China

By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | – – The Arabic press is reporting that a high Chinese official on a visit to Damascus has announced that Beijing intends to strengthen its military relationship with the current Syrian government. At the same time he affirmed that China would avoid involvement in the civil war. Reuters […]

China

The New Interventionists: It isn’t just the Yanquis any more

contributors

Mark Leonard | ( Project Syndicate ) | – – In the 1990s, after genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans, Western countries developed a doctrine of so-called humanitarian intervention. “The Responsibility to Protect” (colloquially known as “R2P”) held countries accountable for their people’s welfare and compelled the international community to intervene when governments failed to […]

Banking

The Chinese are Coming: First ‘New Silk Road’ Train reaches Iran’s Capital

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In a sign of China’s increasingly powerful role in Central Asia and the Middle East, on Tuesday a Chinese train arrived in Tehran after a 14-day journey. The freight train just used existing rail links to go from China to Kazakhstan, then to Uzbekistan, then Turkmenistan, […]

China

Dragon & Phoenix: Khamenei Lauds New Sino-Iranian ‘Strategic Partnership’

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Iran’s clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke Saturday on the occasion of the state visit to Iran of Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said, “The government and people of Iran have always looked and are still looking for expanding relations with independent and trustworthy countries like […]

China

Dragon v. Eagle: China & the US compete for Eurasia

contributors

By Pepe Escobar | ( Tomdispatch.com ) – – The U.S. is transfixed by its multibillion-dollar electoral circus. The European Union is paralyzed by austerity, fear of refugees, and now all-out jihad in the streets of Paris. So the West might be excused if it’s barely caught the echoes of a Chinese version of Roy […]

China

The new Chinese Century? Can a Green China with no Mideast Entanglements Surpass US?

Neil Thompson

London (Informed Comment) – In the last fifteen years the United States has spent a total of between $4 trillion and $6 trillion on its twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the while running up its national debt, and damaging its international prestige. The root cause of these foreign entanglements, and America’s costly position […]

China

As GOP fumes re: Iran, Russia & China are outflanking West with New Eurasia Silk Road

contributors

By Pepe Escobar | ( Tomdispatch.com) | – – Let’s start with the geopolitical Big Bang you know nothing about, the one that occurred just two weeks ago. Here are its results: from now on, any possible future attack on Iran threatened by the Pentagon (in conjunction with NATO) would essentially be an assault on the planning […]

China

US Right needs to get over Self: Iran Deal is International

contributors

By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The single biggest misunderstanding about the nuclear agreement with Iran is that it is a bilateral deal with the United States. Not true. “Beware of American and Israeli politicians and commentators who claim this agreement will enable Iran to acquire nuclear […]

Africa

By the Time Washington wakes up to China’s Eurasian Strategy will it be too Late?

contributors

By Alfred W. McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – For even the greatest of empires, geography is often destiny. You wouldn’t know it in Washington, though. America’s political, national security, and foreign policy elites continue to ignore the basics of geopolitics that have shaped the fate of world empires for the past 500 years. Consequently, […]