A global fair trade: Unctad's lesson

Paul Rogers 12 April 2012

The global power-balance is being changed by the rise of the non-western "Brics" states. This makes the pioneering work of a body committed to linking trade and development in the interest of the world's poor more relevant than ever.

China and Syria: a question of responsibility

Kerry Brown and Cassidy Hazelbaker 2 April 2012

Beijing's refusal to support intervention in Syria in support of the rebels is founded on a mix of strategic judgment and political calculation. But this still leaves it with the challenge of defining a distinctive international role, say Kerry Brown & Cassidy Hazelbaker.

Can we believe China's Corporate Social Responsibility rhetoric?

Simon Zadek 23 March 2012

China is talking the talk of Corporate Social Responsibility in its 12th 5-year plan. It has even endorsed the UN Guidelines on Business and Human Rights. Simon Zadek argues that the new economic superpower sees a real interest in responsible and clean business, and that deeds will follow the rhetoric

Avatar’s ‘development’ predicament

Rodanthi Tzanelli 14 March 2012

The globally-acclaimed film looks back to the past from a futuristic standpoint to simulate an archetypal moral tale of developmental inequality. Is that a good thing?

Sino-Indian defence dialogue: should India be worried?

Bhavna Singh 15 February 2012

Fifty years after the 1962 war which left bitter memories and pending border issues, relations between China and India seem to be once more under strain. With both countries caught between the wish to negotiate and to compete, the bilateral relation appears entrenched in larger security issues

Tempest in Islamabad

Farah Jan 10 February 2012
Since the start of the year, civil–military relations have taken a nosedive in Pakistan, with no recovery in sight, and with each side threatening serious consequences. What are the chances of a coup?

An Indian youth delegation visits China in 2011

Ambuj Thakur 9 February 2012
The Indian youth delegation to Beijing was highly impressed with China and its people.

China's elite: a language deficit

Kerry Brown 8 February 2012
Beijing is concerned by Washington's more assertive regional policy in Asia. But here as elsewhere the Chinese leadership's inability to talk to the rest of the world in a natural way blunts its capacity to respond, says Kerry Brown.

Taiwan's election, and the need for nuance

LC Russell Hsiao and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao 7 February 2012
Taiwan's presidential election saw the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou win another four-year term in office over his opponent Tsai Ing-wen. But the interpretation of this outcome by Washington and Beijing misses an important dimension of Taiwan's political reality. Their flawed understanding could have damaging consequences over the next four years, say LC Russell Hsiao & Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao.

China’s big bet on green industry – and how it might green the world

John Mathews 3 February 2012
After the failure of Durban, a promising plan B to reducing carbon emissions rests upon green development industrial strategies being pursued by individual countries. And here China is in the vanguard.

Sanctioning Iranian oil

Reyhaneh Noshiravani 19 January 2012
With increasing geopolitical instability in oil producing states and the barriers that stand in the way of reaching a multilateral policy, the threat of sanctions in Iran only serves to intensify uncertainty surrounding oil price forecasts for 2012

No news from Wukan: protests are far from an isolated anomaly

Evelyn Chan 12 January 2012
The riots that erupted in the southern Chinese village in December, following the death in custody of a peaceful protester, are representative of a wider trend – and not the unique uprising the story is being sold as

China and North Korea after Kim Jong-il

Francis Grove-White 8 January 2012
Despite its strained relationship with North Korea in recent years, China has so far supported the ascendancy of Kim Jong-un. Francis Grove-White assesses China's prime economic and domestic reasons for backing the inexperienced leader

2012, an era of uncertainty

Takashi Inoguchi 24 December 2011
The tsunami and nuclear accident made 2011 an especially hard year for Japan. But the questions raised by the experience are similar to those being asked across the world, says Takashi Inoguchi.

The multicultural empire

Saroj Giri 18 December 2011
Unfortunately Niall Ferguson has managed to distract Pankaj Mishra from the main theatre of empire-building today which is more than just western superiority or domination. Both reify ‘western domination’, crediting it with an unmerited force and power.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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