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THE ROVING EYE
Welcome to the Hotel Bo Xilai
When rising tiger turned crouching criminal Bo Xilai checks into his prison cell in the hills north of Beijing, courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party, he'll have all the trappings of a corrupt Mob boss in a California jail. Many powerful friends in the party would be bang to rights with him if his conviction was all about corruption. Instead, Bo waits for his key ally in Beijing to join him. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 23, '13)
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No next act for shamed princeling
Many of Bo Xilai's supporters still hope for his exoneration and rehabilitation, even as the shamed former senior Communist Party member starts a life sentence in jail. His famed father showed what can be done in the political Lazarus stakes by surviving a decade-long purge to rise once more to the top. But this is one Bo who will not bounce back. - Kent Ewing
(Sep 23, '13)
INTERVIEW
Zarif turbocharges Iran's diplomacy
New Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad  Javad Zarif has a diplomatic marathon to run in New York this week, where the eyes of the world are on his country at the UN General Assembly. Zarif brings turbocharged energy to a portfolio that includes nuclear negotiations and the belief that it is time to tell the US that "the free lunch is over" on sanctions.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Sep 23, '13)
Soviet lessons for China in Xinjiang
While China's presence in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region resembles Russia's colonization of Central Asia countries in the Soviet era, the fact that segregation and revolts were less common in the latter suggests nationalities like the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz found it easier to relate to their northern neighbors. Nonetheless, Beijing's combination of huge monetary investment and a carrot-and-stick policy for its restive Uyghur people is having results. - Igor Rotar
(Sep 23, '13)
Singh needs to shine in Washington
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the US this week offers him a chance to inject renewed vigor into the strategic partnership ahead of India's general elections next year. Unless he can explore the scope for improved cooperation in areas of shared need such as securing energy resources, creating jobs and improving infrastructure, bilateral momentum could again stall. - Sanjeev K Shrivastav
(Sep 23, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
The gospel according to Vladimir Putin
The deepest challenge Vladimir Putin made to "American exceptionalism" while chastising the US over its Syria strike plan was towards the concept's theological roots. For the United States, a country that sees itself as a "shining city on a hill", mandated by providence, the Russian president's reminder that "God created us all equal" bordered on heresy.
- Ninan Koshy
(Sep 23, '13)
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SPEAKING FREELY
Mollah: a Bangladeshi travesty of justice
Veteran Bangladeshi politician Abdul Quader Mollah has been sentenced to death on appeal for committing crimes against humanity during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan. The death sentence imposed without the possibility of appeal is incompatible with international human rights law and is logical only when seen as the result of a political vendetta. - Mohammad Hossain
(Sep 20, '13)
World reacts to Rouhani's no nuclear pledge
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's comments that his government would never develop nuclear weapons were welcomed by US Secretary of State John Kerry with the caveat that "everything needs to be put to the test", and lauded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. To Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the pledge was an attempt to deceive the world.
(Sep 20, '13)
Syria diplomacy helps shuffle global order
The United States has lost the respect and the belief of the international community as power gradually diffuses on a global scale. That is one lesson to be learned from US President Barack Obama's failure to gain followers to attack Syria. Another is the striking influence of grassroots opinion on international policy, not seen since the Vietnam War. - George Gao
(Sep 20, '13)
Southern inhospitality greets defectors
Framed by South Korea as spies and then thrown into detention, many North Korean defectors face some of the same mistreatment they sought to escape. As the South's media whips up more public paranoia about infiltrators, sentiment is increasingly veering away from a more transparent vetting process and towards the tightening of borders.
- Markus Bell and Sarah Chee
(Sep 20, '13)
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 BOOK REVIEW
Military matters
in Myanmar
Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma by Renaud Egreteau and Larry Jagan. Strong Soldiers, Failed Revolution by Yoshihiro Nakanishi
Outside focus on Myanmar's new civilian authorities and recent economic changes has helped the military, still the country's most powerful institution, to retreat into the shadows and to evade similar scrutiny. These two books help to shed light on that space, though both fall short of their objectives. - Bertil Lintner
(Sep 20, '13)
CHAN AKYA
Bernanke and the L-Word
The Federal Reserve has essentially admitted defeat in efforts to reverse quantitative easing. With that, instead of reducing longer-term financial risks and refocusing the economy on a sustainable path, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will leave as his legacy the US economy just as he found it - fragile and heading for a crash.
(Sep 20, '13)
Shanghai to top Hong Kong
Shanghai's efforts to reclaim its 1920s' role as East Asia's center of trade and finance are moving forward fast, and the days of Hong Kong being the primary venue in China for financial transactions could be numbered.
- Dan Steinbock
(Sep 20, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Obama-Rouhani: lights, camera, action
Though a meeting with Barack Obama at the UN next Tuesday is by no means certain, it's well-established that the stage is set for President Hassan Rouhani's administration to talk directly to Washington about Tehran's nuclear program. The question is whether Obama will have the "heroic flexibility" to face 34 years of history and stare down the spoilers. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 19, '13)
Toxic agenda-setting in Washington
While the Obama administration beats the war drum and produces dubious proof that Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, a potentially larger tragedy is brewing at the site of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The 300 tonnes of radioactive water leaking every day from the destroyed plant into the Pacific could directly impact about a third of the world's population.
- Jonny Connor
(Sep 19, '13)
Israel, eying Iran, comes off Syria fence
A statement by Israel's ambassador  to the US, Michael Oran, makes clear Tel Aviv's preference for the "bad guys" fighting Bashar al-Assad (rather than the "bad guys" who now run Syria). The timing of the pronouncement of support for US-backed forces signals further twists in the Syrian civil war, and focuses minds on the possibility of a grand bargain between Washington and Tehran.
- Victor Kotsev
(Sep 18, '13)
SPENGLER
US plays Monopoly,
Russia plays chess
As Russia's president carefully gauges how each Syria maneuver impacts on Moscow's spheres of interest, the US administration continues to view geopolitical real estate in isolation. The big prize is a restoration of Russia's great power status, and as American popular revulsion over foreign intervention intensifies, Vladimir Putin can simply wait as the clock runs down. - Spengler
(Sep 16, '13) |
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Myanmar admits $7bn in overseas stash
The Central Bank of Myanmar says the country's lenders have parked more than US$7 billion worth of foreign reserves in overseas bank accounts, while rejecting reports that the figure was much larger and had led to the World Bank refusing to cancel its debt. - Myint Oo, Win Naung Toe and Kyaw Htun Naing
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The Fed goes too far
The Federal Reserve's decision to furlough QE "tapering" means that this time it has pushed the envelope too far. It is yet another blunder by chairman Ben Bernanke's team, and the likely price will be only greater market instability.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
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US-India ties in transition
The absence of Robert Blake, the former assistant secretary of state in the US state department’s bureau for south and central asia, is keenly felt. Blake would have raised high expectations by now over the “working visit” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the White House hardly five days from now, on Friday. There is no (misleading) rhetoric this time from the American side.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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[Senator John McCain's] tit-for-tat op ed posted on a Russian website rebutting Vladimir Putin's piece in the NY Times accused him of cozying up to bloodthirsty tyrants. That's showin' 'im, Johnny Boy!
H Campbell
Texas
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