China now likely to call America’s bluff over Taiwan

The future of Taiwan, important though that is in itself, has become the focus of something much bigger – the strategic contest between America and China over which of them will be the primary strategic power in East Asia over the decades ahead.

US distracted while Moscow and Beijing cosy up

The tense situation in US relations with Russia over the mass­ing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border and with China over an increasingly militarily threatened Taiwan confronts a domestically distracted America with the prospect of conflicts on two separate fronts.

Do the lessons of Thucydides apply to Singapore?

Prof. John Blaxland discusses if Singapore could become a casualty in a great power clash in and around Southeast Asia reminiscent of Thucydides’ war.