Apr 15, 2012

The Titanic and the nuclear fiasco

On the night of April 15, 1912, 100 years ago today, the allegedly unsinkable luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Of the ship’s 2,200 passengers, 1,500 lost their lives. Since then the Titanic has become an object ...

Mar 29, 2012

Charades at the World Bank and IMF

by Uri Dadush and Moises Naim

The scandal over the repellent way the World Bank president is appointed has obscured an equally scandalous situation: the appointment process of the rest of the senior managers at the bank and the International Monetary Fund. They too are selected through opaque, quota-driven negotiations ...

Feb 24, 2012

China's next president does his turn on catwalk

by Frank Ching

As expected, the visit to the United States by China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, did not result in any policy breakthroughs. He is, after all, only the crown prince and has not yet been anointed No. 1. The trip continued a practice begun 10 years ...

Feb 22, 2012

Amazing GRACE can measure world's ice loss

by Michael Richardson

One of the main climate change concerns for Japan and other Asian countries with valuable and densely-populated low-lying coastal land is how much of their land may be threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges as the century advances. Humans burning fossil fuels ...

Jan 13, 2012

Caveman defense budgets

by Gwynne Dyer

If you’re not allowed to enslave people any more, or even loot their resources, then what is the point of being a traditional great power? The United States kept an army of over 100,000 soldiers in Iraq for eight years, at a cost that ...

Jan 4, 2012

Can China sate its thirst for energy?

by Michael Richardson

Among the sinews of superpower strength in the 21st century, maximum energy self-sufficiency will be critical as nations jostle to secure supplies of oil and natural gas, as well as food, water and minerals. This contest for power and influence will take place in ...

Dec 3, 2010

North Korea evokes pity and condemnation

by John J. Metzler

UNITED NATIONS — Amid severe food shortages affecting up to a quarter of the population, horrific human rights abuses, and an expanding and costly nuclear weapons program, the United Nations has tried to respond to North Korea with a combination of carrots and sticks. ...