October 27, 2012 The noisy Tokyo-Beijing fracas over uninhabited specks of rock in the China Sea are making Japan feel increasingly nervous and vulnerable. Few expect the two nations to stumble into war over the barren Senkaku Islands (Daiou in Chinese) though they are believed to abut important underwater resources. […]

October 20, 2012 HAVANA –  The black, sinister-looking Soviet SS-4 intermediate-ranged missile on display at  Havana’s La Cabana fortress looks old, roughly finished, and rather primitive.   But this missile, and 41 others (including some longer-ranged SS-5’s) terrified the United States during the October 1962 missile crisis – 13 days […]

October 13, 2012 Welcome Mali, our newest crisis! Open your maps. Mali is a huge, arid nation extending from the Sahara Desert and Algeria’s border in the north to the steamy south along the Niger River. Most of Mali’s 14.5 million people eke out an existence farming and fishing. France […]