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Richard Halloran
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2006
Navies that drill together cut the slang
HONOLULU -- The United States, particularly the Bush Administration, has often been accused by politicians, academics and assorted critics in other nations, including several in Asia, of acting unilaterally, a fancy word for going it alone.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2006
Time for a new approach to Pyongyang?
HONOLULU -- Ever since the North Korean fireworks display of missile launches on July 4, the world has watched the spectacle of political leaders and diplomats of America, China, Japan and South Korea scurrying for a response to Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong Il.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2006
China showing less angst over Taiwan
HONOLULU -- In the seas around the U.S. island territory of Guam in the Central Pacific, a delegation of 10 Chinese army, navy and air force officers watched three American aircraft carriers and other armed forces go through strenuous training paces last week.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2006
Assessing Guam's new military value
HONOLULU -- The U.S. Air Force is surging ahead with plans to revitalize its bases on Guam from which to project power into the skies over the western Pacific and the islands and continent of Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2006
Taiwan's KMT sees stability in status quo
HONOLULU -- Chairman Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan's Nationalist Party, better known as the Kuomintang (KMT) did a marathon swing through the United States in March to deliver several pertinent messages:
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2006
PLA officers get a whiff of the right stuff
HONOLULU -- The U.S. Pacific Command and the People's Liberation Army of China have quietly begun an exchange of military officers that is intended to reduce the chances of a miscalculation leading to hostilities between the established power in the Pacific and the rising power of East Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2006
U.S. Navy puts maritime pirates on notice
HONOLULU -- In ordering a U.S. Navy destroyer to capture and board a suspected pirate ship on the high seas in the Indian Ocean, the United States has fired a warning shot across the bow of would-be terrorists who might lash up with pirates in the Asia-Pacific region.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2006
Cross-eyed over abuses by North Korea
HONOLULU -- Among the policy differences dividing the United States and South Korea, one that stands out is divergence over the issue of North Korea's abuses of the human rights of its own citizens.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2005
Muslims condemn terror
HONOLULU -- A conference in Mecca of Islamic leaders representing Muslims in a wide swath from Morocco through the Middle East and South Asia to the southern Philippines has issued a rare but resounding denunciation of terror, saying that violence must be condemned "in all its forms and manifestations."...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2005
Strategic changes for Japan-U.S. alliance
HONOLULU -- Much of the American and Japanese news coverage of the new security agreement between Washington and Tokyo has focused on its political aspects but overlooked the far-reaching strategic changes it has projected for the revitalized alliance.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2005
The politics of assigning a nuclear carrier to Japan
HONOLULU -- The easy part of newly assigning a U.S. aircraft carrier to Japan, which was to persuade the Japanese to accept a nuclear-powered vessel, has been accomplished. Now comes the hard part: deciding which one of 10 carriers should be based in the port of Yokosuka.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2005
America overhauls its Asia-Pacific force
HONOLULU -- Amid plans for a sweeping realignment of United States military services in Asia and the Pacific, the U.S. Army in the Pacific has begun extensive changes intended to turn it into the most flexible expeditionary force that it has been since the end of the war in Vietnam 30 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2005
Finessing a tougher Taiwanese defense
HONOLULU -- The new commander of American forces in Asia and the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, has begun making subtle but distinctive changes in his command's endeavor to keep the peace between Taiwan and China, widely considered to be potentially the most explosive conflict in Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2005
Junichiro Koizumi's great leap forward
HONOLULU -- The stunning electoral victory engineered by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan last week ought to make leaders in Washington, Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul, and at the United Nations sit up and take note because it marks a great leap forward in Japan's emergence from the passive and pacifist...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2005
Again, a war that affects few Americans
HONOLULU -- In the four years since the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, at least two distinct changes in the realm of security have taken place: One seems to have escaped notice; the other is all too evident.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2005
Drills put U.S. Navy on notice
HONOLULU -- Soon after Adm. Gary Roughhead took the helm as the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Chinese and Russian armed forces gave him something to think about.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2005
Taiwan skimping on defense readiness
HONOLULU -- The political leaders of Taiwan, both government and opposition, are in serious danger of misreading or ignoring the increasingly stiff warning signals coming from Washington.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2005
Viewing the United States from an Asian perspective
HONOLULU -- During a gathering of Asians and Americans in Honolulu, the Asians seemed ambivalent about the role of the United States in their region. As one put it, "We want the Americans to be on tap but not on top."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2005
Deciphering China's military intentions
HONOLULU -- Surely the most pressing security question confronting the United States in Asia and the nations of Asia themselves is: "Will China become a serious military threat in the western Pacific?"
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2005
A fresh democracy or Maoist disaster?
HONOLULU -- For 10 years, the remote Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has been slipping nearer and nearer to the edge of collapse; the tipping point is now close at hand.

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