February 9, 2013 On 30 January, a Chinese Jiangwei II-class frigate entered the disputed waters around the Senkaku Islands, a cluster of uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea claimed by China as the Diaoyu Islands.  A Japanese destroyer was waiting. When the two warships were only 3 km […]


February 2, 2013 The Mideast is stumbling into one of its most dangerous crisis in decades.  I’m just back from the region – and as an old Mideast hand,  I am very worried. This region is always tense, but right now a series of separate conflicts are rapidly beginning to […]


January 25, 2013 PARIS – The bloody attack on an Algerian gas installation and France’s invasion of Mali are the result of troubles that have been brewing for years – we simply have not been paying attention. Jihadist guerilla leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, headlined as a new Great Islamic Satan by […]