What China Wants in Africa

President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue during the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, August 24, 2023. Photo credit: REUTERS/Alet Pretorius/Pool

Africa struggles to climb American policymakers’ priority list, but it has no such problem with China.  For three decades, the Chinese government has expended immense energy courting African countries. With only two exceptions over the last thirty years, the Chinese foreign minister has made Africa his first overseas destination every year. Other senior Chinese officials […]

Four Decades of Talks with Arab Diplomats

Jeremy Issacharoff. Photo credit: DPA / Picture Alliance via Reuters Connect / Michael Kappeler

Three months after I came to live in Jerusalem, in November 1977, I joined my fellow Israelis standing on the side of the road to welcome President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. I had decided to immigrate to Israel from Britain in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Four years later, watching the […]

Israel’s Agenda with China

China's President Xi Jinping and Israel's Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu in Beijing, China, May 2013. Photo credit: REUTERS / Kim Kyung-Hoon

On June 27, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a visiting American congressional group that he plans to visit Beijing later this year, adding that the US administration had been informed of this intention. No date has been set nor has the Chinese government confirmed an invitation to Netanyahu.  >>  Insight from Israel: Read more from Eran […]

India’s Security Policy: Balancing Its Russia Dilemma with New Partnerships

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 2019. Photo credit: REUTERS

Introduction: Recurring Pakistani And Growing Chinese Challenges   India faces disputed boundaries and territorial claims with both Pakistan and China. Though the direct threat from Pakistan has become less salient, the boundary dispute with China remains a massive problem. Furthermore at a time when the US and China are locked in a global competition, China’s assertiveness […]

When Nation Building Works

Reconstructing the Grand al-Nuri Mosque in the old city of Mosul, Iraq. Photo credit: Credit: REUTERS

Nation building is a US policy for transforming post-conflict countries, a policy discredited among a broad swath of Washington because of Iraq and Afghanistan. But I question this consensus and recommend rehabilitating the policy in time to help reconstruct postwar Ukraine. >> Diplomatic Dispatches: Read more from Robert Silverman Didn’t the US role in postwar Japan […]

The Reasoning Behind Israel’s Refusal to Supply Weapons to Ukraine

Protestors hold signs at a demonstration against the Russian military invasion into Ukraine, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo credit: REUTERS

Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, Israel’s policy of not supplying weapons to Ukraine has come under both domestic and international criticism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stated that the decision by Israeli leaders not to support Kyiv has encouraged Russia’s military partnership with Iran. Inside Israel, critics say support for Ukraine […]