Recent Posts

China’s Taliban Conundrum

During a regular press conference held just hours after Taliban forces entered Kabul, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated that China stands “ready to continue to develop good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation with Afghanistan and play a constructive role in Afghanistan’s peace and reconstruction.”[1] But is China anxious to fill the …

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Afghanistan must address existential and structural challenges before tapping natural resource wealth

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid victory of the Taliban, some observers have pronounced the commencement of a new Chinese-led regional order. China, they say, will sweep in and develop road and rail infrastructure to extract Afghanistan’s vast mineral and rare earth wealth and thereby emerge as …

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No, Iron Dome doesn’t save Palestinian lives

The ongoing (and largely overblown) controversy over the decision by congressional progressives to block the inclusion of $1 billion in additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, over and above the $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid Israel already receives, has exposed ruptures within the Democratic Party as …

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