How China overreached and lost its grip in the Pacific

By:
On:
In: Asia

Xi Jinping is building a track record of overreaching in his foreign policies. Chinese attempts to gain influence among the Pacific island states fit this increasingly familiar pattern. Last year, the security agreement that Beijing reached with the Solomon Islands stunned the larger liberal democratic countries upon which the Pacific island states have traditionally relied […]Continue Reading

Existential crisis for Iran in South Caucasus

By:
On:
In: Asia

Tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia are threatening to destabilize the South Caucasus, prompting some to worry that Iran could eventually be pulled into a wider regional conflict. But is Iran really prepared to invade its Shia-majority neighbor to protect Armenia, or are recent military moves little more than bluster? While Azerbaijan’s military continues to capture parts of […]Continue Reading

In Ukraine, one of the battlegrounds is language itself

By:
On:
In: Asia

More and more Ukrainians are switching from speaking Russian to speaking Ukrainian. In the media, this language shift is frequently portrayed as recent, dating back to the Russian invasion of February 2022. But the invasion was not the trigger. It was merely an accelerator. To understand Ukraine as a nation, it is important to understand […]Continue Reading

The US cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of 1979

By:
On:
In: Asia

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the US withdrawal from Vietnam, a conflict that cost the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. Just six years after the US left the Southeast Asian nation, another country entered the Indochina fray. In February 1979, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) invaded Vietnam on the heels of […]Continue Reading