucian academy in South Korea. It is one of some 150 such academies (seawon) in the country. Their main program consists of retreats, especially for schoolchildren. The program, apparently quite rigorous, is to provide training in moral behavior and etiquette (the two […]

Tehran officially complained to the government of neighboring Azerbaijan this weekend, accusing the Azeris of turning a blind eye to Mossad agents operating in the country. Azerbaijan (a secular government) is pro-West in its politics, friendly with Israel, and cooperates in the quest to stop Iran from going nuclear. Baku and Tehran have for years […]

Russia’s 2008 campaign against Georgia secured the independence of the border regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but it has curried considerably less favor in the region since then. A New York Times article notes that Russia-backed candidates have lost recent elections in both countries, and only intervention by the Supreme Court prevented an opposition candidate from […]

Our “Beyond Blue” essays, the culmination of one of Via Meadia‘s overarching storylines, have been sparking conversation. Over at the New York Times Campaign Stops blog, Columbia’s Thomas Edsall compares the essays to Charles Murray’s recent work: Mead’s predictions may or may not prove prescient, but it is his thinking, more than Murray’s, that reflects […]

Something’s rotten in the State of California. The New York Times recently reported that the budget crisis has forced the city of Oakland to look for unusual ways to raise cash. Their solution: marijuana dispensaries. With a declining tax base and poor business climate brought about by the recession, marijuana dispensaries account for a full three percent of […]

It’s been a bad week for French President Nicholas Sarkozy, with polls showing his rival, Socialist candidate François Hollande, steadily gaining ground. The latest opinion polls show Hollande leading with 59 percent of the vote, nearly the 60 percent necessary to win a head-to-head contest in the first round of elections just under two months […]

Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai has been working overtime in Washington to polish his nation’s image, as well as defend and smooth over his country’s oil contracts with Iran. Writes the NY Times: India’s determination to continue buying Iranian oil, despite sanctions and growing political pressure from the United States and Europe, has frustrated officials in […]

In a piece entitled “Occupy Movement Regroups, Laying Plans for the Next Phase,” the NY Times gamely attempts to keep the hope for a left-wing counterweight to the Tea Party alive. But no dice. There’s nothing to see here but hand-waving, hyperbolic rhetoric, and vague promises of ill-planned action by career activists: Jumping on a […]

First the Obama administration managed to alienate both its liberal supporters and its religious critics by pushing and then pulling back its HHS contraception mandate. Now the White House has succeeded in hitting the political sour spot yet again by producing a compromise designed to placate the Catholic bishops…without consulting the Catholic bishops. Reports the […]