Under a portrait of Chairman Mao in Xi’an, home to the Terracotta Warriors and capital of thirteen Chinese dynasties, a revolution is taking place. Over the course of three weeks, I witnessed Chinese citizens chatting loudly over dinner and wine, the same time-tested food culture, but the topics of discussion were notably different from before. … Read more
First elected in 2006, Mr. Abe, at age 52, was Japan’s youngest Prime Minister since 1941, but he faced a plethora of troubles during his initial tenure. His Agricultural Minister, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, committed suicide after he was connected to the misappropriation of government funds. Matsuoka’s replacement, Norihiko Akagi, resigned two months later due to similar … Read more
Reminiscing on the past 60 years of global economic and political history, South Korea seems remarkably successful. In this time span, it has pulled itself up by its bootstraps to become a major player in both international trade and East Asian geopolitics, not to mention a cornerstone of 21st century global popular culture that goes beyond … Read more
Pakistan has seen too many coups to applaud when a man in uniform declares one. Yet Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s recent video proposing a coup to the people of Pakistan was met with acclaim. Unlike previous army takeovers, this one would involve no guns, uniforms, or military microfactions; rather, it would be purely cultural. Having launched his political … Read more
Disclosure: The author served as an intern for Narendra Modi’s office during the summer of 2013 and is the son of Piyush Goyal, a member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and national treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The world watches as 800 million eligible voters take to the polls in India, making the 2014 Lok … Read more
Roads, Riots, and Rabble-rousing: the World’s Largest Election Each time we turn the corner onto a different street in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city, my grandmother taps me on the shoulder. “Modi paved this road,” she says, every time. We were returning from a week in Mumbai, where we trundled through hours of traffic to relatives’ … Read more
“Boeing 777 will struggle to maintain altitude when fuel tanks are empty” ran a CNN headline on March 31, 2014. Across America, millions of eyes were glued to the television set. “This is the most outstanding and life-changing story that I’ve ever had the privilege of watching,” said no one. “What trailblazing, groundbreaking journalism!” said … Read more
In 1906, England launched the HMS Dreadnought. Although it bore the name of a half dozen ships before it, this Dreadnought was so much more powerful than its predecessors that it became the gold standard of power on the seas, ushering in a new generation of warships with bigger guns and steam turbine power plants. … Read more
The Spark that Ignited the Fire On December 16 last year, a group of men beat and gang raped a young woman after she boarded a bus with a male friend in New Delhi. The woman suffered fatal injuries and died within two weeks. The juvenile defendant was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a … Read more
The long-awaited and elusive Trans-Pacific Partnership may finally be in reach. The TPP has the potential to be the largest trade agreement in world history, with the countries in the Partnership collectively producing 40 percent of global GDP, significantly more than even the European Union. The deal is also structured in a way that China … Read more