– Economist – A century on, there are uncomfortable parallels with the era that led to the outbreak of the first world war.

– Forbes – Robert D. Kaplan writes that the Eastern Question strikes at the heart of present-day debates over humanitarian intervention in the Balkans, Libya and Syria. Simply put, the Eastern Question was about how to respond to the slow-motion demise of the Ottoman Empire, whose territory included not only much of the Near East but much of Southeastern Europe besides.

– London Review of Books – Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, but it’s not just an environmental concern. It poses a real threat to our homeland security.

– Forbes – Robert D. Kaplan says that North Korea would have to be crazy to give up its nuclear capability. Why? Because of one word: Libya. American behavior toward Libya over the past decade may have convinced North Korea’s ruling elite never to negotiate away its nukes.

– Geopolitics / Syria – Augustine’ World – Robert D. Kaplan on what What Late Antiquity says about the 21st century and the Syrian crisis.

– Forbes – Robert D. Kaplan writes that “To understand the current pressures upon Europe from the east it is necessary to draw a map of energy pipelines.”

New York Times Magazine – The shell of a forsaken ship has become a battleground in a struggle that will shape the future of the South China Sea and, to some extent, the rest of the world.

– American Conservative – William Lind writes that America can win it—by staying out.

– Geopolitics / Middle East – Kerry’s Middle East Obsession – Robert D. Kaplan writes that John Kerry has made his choice. Chaos in the Middle East is more important to him than historic power shifts in Asia and Europe. Passion, rather than geopolitical vision, drives this secretary of state. And it is a very derivative passion that drives him: one that has its origin in media obsessions.

– Geopolitics / Syria – The Shadow Commander – Qassem Suleimani is the Iranian operative who has been reshaping the Middle East. Now he’s directing Assad’s war in Syria.

– Forbes – Robert D. Kaplan compares Iraq in 2003 to Syria today.

– Forbes – Robert D. Kaplan on the current state of affairs in Syria.

– US Naval War College Review – The law and operational practice of blockade were considered all but dead by many in the 1990s. However, in recent years, Israel has employed blockade twice: in 2006 against Hezbollah in south Lebanon and since then against Hamas in Gaza. The latter blockade, which will be the focus of this article, was instituted in January 2009 to prevent arms and other materials reaching Hamas and thereby to halt rocket attacks against Israeli territory.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Eight nations—the United States included—have a geographically direct stake in the opening of the resource-rich Arctic. Increased international cooperation is a must.

– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan says the biggest question in international affairs has nothing to do with Syria or Iran going nuclear. It is has to do with the state of the Chinese economy, and the ability of China’s one-party system to navigate through an economic slowdown to a different growth model. China’s leaders will likely survive this trial. But what if they don’t? What if China faces a severe socio-economic crisis and attendant political one of an unforeseen magnitude? What would be the second-order geopolitical effects? If Syria explodes, it does so regionally. If China explodes, it does so globally.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – An oil-based piracy of unrivaled proportion—born in the corruption and crime of Nigeria—is hemorrhaging across the Gulf of Guinea.

– US Naval War College Review – This article examines the evolution—and the conceptual links to the present— of the theory and practice of commerce warfare from the seventeenth century to the eve of World War I.

– The Atlantic – Robert D. Kaplan says he was the 20th century’s greatest 19th-century statesman.

– US Naval War College Review – A review of economic warfare in World War I, with lessons that can be applied to today.

– New Yorker – Inside the White House debate over Syria.

– Economist – India is poised to become one of the four largest military powers in the world by the end of the decade. It needs to think about what that means.

– Economist – India’s lack of a strategic culture hobbles its ambition to be a force in the world

– The Atlantic – Amid the social and political transformations reshaping the Middle East, can Jordan’s Abdullah II, the region’s most pro-American Arab leader, liberalize his kingdom, modernize its economy, and save the country from capture by Islamist radicals?

– American Conservative – William Lind argues we need Beijing as an ally against anarchy.