Latest Articles about Foreign Policy

The New Year Brings New Problems for Tajikistan
For Tajikistan, the year 2013 was characterized by apparent tranquility even as the underlying sources of potential instability grew stronger. On the home front, the year was highlighted by a fraudulent presidential election and continued harassment of media and opposition figures, culminating in the highly... MORE

Azerbaijan in 2013: Balancing Between Europe and Russia
A number of important events in Azerbaijan punctuated the past 12 months, and their implications are likely to affect the future development of the country in important ways. Notably, the year 2013 was highlighted by a presidential election, held on October 9, which was swept... MORE

Hainan Revises Fishing Regulations in South China Sea: New Language, Old Ambiguities
On November 29 of last year, Hainan’s legislature approved revised measures (banfa) for implementing the PRC Fisheries Law. Unlike earlier provincial fisheries regulations, the new measures single out “foreigners and foreign fishing vessels” as requiring special permission to operate within Hainan’s jurisdiction, effective January 1... MORE

Dependency on Russia and Belarusian Identity
Recently published detailed analysis of Belarus’s economic problems on the Russian analytical portal Regnum (https://www.regnum.ru/news/1752886.html) is couched in stridently negative terms. The highlights include a decline of industrial exports to Russia because of lower (recession-conditioned) demand and heightened competition due to Russia’s accession to the... MORE

Russia Is Prepared to Sell Iranian Oil as Its Own
The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem have flown to Moscow on the same plane this week to meet their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss the situation in Syria and the Geneva II peace conference due later... MORE

Looking Back: Georgia’s Troubled Year 2013 Indicates More Trouble in 2014
Georgia had a difficult year in 2013 by any standards. The conflict-ridden period of co-habitation between President Mikhail Saakashvili and Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili lasted until October 2013 and fundamentally destabilized the country’s fragile political and economic system. Co-habitation ended as Georgia elected Giorgi Margvelashvili... MORE

China-US WMD Cooperation: Progress within Limits
The Sino-American security tensions of recent years, including over WMD issues, has tended to overshadow the substantial if quiet cooperation between China and the United States in countering horizontal WMD proliferation to aspiring nuclear weapons states, preventing terrorists from gaining access to WMD material, and... MORE

The Language of Terrorism in China: Balancing Foreign and Domestic Policy Imperatives
In late October, central Beijing tasted terror when a flaming SUV rammed a crowd of tourists at the city’s iconic Tiananmen gate, killing the three alleged perpetrators and two bystanders. Authorities were quick to label the attack an act of jihadist terror. The ensuing media... MORE

Belarus: Hallmarks of 2013 and Prospects for 2014
The year 2013 was marked by Belarus’s deepening economic dependency on Russia. It became apparent that the generous socio-economic model of the Belarusian state—including heavily subsidized utilities and mortgage loans; free health care and education; a retention of the Soviet-era recreational facilities such as day... MORE

Russia Begins Collecting Its Ukrainian Gas Bill
Although demonstrators still occupy the Maidan in central Kyiv and none of Ukraine’s fundamental issues that precipitated the crisis in late 2013 have been resolved, it is clear that the Russian “transfusion” of support for Ukrainian bonds and lower natural gas prices has given President... MORE