Common Sense
China
Number 45: Irreparable Damage?
We’ve just passed the 180 day mark[1] of Donald Trump as President of the United States, though it may seem hard to believe that we’ve already suffered through 6 months of madness, Mooch and mayhem. Looked at another way, Mr. Trump is one-eighth through his mandate and almost a third of the way to the […]
Trump Kills the Trans-Pacific Pact and Why That is a Good Thing
One of the first Executive Orders signed by President Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. Better known as simply “TPP” this mega-trade deal was a signature effort by President Obama to craft a free trade area around the Pacific that would exclude China, allow America and her partners to “set the […]
America’s Defense: Time for Raptor 5.5
Donald Trump’s tweets have a way of ruffling billion-dollar feathers, as when he complained about non-existent cost overruns in Boeing’s recent contract to build a new Air Force One. Boeing’s stock promptly dropped by 1%, which may not sound like much, but is equivalent to almost one billion dollars in market cap. Mr. Trump has […]
Trump’s Taiwan Policy: Bumbling Towards War?
Donald Trump is not yet President, but he has already brought the United States substantially closer to war with China. The President Elect took a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday, December 2nd and events went from bad to worse almost immediately. When challenged by media and foreign policy experts as […]
From Island Building to Island Hopping: Is China’s South China Sea Strategy Viable?
In a tumultuous world, it takes a lot to make the headlines. Competing with the ongoing debacle in Syria, the refugee crisis splitting Europe apart, the possibility of Brexit and the flamboyant extravaganza of a US election featuring Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is difficult: even issues afflicting important states like Ukraine or Brazil often […]
China’s Two Child Policy: Too Little, Too Late?
On Thursday, the Chinese Communist Party announced that it would abandon the 35-year old One Child Policy[1]. Instituted in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, the policy was a “rational” effort to assist industrialization, modernization and to reduce rural poverty by limiting the number of new peasants being born every […]
The defence of the Falklands must take centre stage in Anglo-Chinese relations by Alex Calvo
Alex Calvo is a guest professor at Nagoya University (Japan) who specializes in defence and security in the Indian-Pacific Ocean Region. His previous work on the connection between East Asia and the South Atlantic includes “Marines, Missiles, and the Iron Lady: The Military Leg in Japan’s Ocean Strategy” and “The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, […]
America’s Defense: Restart F-22 Production
This year, the US Marine Corps will begin to receive and operate its first operational F-35B aircraft. The Air Force and Navy will receive their variants –A and –C in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The F-35 joins the 187 Air Force F-22 Raptors as the only true fifth generation fighters in operational service anywhere in […]
Japan’s Strategic Challenge
You may download and play the PowerPoint slideshow here: japan2 or follow the link to the YouTube video here. Japan is a nation in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of East Asia. The Japanese archipelago consists of 6,852 islands; however, the four main islands comprise 98% of the land area and 99% of the population. […]
Asia’s March of Folly
In 1906 the HMS Dreadnought gently rode the Portsmouth yard slipways into the cold waters of the English Channel. Her launching immediately made every other battleship on Earth obsolete. The brainchild and driving passion of Admiral “Jackie” Fisher, First Lord of the Admiralty, the Dreadnought revolutionized naval architecture so thoroughly that she gave her name […]
Common Sense
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- Number 45: Irreparable Damage? August 4, 2017
- Alien: Covenant – Did Ridley Scott Break His Covenant with Fans? May 30, 2017
- A Path for Le Pen? May 1, 2017
- The Second Amendment: A Duty as Much as a Right April 13, 2017
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