Apologies for the relative silence as of late, but here are a few comments to whet your appetite:
Isn’t the obvious conclusion from the Obama/Scott Brown/health care debacle that the American political system is hopelessly dysfunctional? We’re faced with the odd situation that a president elected in a near-landslide from a party with large majorities in [...]
I’ve spent part of this morning listening to a podcast lecture organized by Folger on the subject of foreign impressions of China. The three panelists are Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Beijing and a former actress in the Chinese soap opera of the same name, Orville Schell, the distinguished China scholar and author [...]
Some months ago a young writer named Thomas Talhelm single-handedly blamed Peter Hessler, the author of River Town, for ruining his China experience. Any time Talhelm felt like recording an observation, he realized that Hessler had written about it already; only better. Truly, he wondered, is there anything new left to say about China?
Hessler himself [...]
President Obama has appointed Jon Huntsman, governor of Utah, as ambassador to China. This is interesting on several fronts, to wit:
1. Never in my memory has a governor, particularly one with a national reputation as has Huntsman, left the office for a diplomatic posting. Particularly for a president from the opposition party.
2. Huntsman earned [...]
I didn’t watch the debate (I might later if I can find a spare hour and a half and a decent feed) but have read enough reactions, spin, and prognostications to give me an impression of what happened. After all, in American politics, substance typically means very little during election season.
IR blogger Dan Drezner watched [...]
John McCain’s victory in the Florida primary makes his eventual nomination likely, which is bad news for this Democrat. McCain is clearly the most electable Republican left in the race, and coupled with a Democratic nomination of Hillary Clinton, the Arizona Senator would give the Elephant Team a fair to good shot at retaining the [...]
On the drive back from Los Angeles, somewhere along the 101 freeway between Santa Barbara and Pismo Beach, I was pulled over by a police officer for the first time in years. Like everyone else, I had slowed down when I caught sight of the cop in the lane next to me. I drove next [...]
While Burma’s* recent uprising is a purely internal affair sparked by rising fuel prices, some Asia observers have begun wondering if, or when, China will involve itself in the affairs of its neighbor. Should Beijing decide to intervene, we might see the first chinks in what has been China’s successful international relations philosophy.
In the past [...]