Regular readers of this website will recall that we coined the acronym BLANKs in 2008 to refer to a group of extreme frontier market economies in Asia which have considerable development potential, but are being constrained by highly unusual or adverse political or geopolitical conditions. These are Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Afghanistan, and North Korea. All… [Read more]
US President Barack Obama announced on June 22 that Washington will be withdrawing 33,000 American troops from Afghanistan (currently numbering 100,000) by the summer of 2012, starting with the departure of 10,000 by the end of 2011. Five thousand troops are expected to return home this July, while the rest is scheduled to leave in… [Read more]
The death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in the early hours of May 2, 2011, has several noteworthy implications worldwide. The US can claim a very important symbolic victory in the ‘War on Terror’ (admittedly a phrase seldom used these days). Osama Bin Laden shot to international prominence in August 1998, when he was… [Read more]
A couple of years ago, I coined the acronym BLANKs to describe a group of Asian economies which have considerable development potential, but are being constrained by highly esoteric political or geopolitical problems. The countries in question are Burma (officially called Myanmar), Laos, Afghanistan, and North Korea. At the time, I cautioned that despite their… [Read more]
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Turkey earlier this month resulted in a ‘strategic partnership’ being signed, which is expected to lead to bilateral trade trebling to US$50bn by 2015, and to US$100bn by 2020. Although the trade relationship is benefiting China more right now, with Turkey running a US$11bn deficit in 2009, Chinese companies… [Read more]
US President Barack Obama’s formal declaration of the end of US combat operations in Iraq on August 31 is a good a moment as any to reflect on the war, the United States’ global position, and Obama himself. Iraq War: Have The Goals Been Achieved? First, let me address the Iraq War itself. There were… [Read more]
US President Barack Obama’s decision to replace General Stanley McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan raises the question of how the war effort there is likely to proceed under new commander General David Petraeus. BMI’s Tim Cooper talks to Yoel Sano, Head of Political Risk, about the future of Afghanistan.
