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In testimony presented before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, David Shlapak discusses how China’s past twenty years of military modernization is tilting the balance of power with Taiwan increasingly in Beijing’s favor, and how this might affect the U.S.
By rand.org

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The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing conflict in that country fostered the rise of Iranian power in the region, but with more limitations than is commonly acknowledged. It also diminished local confidence in U.S. credibility and created opportunities for China and Russia.
By rand.org

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Venezuela has received its first shipment of six Chinese-made K-8 trainer planes. The K-8s will be used to train Venezuelan pilots, as well as intercepting drug traffickers who use Venezuela as a stop-off point to take Colombian cocaine to the US.

President Hugo Chavez attended the plane-delivery ceremony, which was held at an air base in the city of Barquisimeto. He thanked China for delivering the advanced planes, saying the country will receive 12 more such planes later this year.

Chavez said Venezuela will use them to train pilots and defend the country from external or internal threats. Venezuela has been under a US arms embargo since 2006. It relies mainly on Russia for the import of weapons and other military hardware.

http://english.cctv.com/program/worldwidewatch/20100314/100937.shtml

By polaris

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When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, those raised in the shadow of possible nuclear holocaust felt disbelief, followed by relief and hope that the end of the Cold War would bring lasting peace, and the end of conflict. And in Europe, at least, it mostly did – but not everywhere, writes Christopher S. Chivvis.
By rand.org

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China’s challenge in defining the security role it will play in the region and the world in the coming years is to harmonize its own view of its security intentions with that of the outside world, writes Michael Lostumbo.
By rand.org

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The increasing importance of the G-20 summits is testimony to the growing role emerging states now play in managing the international economy. But integrating these newcomers into the global community is unlikely to be straightforward or simple, writes Lowell H. Schwartz.
By rand.org

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The damage done by the financial crisis now seems to require not a refurbishing job but an extreme makeover. While soul-searching and even self-loathing are inevitable during a crisis, this is no time for America to shy away from a capitalist system that has produced decades of economic growth, writes Krishna Kumar.
By rand.org

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China is a global actor of significant and growing importance, now integrated into the international system and altering that system’s dynamics. The complexity of China’s ever-changing global activism raises questions about its intentions and the implications for global stability and prosperity.
By rand.org

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While relations between China and Taiwan are warmer now than in recent years, China still feels entitled to use force to prevent Taiwan from becoming independent. Meanwhile, the modernizing of China’s military may call into question the U.S.’ ability to defend Taiwan against a large-scale Chinese attack.
By rand.org

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Will the current global economic recession have long-term geopolitical implications? Assuming that economic recovery begins in the first half of 2010, lasting structural alterations in the international system — a substantial change in U.S.-China relations, for example — are unlikely. This is because economic performance is only one of many geopolitical elements that shape countries’ strategic intent and core external policies.
By rand.org

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In testimony presented before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Cortez A. Cooper ties China’s re-emergence as a naval power to its expanding economic and security interests.
By rand.org

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North Korea spent weeks preparing to launch a ballistic missile that could reach the United States. It argued that the launch was intended to put a satellite into orbit. But a space launch vehicle is a ballistic missile used for a modestly different purpose, writes Bruce W. Bennett.
By rand.org

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As recent events off the Horn of Africa have demonstrated, armed violence at sea is emerging as a growing threat…. Piracy threatens the freedom of the seas, increases the cost of international business, endangers political security through corruption, and could trigger a major environmental disaster, write Peter Chalk and Laurence Smallman.
By rand.org

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Celestial real estate is increasingly popular. All in all more than 900 satellites, along with tens of thousands of bits of man-made space detritus, jockey for elbow room overhead. The result: a growing threat our atmosphere will soon become so crowded with floating junk as to become almost unusable, write Caroline Reilly and Peter D. Zimmerman.
By rand.org

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Organized crime increasingly is involved in the piracy of feature films, with syndicates active along the entire supply chain from manufacture to street sales. While crime syndicates have added piracy to their criminal portfolios, the profits from film piracy also have been used on occasion to support the activities of terrorist groups.
By rand.org

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The story of how President Obama engineered a grass-roots campaign, mobilizing formerly disengaged U.S. citizens with new media and new technologies, has reached almost mythological proportions. Less well known is the story of similar grass-roots efforts emerging in local communities around the world, write Cherl Benard and Edward O’Connell.
By rand.org

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China’s Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) and Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) can best spur regional development and economic growth by focusing on emerging high-technology applications, including molecular-scale drug development and green manufacturing.
By rand.org

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The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction ranks as one of the biggest challenges facing the Obama administration. Luckily, Mr. Obama has a tool to combat this threat, in the form of the Proliferation Security Initiative…. The trick now will be to convince key Asian countries to participate, writes Charles Wolf Jr.
By rand.org

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Beijing (AFP) March 10, 2010 – China has selected its first two women astronauts to serve on a team that will undertake future missions launched by the nation’s burgeoning space programme, state media reported Wednesday.
By spacedaily.com

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Beijing, China (XNA) Mar 11, 2010 –
China plans to launch its third unmanned probe to the moon, Chang’e-3, around 2013 and expects to complete the three-phase moon mission in 2017, an official said here Wednesday.
By spacedaily.com