Asia

The fate of the massive deposits of lithium recently discovered in Afghanistan is destined to be no different from that of landlocked Central Asia’s other natural resources: tapped by the West, and eventually controlled by the East.

Siberian timber, Mongolian iron ore, Kazakh oil, Turkmen natural gas and Afghan copper are already channeled directly to China through a newly built East-bound network that is fueling the rapid development of the world’s largest population.

On a recent visit to the Gobi desert, which stretches across China’s western Gansu province, I came upon an unusual sign. In the midst of a dry, sandy expanse stood a large billboard depicting a settlement the government intended to build nearby — white buildings surrounded by lush, green, landscaped lawns, and in the center a vast, gleaming blue reservoir. The illustration’s bright colors were quite unlike the actual surroundings, which consisted of dull sky that faded into a horizon of undulating, parched-brown hillsides.

Confucius said ‘The superior man is firm in the right way, and not merely firm.’  From a Chinese perspective, the same can probably be said about other nations.

When Hillary Clinton was running for the US presidency, she encouraged then President George W. Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics to signal US frustration over China’s treatment of Tibet and lack of cooperation on Sudan.

At yesterday’s ceremony in Barcelona, the United Nations recognized an innovation in asset-building policy by granting its prestigious Public Service Award to the Seoul Welfare Foundation (SWF) for its leadership of the Hope-Plus Savings Accounts project.

On June 22, the New America Foundation hosted an event in which Shireen Hunter outlined a few major trends in post-Cold War Iranian foreign policy discussed in her new book, Iran's Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Resisting the New International Order. She argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union generated systemic change worldwide, but affected Iran the most and adversely because its geographic positioning and power potential made its neighbors – Arabs and Turks with whom it has historically antagonistic relations – and world powers alike uneasy. Ms.

Is the new European initiative process going to change what you eat and invest in? Has Oregon figured out a better way to find errors in ballot measures? Will robots solicit your signature on referendum petitions? Should California's initiative process be expanded, reformed or eliminated? How does Hong Kong conduct direct democracy in the shadow of the People's Republic of China? Why is tiny Uruguay so good at soccer and direct democracy?

Answers to these and other questions were discussed at this international forum.

Kandahar will be the most important test thus far of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's strategy of increased resources and a thorough counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan. Though it will be a "process" rather than one pitched battle, success or failure in the southern Afghan province -- a historical Taliban stronghold -- will determine operational momentum well into 2011, when the first of the U.S. troops are scheduled to begin withdrawing.

In late March a South Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, was destroyed, almost certainly by North Korean saboteurs. Given that North Korea, a vast Stalinist gulag masquerading as country, depends on the generosity of South Korea and the international community for its very survival, the brazenness of the attack defied logic.