As China gears up to cash in its credibility tokens, accumulated as a result of its unexpectedly efficient handling of the global financial crisis, it’s more eager than ever to educate the world about itself on its own terms. Through its vast and disciplined state-controlled media machine China is engaging in a massive public relations [...]

A dogmatic society ruled by organized criminals and an antidemocratic populist leader… Sounds like some post-Soviet state? Well actually, I mean Italy. I don’t understand why the country continues to enjoy such a privileged place in the EU, the G-8, and among the Western elite generally. Italy shows a serious democratic deficit and presents some [...]

What constitutes a failed state? This week, we will examine that question and more as part of our weekly theme: We talk to ISN Security Watch correspondent in Mogdishu Abdurrahman Warsemeh about Somalia, the country that is seen by some as the epitome of a failed state, in the latest edition of ISN Podcasts. In [...]

Taro Aso apologizes to party fellows, 21 July 2009 Today, I, Taro Aso, decided to dissolve the House of Representatives and seek a popular mandate.  [I]mprovident statements I have made caused mistrust among the public and damaged its confidence in politics. [...] This is also with regard to the disunity within the Liberal Democratic Party [...]

Imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, but flattery currently is not an attribute of the Netanyahu-Obama relationship. Do you remember last winter, when Netanyahu imitated Obama’s campaign strategy? The imitation did not end with the Netanyahu campaign’s copying of the color and design of Obama’s website. The same way the Obama campaign linked [...]