The Global Shake-Up

In National Review Online, influential American historian Victor David Hanson writes about the emergence of Asia (& the regression of Europe).

Choice quote:

But the real question is how both China and India, nuclear and arming, will translate their newfound economic clout and cash into a geopolitical role. If internal politics and protocols are any barometer of foreign policy, it should be an interesting show. We mostly welcome the new India — nuclear, law-abiding, and English-speaking — onto the world stage. It deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council and a close alliance with the United States.

China, however, is a very different story — a soon-to-be grasping Soviet Union-like superpower without any pretense of Marxist egalitarianism. Despite massive cash reserves and ongoing trade surpluses, it violates almost every international commercial protocol from copyright law to patents. It won’t discuss Tibet, and it uses staged domestic unrest to send warnings to Taiwan and Japan that their regional options will increasingly be limited by Beijing.

Is it just us, or are we suddenly seeing a proliferation of pro-India (& China-wary) rhetoric from right-leaning American intellectuals, policy makers, & journalists? Is this somehow orchestrated as prelude to the up-coming US visit of Manmohan Singh? Not that we are complaining!!