A military showdown over Syria has been averted for now but the proxy war that pits the United States and its allies against Russia is set to intensify.

Technological advances have made conventional weapons capable of leaving a greater trail of death and destruction than any poison gas.

In the Middle East, the U.S. has myopically embraced Sunni rulers steeped in religious and political bigotry, even though they pose a threat to freedom and secularism.

The U.S. has sent out a contradictory message: It takes a hands-off approach to the Senkaku territorial dispute yet it scowls at Japan's interest in acquiring offensive capability to deter aggression.

Chinese military planners have probably calculated that the U.S. is unlikely to threaten to devastate China in a Sino-Japanese conflict confined to the East China Sea.

Beijing's strategy to change the territorial and maritime status quo seems anchored in "salami slicing," which centers on a steady progression of small actions.

The U.S. effort to cut a deal with the Pashtun-based, Pakistan-backed Taliban is stirring deep unease among the non-Pashtun groups in Afghanistan.

By ratcheting up disputes in the East and South China seas, China shows it doesn't let booming bilateral trade get in the way of its territorial assertiveness.

In a classic replay of its old game, China recently intruded across the Himalayan frontier with India and then disingenuously counseled "patience" and "negotiations."

Stoking tensions with Japan and the Philippines over ownership of island groups has not prevented China from staging a military incursion into India-controlled territory.

China is waging stealth wars — without firing a shot — to change the status quo of the South and East China seas, its border with India, and international rivers.

Asia's re-emergence on the global stage after a two-century decline is accompanied by an insatiable appetite for natural resources that it doesn't have.