The American withdrawal was going to lead to a time of testing in Iraq in any case, but political overreaching by the Shiite majority is making a bad situation worse.During the first years of the American presence, it was the Sunnis who fatally misread the power realities of Iraq.  Having been dominant in Iraq since […]

Against a background of growing concern about slowing growth, the Indian government is launching a major infrastructure drive, targeting power plants, highways, airports and other critical bottlenecks that are slowing the country’s growth, reports the Financial Times.Greens will not rejoice; the government wants a rapid expansion of coal mining, believing that exploiting domestic coal represents […]

The entente that could change the world is off to a strong start.  US officials describe the first ever Japan-US-India trilateral talks as a huge success.  Foreign Policy’s The Cable reports: Two State Department officials described the meeting for The Cable. “What I really loved about it was that it just seemed like a very […]

Many Middle East Christians were initially optimistic that the changes sweeping through their region as part of the ‘Arab Spring’ protests would usher in a new era of tolerance. But as the Arab Spring has congealed into a cold and dark regional winter, the FT reports that Christians in Egypt, Syria and Iraq find little […]

An article in Foreign Affairs, a journal so prestigious that it is even received here at the stately Mead manor, adds some establishment weight to worries about China’s economy.  Don’t worry about the Chinese real estate bubble popping some day, says the piece by Patrick Chovanec.  Pointing to a 35 percent fall in Beijing apartment […]

Some interesting predictions coming out of the not-so-United Kingdom: Sir Gus ODonnell, the head of the UK Civil Service, wrote in the Telegraph recently that he thinks that the Kingdom might not be United for too much longer: Sir Gus’s comments about the Union highlight the fact that British voters and politicians are facing serious […]

India, Japan and the US held their first ever strategic trilateral talks about Asia this week, as we noted earlier on Via Meadia.  Something else is trilateral as well:  Myanmar policy.As the Burmese generals have edged away from China’s suffocating embrace, the US sent Secretary Clinton with words of encouragement, and Japan reopened the foreign […]

The Holy Qu’ran has many merits, but if it contains an infallible guide to currency policy, the mullahs of Iran have failed to find it. During the past two days, increased sanctions have caused the Iranian rial, to collapse against the dollar prompting confusion even among the country’s highest officials. The NYT reports: The rial’s […]

The Obama administration has a pretty clear and realistic idea about US goals in Afghanistan, but is having a hard time reaching them.  That at least is the meaning of the very important Washington Post story this morning that covers the outlines of a deal reached between the US and the Taliban and the collapse […]

We already have 1930s style economic problems in much of Europe; is fascism next? If the current Hungarian government gets its way, maybe so.  The government of Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz Party, is pushing the country away from democracy and toward authoritarian nationalist rule with anti-Semitic undertones. A draconian […]