Asia

China–Russia Economic Ties: Strengthening but Strained

Sino-Russian relations have been improving in many dimensions, including in economic terms. In the last few years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become the Russian Federation’s largest trading partner, while Russia has become a main source of China’s imported oil and has attracted more Chinese investment. The PRC has also been acquiring advanced weapons from Russian arms exporters, filling critical gaps in Chinese military power. Overall, Russia’s foreign economic ties have rebalanced away from Europe and towards China in recent years.

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Armenia: Doomed to be a Never-ending Issue?

Hille Hanso interviews Professor Hakan Özoğlu, Ph.D, Professor of History and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Central Florida. His research interests include the power struggle in the modern Republic of Turkey after WWI, US involvement in the Middle East through Turkey since the Great War, and Kurdish Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.

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A Voyage through Turkish Kurdistan

The visit of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, to Estonia on 24 October passed by with relatively modest media coverage. At the moment, both countries have probably other issues on their minds, but there is nevertheless some overlapping: for example, Russian destroyers are minding their own business on both the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and it is a known fact that the militants fighting under the black flag for an expanding “Islamic State” have come from Europe, a hundred or so even from Denmark where, according to latest news, some sort of rehabilitation project is underway to help aspiring Islamic soldiers return to normal life.

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Islamic extremists have created a successful narrative…

… because we are helping to tell it. While looking for a narrative for Estonia is something philosophical, and everybody has a different vision of it, the radical and violent Islamic extremist group lately known as ISIL or ISIS went all out and cunningly started to call itself the Islamic State in various media channels. In media terms, “the Islamic State” is more quotable and substantially more memorable, and found widespread use immediately.

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Maoist Hat-Tricks in Asia

The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist!
Charles Pierre Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris, 1869
I have been saying for the last three years that Naxalism remains the biggest internal security challenge facing our country.
Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister 2004–2014, in May 2010

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