Fluidity in Japanese Politics
Hatoyama’s downfall was primarily brought about by his failure to fulfil the pre-election promise to relocate the US Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma outside of Okinawa prefecture.
- Pranamita Baruah
- June 07, 2010
Hatoyama’s downfall was primarily brought about by his failure to fulfil the pre-election promise to relocate the US Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma outside of Okinawa prefecture.
The Cheonan assault has revealed to South Korea that the threat from North Korea is still ominous and capable of delivering unexpected damage.
The one country that has not condemned North Korea’s role in the sinking of the Cheonan is China, which has its own strategic and economic compulsions to back North Korea.
While the United States charges Iran of being in non-compliance with its NPT obligations, Iran points out that the United States and other NPT nuclear weapon states are in non-compliance of Articles IV and VI, among other provisions.
AFRICOM is a new institution representing the new manner of US engagement. This is different from the EU model of engagement and comes at a time when India and China are seen as important partners of Africa. This paper is written to provide an insight into AFRICOM from an Indian perspective of Africa. This differs from the EU view and also from Africa's own response. US policy towards Africa consists of African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) + AFRICOM; whereas AGOA is better understood, AFRICOM is not. This paper proposes to fill some of the gaps in its understanding.
President Barack Obama's foreign policy orientation towards East Asia seems to be characterised by continuity rather than change, and is not so very different from that of his predecessors. With Japan and South Korea, Obama is trying to revitalise bilateral alliances. With China, he continues on his predecessor's policy of greater engagement, though he has offered some concessions during his visit to Beijing in November 2009. However, North Korea remains a real and huge challenge for Obama to test his engagement in East Asia.
At the outset, I should like to clarify that I am not going to theorize or build models on global or regional international relations. I am also not going to speak on India and China as such as I have already spoken on it at some length some months ago at the Indian Council of World Affairs. If anyone would like to look through the text of that speech, she or he could get it from the ICWA or from me. This lecture is, in the nature of things, more China focussed.
The US Nuclear Posture Review The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)1 is a policy document of the US Department of Defense that underlines the role of nuclear weapons in the country’s… Continue reading De-linking CBW from Nuclear Deterrence
The United States has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons some of which dates back as far as World War I. By end of January 2010, the US… Continue reading Detonating Chemical Weapons: Technology and Safety Paradox
Afghanistan was a test case for our foreign policy resolve, an arena where while leveraging other tools of foreign policy, use of instruments of force and military diplomacy/intelligence should have been predominant.