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Mock Strategy
The crazy-quilt National Security Strategy released a few weeks back is a patchwork of declarations of intent, admonitions thrown at other countries and ad hominem statements of dubious validity. It lacks coherence or consistency – much less a theme, a central idea, or a concept that gives pattern to its incongruent parts. Clearly, the document is […]
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Visions of an Asian NATO
Japan’s new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is stirring the pot – notably on regional security matters. He has proposed something that has done more than raise a few eyebrows in the foreign and defence ministries of several countries. An Asian version of NATO, he has suggested, was an idea worth considering, notably given China’s ambitions […]
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Why Modi’s India is Suddenly getting Washington’s Cold Shoulder
Modi’s narrow re-election this month was greeted in the U.S. media with petulant satisfaction that Indian voters had “woken up”, as an oped piece in the New York Times put it. The Washington Post’s editorial board rebuked Modi with the headline: “In India, the voters have spoken. They do not want autocracy.” The Post editors […]
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Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World

Iri and Toshi Maruki, XV Nagasaki, 1982, from The Hiroshima Panels. For Prabir, who is now out of jail. On the evening of 14 May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken climbed onstage at Barman Dictat in Kyiv, Ukraine, to pick up an electric guitar and join the Ukrainian punk band 19.99. Ukrainians, he said, are […]
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War Looks Just as War Looks: Dismal and Ugly
Sangho Lee (South Korea), Long for Korean Reunification, 2014. It is impossible to look away from what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Waves of Israeli aircraft pummel Gaza, destroying communications networks and thereby preventing families from reaching each other, journalists from reporting on […]
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Manila Should be Aware of the Perils of Acting as a US Stick to Muddy South China Sea

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT The Philippines is regarded as a key component in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. But compared to Tokyo and Canberra, which take on more aggressive roles, Manila, in the heart of Washington, is merely a stick used to muddy the waters of the South China Sea. In other words, the US aims to […]
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Australia, Biden, and Cancelling the Quad Visit
Much needless fuss has been generated by President Joe Biden’s cancellation of his visit to Australia for the Quad meeting, a now regular gathering of leaders from the US, Japan, India and Australia. He had other things on his mind: dealing with fractious debt ceiling negotiations taking place back in the United States. Students of […]