Southeast Asia
Vietnam tilts to US in Pacific ‘Great Game’
Vietnam's paramount leader Nguyen Phu Trong meets with Obama at the White House, as the US and China play a dangerous game of chicken over disputed islands.
Tag: new cold war
South Asia
Arunachal Pradesh: pawn in the new Great Game
A new diplomatic flare-up over contested Arunachal Pradesh immediately follows the US-India nuclear deal—seen by China as part of an encirclement strategy.
South Asia
Coup for Delhi in Sino-Indian space race
India's Mars orbiter arrives at the red planet just days after NASA's latest probe. These missions are less about "science" than geopolitics on Earth—the New Cold War with China.
Central America
Nicaragua: inter-oceanic canal route approved
Nicaragua approved a route for its proposed inter-oceanic canal—sparking demands both by the Rama indigenous people and neighboring Costa Rica to be consulted in the project.
East Asia
Tiananmen Square: futility of revisionism
The hyper-security in Tiananmen Square on the 25th anniversary of the 1989 massacre speaks to well-grounded fear of a social explosion on the part of China's rulers.
Oceania
Rival trade pacts vie for Pacific hegemony
China is proposing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in a race with the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.
Central Asia
US plays Mongolia card against China
Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel signed a "joint vision" statement with Mongolia calling for expanded military cooperation—clearly aimed at further encirclement of China.
East Asia
China and Japan can’t stop fighting World War II
China impounds a Japanese vessel over an unpaid wartime debt, as Japan builds a military base near the disputed Senkaku Islands. This World War II nostalgia is getting too real.
Europe
Baltics militarized by NATO amid Russian threats
Above Russian protests, NATO is beefing up its Baltic Air Policing program with more fighter jets—at the request of regional leaders, who cite Russian provocation.
Watching the Shadows
Obama’s fifth year: a World War 4 Report scorecard
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
East Asia
East China Sea gets scary āagain
A near confrontation between Chinese and US aircraft over disputedĀ East China SeaĀ gasfields comes amid major joint US-Japanese naval maneuvers off Okinawa.
Central Asia
Han-Uighur solidarity amid Xinjiang violence
As another deadly clash is reported from Xinjiang, Shanghai journalist Yang Haipeng has started donning a Uighur skullcap at security checkpoints as a gesture of solidarity.