The overall post-Soviet and post-Cold War transformation of the five Central Asian countries is multifaceted and complicated. New geopolitics has penetrated into almost all critically important spheres of post-Soviet transformation. Geopolitics even influences spheres such as national self-identification, which is traditionally regarded as having nothing to do with geopolitics. That is why one can assume that geopolitics stipulates regional integration as well.
India is being subjected to increasing pressure from the developed countries to cut down on its carbon emissions on the grounds that it is the fifth largest consumer of energy. This comes even as there are forecasts that India's energy consumption will increase incrementally as it tries to address the challenges of its social and development goals by increasing and sustaining economic growth at around 8–10 per cent of its GDP.
Indian presence in the Gulf region is civilizational and has developed into a vibrant relationship over the years. With the emergence of India as a large economic power and with the Gulf region simultaneously witnessing spectacular economic growth, economic trends are reinforcing mutual interdependence. While India's economic presence in the region has transformed from barter exchanges between merchants and Indian human capital, India's political presence has remained more or less subdued.
This research article examines the rationale for Iran, Pakistan, and India entering into a trade agreement to meet their economic, political, and strategic needs as well as the constraints and challenges that still hamper such an agreement from realizing its full potential. Using the gas pipeline project as a case study, the issues of energy security (as the independent variable) and of economic interdependence (as the dependent variable) highlight the importance of cooperation among these countries.
The recent events in Iran have raised a number of questions: one interesting question concerns the real character of the US interests in that country. There are obvious strategic US interests like monitoring and early warning stations, oil interests, military interests, including sales of huge quantities of modern weaponry, and so on.
Specialists on Chinese studies are divided on whether or not China is moving towards democracy. Many scholars forcefully argue that China by now is fairly democratic. While conforming to these views, this article prompts the thesis that China is already somewhat democratic today and is becoming more so. This is argued by highlighting the trends and the progressive character in its emerging regime politics. On the surface, these progressive trends and character may be seen as rhetorical and more as a communist proposition to legitimize its ruling.
In February 2009, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Port Royal ran aground about a half mile south of the Honolulu airport. The Navy's investigation found that the ship's navigational gear was broken and that the ship's fathometer wasn't functioning. In simple terms the bridge didn't know where the ship was. The investigation subsequently discovered that the commanding officer was exhausted, sleep-deprived, and that sailors who were nominally assigned to stand watch against such incidents were assigned elsewhere in the ship to cover manning shortages.
