International Relations and Politics

On the day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized a French retailer operating in Venezuela, Mr. Chavez has accused the United State’s aid mission to Haiti as a military occupation. While Chavez continues in his peevish teasing of American actions abroad it is worth noting that engaging allies only goes so far. While Bush was [...]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said that the US Army’s internal defense posture and procedures had not been improved upon since the rise of the War on Terror. The army has been criticized, for many years now, for allegedly continuing in a Cold War stratagem. While some have wrongly called for the gutting of our [...]

Recent news is surfacing about skirmishes on the India-Pakistan Kashmir Border. See these two links: “Rockets fired in India-Pakistan border skirmish” at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/09/india.pakistan.clashes/index.html?iref=allsearch and “India says soldier killed in Kashmir border firing” at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/09/india.pakistan.clashes/index.html?iref=allsearch If you want to see how China fits into the center of South Asian international politics, see my other article, “India [...]

Chinese rejection of Indian visas and disputes on the Kashmir border have been cited as indicators of deteriorating relations between the two rising great powers of Asia. However, realist political theorists contend that border disputes and visa troubles are not the causes of strained relations. Rather, they are the symptoms of disorder and competition in [...]

Economies based heavily on exports have systemic weaknesses because they rely on other countries for economic growth. For example, Japan gets hit particularly hard when the US economy turns south especially because it relies so heavily on US consumptive power to fill its domestic markets with capital and cash. This is especially the case with [...]