A proposed canal in Nicaragua, built by China, is a tangible signal that the United States can't set the terms of the world economy forever
The New Nicaragua Canal: China Barges In
by Arnie Saiki
Since it first opened in 1914, the Panama Canal has provided the primary shipping conduit linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans through the Americas. And in that time, it has also represented U.S. dominance in the region. Even after the canal passed entirely into Panama's control in 1999, the United States has maintained a strong military presence in the region, establishing its continuity as the region's key economic and political player.
All that is about to change.
Nicaragua and China have come to an agreement allowing the construction of a new inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua, connecting China with the Caribbean and its Atlantic-American trade partners. This won't just increase the flow of goods between China and the Americas. It will also usher China into the region as a major political force—something that is likely to raise alarm in Washington, which will regard any Nicaragua-China alliance as a destabilizing influence in the hemisphere.
China's role in the development of this canal is partly about expanding its global trade. But it's also a way for China to push back against Washington's militarized "Pacific Pivot," as well as the U.S. drive to establish a Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (commonly shortened to Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP) that seeks to contain China's global economic growth.
Rival Alliances
The TPP is a U.S.-led free trade agreement—a partial draft version of which WikiLeaks recently exposed to the public—that is being devised in secret by 12 Pacific Rim governments and 600 of the world's largest corporations. It seeks to define the rules for investment and trade in the 21st century.
Unless China is willing to adopt rules that will rewrite its regulatory and investment laws to conform to the standard of this agreement—for example, by curtailing its state-owned investments and opening its state-owned enterprises to Wall Street investment rules—China will remain outside the TPP.
This is not to say that China needs to submit to this bullying. For example, China has capitalized its own development fund with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) association, and organized its own economic partnership with ASEAN member countries in Southeast Asia (many of which are also involved with TPP negotiations) under the auspices of the Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership (RCEP).
China's FDI strategies have surpassed analysts' expectations, and last year China became the third largest investor country, behind the United States and Japan. According to a recent press release by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China's tremendous investment in many African countries has driven up FDI in Africa, defying the global trend. In Nigeria alone, China's investment rose from $75 million to $1.2 billion between 2004 and 2010. The United States, while still a much larger investor, has been unable to match the growth of China's investment in resource-rich developing countries.
Due to its increased shipping of resources and goods, China has emerged as the new center not only for global manufacturing but for investment as well. To put this in perspective, China's container traffic measures over 5,000 transits a year, with hauls exceeding 10,000 gross tonnage per ship. According to a World Bank Data chart, China's container traffic surpasses that of the United States by a ratio of nearly three to one.
The TPP—with its current 12-nation membership, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam—has a combined GDP of more than $27 trillion, representing over a third of global GDP.
Yet despite its economic power and its military influence throughout the region, the United States has not been able to conclude this agreement. There has been focused criticism nationally and internationally against the TPP, as it is seen as an undemocratic agreement primarily written by corporations for the benefit of corporations. Additionally, for the TPP to conclude, it still needs congressional approval. The push to "fast-track" Obama's Trade Promotion Authority is likely to meet further resistance from lawmakers.
China's success in regional and global trade, meanwhile, has given it the economic and fraternal clout to partner with the other ex-colonial—or ex-socialist—emerging economies to provide an alternative model to the neoliberal TPP. It is therefore no coincidence that none of the BRICS countries participates in the TPP.
What BRICS offers is a new reserve currency that helps stabilize economies in developing markets, thereby providing greater access for development and trade, as well as a less draconian debt structure, compared to Wall Street investments.
Of course these competing systems are not mutually exclusive—after all, China and the United States have a symbiotic and integrated economic relationship with each other. However, the TPP and the BRICS economies are competing over the trade and investment rules for the 21st century—and the neoliberal model no longer gets the last word.
Global South Benefits
The proposed Nicaraguan canal is a tangible symbol of this emerging multipolarity.
The canal would bypass not only the already congested Panama Canal, but also the strong U.S. military presence patrolling the area. The access provided by Nicaragua's canal would be a welcome and long-sought opportunity for Global South economies—especially for regional economic and political trading blocs like the South American Common Market called Mercosur, and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).
As we unpeel the geographical layer of the TPP, we find that the TPP countries form an integrated wall separating the Mercosur and ALBA economies under Brazil's economic influence from the Asia-Pacific economies under China's regional influence—in effect turning the west coast of South America into a barrier between two of the BRICS charter members. A Nicaraguan canal not only provides the maritime access that streamlines the supply chain between China and Brazil, but it also provides new trade advantages to the Global South.
This does not necessarily alienate the United States, but it does have the potential impact of reducing U.S. economic and military hegemony in the region.
In a 2008 hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on "The New Challenge: China in the Western Hemisphere," U.S. representatives expressed concerns that Latin American countries were beginning to turn away from U.S. investment in favor of China. Latin America expert Daniel Erikson testified that "the pace of trade between China and the region has skyrocketed from $10 billion in 2000 to over $100 billion in 2007." In 2012, China surpassed $200 billion in trade, doubling the 2007 figure, and supplanted the EU as Latin America's second-largest trading partner after the United States.
The Nicaragua canal would be yet another blow to U.S. influence in the region. Although the United States relinquished its official sovereignty over the Panama Canal in 1999, it continues to have a strong military presence in the region, maintains first rights for the passage of military ships, and cooperates with Panama to patrol and check ships without warrant. At this time, the United States does not have such an agreement with Nicaragua.
"Containerment"
Both the TPP and the U.S. "Pacific Pivot" have been framed as a kind of "China containment strategy."
This is not to say that the United States is practicing the same kind of containment strategy it has towards North Korea. For one thing, as long as China's trading partnerships remain productive, any suggestion of containing China would likely be seen as a deluded conceit.
Perhaps a better description is that the United States is practicing a "containerment" strategy with China—a policy that seeks to assert greater control over China's overseas investment by controlling the shipping lanes that move the bulk of resources and manufactured goods to and from China. If China gets a new route to the Atlantic, this strategy may wither on the vine.
A China-led Nicaragua Canal challenges Washington's 150-year-old claim of military and economic hegemony in the Western Hemisphere as outlined in the Monroe Doctrine. The rise of the trans-global BRICS economy, coupled with a new inter-oceanic canal that the United States has no jurisdiction over, means that the United States has been, at this moment, out-maneuvered by China.
Whether Washington attempts to reassert its hemispheric dominance remains to be seen. It will certainly be a challenge, since blowback from the United States' historically brutal policies in Latin America could very well strengthen economic ties among the developing economies represented by China and their BRICS partners.
Although the completion of a Nicaragua Canal will likely be fraught with difficulties, this China-Nicaragua partnership demonstrates that China will not be container-ed.
Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Arnie Saiki is the coordinator for Moana Nui Action Alliance, which focuses on Pacific Island political and economic justice issues.
More WORLD NEWS ...
- Nations and Borders are Always Messy
- Comparing Atrocities
- Religious Violence: What We Get Wrong
- Crying 'Lone Wolf'
- Partnering against Human Trafficking
- Muslim Cartoonist Draws Lessons from the Charlie Hebdo Massacre
- Refereeing a Race to the Bottom
- How Liberal Democracy Promotes Inequality
- The Dance of Superpowers
- The Big Chill: Tensions in the Arctic
- The Games of Our Lives
- Kissinger on World Order
- The War on Terrorism: The Way Forward
- World War I Transformed the World
- The Instrumentalisation of History
- Asymmetry Is Strategy
- Challengers to the Global Status Quo
- The Plague
- The Cold War Never Ended
- Understanding 'On War'
- Rethinking Global Drug Policy
- Police Becoming More Like Soldiers
- What was D-Day?
- First Redistribute Vatican Wealth
- Modern World Still Premodern in Many Ways
- Russia: A Real Risk of War
- From Democracy to Veto-cracy: Destabilizing World Politics
- The New Tribalism and the Decline of The Nation-State
- The Myth of the Strong Leader
- Climate Change and Interstate Conflict
- International Money Is International Politics
- The New Politics of International Currencies
- MH370: The Overkill News Network
- The Limits of Power in the Nuclear Age
- 'The Grapes of Wrath' Resonates 75 Years Later
- Why This Cold War Reboot is Different
- Getting the Poorest 4 Billion Online
- An Internet Governance Model for the 21st Century
- Companies Crunching Big Data Winning Competitive Advantage
- Decisive Year in the Battle to Maintain Freedom of the Web
- The Limits of Strategic Thinking
- Bill Gates Almost Right on World Poverty
- The News Should Aim to Improve Our Lives
- The Audacity of a Pope
- Pope Francis Continues to Afflict the Comfortable
- Canvassing for 'None of the Above'
- Exceptionally Mediocre on a Global Scale
- The Growing Importance of the Arctic Council
- Ending War for All Children Everywhere
- The Path of Hubris and War
- The Lever of Social Action
- Tax Havens Under Attack
- How to Help The Poor in a Rich Man's World
- Bitcoin
- Global Domination and Databases
- Hague Tribunal Controversy Hints at US-Israeli Aims
- Pope Francis' First 100 Days Give Signs of Hope
- Sci-Fi Worthy of Malthus
- Should the United States Continue to be the Indispensable Nation?
- Nigeria: Rebuilding After Boko Haram
- Peace Talks Stall in South Sudan
- Putting Boko Haram in Context
- Congo: Two Visions for Development
- Skating on Thin Ice, Tunisia Chooses a New President
- South Sudan: Action Needed Now to Prevent Another Year of Devastation
- Poverty: The Petri Dish That Grows Ebola
- Ebola's Racial Disparity
- Africa's Place on World Stage
- Ebola & Economic Inequality
- Women Bearing Brunt of Ebola
- Tunisia's Upcoming Elections
- Militarizing the Ebola Crisis
- What Role for UN in Tackling Ebola?
- Ebola Dwarfed by Malaria & HIV/AIDS
- Africa's Islamic State?
- Cutting Corners in South Sudan
- A Forgotten Crisis at the Heart of Africa
- Sudan: Forced Faith is Not Faith
- Moral Compass Points Toward Retribution in Nigeria
- Nigeria: Extremist Islam Scared of Little Girls
- What We Can Do for the Kidnapped Nigerian Girls
- Nigeria's Stolen Girls and Clueless Leaders
- South Africa Takes Stock Ahead of Elections
- South Africa: ANC and Zuma Enjoy Wide Support Despite Discontent
- 'Crimes Against Humanity' in South Sudan
- UN Criticizes South Sudan Leaders Over Famine Response
- African Union Hopeful on Resolving South Sudan Crisis
- Outrage As Nigerian Schoolgirls Reportedly Sold As Wives
- Getting the Poorest 4 Billion Online
- Cameroon Says No Terrorists Training on its Territory
- East African Nations Ready to Send Stabilization Force to South Sudan
- Africa's Supposed Failure to Achieve Millennium Development Goals
- Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta on Restoring Democracy to Guinea-Bissau
- Africa: Diaspora's Remittances are Relative Advantage
- Nigeria's Bright and Young Mean Business
- Mangos, Not Mining, the Future of Guinea
- Guinea: How to Stamp Out Corruption in the Mining Sector
- West Africa's Vast Marine Wealth Being Depleted
- Nigeria's Economy About to Achieve Global Status
- Nigeria: Progress and Crisis Will March Hand in Hand
- Superpowers Making Strategic Moves in Africa
- Mandela's Gift: A Model of Leadership
- Two Mandelas
- Steve Biko: Father of Black Consciousness
- International Justice Should Prosecute Beyond the Bounds of Africa
- Africa: The Growing Continent
- Mali: After the War, The Hard Part
- Nigeria's Squandered Opportunity
- Victims of Forgotten War Need the World's Attention
- China Works to Improve Image in Africa
- Is Japan's Prime Minister the Next Putin?
- Cambodia's Remarkable Journey
- India: Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Flares Up
- China Pulls Pollution Documentary
- India: Worshippers in Cremation Ritual
- Japan: World's Oldest Celebrates 117th Birthday
- Japan: Cats Overrun Island
- Mass Wedding in South Korea
- South Korea: Ending International Adoptions
- The New Face of Chinese Repression
- China's Economic Slowdown and the Necessity of Reform
- China's Crazy Plan to Mine the Moon
- The Good Life of the Newly Rich in China
- North Korea's History of Broken Nuclear Promises
- North Korea In Numbers
- Hong Kong: Pragmatism vs Liberalism
- Great Gamble on the Mekong
- Indonesia's Seaward Shift
- The New Nuance in Chinese Diplomacy
- China Now Top Economy
- Nuclear War Threshold Keeps Dropping
- China's Interest in Defeating ISIL
- Japan Is Antagonizing Everyone
- China and The United States: The Dance of Superpowers
- South Korea: The Politics of Patience
- Fishing for Peace in Korea
- Hong Kong is not Tiananmen
- Why China Won't Talk to Hong Kong's Protesters
- Hong Kong: The Future of People Power?
- Can China Pacify Its Minorities?
- Pragmatism Challenges Superpower Status
- A Capitalist in North Korea
- Japan Still Hobbled by Racism and Militarism
- The Tao of North Korea
- Political Turmoil and the Pakistani Army
- The Indian Jihadist Movement: Evolution and Dynamics
- India's New Leader Could Have Global Impact
- Third Obama Disappointment Seems Imminent
- United States and China Go Private with the Cold War
- Trans-Pacific Partnership Bad Deal for America
- Mao's Little Red Book: China's Spiritual Atom Bomb
- The Rise of China and Its Impact on International Economic Governance
- Examining China's Strategic Interests in Latin America
- Crusade Against Cronyism Shaking Up India's Political Landscape
- Benazir Bhutto's Assassination: The Case Goes Cold
- Is China Copying the Old Imperial Japan?
- Learning The Wrong Lessons from the Three Gorges Dam
- In India Book Withdrawal Sparks Criticism
- Japan's Sun is Rising Again
- Why North Korea Today is Not East Germany 1989
- Afghanistan: Americans Show More Signs of War Fatigue
- Learning to Look on the Bright Side Chinese Style
- India: A Sacrifice That Went Unrecognized
- China's Space Program Tries to Catch Up
- India's Neglected Generation
- Can Taiwan Pull China Toward Democracy?
- America's Pivot to Asia a Misguided One
- China's Low-Profile Imperialism
- Dicing with Death Penalties in Indonesia
- Afghanistan: Talking to the Taliban
- A Costly Effort in Afghanistan
- Responsibility for Asian Sweatshop Safety Lies with Us, Too
- Asian Sweatshops: A Floor of Decency
- China and North Korea: A Tangled Partnership
- North Korea Following a Well-Worn Pattern
- Europe & Islam: The Way Forward
- Putin & the Irony of Helsinki
- Russia's Defense Industry
- Turning the European Debt Myth Upside-Down
- French Extremists Find Platform in Terrorist Propaganda
- How Counterterrorism Expert Views Paris Attacks
- Charlie Hebdo, Islamophobia and the Freedom of Expression
- Does The Quran Forbid Images Of The Prophet Muhammad?
- Cartoonists' Solidarity For Charlie Hebdo
- Charlie Hebdo Attack Vigils Held Around the World
- France Falls Silent for Victims
- France's Deadly Attack Will Not Be the Last
- How Will Europe Handle the Rise in Terrorist Attacks?
- French Hold 'Je Suis Charlie' Vigil
- Attack Fails to Silence Paris
- Paris Attack: Marginalized Islamic Society Partly to Blame?
- Famed Cartoonists Among Dead at Charlie Hebdo
- Charlie Hebdo and Islam: The History of Its Satire
- Hungary's Irregular Border Crossings
- Whither Ukraine's Revolution?
- Before Solidarity, There Was the Polish Church
- Public and Private in Poland
- Greece, Cyprus Determined to Thwart ISIL
- Greeks Prepare for Elections
- Rebooting EU Foreign Policy
- NATO: Rebellion in the Ranks?
- The Bildt-Sikorski Effect
- Germany's Islamic State Problem
- Conflict Resolution and German Reunification
- Polish Activists on the Cutting Edge
- The Strange Non-Death of Polish Neoliberalism
- Poland: Land of Junk Contracts
- Scotland, Nationalism, and Freedom
- Greece: The Story of OXI Day
- How Hard Times Are Healing Bosnia
- NATO, Russia and Ukraine: Roulette or Reset?
- How Putin Could Defeat NATO With Nukes
- The Lesson of Russia's Serial Treaty Violations
- Ukraine: Red Meat for the NATO Alliance
- Outcome of the European Parliament Elections
- The Tea Party Lives -- in Europe
- Europe: The Social Immune System
- Ukraine: The War to End All Wars
- What Ukraine Really Needs
- The Rich List and The West's Culture of Envy
- What do the Putins of the World Want?
- Putin's Well-Worn Fascist Lies
- How the Russian Intelligence Mind-Set Differs From America's
- The Right Rises Again in Europe
- Germany's Elite Falling Out of Love with EU
- Euroskepticism and Political Fragmentation in the EU
- Ukraine: Not Time to Turn Virtual War into Real One
- Outcome of the French Municipal Elections
- Why This Cold War Reboot is Different
- Next Step in Ukraine Crisis is Unknown
- Ukraine and Russia have Created an International Disorder
- Reforms Push Greece to Economic Recovery
- Superpower Europe or Disintegration?
- Obama Clings to Diplomacy to Resolve Ukraine Crisis
- Obama's Diplomatic Dance with Putin is a Sad Sock Hop
- Legacy Of France's Colonial History Being Played Out in Paris Suburbs
- Russia: Not Your Father's Cold War
- Dangerous Mischief-Making in Ukraine
- Russia: What Do United States and the West Now Want?
- How to Rein in Putin
- Export Opportunity to Ukraine, Not Ukrainian Nanny State
- Obama Rules Out Military Solution on Ukraine
- Hitler Analogy Overstates Situation in Ukraine
- Why The West Shouldn't Abandon Russia's Reluctant 'Little Brother'
- The Year of the Russians
- Ukraine Only Promises Trouble for Russia
- Venice: La Serenissima Turns the Tide
- We Cannot Afford to Forget Bosnia
- Serbia Focuses on EU and Reforms
- Turkey & Armenia: Are Erdogan's Condolences a Turning Point?
- Spain's Unemployment Rate Should Improve
- The West Needs Russia's Help More than it Realizes
- Obama's Cool-headedness is Diplomacy, Not Appeasement
- Ukraine and the 'Little Cold War'
- Obama in Denial on Russia
- Ukraine: Beautiful Kiev has been Brutalized
- The Untold Story of the Ukrainian Revolution
- The Dark Side of the Ukraine Revolt
- Ukrainian Uprising is a Rebellion, Not a Revolution
- Why Greeks are Leaving Athens for the Good Life
- Greece to Develop Former Athens Airport Site
- Greece Hopes to Rejuvenate Privatization Effort
- What Happens Now in Ukraine?
- Switzerland and the Growing Resistance in Western Europe
- Dispute of Ukraine's Relationship with Russia Rages On
- Demystifying the Media Caricatures of Pussy Riot
- Coverage of Hollande Displays Media's Misplaced Priorities
- Hollande-Trierweiler Split and The Question of Marriage
- Postwar Era Has Ended, But Not Appetite For War
- A Flickering Flame of Faith in Sochi's Oldest Orthodox Church
- Ireland: From WWI Conflict to Respect
- The Pentagon's Italian Job
- Europe's Deadly Borders
- Expansion and Contraction of the Fourth Estate in East-Central Europe
- Bulgaria's Ataka Party: An Unlikely Blend of Left and Right
- Bulgaria: Old Tanks and Modern Mayhem
- The Former Yugoslavia: Nationalist Passions vs Political Interests
- The Former Yugoslavia: 'We Were So Close to Preventing Genocide'
- EU-Latin American Cooperation: An Affair of One?
- An Unprecedented Uprising Against Impunity in Guatemala
- Ecuador Puts Piketty Into Practice
- The Twin Ocean Project: South America's Transcontinental Railroad
- Venezuela to Consider Ban on Transgenic Seed
- Eloria Noyesi: Colombia's Potential Solution to Eradicating Illicit Coca
- A Journey Toward Colombian Unity
- David and Goliath in the Amazon
- United States Ties with Mexico's Military Have Never Been Closer
- Mexican Elections: A Battle Between the PRI and the PAN
- Cuba's Coming Out Party
- Authoritarian Symps
- Healing or Harming? The Provision of Health Care by Peacekeepers
- Can the Violence in Honduras Be Stopped?
- Ecuador: All You Need Is Love and Oil?
- Murder, Espionage, and Debt in Argentina
- Argentina's Tangled Web
- Human Rights Violations in Brazil
- Paraguay's Legacy of Violence
- Nicaragua Canal: Critics Line Up
- Why Obama and Congress Should Go Further With Cuba
- U.S. Cuban Relations Reimagined
- Obama Corrects a Historic Mistake on Cuba
- Brazil's Presidential Elections
- Brazil's Struggle with Gang-Run Slums
- Ebola: Is Cuba Caring too Much?
- The Mass Shooting in Mexico
- No Happy Ending to the Child Refugee Crisis
- The Decline of American Influence
- More Than a Mexican Problem
- Mexico's Hidden Epidemic
- Venezuela Progresses in Battle Against Contraband
- The Challenges of Panama's President
- Low Point of US - Cuba Policy
- Cuba's Currency Conversion
- Colombia's Challenger Vows Hard Line on Venezuela
- Pope Francis Carrying Out Silent Diplomacy in Argentina
- Many Expect Post-Kirchner Economic Boom in Argentina
- In Cuba, Technology May Beat Censorship
- Chile's Success Story May Be at Risk
- The Future of Latin America's 'Growth Engine'
- Santos May Oversell Colombia Peace Deal
- Uruguay Wrong About Not Taxing Pot
- Latin America's Growing Press Freedom Troubles
- Believers in U.S. Decline Will Be Disappointed
- Vargas Llosa Deserves Nobel for Courage
- Latin America's Other Big Internet Problem
- Costa Rica's New Leader Says He's a 'Moderate' Leftist
- Latin America's Economic Forecasts May Be Too Rosy
- Cuban Twitter Project was a Tweet in the Dark
- Venezuela's Best 'Anti-Coup' Medicine - Dialogue
- Latin American Inventors Thrive in United States
- Who's Winning, Who's Losing Innovation Race
- Russian Bases in the Americas: A Bluff?
- Colombia's Santos Re-election Won't Be Easy
- Bachelet's Chile Moving Closer to Venezuela?
- OAS Vote for Venezuela and Maduro May be Short-Lived
- Mexico's New Friend: Castro's Cuba
- Getting the Poorest 4 Billion Online
- Examining China's Strategic Interests in Latin America
- Argentina Forced By Ailing Economy To Change Populist Policies
- Trying 'El Chapo': Let's Let Mexico Handle This
- What's Wrong About 'El Chapo's' Capture
- Venezuela's Maduro Faces Hard Choices
- Should U.S. Cut Venezuelan Oil Imports?
- 10 Questions for Venezuela's President
- Venezuela Protests: The View from West Caracas
- United States Shouldn't Rescue Socialist Venezuela
- Chile: President Pinera Leaves Office on a High Note
- Cuba Poll Won't Change U.S. Policy
- Venezuela's Biggest Enemy: Hyperinflation
- Argentina has a lot in Common with Justin Bieber
- Summit in Cuba Mostly Political Tourism
- South America May Not Head Zimbabwe's Way
- Latin America Will Do Well, But Not Great, in 2014
- Latin America's Low Philanthropy Ratings
- Miss Venezuela's Murder Reveals Culture of Violence
- Zapatista Rebellion Failed to Help Mexico's Impoverished
- Mexico: Will Los Zetas Unravel Without Their Leader?
- The New Nicaragua Canal: China Barges In
- Is Cuba Lightening Up on Dissenters?
- At the UN, a Latin American Rebellion
- Latin America's Anti-Intervention Bloc
- Latin American Leaders Bring Drug Policy Debate to the UN
- Two-Track War Against ISIL
- The Need for a New Syrian Narrative
- Why ISIS Exists
- Why Are Women Joining the Islamic State?
- When Bibi Came to Town
- The Geopolitics of Speeches
- 10 Reasons I'm Praying for AIPAC's Decline
- Understanding Turkey's Tilt
- Some Good News from the Middle East
- ISIS Unites the World
- An Eritrean in Israel
- Global Warming Triggered Syria War
- Is Turkey Holding Up a Resolution in Syria?
- Does Syria See the U.S. as an Ally?
- Nationalism under Pressure: Islamic State, Iraq and Kurdistan
- Syria's Future and the War against ISIS
- The Syrian Labyrinth
- So, Islamic State, You Want to Rule a Caliphate
- Wanna-Be's Doing Islamic State's Bidding
- Is ISIS Capable of Nuclear Terrorism?
- Khomeini Drew the Line at Nukes
- Israel's Lack of Interest
- Recognizing Palestine
- Gaza: Bipartisan War on Human Rights
- Iraq Long Awash in Carnage
- Turkey's Dealings With ISIL
- In What World Are the Kurds as Dangerous as the Islamic State?
- Iran: Netanyahu UN Speech Baseless
- Without Iran, Coalition to Confront ISIS is Doomed
- Treat ISIS Like an Onion
- Turkey & Israel: There and Back Again
- Kingdom of Slaves
- Six Steps Short of War to Beat ISIS
- How the U.S. Enabled ISIS
- Intra-Jewish Discrimination in Israel
- Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program
- Restricting Egypt's Public Space
- Obama Could Spare Israel Terrible Outcome
- John Kerry's Folly in the Middle East
- Israel Projects Its Own Nuclear Behavior on to Iran
- New Books: Spotlight on the Middle East
- Getting the Poorest 4 Billion Online
- Overcoming the 'Manufactured Crisis' with Iran
- Certainties That Underpin Saudi Arabia Need Reappraisal
- Did Nonviolence Fail in Egypt?
- American Departure Will Leave Behind Carnage and Ruin
- Syria: The People Have Lost Their Voice
- Zbigniew Brzezinski on How to Avoid a New Middle East Explosion
- Why Are Governments Not Looking After Themselves?
- Isolationist Instincts of Americans are Sound Ones
- Obama Firm: No Boots on the Ground in Iraq
- Syrian Refugee Plan Poses Security Risks
- Egypt: How the Brotherhood Failed
- Rays of Hope in Egypt
- Syrian Dead End
- Egypt: The Opposition's Next Steps
- Egypt: Persistent Issues Undermine Stability
- The Next Phase of the Arab Spring
- The Foreign Policy Impact of Iran's Presidential Election
- Turkey's Violent Protests in Context
- Then What in Syria?
- The Monotonous Middle East
- Yes, Black America Fears the Police
- New Boston Bombing Video
- Obama's Last National Security Strategy
- What We Lose with a Privatized Postal Service
- Wal-Mart Does Something Right
- Guantanamo Bay's Place in U.S. Strategy
- Obama Corrects a Historic Mistake on Cuba
- Why Obama and Congress Should Go Further With Cuba
- U.S. Cuban Relations Reimagined
- China and The United States
- Tensions in the Arctic
- Ebola and Moral Panic
- What West Africa Can Teach the U.S. About Ebola
- Everything Wrong with Obama's War on ISIS
- Maya Angelou was Deeper than a Pithy Quote
- Give Killers Coverage, Not A Soapbox
- Our Culture Behind Wisconsin Girls' Stabbing Case
- Are Hispanics in Danger of Becoming White?
- Obama Outlines the Limits of Foreign Intervention
- Just Don't Call It 'Reparations'
- Small Men with Ugly Thoughts, Expressed Aloud
- It's Time to Show Our Veterans Some Love
- Justice for All, Except Those Too Big to Jail
- On the 9/11 Memorial and Museum
- Policing Thought Crime
- Turmoil and Intimations of Gender Bias at The Gray Lady
- Jayson Blair and All The Lies Not Fit to Print
- Mental Illness and Guns have Created a National Epidemic
- Army of One
- Mass Killers Hold Culture and Country Hostage
- Florida Governor Takes Deep Dive into Climate Change
- Charlie Christ Flip-Flop is a Bad Idea
- Botched Execution Should Be Death Knell of Capital Punishment
- Cruel and Unusual Ways of Execution
- Bring Back Firing Squads? We Do Worse
- Clayton Lockett: A Just Execution, Regardless
- Supreme Court Rules 5-4 on Public Prayer
- Supreme Court Rules on Public Prayer -- But Should It?
- John Kerry Warns of Excessive Isolationism
- Obama's Foreign Policy Nonexistent
- On Race: Meet Dumb and Dumberer
- Believers in U.S. Decline Will Be Disappointed
- A Nation Divided with Liberty and Justice for Some
- Can Ethnic Hate Be a Mental Illness?
- Pulitzer Committee Makes Stand for Free Press, Accountable Government
- NRA Members Need To Step Up on Ending Gun Violence
- Military Chief's Plea: Put Returning Soldiers to Work
- Home from War, Our Soldiers Continue to Die
- Better Gun Laws Needed to Protect Mentally Ill and Rest of Us
- Guns: Monsters in Our Midst
- The Knowing Donald Rumsfeld
- United States Never Reaped Bonus of Post-Cold War World
- America's Quiver of Outrage is Empty
- U.S. Foreign Assistance: More Guns than Butter
- Infrastructure Terrorist Attacks Cause for Concern
- Obama's Disposition: Combine Threats with Accommodation
- The Good and the Bad of North America Summit
- Sincerest Sympathy to the Filthy Rich
- Asphyxiating Education
- Welcome to Florida, Where the NRA Rules and We Proudly Stand Our Ground
- Trigger Happy in Florida: The Gunshine State
- If It Doesn't Work, It Doesn't Work. Period
- The Fourth Amendment is Going, Going ...
- Americans Shunning the 'Evil Weed' and Embracing Another
- Nuclear Safety Issue Lingers
- Robert Gates Reflections Flawed on America's Last 40 Years of War
- Detroit's Decline Did Not Have to Happen
- Triumph of the Vulgarians
- Keeping the NSA in Perspective
- There Ought to Be a Better Law
- Fracking: A Deadly Power Surge
More WORLD NEWS ...
Article: "The New Nicaragua Canal: China Barges In" republished with permission of Foreign Policy In Focus