Eine deutsche Pakistanstrategie
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Daniel Twining
1/9/2010
Ignoring Pakistan is dangerous for a country that has troops in Afghanistan -- even if it is only a midsize country and has no historical ties to Pakistan or interests there.

Cheer up America: You're still on top of the world.
Daniel Twining
1/5/2010
The United States need not be so pessimistic about its future. Its position in the world continues to grow in significance, and there is little indication that it is entering a period of decline - even in the face of Asia's rise.

What is Obama's real 'Exit Strategy' for Afghanistan? And why it matters to India
Daniel Twining
December 4, 2009
One way to judge President Obama's speech announcing (another) new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan is by how it fares among those on the front lines. As one senior official in Kabul puts it in today's Wall Street Journal Asia, "We couldn't solve the Afghanistan problem in eight years, but now the U.S. wants to solve it in 18 months? I don't see how it could be done."

Obama's Opportunity with India
Daniel Twining
11/27/2009
U.S.-India relations are currently drifting, rather than surging forward as they had been for a decade. To correct this imbalance, President Barack Obama should make it clear that his administration will deal with India in a way commensurate with its size, its economic and military potential, and its global ambitions.

Why Obama needs to play his cards right with India
Daniel Twining
11/24/2009
As Obama sits down with Prime Minister Singh, he should consider India as the key ally of the U.S. in Asia, both in terms of practical cooperation on global issues and in terms of ensuring that India continues to rise as an alternative to China, sharing the values of the West.

Afghanistan and Pakistan: Time for the Hatoyama Administration to Show Japan’s Latent Power
Daniel Twining
11/18/2009
In a day where Japan's importance in the world seems to be diminishing, 'AfPak' is a valuable opportunity for Japan to demonstrate that it is still an important player in both Asia and the world at large, as well as to support its transatlantic allies.

A crib sheet for President Obama's upcoming Asian summitry
Daniel Twining
11/10/2009
The United States is at the center of the international system in Asia, and desirably so. During his visit to Asia, President Obama should show that he has a strategic vision for sustaining American leadership in the region.

Is China a new ideological superpower? Don't bet on it.
Daniel Twining
10/29/2009
China's political system makes it an outlier in a democratic Asia, rather than an example of a new model.

Power and Norms in US Asia Strategy
Daniel Twining
10/23/2009
Daniel Twining and Michael Green contribute to the debate on American strategy and regional architecture by considering the role of values-based institutions in the Asian regional order. Green and Twining argue that U.S. policy makers are mistaken to eschew values-based engagement with liberal-democratic Asian friends and allies. They suggest that, especially in the context of a difficult global economic climate, the United States would be wise to focus on the "balance of influence" as much as the balance of power.

How the Pakistan aid bill backfired
Daniel Twining
10/13/2009
U.S. aid to Pakistan has led to a crisis in U.S.-Pakistan relations, putting Pakistan on the defensive rather than empowering the natural allies of the U.S..

The stakes in Afghanistan go well beyond Afghanistan
Daniel Twining
September 30, 2009
The problem with the current debate over Afghanistan is that it is too focused on Afghanistan. There is no question that the intrinsic importance of winning wars our country chooses to fight -- to secure objectives that remain as compelling today as they were on September 12, 2001 -- is itself reason for President Obama to put in place a strategy for victory in Afghanistan. But the larger frame has been lost in the din of debate over General McChrystal's leaked assessment, President Obama's intention to ramp up or draw down in Afghanistan, and the legitimacy of the Afghan election.

Our Pakistan Problem
Daniel Twining
9/14/2009
Daniel Twining argues that Pakistan is central to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, not because success there will win or lose Afghanistan, but because success in Afghanistan is essential to preventing Pakistan from becoming a failed or Talibanized nuclear state.

The Obama administration gets Indonesia right and Burma wrong
Daniel Twining
7/31/2009
By giving consideration to normalising relations with Burma, the administration is undermining the momentum given by the Indonesian elections to the causes of Human Rights and Democracy in South Asia.

The coming tsunami from Japan
Daniel Twining
7/14/2009
The change in the Japanese government is likely to see the United States move from being intrinsically to instrumentally important in Japanese foreign policy, unless the United States government works to build on the relationship.

“Af-Pak”, Obama's Strategy For Afghanistan and Pakistan
Daniel Twining
July 2009
State weakness that enables terrorists to find sanctuary in Pakistan and Afghanistan poses a direct danger to Europeans and Americans. Terrorist attacks in Western capitals on both sides of the Atlantic emanated from ungoverned territories thousands of kilometers away in South and Central Asia, and terrorists continue to plot new attacks. Al Qaeda and its affiliates have sought weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear material, raising the risk that another terrorist strike in the heart of the West could be even more devastating.

How Tiananmen changed China -- and still could
Daniel Twining
6/5/2009
Absent from almost all Chinese education curricula, the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989 marks a pivotal point in Chinese economic and socio-political history.

GMF Senior Fellow for Asia Dan Twining testifies before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
Daniel Twining
May 20, 2009
GMF Senior Fellow for Asia Dan Twining testified on May 20 before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. His testimony outlined the strategic implications of China’s trade and investment in Continental Asia. Twining's testimony is available for download.

De-hyphenate Af-Pak
Daniel Twining
May 5, 2009
As President Obama hosts the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan in Washington tomorrow and calls on Congress to increase assistance to both countries, his administration can claim credit for regionalizing America's strategy for victory in Afghanistan.

An Indian election primer
Daniel Twining
April 16, 2009
The Indian elections beginning today will be the largest organized activity in human history (always true of Indian elections given the country's growing population). As many as 714 million eligible voters will be marking ballots for a new Indian parliament that will convene in June.

Talking transatlantic, turning toward Asia?
John K. Glenn, Daniel Twining
April 1, 2009
President Obama makes his first trip to Europe amid growing signs that European leaders may resist his calls for help on resolving the economic crisis, contributing to Afghanistan, and managing detainees from Guantanamo. Europeans quietly wonder about the depth of President Obama's commitment to Europe.

Questions that Obama's Af-Pak strategy doesn't answer
Daniel Twining
March 30, 2009
Fellow Republicans have hailed President Obama's new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan. The new administration's strategy is welcome, both for its substance and, as importantly, for the profile it has given to the urgency of defeating the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan and its growing strength in Pakistan. But as with every strategy, it contains trade-offs and shortcomings that, after the warm glow that has accompanied the Washington establishment's reception of the president's plan has worn off, may become more apparent.

What we learned from Pakistan's recent political crisis
Daniel Twining
March 17, 2009
Pakistan's political crisis of last weekend was precipitated by opposition leader Nawaz Sharif's pledge to march on Islamabad in support of freedom of the judiciary after both Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz, who had been chief minister of Punjab province, were disqualified by Musharraf-era Supreme Court justices from holding elected office.

Could China and India go to war over Tibet?
Daniel Twining
March 10, 2009
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising. Much of the associated commentary suggests that Tibet is, at most, an internal human rights issue in China, albeit one that impacts China's foreign relations with Western democracies who care about the plight of the Tibetan people. Indeed, the Dalai Lama's admission that Tibet is part of China, and that he seeks true autonomy rather than actual independence for his people, reaffirm this view. There is also, however, an external dimension to the Tibetan crisis, one that implicates core national security interests of nuclear-armed great powers.

Shock of the New: Congress in Asia in 2009
Daniel Twining
March 6, 2009
This essay overviews the many immediate critical challenges and opportunities related to the Asia-Pacific region facing the 111th Congress while also suggesting a longer-term strategic U.S. approach.

Don't Dumb Down Afghanistan
Daniel Twining
February 23, 2009
Reading tea leaves is a dangerous business when it comes to a new administration. There is always a fair amount of floundering around that comes from having too few senior people in place, unsettled -policymaking processes, and indecision over which campaign promises to keep and which to toss overboard. Take, for example, the Obama administration's policy toward Afghanistan. While running for president, Barack Obama promised that help was on its way in the form of thousands of additional troops; now President Obama appears to have put his own promised surge on hold.

India needs a lot more love from Obama
Daniel Twining
February 20, 2009
In 1998, President Clinton flew over Japan without stopping to spend nine days in China. This led to acute concern in Tokyo over "Japan passing" -- the belief that Washington was neglecting a key Asian ally in favor of the region's rising star, China. Is the same thing happening today -- not with Japan, destination of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first overseas trip, but with India?

A U.S. Asia strategy for Hillary Clinton's trip
Daniel Twining
February 15, 2009
Hillary Clinton deserves kudos for making Asia her first trip as secretary of state. Generations of senior U.S. officials were trained and socialized as Atlanticists, a legacy of the centrality of Europe during the Cold War. However, it does not diminish our European allies to acknowledge that if the 20th century was an Atlantic century, the 21st century looks likely to be a Pacific one.

Don't move the goalposts on Afghanistan
Daniel Twining
January 28, 2009
If Iraq was "Bush's War," Afghanistan may well become "Obama's War." But as the New York Times reports today, the Obama administration is attempting to shift the goalposts in Afghanistan away from building a functioning democracy and toward the limited objective of denying terrorists sanctuary on Afghan soil.

You were at the Inauguration; China was planning for war
Daniel Twining
1/22/2009
While everyone here in the United States and beyond was focused on Barack Obama's Inauguration on Tuesday, China chose that day to slip this little item under the door -- China's National Defense in 2008, their annual white paper detailing plans for increased defense spending and military modernization.

India’s relations with Iran and Myanmar: “Rogue state” or responsible democratic stakeholder?
Daniel Twining
April 10, 2008
What kind of great power will India become as it rises in the twenty-first century? Indian foreign policy today embodies the contradictions and ambiguities stemming from India's ongoing evolution from a nonaligned, developing nation into one of the world's most powerful democracies.

Democracy and American grand strategy in Asia: The realist principles behind an enduring idealism
Daniel Twining
March 31, 2008
Has democracy promotion been discredited as a central theme of American foreign policy after the US experience in Iraq? Many American critics and friends overseas appear to believe so. It would be wrong, however, to believe that the ideational approach of American foreign policy will diminish, particularly in Asia.

Our Pakistan Challenge
Daniel Twining
November 19, 2007
Pakistan is the swing state in the worldwide struggle against Islamic terrorists. Its decisive position makes Pervez Musharraf's imposition of martial law on November 3 a hard test for American foreign policy.

Playing the America Card
Daniel Twining
October 1, 2007
China's rise in Asia and the world is one of the big stories of our time. Goldman Sachs predicts that China's economy will be bigger than America's in two decades. From Shanghai to Singapore, one hears whispers of a "new Chinese century" recalling the Sino-centric hierarchy of traditional Asia.

Asia’s challenge to China
Daniel Twining
September 25, 2007
American economic weakness, Europe's uncertain political and demographic future, turmoil in the Middle East and challengers to western leadership from Moscow to Tehran may signal a new moment in world politics. Should the liberal west brace itself for a new global "Beijing consensus" of authoritarian modernity?

America’s Grand Design in Asia
Daniel Twining
May 31, 2007
In a dynamic Asian order featuring new centers of power, China's rise will naturally challenge Washington's ability to protect its interests in the region.

The New Great Game: Why the Bush administration has embraced India
Daniel Twining
December 20, 2006
Three recent events illuminate the contours and fault lines of Asia's emerging strategic landscape, amid the lengthening shadows cast by China's growing power.

America is pursuing a grand design in Asia
Daniel Twining
September 25, 2006
Asia’s strong states will shape the future of international politics more than the weak states and terrorists of Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

Russia's Shadow Empire
Daniel Twining
May 11, 2006
Since 2003, democratic revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia have dealt strategic blows to the ambition of Russia's leaders to reconstitute the former Soviet empire by retaining political and military suzerainty over their weaker neighbors. But Russia's imperial pretensions along its periphery linger.

Putin's Power Politics
Daniel Twining
January 16, 2006
IN A WORLD OF AMERICAN preponderance, European integration, and Asian ascent, it is sometimes hard to take Russia seriously as a great power.

China's Rise Threatens to Divide Asia, Not Unite It
Daniel Twining
August 22, 2005
Not since modern Japan moved on to the world stage a century ago has a non-western power emerged with such potential to transform the global order as China today.