Despite its impressive economic statistics and analysts’ claims, China is unlikely to surpass the US in GDP anytime soon
China claims that its economy is growing at 10 percent to 11 percent a year, and China’s official analysts say that their nation will catch up with the US long before the 22nd century arrives.
Don’t believe it.
First, [...]

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The new Pechora is mobile and can be redeployed within 20-25 minutes, compared with three hours needed to move the old version. This is of crucial importance for an air defense system, because air battles do not last long, and the system also needs to evade return enemy fire. The sooner it moves away, the [...]

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Nevertheless, the purpose of these flights is not to attack European or Asian targets, which the bombers can easily target with their long-range ALCMs while flying in Russian air space, where they can be better protected. Rather, it is to train the crews to launch their long-range cruise missiles from positions where they can [...]

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Most international headlines focused on the thinly veiled swipes at Washington taken by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We are convinced that … any attempts to resolve global and regional problems alone are useless,” Putin said. Meanwhile, Ahmedinejad, who was in Bishkek as an observer, derided the “threats of one of [...]

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President Vladimir Putin is stirring yet more memories of the Cold war as Russia begins delivery of around 50 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
The Syrian regime, an ally of Moscow throughout the Cold War, is also a key supporter of both Iran and Hizbollah in Lebanon.
It is feared that Syria could pass on some of the [...]

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The military is part of all this. Corruption, low standards and attempts to suppress bad news are part of military life as well. Problems with equipment effectiveness and troops training are considered state secrets. Warplane crashes and low equipment readiness rates are closely guarded information. But the Internet and cell phones let bits and pieces [...]

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Really now. Tell the truth. How bad was Stalin? And did you know the Soviet gulags were just a figament of some westerner’s imagination?
Vladimir Putin is making sure that Russian students learn only “patriotic” history - and let the truth be damned:
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Ignoring potential threat of China, Russia now could be deadly later.
Bush may think that he understands the motives of Vladimir Putin, but Putin is a dangerous man and should not be underestimated.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in what appeared at the time to be a spasm of democracy, our national sigh of relief was almost [...]

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The slow process of accumulating military hardware and global bases means that China’s rise to global military preeminence will necessarily be much slower than its economic rise. This gives the US time to consider its policy options.
The implications of China’s continued rapid growth include China’s overtaking the U.S. in overall GDP terms sometime around 2040. [...]

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By pushing a patriotic view of history and the humanities, the Kremlin is reshaping the Russian mind.
But historians complain that new guidelines issued by the academy are designed to whitewash the atrocities committed by Stalin and downplay the Soviet Union’s loss of the cold war. “The Kremlin thinks it would be much easier to consolidate [...]

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When it comes to discovering regular signs like these of the visible decline of American global power, you can actually do this exercise yourself. Just keep an eye on your daily paper–or start by checking out the latest sweeping piece, “America on the Downward Slope,” by Middle Eastern expert Dilip Hiro, most recently author of [...]

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Now that Zack Snyder’s 300 has conquered the box office and lumbers to DVD next week, it’s no surprise that a few thematic look-alikes have popped up here and there. Enter Last Stand of the 300: The Legendary Battle at Themopylae, a 90-minute documentary produced by The History Channel…and conveniently released on the same day. [...]

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Military history teaches us about honor, sacrifice, and the inevitability of conflict.
Try explaining to a college student that Tet was an American military victory. You’ll provoke not a counterargument—let alone an assent—but a blank stare: Who or what was Tet? Doing interviews about the recent hit movie 300, I encountered similar bewilderment from listeners and [...]

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What is it we want from our Navy? Our economy and that of the rest of the world is dependent upon freedom of the seas for all. It would seem our Navy’s prime role should be to assure that freedom. At this time, the Navy, particularly the submarine force, is doing that job.
A recent article [...]

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Tehran - Iran is threatening to strike the U.S. with “stronger punches” while Hezbollah vows it is ready to become “dismembered limbs to keep Iran strong and dignified.” This will likely leave Lebanon in the crossfire.
The Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Gen. Rahim Safawi (left in picture), who met Hizbullah’s deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem [...]

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“Use attack as the tactic of defense.”
- Chinese proverb
A year from now China will be on its benevolent best conduct, two years from now that could all change. There is little to fear from China until the Olympics are over; what [...]

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