And China has marked the superficial thaw in relations by deploying at its Leping Ballistic Missile Base in Jiangxi province about 200 of a new and improved version of its DF-15 tactical missiles aimed at Taiwan.
So these advances in cross-straits relations, as welcome as they are, are the first steps on a long and difficult [...]

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The U.S. representative to NATO said Monday she would like to see Russia as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“Speaking as a mom and as a strategist and a lifetime student and friend of the Russian people, I would love to live in a world where Russia wanted to be a NATO member [...]

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared the U.S. to a “frightening monster” and urged France to distance itself from its American ally.
“How can one be such a shining example of democracy at home and a frightening monster abroad?” Putin said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde transmitted live to journalists in Paris yesterday. [...]

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“After decades of considering Pakistan their principal enemy, Indian defence officials are beginning to see China as a more serious long-term threat, and they don’t want to be caught unprepared again. Washington is embracing India as a rising power that can be a valuable ally to stand with this country, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and [...]

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Dmitry Medvedev may be the new president, but his predecessor is still the one with power.
We can expect a few proclamations and perhaps even token policy changes. Unfortunately, the early signs show that Medvedev’s statement about developing civil freedoms and ending “legal nihilism” were only a show for the West. Such displays are needed to [...]

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But for the past few years democracy has been in global retreat. Notwithstanding a small occasional triumph here and there, in Latin America, Africa and in Eastern Europe, the tide has been turned.
The most significant defeat of all has been in China, where the success of limited capitalism has not been matched by political [...]

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Mexico today is filled with foreboding that very bad things could happen in pursuit of something very good - progress.
Our neighbor to the south began this century casting off the manacles of single-party rule. A new plural democracy elected Vicente Fox as president and hoped he would steer the country to a more prosperous future.
It [...]

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The West stands by idly as its foundations are rent asunder.Last Friday the UN’s Human Rights Council took a direct swipe at freedom of expression. In a 32-0 vote, the council instructed its “expert on freedom of expression” to report to the council on all instances in which individuals “abuse” their freedom of speech by [...]

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Look into the eyes of Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and what you see is a K.G.B.-trained mind that apparently cannot tolerate leaving any detail of an election to chance.
What else could explain the latest ugly twist in Russia’s rigged presidential election: the forced withdrawal of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov for allegedly invalid [...]

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White House emissaries will soon be entrusted with a special job to make the governments of foreign countries accountable to the USA in terms of democracy standards propagandized by the USA. This is the essence of the new strategic foreign policy plan of the US administration. The US Embassy in Moscow has already started making [...]

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In the years since the Cold War, the Russian Federation has been caught in a perpetual gray area, mired in a lengthy and ongoing transition between old and new: authoritarian political structures and democratic institutions, a centrally planned economy and a market system, imperial superpower status and ordinary statehood. Under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, [...]

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