One hundred and seventy soldiers, 50 degree heat, 10 months away from home and 700 individual missions to complete. This all adds up to one of the toughest deployments in recent Chinese military history, undertaken by the first batch of People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers sent on a UN peacekeeping operation in the war-torn West African country of Mali.
There are reasons to think that Africa may be a place where prospects of Sino-European cooperation are promising. EU members – and above all France – continue to play an active role in crisis management in weak African states like Mali, Somalia, and the Central African Republic.
CIC Director Dr. Barnett Rubin gave a lecture to students at Peking University on Monday, October 27th. In his talk, he explores the ways that cooperation in Afghanistan can positively contribute to the overall US-China relationship. He also highlights examples of where that cooperation is already taking place and proposes a number of areas that might be particularly fruitful for collaboration in the future.
Russia and China are good friends these days. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited Moscow last week and, by signing a bundle of economic agreements, demonstrated Beijing’s disregard for Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. Early in the Ukrainian conflict, American and European officials hoped that Beijing would take steps to penalize Russia over its annexation of Crimea. But it has confined itself to token complaints, while reinforcing its trade relations with its northern neighbor.
On October 14 through 16, Richard Gowan participated in the Challenges Forum, an annual peacekeeping conference in Beijing. The Challenges Forum is a strategic and dynamic platform for dialogue among policymakers, practitioners and academics on key issues and developments in peace operations. The aim is to shape the debate by promoting awareness of emerging issues and identifying key challenges facing military, police and civilian peace operations.
On October 14 through 16, Richard Gowan will be participating in the Challenges Forum, an annual peacekeeping conference in Beijing. The Challenges Forum is a strategic and dynamic platform for dialogue among policymakers, practitioners and academics on key issues and developments in peace operations. The aim is to shape the debate by promoting awareness of emerging issues and identifying key challenges facing military, police and civilian peace operations.
China, as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has been actively involved in a series of peacekeeping missions, as well as regional and international issues.
China’s development progress in recent years has driven global progress on the MDGs. Between 1981 and 2010, 680 million people were lifted out of poverty in China. This comprises three quarters of the world’s total decline in extreme poverty over the same period.
In Still Ours to Lead: America, Rising Powers, and the Tension Between Rivalry and Restraint, Brookings Senior Fellow and my CIC colleague Bruce Jones sets out a compelling analysis of the present global power structure.
Big-Power ‘Buffering’ Mechanisms Needed to Manage Era of Disorder
There were signs of easing tensions in some parts of the international system last week, but warnings of deepening crises on other fronts.
Read the full World Politics Review article Big-Power ‘Buffering’ Mechanisms Needed to Manage Era of Disorder