Whenever I write about the recent improvements in Russian demography, someone will inevitably respond by saying that these changes are ultimately meaningless because they are small in scale, temporary in nature, and were easily foreseen by experts in the field. If this is true, if demographers really did uniformly predict that Russia would experience a […]
Материалы: October, 2013
Missiles for milk: how Russia offered NZ military hardware to settle dairy bill
31/10/2013Former PM Jim Bolger ‘absolutely stunned’ to be offered a nuclear sub and two MiGs in lieu of money, new book reveals. Russia made the unusual offer of two MiG fighters in 1993, when it was struggling to pay its debts after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Photograph: AAP/MiG Jet Adventures. How do you […]
Опубликовано в Articles, Articles, Articles, New Zealand, Policy, Russia, The South Pacific 
Комментариев нет »China: Superpower or Superbust?
31/10/2013AS IF a global financial-market meltdown, the deepest U.S. recession in seventy years, an existential crisis in the euro zone and upheaval in the Middle East hadn’t already created enough trouble for one decade, now the unrest and anxiety have extended to some of the world’s most attractive emerging markets. Just in the past few […]
Japan’s sexual apathy is endangering the global economy
31/10/2013By Max Fisher People in Japan are so averse to romantic relationships that the country’s media even has a name for it: sekkusu shinai shokogun, or “celibacy syndrome,” according to a widely circulated Guardian story on the country’s low rates of marriage, childbearing and even sex. But this is more than a story about Japan […]
Yes, Putin’s a brute, but it’s Greenpeace who are the bigger menace to our future
15/10/2013By Dominic Lawson Greenpeace, the world’s biggest and most battle-hardened environmental campaigning organisation, is in a state of shock. Last week, Russian investigators said that they had found ‘narcotic substances’ on board Arctic Sunrise, the Greenpeace vessel they seized after its crew had used it in an attempt to storm an oil rig of the […]
Why Russia Is ‘China In Reverse’
15/10/2013In the fun-house mirror of the global economy, Russia is the mirror opposite of China. China consumers are the driving force behind the market. Russian consumers are hobbling along and maybe stuck in a middle income trap. China needs less investment. Russia needs more. China used to be all about infrastructure investment: new roads, new […]
Is The Russian Federation Imploding?
14/10/2013My Forbes colleague Ilan Berman has written what sounds like an extremely provocative book about Russia’s “implosion” and what the “end” of the country means for the United States. Here’s how the book’s Amazon blurb describes its thesis: Today, Putin’s Russia is fast approaching a social and political crisis—one that promises to be every bit […]
Russia Waking Up to Shale Realities
14/10/2013(“The American Interest”, США) Russia has long relied on its enormous oil and gas reserves to not only heat and power its homes, but also to fund its government. But as blessed by resources as it has been, it has also displayed an impressive ability to stay behind the curve of an energy landscape that […]
History Wars: A Long View of Asia’s Territorial Disputes
6/10/2013The Diplomat takes a look at the long and complex background to some of the region’s most intractable disputes. Next month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will deliver its verdict in the case of Cambodia and Thailand’s territorial dispute over the Preah Vihear temple. For several months, the court has been poring over a […]
With Russia in Middle East, China Claims Central Asia
6/10/2013Moscow’s diplomatic push in the Middle East will fail, even as it loses influence in more vital regions. Russia’s Middle East policy is all the rage these days. An article in the Washington Post on Tuesday notes what we at The Diplomat have long been discussing: Moscow’s diplomatic offensive in the Middle East region. The […]