In a recent interview with Kyodo News, Edward Snowden sounded the alarm about the bill and its “normalization of surveillance culture” in Japanese society.

Once China develops an operational aircraft carrier battle group, the report predicts, it would also be able to protect nuclear ballistic missile submarines stationed on Hainan Island.

Leadership is crucial. As with the 1975 Helsinki Conference, Track II leadership may be an important factor in highlighting shared stability concerns and a strengthening of the rules of the game.

Review of Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline from Obama to Trump and Beyond ~ by Gideon Rachman

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said at the UN last week "Quite a high number of countries are actually interested in saying we have to break the deadlock that has been on this issue for so many years."

The world is not envious of that shining “city on a hill,” indeed, with Trump in the White House “aghast” would probably be a better sentiment than envy.

Divestment campaigns are picking up, even as Trump prepares to take office.

The U.S. can resist that inevitability, but only by relying on its overwhelming military power and constructing an alliance system reminiscent of the Cold War. That should give pause to all concerned.

The seriousness of the national security situation should be recognized, particularly when it comes to threats posed at sea, Chang said.

VIDEO: A Brookings Institution panel explores whether the closer alignment is changing international politics “to the disadvantage,” as Brookings puts it, of U.S., Europe and the rest of Asia.

The Chinese have shut inefficient coal power plants, closed countless mines, slashed imports, and adopted a slew of policies to scale back coal use by some of their biggest industrial coal consumers — cement, steel, iron, and power generation.