At first glance, the differences between the two candidates for president of the United States in 2012, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, are striking. Each candidate is doing his best to emphasise these differences. Most commentators have drawn sharp distinctions between the two candidates on foreign policy. Global perceptions of the two men...

The fight against Somali-based pirates is becoming a private battle as global defence cuts reduce naval counter-piracy deployments. Because governments have struggled to contain the spread of piracy in the Indian Ocean, shipping companies have turned to private military security companies to guarantee the safety of their crews and cargo. Private armed teams have proliferated...

Severe economic challenges and political obstacles look sure to resign China's currency to a fate short of major reserve currency status. China’s currency is on the rise. Buoyed by the economy’s outperformance and global trade impact, policy steps over the past few years have thrust the renminbi onto the global stage. Is the renminbi going...

In this new Working Paper, Mark Thirlwell provides a beginner’s guide to the Eurozone crisis. He argues that the Eurozone experiment has rested on a series of big economic and political bets, and that it’s now clear that almost none of them have paid off. European Monetary Union is no longer sustainable in its current...

The territorial disputes in the South China Sea get much less attention than other crisis points, in the Taiwan Straits and the Korean Peninsula, but are arguably more unpredictable and dangerous. It is in the South China Sea that the components of Asia’s changing power dynamics are most concentrated and on display: China’s growing strategic...