Think-Tanks'Press

The Chinese have long been obsessed with strategic culture, power balances and geopolitical shifts. Academic institutions, think-tanks, journals and web-based debates are growing in number and quality, giving China’s foreign policy breadth and depth.

At the root of the Party’s current approach is a recognition that think tanks – or state intellectuals – perform a dual function in China.

Most vendors appeared to be operating from the United States (890), followed by the United Kingdom (338), and Germany (225).

Revenues to vendors reporting to operate from the Netherlands on cryptomarkets accounted for 8 per cent of total drug revenues. On a per capita basis, revenues to vendors operating from the Netherlands were 2.4 times higher than those from the United Kingdom and 4.5 higher than those from the United States.

The Western distaste for IS brutality and immorality should not obfuscate strategic clarity. IS are truly bad guys, but few of their opponents are much better. Allowing bad guys to kill bad guys sounds very cynical, but it is useful and even moral to do so if it keeps the bad guys busy and less able to harm the good guys. The Hobbesian reality of the Middle East does not always present a neat moral choice.

The American administration does not appear capable of recognizing the fact that IS can be a useful tool in undermining Tehran’s ambitious plan for domination of the Middle East.

Some Brussels officials and member states are opposed to any talks, fearing they would legitimise Russia’s policies toward its neighbours and cut across bilateral relations between the EU and Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus – all of which have experienced new momentum in the past year and a half.

Others argue that EU engagement with the EEU is a possible channel for a breakthrough in relations with Russia, or at least that it could help build bridges, or even take pressure off countries in the Eastern neighbourhood and Central Asia, some of whom have complained about being trapped between Moscow and Brussels.

The AU’s continental early warning system needs greater coordination with the mechanisms of sub-regional bodies.

There is an urgent need to create institutionalised mechanisms for effective coordination between the AU’s Peace and Security Council and the organs of the RECs.

The AU should develop a Diaspora strategy that looks beyond remittances to harness the expertise of the Diaspora to address the skills gap in Africa, especially in the area of science and technology.

Beijing has finished building a second ship (CCG-3901) – the world’s largest – for the China Coast Guard (CCG).

These “monster ships” manifest China’s maritime territorial claims through their size alone: they are bigger even than US guided missile destroyers of the Arleigh-Burke class (such as the USS Lassen).

The new ship is intended to assert China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea.

China’s naval modernization means that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) can potentially enforce the territorial claims and deter other countries from resisting.