As Chinese President Xi Jinping’s New Silk Road initiative continues to build momentum, provincial governments are looking for ways to integrate their own economic plans with the national strategy and thus provide local companies and workers the benefits touted by Beijing. Xi’s promotion of the... MORE

China has placed great faith in the unarmed patrol ship as an instrument with which to realize its maritime ambitions. According to a recent U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence report, Chinese maritime law enforcement (MLE) agencies collectively operate over 200 oceangoing ships, giving the country... MORE

Sino–Sri Lankan relations are in a state of flux. Bilateral relations, which had surged significantly during the rule of Sri Lanka’s former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005–2015), are strained today. In January, Sri Lanka’s new President Maithripala Sirisena suspended the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City (CPC)... MORE

Beijing and the Holy See are ostensibly as close to establishing diplomatic relations as they have been in over 60 years; yet, little has changed for mainland Chinese Christians. As Beijing turns the screws of ideological authority, those advocating for religious freedom must learn to... MORE

Even as South Korean media were speculating about Kim Jong-un’s projected visit to Moscow to attend the VE-Day celebration on May 9, 2015, he announced abruptly that he would not, after all, be attending (Yonhap, April 30; Dong-a-Ilbo Online, May 1; The Moscow Time, April... MORE

On May 7, Belarus’s national ice hockey team beat the United States for the first time, netting a 5–2 win at the world championship in Prague (BELTA, May 8). Hardly any piece of news pleased Belarusians more than this one. Yet, one may also recall... MORE

Information published earlier this month on the website of the de facto parliament of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia caused a diplomatic scandal between Yerevan and Tbilisi. Reportedly, the chairman of the South Ossetian parliament, Anatoly Bibilov, met with the speaker of Armenia’s... MORE

Pressed by economic and geopolitical imperatives, Italy is trying to carve out its own diplomatic space over the crisis in Ukraine, in an apparent attempt at fostering a rapprochement between the European Union and Russia. The Russian annexation of the Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here. The re-election of President Nursultan Nazarbayev (see EDM, April 30, May 8) has renewed and bolstered the presidential institution’s popular mandate to tackle the urgent challenges confronting Kazakhstan. Some of these challenges are recurrent, but for the most... MORE

Sitting at a strategic crossroads between Europe and East Asia, Mongolia and North Korea are potential economic corridors for the wider Eurasian landmass. However, the realization of such corridors depends in large part on Chinese and Russian policy priorities, since both have long-standing geostrategic interests... MORE