Chinese paramilitary policemen patrol the Olympic special lane in Beijing, 12 July 2008. (Imaginechina via AP Images)

China's Olympic Nightmare

Beijing’s Olympic-Sized Catch-22. Victor D. Cha.  Washington Quarterly, Summer 2008. n.p. On August 8, Beijing will host the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics. For two weeks, we will be treated to athletic performances that animate dreams and inspire the world, set against the backdrop of one of the world's most ancient and celebrated civilizations. That, at least, is the way that Beijing would like to sell the Games. For better or worse, they will mark a critical crossroads in China's development as a responsible global player. READ MORE

China's Olympic Nightmare What the Games Mean for Beijing's Future. Elizabeth C. Economy and Adam Segal. Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008. n.p. Failure to plan for predictable problems has turned China's coming-out party into an embarrassment. READ MORE

Will Darfur Steal the Olympic Spotlight? J. Stephen Morrison. Washington Quarterly, Summer 2008. n.p. Beginning in 2004, U.S.-based activists organized within the Save Darfur Coalition launched a formidable campaign against what they passionately assert is an unbroken genocide in Darfur instigated by the Sudanese government. In its initial period, the movement mushroomed in strength and concentrated mostly on influencing U.S. policy and approaches. Soon thereafter, it shifted to give priority to influencing China. READ MORE

China in the World

LUBRICATED WITH OIL: IRAN-CHINA RELATIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD
Manochehr Dorraj, Carrie L Currier. Middle East Policy, Summer 2008. pp. 66-70. China and Iran are emerging powers with increasingly significant political and economic relations that have regional and global dimensions. In this article, we set out to explore the historical roots, evolution and development of this relationship with a particular emphasis on the period since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Elsewhere, we have examined the role of factors such as the arms trade and technology transfers, and how they have shaped Sino-Iranian relations. However, in light of present economic and political trends, it is the pursuit of energy security and supply that is emerging as a more pressing concern for both states. READ MORE

A Partnership of Equals: How Washington Should Respond to China's Economic Challenge. Fred Bergsten. Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008. pp. 57-69. Despite its growing economic clout, China continues to act like a small country with little impact on the global system at large and therefore little responsibility for it. This behavior threatens to undermine the existing international economic architecture. To avoid a major train wreck, Washington should seek to develop a true partnership with Beijing so as to provide joint leadership of the global economic system. READ MORE

The Forest for the Trees: Trade, Investment and the China-in-Africa Discourse. Barry Sautman, Yan Hairong. Pacific Affairs, Spring 2008. pp. -31. Trade and investment are topics central to the China-in-Africa discourse that has strongly emerged from the West in the last few years. Western opinion leaders, along with several African opposition parties, often characterize China's role in Africa as "colonialist," "neo-imperialist" or "predatory."  READ MORE

Who Will China Feed? Bryan Lohmar, Fred Gale. Amber Waves, June 2008. pp. 10-15. China has become a significant food exporter by ramping up production in many sectors and gaining world market share. Indeed, China has been a net food exporter for most of the last three decades. More recently, however, signs hint at a restoration of the law of scarcity, mostly in the form of rising commodity and input prices, more expensive labor, restrictions on land developments, and a reversal of China's pro-export policies. The recent trends in resource use, labor availability, and changing agricultural production, along with rising international food prices, are causing increases in China's domestic food prices. READ MORE

Food, Fuels, Climate, and Crisis

THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF BIOFUELS: CAN WE SHRINK IT DOWN TO SIZE IN TIME? David C Holzman, Environmental Health Perspectives, June 2008, pp. 246-252. "Under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), signed into law as part of the Energy Independence and security Act of 2007, the United States will be producing 36 billion galions of renewable fuels annually in 2022, with 15 biilion of that to come from corn ethanol by 2015. [...]  All three presidential candidates jumped on the ethanol bandwagon long ago, with Hillary Clinton calling for 60 billion gallons by 2030 at a campaign stop last November (all three have since backpedaled in the face of concerns about the impact of corn ethanol on food supplies)." READ MORE

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: WHAT'S CAUSING THE RISING PRICES? Marcia Clemmitt, The CQ Researcher, June 27, 2008, pp. 553-576. "Food prices have spiked around the world over the past year, bringing hunger and unrest to many developing countries, along with pain at the checkout counter for lower-income American families. [...] Drought, high oil prices that make food transport pricey and diversion of corn for use as a biofuel all contribute to the price spike. The effect of globalization — which has led poor countries to abandon domestic food crops in favor of commodity crops for export — also has been blamed." READ MORE

THE STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Alan Dupont, Survival, June 2008 , pp. 29-54. "Climate change of the magnitude and time frames projected by the world's leading climate scientists poses fundamental questions of human security, survival and the stability of nation states. While state weakness and destabilizing internal conflicts are a more likely outcome than inter-state war, climate change will be a stress multiplier for all nations and societies, especially those already at risk from ethnic and religious conflicts, economic weakness and environmental degradation." READ MORE

A USER'S GUIDE TO THE CENTURY. Jeffrey D. Sachs, National Interest, July/August 2008, var. pages. "In this lead article, Jeffrey Sachs explains why the new world order of the twenty-first century is crisis-prone. The intersecting challenges of our crowded planet, multipolarity, unprecedented demographic and environmental stresses, and the growing inequalities both within and between countries can trigger disease, migration, state failure and more. READ MORE

Foreign Policy Choices

BALANCING ACT: THE OTHER WILSONIANISM. Peter Beinart, World Affairs, Summer 2008, pp. 76-88. "John McCain has made this much clear: The 2008 election will be about national security. Barack Obama will discuss the economy, where he has an edge. He will even discuss Iraq, where his position enjoys public support. But McCain will broaden the discussion to the larger question of how the two candidates see the world. Today, even as majorities oppose the war in Iraq, polls show that Republicans still maintain the lead on the broader issue of 'national security." READ MORE

THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICA: REPLACING A BAD NEIGHBOR POLICY. Robert A. Pastor, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008, pp. 84-99. "On January 20, 2009, if not before, a new national security adviser will tell the incoming president of the United States that the first two international visitors should be the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico. The importance of Canada and Mexico may, however, come as a surprise to most Americans, as well as to the new president. For most of the past decade, Canada and Mexico have been the United States' most important trading partners and largest sources of energy imports. U.S. national security depends more on cooperative neighbors and secure borders than it does on defeating militias in Basra." READ MORE

MCCAIN'S CHOICE. Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, National Interest, July/August 2008, var. pages. "Neoconservatives and realists are battling to set the GOP’s foreign-policy agenda—and the future of American diplomacy hangs in the balance. Who’s on what side, what does each one want, and what can we expect if John McCain beats Barack Obama? Inside the struggle for the foreign-policy soul of the Republican Party." READ MORE

SUBNATIONAL FOREIGN POLICY ACTORS: HOW AND WHY GOVERNORS PARTICIPATE IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY. Samuel Lucas McMillan, Foreign Policy Analysis, July 2008, pp. 227-253. "U.S. governors lead overseas missions seeking investment and promoting trade, establish international offices, meet with heads of government, receive ambassadors, and take positions on foreign policy. This paper describes how governors are involved in participating in U.S. foreign policy, explains why governors seek to voice their views and play an active role in working with leaders and issues beyond their state's borders, and argues that U.S. states and governors need to be better conceptualized and considered in both international relations theory and foreign policy analysis." READ MORE

On the way to Democratization

DEMOCRATIZATION AND THE VARIETIES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. Edward D. Mansfield and Jon C. Pevehouse, Journal of Conflict Resolution, April 2008, pp. 269-294. "Scholars of international relations have devoted remarkably little attention to the issue of why and when states enter international organizations (IOs). We argue that states have particular reason to enter IOs during the process of democratization. In the midst of a democratic transition, state leaders have difficulty making a credible commitment to sustain reforms, since they can benefit from rolling back liberalization. Gaining membership in an IO can enhance the credibility of leaders' commitments to democratic reforms. However, not all IOs are equally useful in this regard." READ MORE

THE NEXT ASIAN MIRACLE. Yasheng Huang, Foreign Policy, July/August 2008, var. pages. "Democracies are peaceful, representative—and terrible at boosting an economy. Or at least that’s the conventional wisdom in Asia, where for years growth in India’s sprawling democracy has been humbled by China’s efficient, state-led boom. But India’s newfound economic success flips that notion on its head. Could it be that democracy is good for growth, after all? If so, China better watch its back." READ MORE

STATE POLICY INNOVATION AND THE FEDERALISM IMPLICATIONS OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Kathleen Ferraiolo, Publius, Summer 2008, pp. 488-514. "As state policy activism has flourished in recent years, increasingly that activism has taken place through the direct democracy process. While winning ballot measures often have implications for federal--state relations, federalism issues have largely been ignored in the direct democracy literature. I address this oversight by investigating how the outcomes of direct democracy politics affect the relationships among citizens, states, and the federal government. My analysis focuses on measures proposed over the last decade that represent either a response to perceived federal inaction or a challenge to federal policy." READ MORE

The Campaign

AMERICA SORTS ITSELF.  Terry Teachout. Commentary. July/August 2008, pp. 60-64.
Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister turned more-or-less conservative Republican politician, was appealing to evangelical Christians; Obama, a liberal Democrat who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii and attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School, was appealing to secular up-market urbanites. If either presidential candidate should do so successfully this year, it will mean that identity politics, in which a voter's political choices are best understood not as a set of rational responses to external circumstances but as a near-reflexive manifestation of his group affiliation, has come to dominate the American political process. READ MORE

REDEMPTION POLITICS.  Ted Widmer, New York Times Magazine. Jul 6, 2008, pp. 9-11.  Widmer traces the common ground between Democrats and evangelicals in relation to Barack Obama's bid for the presidency. He observes that for most of American history, evangelicals were Democrats or their equivalents, profoundly uncomfortable near the temple of the moneychangers. Among others, he cites Jefferson who attracted huge numbers of voters simply because his running mate, Aaron Burr, was the grandson of the great evangelist Jonathan Edwards. READ MORE

American Values

THE COMING WAR BETWEEN YOUNG AND OLD.  Clive Crook, National Journal, July. 5, 2008, n.p.  Chances are diminishing that today's young workers will enjoy higher living standards than their parents enjoyed.  READ MORE

IDENTITY PROBLEMS.  Eliza Newlin Carney.  National Journal, July 5, 2008, n.p.  Post-9/11 efforts to outfit virtually all Americans with more-reliable identification have been fraught with headaches. The Real ID Act of 2005 has spawned a mini-rebellion at the state level. And new ID rules for travelers coming to the United States have been caught up in snafus.  READ MORE

EXECUTIVE POWER IN THE WAR ON TERROR.  McGinnis, John O. Policy Review, December 2007 and January 2008, pp. 63-75.  The author, professor of law at Northwestern University, examines the U.S. government’s legal performance and use of executive power in the war on terror. The purpose of this examination is to provide future administrations with legal strategies and lessons learned from the Bush administration. The major lesson is to recognize that Congress should be relied upon more than the courts in the war on terror. Early in the current conflict, when public opinion was favorable, the administration should have secured from Congress framework legislation for detention, military tribunals, surveillance, and interrogation. READ MORE