A recent cluster of unrelated events is bringing Israel to a point of inflection; or at least, to a moment of deep almost existential reflection – on this, the seventieth anniversary of its founding. The depth of this quite anxious introspection became explicit in a discussion (Hebrew original) hosted by Yediot Ahronoth, Israel’s widest circulation Hebrew newspaper, with…
The latest developments in the South China Sea indicate that the situation there continues to develop in an increasingly dangerous direction for regional and international security. The American-Chinese rivalry for domination in this region of the world is taking on larger and more dangerous forms. Americans demonstrated their power first: an American aircraft carrier, the…
Malaysia is one of the most developed members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Its relationship with China was, until recently, fairly tense. Malaysia’s geographic location allowed it to control the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s most important seaways, connecting Europe and the Middle East with East Asia. Its lack of a…
Last week, we reported that satellite images had captured China’s only aircraft carrier in deployment, the Liaoning, flanked by 40 other warships and submarines, conducting unprecedented live-fire drills in the South China Sea. This massive Chinese naval exercise was observed for the first time, with China watchers pointing out that such a forceful display of deterrence…
Back in 2003, at the start of America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq, then Major General David Petraeus, commanding the US 101st Airborne Division driving toward Baghdad, famously asked my Washington Post colleague Rick Atkinson: “Tell me how this ends.” That phrase – both a question and a plaintive plea – came to capsulate the entire unplanned…
As presidents Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Ankara for a second Russia-Iran-Turkey summit on the future of Syria, Moscow hosted its 7th International Security Conference attended by defense ministers from dozens of nations. A more graphic illustration of the synchronicity drive towards Eurasia integration would be hard to find. Crucially,…
