A new study assesses both commercial and potential military implications
Keidel forecasts that China’s economy will double by midcentury, fueled by domestic demand, not exports. Potential stumbling blocks to sustained Chinese growth—export concerns, domestic economic instability, inequality and poverty, pollution, social unrest, or even corruption and slow political reform—are unlikely to undermine China’s long-term success, according [...]

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Israel has just carried out a major aerial exercise, putting a hundred or so F-15s and F-16s into the skies over the eastern Mediterranean, evidently a rehearsal for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The move follows the statement earlier this month by Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s deputy prime minister, that an Israeli attack on Iran’s [...]

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Military and political experts both in Russia and Central Asia say the timing of Russia’s ratification of the bilateral agreement with Tajikistan and its plans to reinforce the Kant air base are not coincidental, and show Moscow’s seriousness about fortifying its influence in Central Asia.
Vladimir Mukhin, a Moscow-based journalist and expert on military affairs, says [...]

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Officials confirmed the JL-2 after it was first reported last week in two Japanese newspapers that quoted Japanese military sources.
“While the U.S. government provides insufficient informational warning about the JL-2’s capabilities, Asian sources have long commented it may eventually carry three to four warheads or a number of decoys,” said Richard Fisher, a military affairs [...]

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