In Business Monitor Online today, we publish a detailed preview of the US 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Despite the United States’ economic woes, Barack Obama still looks well positioned to win re-election in 2012. Unsurprisingly, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is most likely to win the Republican nomination for president. In many ways, the… [Read more]

As the US gears up for general elections in 2012, there is a widespread perception that the country’s economic weakness since 2008, the rise of China, the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, have all eroded American global hegemony. Although the US’ ability and… [Read more]

Despite America’s woes, including Monday’s S&P outlook revision and the ongoing stalemate in Afghanistan, I believe that Barack Obama will win re-election in 2012. There are two main reasons: Firstly, one-term presidents are increasingly an aberration. The last two single-term presidents, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, presided over recessions. By 2012, the US economy… [Read more]

Following predictable Republican gains in Tuesday’s US mid-term elections, there will be a temptation to proclaim President Barack Obama a lame duck. In addition, the 2012 presidential election campaign has all but begun, with speculation already mounting as to whom the Republicans will nominate to challenge Obama. Despite this, I caution against writing off Obama… [Read more]

Following the hullabaloo of US President Barack Obama’s whistle stop tour of Asia in November – the focus of which was primarily on China, Japan, the Koreas and South East Asia – it might be logical to assume that Washington-New Delhi relations have fallen down the pecking order of America’s list of foreign policy priorities…. [Read more]

US President Barack Obama, en route to ‘Asia’ (I use the speech marks, because Asia is so diverse and it is inaccurate to consider it a single entity), has no shortage of issues to deal with when he gets there. There seems to be a general feeling that US influence in Asia is on the… [Read more]

US President Barack Obama is certainly a surprise choice for winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, not least because he has been in office for only ten months. Without wanting to be drawn into any US partisan debates, I think it is fair to say that during this period, it is questionable if he has… [Read more]