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Ian Bremmer
For Ian Bremmer's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / 2017 NEW YEAR SPECIAL
Jan 1, 2017
Big changes likely in '17
A year of surprises has come to a close, but its unresolved questions will generate many more quakes in 2017. Where are the fault lines, what about President-elect Donald Trump, and what does all this mean for Japan?
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2014
A new cold war or a cool power calculation?
Americans understand that if they go too far too fast in pushing sanctions against Russia in the Ukraine crisis, Europe will publicly break with the U.S. approach, because the Europeans have a lot more at stake economically.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2014
Where will Xi Jinping's risky reforms lead China?
As they no longer believe time is on their side, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his inner circle are attempting one of the most ambitious economic and social-policy reform plans in history.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2013
Syrian situation highlights 'G-Zero' world order
Syria's situation is the strongest evidence yet of a new "G-Zero" world order, in which no single power or bloc of powers will accept the costs and risks that accompany global leadership.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2012
Myth of irreversible decline
Drawn-out wars, economic struggles, exploding debt — it's easy to point to these signs and conclude that America is in an irreversible decline; that after a good run, it's time to hand the superpower baton to China or some other up-and-comer.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2011
Measuring the revolution wave
NEW YORK — A prediction three months ago that popular protests would soon topple a dictatorship in Tunisia, sweep Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt, provoke civil war in Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, and rattle regimes from Morocco to Yemen would have drawn serious skepticism. We knew the tinder was dry, but we could never know how or when it would combust. Now that it has, how far can the flames spread?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2011
Iraq could use the open culture and enterprise spirit of Lebanon
NEW YORK — After watching the collapse of Lebanon's government, it is hard not to think about efforts to build a stable Iraq. The two countries have so much in common.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2010
Uncertainty beyond the Greek financial crisis
NEW YORK — As euro-zone leaders face growing uncertainty in financial markets about the public finances of Greece and other member countries, their statements, albeit somewhat vague, underscore a much larger story — one that will force firms and investors to question their assumptions about Europe's economic, financial and political environment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2010
Year of U.S.-China discord?
NEW YORK — In 2009, Forbes magazine named U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao the "world's most powerful people." In 2010, we will discover that neither has the power to keep U.S.-Chinese relations on track. That is bad news for those who believe that U.S.-China cooperation is essential for reviving the global economy, meeting the challenge of climate change, containing threats of nuclear proliferation, and managing a host of other problems without borders. It is also bad news for America and China.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008
Whither Africa's 'frontier markets'?
NEW YORK — Zimbabwe's election appears to confirm a truism: Africa only seems to make international headlines when disasters strike — a drought, a coup, a war, a genocide, or, as in the case of President Robert Mugabe, grossly incompetent government.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2007
Turkey's army won't invade
PRAGUE — Just when the smoke from Turkey's domestic political conflicts of the past year had begun to clear, another deadly attack by Kurdish separatists on Turkish soldiers has the government threatening military attacks inside northern Iraq. That prospect raises risks for Turkey, Iraq and the United States. But there are reasons to doubt that the situation is as dangerous as recent headlines suggest.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2007
Twilight of Pervez Musharraf's career
PRAGUE — It is said that political power in Pakistan flows from the three A's: Allah, the army, and support from America. Of the three, it is the army leadership that has the clearest means of ridding the country of Pakistan's president in uniform, Pervez Musharraf. And that's the main reason any power-sharing deal with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is unlikely to end Pakistan's political turmoil.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2007
False hope of Iran sanctions
PRAGUE -- Despite his bellicose rhetoric, U.S. President George W. Bush would very much like to avoid a choice between airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and accepting a nuclear Iran. For the moment, administration officials are hoping that "targeted" sanctions aimed directly at Iran's leadership will compel a compromise.
COMMENTARY / World
May 28, 2006
It's still too early to exit Iraq
PRAGUE -- Last weekend's announcement that Iraqi lawmakers have finally formed a unity government is welcome news, both for Iraq and for President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The American and British governments, increasingly unpopular at home, desperately needed some tangible evidence of progress to assuage their domestic critics and to begin to speak openly of an exit strategy. But Iraq's greatest challenges lie ahead. If Bush and Blair declare victory before the real battles have begun, they will undermine the very process to which both have committed so much at such great cost.

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A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world