Four years ago, as columns of burgundy-robed monks marched peacefully through Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, security forces opened fire, slaughtering at least 31 people, arresting thousands more and extinguishing hopes that the ruling junta was receptive to political reform. On September 26, dozens of Burmese again gathered …
Military
Exclusive: TIME Meets Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the international statesman of the moment. Greeted as a rock star in Egypt and other countries transformed by the Arab Spring, the Turkish Premier looms like a colossus over the Middle East. In recent weeks, he has been one of the most vocal world leaders to back the Palestinian …
The Afghan Government Needs Reconciliation with Its People, Not with the Taliban
For the past several months, reconciliation with the Taliban has emerged as a key pillar of the American exit strategy. A political end to the insurgency, combined with a strengthened Afghan security force, better governance and enhanced economic structures were supposed to pave the way towards the dignified withdrawal that is …
How Will China React to U.S. Arms Deal with Taiwan?
The U.S. announced Wednesday that it will offer Taiwan a $5.85 billion package of upgrades to its aging fleet of F-16 fighters (pdf) and training for its pilots (pdf). The deal, which falls short of Taiwan’s request for newer F-16 C/D jets, was widely expected as details of the plan leaked out in Washington in recent weeks. Perhaps …
Is This How Wars Start? India and China Now Feud Over the South China Sea
Last week, one of the world’s most intractable disputes got even stickier. News leaked that the international-arm of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was in talks with the government of Vietnam over hydrocarbon exploration rights in the South China Sea. In most parts of the world this would seem a …
Obama’s Taiwan Conundrum: Should the U.S. Authorize More Arms Sales?
U.S. presidents have reason to not relish decisions on selling arms to Taiwan. Say yes, as Barack Obama did in January 2010, when he approved the sale of $6.4 billion worth of equipment including Patriot air defense missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and two Osprey mine-hunting ships, and you anger China. China considers Taiwan to be …
How Did Other Countries “Lose” in Libya?
In TIME’s international editions, Jorge Castañeda, a former Mexican Foreign Minister, rates the “winners and losers” of the Libyan imbroglio, praising Western leaders like French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British P.M. David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama for pressing for intervention. Countries that abstained from action …
Arab Spring Over, Islamists, Generals and Old Regimes Battle for Power From Tunisia to Syria
There are countless great sources for those following the Middle East’s political clock by the movement of its second- and minute-hands. But for those looking to track the movement of the hour-hand, there are few better options than the New York Review of Books tag-team of Hussein Agha and Rob Malley. The former Palestinian …
Ahmed Shah Massoud: A Decade After His Murder, Would Afghanistan Be Different Were He Alive?
Ten years ago today, the assassination of a militia leader holed up in the north-east corner of Afghanistan garnered little international attention, except perhaps for the Hollywood-worthy way in which he was killed: two suicide terrorists, posing as Belgian documentary journalists, detonated their explosives-packed video camera just …
Ten Years After 9/11, Is It Now Time to be Afraid of China?
As the commentaries, retrospectives and meditations pile up ten years after 9/11, expect quite a few in their closing paragraphs to look toward the next grand geo-political challenge facing the U.S. A decade of costly adventurism in the Middle East and Afghanistan, many will argue, distracted U.S. policy making from the new realities …
Can Philippine President’s Visit to China Ease Tensions?
After months of tension over their rival claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines and China are trying to smooth over some of their differences this week, and the chief salve appears to be money. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III arrived in Beijing Tuesday for his first visit to China since taking office last year. He …
Is Libya a New Model of U.S. Intervention, or an Afghanistan Do-Over?
It’s easy to see how Libya offers a “new model” for American intervention abroad when comparing it with the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003, but the mission to overthrow the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has too much in common with the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan to mark it, at this stage, as the herald of a new era of …
China’s Security Chief Goes on Tour—How Is Asia Reacting?
Over the past week, as I’ve traveled across Asia, I’ve discovered an unlikely partner in my continental peregrinations: China’s security chief Zhou Yongkang. The senior Chinese envoy’s travels have taken him to Nepal, Laos, Cambodia and Tajikistan. The final stop is Mongolia, where Zhou is expected to head on Tuesday.
In …