Special to WorldTribune.com by Dr. Jack Caravelli, Geostrategy-Direct Last year’s mass influx of refugees from Syria and Iraq triggered a series of security, social and political troubles throughout Europe, reaching as far as Sweden. But while the refugee numbers have been reduced, major nations such as Germany and Italy face new problems. In Germany, Chancellor […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Parris H. Chang In recent months, both chambers of the U.S. Congress have passed the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and the “six assurances” as cornerstones of U.S.-Taiwan Relations. The six assurances, which were given to Taiwan by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan in July 1982, include U.S. pledges not to set a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler PARIS — Imagine for a moment arriving at Sunday morning religious service only to see the doors of the church guarded by camouflage-clad soldiers with automatic weapons. Well, this was the stark reality when we arrived at our neighborhood church, a structure dating from the 15th century, but […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a major legal setback for Beijing, an international tribunal has rejected and rebuffed many of Mainland China’s claims regarding exclusive sovereignty and rights in the disputed South China Sea. The landmark ruling in the Hague, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration stated there was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Parris H. Chang Foreign policy is an integrated structure of assumptions, objectives and means. Critics of American foreign policy contend that the decisive factor of the failure of U.S. policy toward China has been the imbalance between political ends and military means. Professor Tang Tsou’s classical study “America’s Failure in China […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders The U.S.’ confrontation with an increasingly powerful and incipiently aggressive China is getting much more complicated. There is no question of its high priority among the U.S.’ foreign policy issues. But were you a Chinese strategist attempting to measure an American opponent’s intentions, the contradictory U.S. positions might […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Satellite images show China has deployed the advanced HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system to a disputed island in the South China Sea. Taiwanese and U.S. officials confirmed that batteries of the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile launchers were set up on Woody Island in the Paracels chain, according to a report by Reuters. China, Taiwan […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders Largely ignored by the mainstream media, the Jan. 15 Taiwan elections have enormous implications not only for the Island’s 25 million people, but for China – and the U.S. Ironically, the election of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] leader, Tsai Ing-wen, a woman at that — reinstalled a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com The landslide victory for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the pro-China Kuomintang, (Nationalist Party) in the Jan. 16 elections was driven by the nation’s youthful “strawberry generation.” It was a particularly satisfying victory for Taiwan’s youth movement, who had been written off by their elders as soft, self-satisfied and apathetic – […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — It’s time to consult the crystal snow globe for a look at both the likely and unexpected events which will shape the New Year. Serious strife both in the Middle East, and Africa to a lesser extent, have expanded leading to a culture of conflict […]