On December 14, 2009, China and Turkmenistan formally opened the longest natural gas pipeline, which runs from Turkmenistan through Central Asia to China. This pipeline, financed by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)—China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier—is the first gas pipeline connecting China... MORE

After more than a decade of sustained naval modernization, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) stands at a historic crossroads. While it’s no “blue water navy” by Western standards, the Chinese Navy has closed important operational gaps and demonstrated the capability to sustain peacetime operations... MORE

While the furor over cyber attacks against Google has lapsed somewhat, the Sino-American confrontation over the larger issue of Internet security and global digital warfare is expected to intensify in the near future. This is particularly in light of the deterioration of bilateral ties due... MORE

Azerbaijan recently achieved a major public diplomacy success in late January by organizing the first Russian-Azerbaijan Humanitarian Forum in Baku, which assembled more than 100 representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Rectors of universities, heads of news agencies, high profile journalists and writers, composers and artists,... MORE

Armenia and Turkey have moved to the brink of reversing a universally welcomed thaw in their relations, with differing interpretations of a landmark fence-mending agreement signed in October 2009. Yerevan is threatening to annul the two “protocols” over Ankara’s continuing linkage between their implementation and... MORE

Since Turkey and Armenia finally signed the groundbreaking protocols for the normalization of their relations in October 2009, their progress has been far less impressive. The Turkish and Armenian governments’ inability or unwillingness to counter domestic opposition stalled the parliamentary ratification process. Recently, both parties... MORE

In June 2008, negotiations between the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan—which manages ongoing cross-Strait negotiations—and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), resumed after 15 years of suspension. The resumption of negotiations was spearheaded by the first visit... MORE

China’s growing role as a regional and global leader has brought with it increasingly complex and far-reaching political, economic and security interests, as well as new traditional and non-traditional security challenges for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). As a result, in 2004 President and... MORE