The U.S. Department of Defense Department just submitted to Congress its semiannual, June 2018 report titled “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan.” The take-home message, like every such report for at least the last 10 years, remained the reassuring “progress is being made.” It is the contemporary equivalent to the Vietnam War…
According to a recent report, Chinese investment in Africa could create national economies entirely dependent on China. Although infrastructure projects can create jobs, provide an opportunity for skills development and the transfer of new technologies, Chinese loans amounting to more than $86 billion bring dangerously high levels of debt that can prove unsustainable…
In its quest for global domination, China is making effective use of the four instruments of national power: diplomatic, informational, military and economic. To explain Beijing’s thinking, it is useful to take them in reverse order. Economic: The foundation of and the starting point for China’s roadmap to supremacy is…
Overshadowed in the U.S. media by the Singapore meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, held in Qingdoa, China on June 9–10, may have far greater strategic significance. Established in 2001, the SCO is a Eurasian political, economic,…
On August 21, 2017, President Donald Trump presented his administration’s Strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia, which rests on three pillars: “First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made — especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women…