Geopolitics / Indian Ocean – Center Stage for the Twenty-first Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean

Foreign AffairsCenter Stage for the Twenty-first Century: Power Plays in the Indian Ocean

Robert D. Kaplan writes that already the world’s preeminent energy and trade interstate seaway, the Indian Ocean will matter even more as India and China enter into a dynamic great-power rivalry in these waters.

Geopolitics – India’s New Face

The AtlanticIndia’s New Face

Robert D. Kaplan introduces us to Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and the brightest star in the Hindu-chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party. Under Modi, Gujarat has become an economic dynamo. But he also presided over India’s worst communal riots in decades, a 2002 slaughter that left almost 2,000 Muslims dead. Exploiting the insecurities and tensions stoked by India’s opening to the world, Modi has turned his state into a stronghold of Hindu extremism, shredding Gandhi’s vision of secular coexistence in the process. One day, he could be governing the world’s largest democracy.

Air Warfare – Predator C Avenger Makes First Flights

Aviation Week and Space TechnologyPredator C Avenger Makes First Flights

A new, reduced-signature, unmanned aircraft—the long-rumored, 20-hr.-endurance, pure-jet Predator C Avenger—has emerged from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ workshops after a 3½-year gestation period paced by massive growth in UAV production and the use of unmanned designs in combat. The UAV’s undeniably stealthed-up exterior offers several clues about how the aircraft could be employed.

Piracy – Navy Kills 3 Pirates, Rescues Ship Captain

Washington PostNavy Kills 3 Pirates, Rescues Ship Captain

An American captain held hostage for five days by Somali pirates in a lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean was rescued unharmed Sunday in a surprise U.S. military operation in which snipers killed three pirates with the captain tied up just feet away, American military officials said. A fourth pirate was in U.S. custody.

Geopolitics / Climate Change – The Geoengineering Option: A Last Resort Against Global Warming?

Foreign AffairsThe Geoengineering Option: A Last Resort Against Global Warming?

As climate change accelerates, policymakers may have to consider “geoengineering” as an emergency strategy to cool the planet. Engineering the climate strikes most as a bad idea, but it is time to start taking it seriously.