News.com.au | News Online from Australia and the World | NewsComAu The XX Committee | intelligence, strategy, and security in a dangerous world The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia The One Article to Read on Chinese Naval Strategy in 2015 A fascinating new paper by two academics asks us to question a fundamental assumption about China’s naval buildup. The last two lines of Thomas Hardy’s poem “And There Was a Great Calm,” written on the occasion of the signing of the armistice in November 1918, contains the following exchange, laconically summarizing what I believe is the eternal tension that permeates foreign policy decision-making: “The Sinister Spirit sneered: ‘It had to be!’ / And again the Spirit of Pity whispered, ‘Why?’” (Side note: the writer Graham Greene prefaced his autobiography Ways of Escape with these lines and retrospectively elevating it to a guiding principle of his life.) In short, those lines speak to the tension between those who have a natural disposition toward seeing the U.S. national interests at stake everywhere in the world (especially in crisis zones), and those who cautiously question some of the basic premises of this assumption. I would posit that especially the Socratic “Why?”
Africa Review: - Reporting Africas future and the big political, economic, cultural and technology stories shaping it Matthew Aid La Une India: The Austria-Hungary of the 21st Century? If it heeds the lessons of history, the US would do well not to foster close ties with India in the next few years. During this week’s podcast I briefly mentioned an idea that I would like to explore a bit further: The striking similarities between the strategic position of India in the 21st century with that of the now vanished empire of Austria-Hungary in the 19th and early 20th century. I’ve published similar pieces looking at this analogy previously at The Huffington Post and China-US Focus, but I thought I would repost some of my observations here as well. To this day, India’s foreign policy, much like Austria-Hungary’s is – more than most other emerging titans – constrained by a quest for internal security and a deep introspection – making it a reluctant power and conducting a more or less ‘introverted foreign policy’. The Austrian Empire, like India, was considered to be a bridging power between East and West for much of its existence.
Two pairs of Mexican wolves to be released at Apache National Fo TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A pair of Mexican gray wolves will be released today and next week into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area of Arizona. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department, the pair released today consists of a male and female. Both will be paired in a pen on the Apache National forest. The wolves were held in the enclosure through the breeding season, which occurs in February and March. The second pair will be released next week into the primary recovery zone in Apache National Forest. "This release follows through on a commitment made by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to support the release of wolves to replace those lost from illegal shootings," said chairman John W. The two female wolves were selected from the captive breeding population to increase genetic diversity of the wild wolf population. Copyright 2014 Tucson News Now.
Think-Tank-EN | Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik e.V. Le Monde.fr - Actualité à la Une Chinese Defense Innovation Industrial espionage may help China’s military-industrial complex, but it will still need to harness its private sector. For the first time in its history, the People’s Liberation Army can boast a homegrown arsenal of sophisticated, modern weaponry. The military-industrial complex of the People’s Republic of China has two fifth generation fighters in development, has demonstrated the capacity to build some of the most sophisticated ballistic missiles in the world, and has among the world’s healthiest military shipbuilding sector. Yet for all of this success, serious questions persist. China remains dependent on access to foreign technology, with many of its most important systems stemming from Russian and Western designs. Postwar Emergence In 1949, the Chinese defense industry produced little in the way of sophisticated military technology.