The European Union may find dealing with the Middle Kingdom trickier than it expects
IN THIS Olympic summer, expect to hear a lot about the century of China’s rise and America’s decline. That sounds like good news for the European Union, and all who dream of a “multipolar” order in which European wealth counts as much [...]

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Record spending on infrastructure will help to sustain rapid growth in emerging economies
THE biggest investment boom in history is under way. Over half of the world’s infrastructure investment is now taking place in emerging economies, where sales of excavators have risen more than fivefold since 2000. In total, emerging economies are likely to spend an [...]

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“The big story is productivity in China,” he asserts, noting it is an incredible 9%, or three times the level of productivity in the US during its 1990s peak. Admiral Owens attributes this to the country’s high-quality infrastructure. It will allow the Chinese economy to soon become the second-largest in the world, with a GDP [...]

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Imagine this: Ten fighter jets take off from a base in northern Israel, fly over Jordan, Iraq and into Iran to bomb air-defense missile systems, radar stations and nuclear facilities. They then leave Iranian airspace safely without sustaining any enemy fire.
Sounds implausible? If the IAF has its way, the possibility will become realistic in the [...]

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Russia’s new President Dmitri Medvedev recently sacked his military chief of staff. The move has been seen as an attempt to impose reform on the once-feared Russian military. Moscow says its army is rebounding, but experts say the reality is far different.
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Satellite photos of the Leping Ballistic Missile Base in China’s southeastern province of Jiangxi show that this is a key site for the deployment of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s DF-15A campaign tactical missiles. The direct distance from the base to Taiwan is 700 kilometers (435 miles).
It is apparent that the striking range of [...]

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Understanding why Hizbullah refused to take over Lebanon is key not only for understanding Hizbullah but also for understanding Hamas, Fatah and the insurgency in Iraq.
A compelling answer to this question is found in David Galula’s classic work, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. Galula, who died in 1967, was a lieutenant colonel in the French [...]

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South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak hopes to develop farmland in Sudan as part of efforts to secure offshore grain resources to help North Korea cope with its worsening food crisis.
Meeting with visiting Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, Lee discussed the proposed cooperation, which includes building grain storage facilities, Lee’s aides said.
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Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened its doors on February 26, 2008 to the world.
This ‘Doomsday Vault’ is part of an effort to protect the planet’s diminishing biodiversity.
The facility was dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain on Spitsbergen, one of 3 Arpichelago Islands in Norway. Any seeds stored here will be secure [...]

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Indeed, some cluster bombs now include guidance systems to ensure they arrive closer to their targets, and fuses that make bomblets self-destruct if they have not exploded after hitting the ground. This is in line with one “fix” permitted by the Dublin treaty, which is that bomblets should either “detect and engage a single target” [...]

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A leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday threatened to storm Egyptian border if Israeli blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip remains in place.
Osama al-Muzini’s threat was made as he warned from “public explosion,” adding that the angry people’s outburst “will go in all directions” and that Rafah border [...]

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