Tag: China

China Can Help in Pakistan

Nick Ottens

Finally, the United States seems to have found a role for China to play in resolving the war in Afghanistan. As Washington now openly admits, stability in Pakistan is as crucial to winning the fight against extremism across the border as the war effort itself. Throughout the past several years, American military aid has been flowing into Pakistan with, it seems, limited result. Government buildings and local army headquarters are targets of attack every so many weeks still. Unmanned bombing against suspected Taliban hideouts has only helped to aggravate resentment against the American involvement in Pakistan; an involvement that the Pakistani government, also, has begun to question.

The Pakistanis are understandably cautious. They feel that the Americans once left the region to its own devices — which in fact brought about the whole problem of the Taliban — and won’t hesitate to do so again. That fear is not entirely without foundation. Should the surge fail to do for Afghanistan what it did for Iraq, it is not unthinkable that NATO, perhaps including the United States, will abandon the war. Moreover, Pakistan is suspicious of Washington’s increasingly close ties with India: a good thing for Washington but not so good for Islamabad that just recently accused India once again of sponsoring terrorism against it. Read more “China Can Help in Pakistan”

The Asian Naval Race

Johan Wahlström

Last week, the Japanese Ministry of Defense announced they would construct a new class of helicopter destroyer — a typical Japanese military euphemism — as a part of the continuing modernization of Japans military capabilities. Complementing the already spacious Hyuga class, this new class will not only hold helicopters for anti-submarine duties but also be capable of refueling naval squadrons at sea and supporting amphibious operations.

The existence of ships that in everything but the name constitute light carriers is somewhat controversial, especially since the postwar Japanese constitution expressible forbids the country from possessing “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential.”

Yet this article has been traditionally circumvented by the formation of the Japanese Self Defense Force, which, despite its deliberately non-threatening dogma, possessed the world’s seventh largest military budget in 2008. And while Japan is still somewhat bereft of offensive military capabilities, the latest decade has seen its forces partake in numerous expeditions abroad, from participation in the early stages of the occupation of Iraq to chasing pirates off the Somali coast. Read more “The Asian Naval Race”

Be Nice to China

Nick Ottens

In The Washington Post, Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal describe the Obama Administration’s new approach toward China as “accommodating”. What this entails precisely, no one knows, but what we do know is that the White House likes to call its policy “strategic reassurance,” or: convincing the Chinese that they’re really not out to bomb Bejing any time soon. It’s about time.

Up until now, Washington still seemed to consider China a future rival more than anything. The previous administration did very little to change that view. Quite to the contrary, it launched a partnership with Australia, India and Japan to counterbalance China’s growing naval potential; a potential that is greatly overestimated anyway. Moreover, China is virtually ignored when it comes to Afghanistan although it has shown itself able and willing to contribute to the economic reconstruction of the country.

In a speech this summer before the Council on Foreign Relations, American secretary of state Hillary Clinton finally appeared to put some distance between the Sinophobia of the previous years and her own approach. She wants to encourage all rising powers to become “full partners” in her multilateral world while acknowleding China’s economic significance to the United States. Read more “Be Nice to China”