Going rogue in combat boots By William J Astore The wars in distant lands were always going to come home, but not this way. It’s September 2016, year 15 of America’s “Long War” against terror. As weary troops return to the homeland, a bitter reality assails them: despite their sacrifices, America is losing. Iraq is increasingly hostile to remaining occupation forces. Afghanistan is a riddle that remains unsolved: its army and police forces are untrustworthy, its government corrupt, and its tribal leaders unsympathetic to the vagaries of US intervention. Since the Obama surge of 2010, a trillion more dollars have … Continue reading

By Kent Ewing HONG KONG – It is one of the great ironies of China’s rise on the international stage: a nation that reveres Confucius and the devotion to truth and learning symbolized by the great sage has become one of the world’s leading perpetrators of academic fraud. Cheating among Chinese scholars has reached such epidemic proportions that at least one leading academic journal will no longer consider their submissions. This month, a prominent British medical journal, The Lancet, urged the Chinese government to take action against rampant cheating in scientific research. But that call is likely to go unheeded … Continue reading Betraying Confucius: Academic fraud in China

By Dmitry Shlapentokh While most Russian observers regard Muslim militants from the North Caucasus as the major source of terrorism, a new threat is emerging: Russian extremist nationalists, who are carrying out an increasing number of attacks. The most recent was the November 27, 2009, Nevsky express bombing that killed 20 people and injured 100. Russian nationalists claimed responsibility, although subsequently Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov’s Islamists said it was their work. Still, the predominant role of Muslim extremists in terrorist activities does not diminish the potential danger of Russian extremists, especially if they begin to cooperate with Islamists. Indeed, … Continue reading Unlikely alliance of Russian Nazis and Jihadists in Russia developing?

By Qaribur Rahman Saeed The upcoming London Conference on Afghanistan must seize the opportunity to bring warring sides together instead of escalating the presence of international troops. Negotiating channels are open and could produce a lasting peace for the beleaguered nation. Representatives of the 43 nations in the International Security Assistance Force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Afghanistan meet on January 28 against the backdrop of 2009 being the deadliest year for civilians and military personnel since international forces ousted the Taliban from power in 2001. The 2,412 civilian deaths recorded last year were 14% higher than in … Continue reading Afghanistan’s talking cure

By Christopher Johnson TOKYO – Japanese officials watching the demise this week of Japan’s flagship carrier, JAL, are looking to turn the hard lessons learned from the airline’s collapse into a new tourist boom for the country, backed by arrivals from old enemies, Russia and China. JAL, brought down by poor scheduling, a shortage of overseas passengers and mountains of debt, this week entered bankruptcy after years of surviving on government loans. The new government, led since last August by the Democratic Party of Japan after the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party lost a general election, now aims to open up … Continue reading JAL dies, tourism drive stirs to life

By Abubakar Siddique Kabul has cautiously returned to its everyday hustle and bustle, a day after a Taliban attack that rocked the city center and brought the harsh realities of war perilously close to the presidential palace and key ministry buildings. But the brazen attack on January 18, in which just seven Taliban militants managed to detonate suicide bombs that destroyed a shopping center and wage a lengthy gun battle with Afghan forces, has raised serious questions about the state of security even in areas thought to be relatively secure. Jamal Nasir described the concerns of his fellow Kabul residents … Continue reading McChrystal’s plan takes a Taliban hit

By Beaumont Smith VIENTIANE – It is easy to be seduced by the peaceful rural scenes, punctuated by rice fields, vegetable patches and reed-filled wetlands. But behind the natural tapestry, tension and anger are brimming over in the local communities near the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge outside of the Lao capital. The communal complaint: their long self-sustaining community will on government orders soon be converted into an 18-hole golf course, luxury hotel and top-end residential developments, and the compensation on offer to relocate is well below going market land prices. The Vietnam-owned Long Thanh Golf Trading and Investment Joint Stock Company, … Continue reading Golf and the great Lao land grab