Several weeks after inciting international anger by disputing whether comfort women during World war II were coerced, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally apologized last week for his country’s use of female sex slaves from occupied territories during that era. Speaking from the upper house of the Japanese parliament, he supported an official 1993 statement [...]

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To world historians, there is nothing more fascinating than to notice a coincidence or a disjuncture across space but within roughly the same time.
Was it just a coincidence, for example, that the new but fast-growing states of Germany, Japan, Italy and the United States “came of age” at the same time, after 1870 or so? [...]

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Fifteen sailors and marines are back in British custody, but the fallout from the standoff over the captives remains far from clear. The episode brought into high relief well-known rifts within Iran’s foreign policy establishment between hard-liners and pragmatists. “The incident says much about the volatile mixture of confidence and paranoia that swirls in Tehran [...]

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A senior Japanese politician has likened China’s development of gas fields in disputed waters to theft, in remarks likely to strain bilateral ties just days before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, flies to Tokyo for fence-mending talks with the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Shoichi Nakagawa, the Liberal Democratic party’s policy chief and a close ally [...]

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1. Iran could manufacture missiles that reach U.S. by 2015.
2. Iran Nuclear Bomb Could Be Possible by 2009.
3. Are Israel and Iran on a Collision Course?
Over the next ten years Iran will be positioned with both missiles and nuclear bombs to target Israel, Europe and America. Iran has already threatened to wipe Israel off the [...]

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The second quarter of 2007 will brim with fury and froth as two states (Iran and Germany) attempt to challenge the geopolitical order imposed by others to stem their expansion, in hopes of regaining their long-lost position as major powers. Throughout the quarter, these two states will seek a louder voice and a stronger hand. [...]

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The real naval race in East Asia has nothing to do with aircraft carriers and everything to do with amphibious warfare ships capable of expeditionary operations.
Summary
Few discussions of future naval developments in the Western Pacific these days fail to focus at least partially on the development of a Chinese aircraft carrier. But the real naval [...]

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Iran and the West
The indignation of the British government, and its decision to seek support from the United Nations and European Union, incensed the Iranians and emphasised the weakness of Britain and the West. There was a time, said Admiral Sir Alan West, a former First Sea Lord (the head of the British navy), when [...]

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IT is no coincidence that the first reference to a game called chatrang, from which today’s chess is derived, is to be found in a 1,400-year-old Persian text. For the ayatollahs in Tehran, to whom international relations boils down to a giant chessboard, the 15 British sailors and marines held hostage by the Iranian government [...]

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The crucial flight trial of Agni-III, the nuclear capable long-range missile (beyond 3000 km), is expected to take place early next week, according to defence sources quote newspaper reports.
It will be launched from Wheeler Island of the Interim Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa. The maiden flight of the surface-to-surface missile on July 9 last [...]

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The visit of Chinese leader Hu Jintao to Russia once more emphasizes that the two countries’ positions are close in the sphere of political relations. I would note four dimensions that draw Moscow and Beijing nearer.
The first point is that Russia and China have conservative views on the mechanism of regulation of international relations established [...]

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China and Iran
Should the much-prophesied US military attack on Iran take place, what would China do? Would it buckle under as in the cases of Serbia or Iraq, or would there be a firmer response this time? Sinologist John Garver’s new book “China and Iran” offers some clues, and their essence is that Beijing may [...]

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Hugo Chavez has made diversifying his exports away from the U.S. a critical part of his economic and political policy. As the third largest foreign supplier to the U.S., Hugo Chavez imagines that he has economic leverage; and has threatened to stop shipments.
His threats may please some of the street crowds, but it is meaningless [...]

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This summer the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will conduct joint military exercises called “Peace Mission-2007″. The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty (CSTO) will closely observe the drills. For the first time, the two organizations will act as partners rather than representing overlapping multilateral structures seeking to fight terrorism, extremism, and separatism in Eurasia. However, the drills [...]

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What should we make of the Iranians’ behavior?
Namely that the country’s leadership is in deep political trouble. The Iranian government is desperate to provoke the West to win back friends in the Islamic world, and to quell growing unrest at home. Subsidizing food and gas, providing billions for terrorists and building nukes all cost money [...]

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WASHINGTON–Iran could develop long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland by 2015, a high-ranking U.S. Defense Department official said Tuesday.
Eric Edelman, defense undersecretary for policy, said at a press conference at the Defense Department that Iranian missiles could already hit parts of Europe, and that their range is expected to become longer.
He also [...]

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Russian report implies U.S. disabled spacecraft
Russian space experts are wondering whether the United States used an anti-satellite weapon last month to kill a small Russian research satellite, the Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.
The claim that the Pentagon intentionally crippled the satellite brought an almost immediate denial from U.S. military officials.
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