Bloomberg (July 18)
Japan needs to mend relationships with its neighbors. After the upper house Diet elections, “LDP leaders would be wise to focus their resources on overcoming opposition to the most difficult structural reforms. That doesn’t mean Japan can’t take measures it deems necessary to bolster its defenses, such as increasing its military budget, or even making cosmetic changes such as renaming its military the ‘National Defense Forces.’ Such decisions should be based on strategic concerns, not a desire to fire up patriotic fervor. They should be communicated to Beijing quietly but transparently, well in advance.”
Tags: Asia, China, Communication, Defense, Diet, Elections, Japan, LDP, Military, Relationships, Resources, Structural reforms
Businessweek (April 23, 2013)
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is trying to dismiss a fraud suit being filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Both “outrageous” and “even insulting,” S&P’s defense asserts “S&P cannot be held liable for its prolific claims of integrity and analytic skill because those boasts were the sort of baloney that investors and the wider public never take seriously in the first place… In other words: Only a sap would believe the nice things we say about our work.”
Time (March 15)
North Korea continues to ratchet up the tension. “In keeping with the dynasty’s tradition of erratic behavior, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened to bombard a South Korean island with 5,000 residents, further raising alarms in Seoul and the U.S., which is beefing up its own missile defenses against possible attack from Pyongyang.”
Tags: Attack, Defense, Kim Jong Un, Missiles, North Korea, Seoul, Tension, U.S.
The New York Times (November 26)
“To counter a rising China,” Japan is raising its military profile and providing aid to help other Asian countries boost their defenses. “Taken together those steps, while modest, represent a significant shift for Japan, which had resisted repeated calls from the United States to become a true regional power for fear that would move it too far from its postwar pacifism.”
Wall Street Journal (April 23)
Delhi is smart not to “trust” Beijing or simply “rely” on Washington. “India’s successful test of an Agni-V long-range, nuclear-capable missile shows the shrewdness of the world’s largest democracy. Delhi has looked past smokescreens from Beijing and Washington to judge hard realities.”
Chicago Tribune (August 18)
George Will writes it is “a different world.” European nations have less to offer NATO. “Since the Cold War’s end, the combined gross domestic product of NATO’s European members has grown 55 percent, yet their defense spending has declined almost 20 percent.” For example, the UK is scheduled to cut military personnel by 10%, tanks and artillery by 40% and decommission its only aircraft carrier.George Will writes it is “a different world.” European nations have less to offer NATO. “Since the Cold War’s end, the combined gross domestic product of NATO’s European members has grown 55 percent, yet their defense spending has declined almost 20 percent.” For example, the UK is scheduled to cut military personnel by 10%, tanks and artillery by 40% and decommission its only aircraft carrier.
