Tag - cold

 
 

COLD

The flags of the U.S. and China sit in a room where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China's Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, in Beijing on April 26.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2024
The challenges posed by China exceed those of the Cold War, U.S. says
Analysts and members of the U.S. Congress have said escalating global competition between China and the U.S. resemble a different but new style of cold war.
A display details the history of the gulag in Moscow in 2022. The gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labor camps, a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union, reaching its peak during Josef Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 16, 2024
'Slave to fear': Ghosts of the gulag haunt modern Russia
When Russians started being arrested for opposing the Ukraine offensive, many felt the same kind of fear that victims of the Soviet gulags lived through.
While there are similarities between the geopolitical competition involving the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, such as global rivalry and ideological divisions, key differences suggest the situation with China does not constitute a new Cold War.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2024
A new ‘Cold War’ with China might be the best hope for the future
The current situation is often described as "a new great game," a world in which our time and challenges result from the stirring of old empires.
Ukrainian military Leopard 2A4 tanks during a training exercise in Spain.
WORLD
Jul 20, 2024
How a Berlin Cold War outpost offers a window on challenges today
With the West again aligned against Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine grinds on, it now seems strangely current.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, view international order as hinging on the concept of indivisible security.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2024
Russia and China want security for themselves and no one else
Putin and Xi seek indivisible security, that is, exercising draconian control over their respective spheres of influence — which shows the extent of their hypocrisy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet in Beijing on May 16.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2024
The fragile fraternity of China and Russia
Putin’s Mao-like bid for a full-fledged military alliance with China, including commitments to mutual defense, also seems to have failed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right), Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen in Sochi, Russia, on May 15, 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 10, 2024
Spy's arrest puts Cold War spotlight back on Vienna
Vienna being considered a spy haven has come under harsh scrutiny following accusations an Austrian intelligence agent spied for Russia.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November 2018.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 7, 2023
If Kissinger was serving as the U.S. secretary of state
There was no other U.S. diplomat whose reputation in Japan and China was as polar opposite as that of Henry Kissinger.
Harvard historian Calder Walton says U.S. leaders have ignored China’s massive, multifront intelligence push.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2023
The vulnerability of open societies to foreign espionage
Are Western nations, with their open societies, making the same mistake with China as they did with the Soviet Union?
While the Korean War armistice analogy is imperfect, it may provide the best available lesson for ending the war in Ukraine.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2023
Ukraine’s future isn’t German or Israeli but Korean
The Ukraine crisis needs a resolution, even if it means accepting an armistice that doesn't provide a clear victory for any party involved.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 16, 2023
China’s spying in Cuba picks up where the Soviet Union left off
Beijing’s reported efforts at surveillance from Cuba are reminiscent of Lourdes, a Soviet-built listening post just south of Havana.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 6, 2023
Robert Hanssen, FBI agent exposed as spy for Moscow, dies at 79
Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison in 2002, bringing to a close one of the most lurid and damaging espionage cases in American history.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2022
The new geopolitics demands a new vocabulary
Terms such as 'the West' and 'the East' are lazy, awkward and inaccurate geopolitical signifiers in the Post-Cold War era.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2022
From Cuban missiles to Putin’s Ukraine nuclear crisis
Unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis had the wisdom not to start an apocalyptic war simply to save face.
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 27, 2022
Russian nuclear rhetoric rekindles German Cold War fears
With the Ukraine border less than a nine-hour drive from Berlin, war feels uncomfortably close for many, though there is no imminent threat on domestic soil.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2022
An eye for an eye doesn’t work in disinformation war
In the struggle to win the ideological narrative wars, democracies are tempted to resort to disinformation to match the fabrications of their more autocratic enemies. It's a bad idea.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2022
The greatest democrat Russia ever had
After the Soviet Union's collapse, Gorbachev's belief in peace and democracy remained unwavering. He wanted the USSR to continue, but only as a reformed and democratized federation.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 31, 2022
Much like his legacy, reaction to Gorbachev’s death is sharply divided
The former Russian leader was revered by some for bringing down the curtain on the brutal, oppressive Soviet system, but reviled by others for the very same thing.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Aug 31, 2022
Mikhail Gorbachev, reformist Soviet leader, dies at 91
Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, he weighed the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and set a new course, presiding over the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2022
How can America come out the victor in a new ‘cold war’?
If the U.S. is to win the new cold war, it will also need to protect its own democracy from the Republican Party.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?