– Economist – The bickering over islands is a serious threat to the region’s peace and prosperity.

– Wall Street Journal – To understand today’s global conflicts, forget economics and technology and take a hard look at a map, writes Robert D. Kaplan.

– Wall Street Journal – James Webb on the current state of affairs in the South China Sea.

– Newsweek – Niall Ferguson does not believe our future is as bright as Silicon Valley would lead us to believe…an interesting look at a historian’s view of the future.

– BBC – South Korea’s president is visiting islands also claimed by Japan, in a move set to raise diplomatic tensions.

– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The first draft of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was completed in 1982. The treaty provided a broad legal framework governing movement on the sea and the proper handling of sea-based resources. By 1994, treaty revisions had alleviated U.S. concerns regarding deep seabed mining. President Bill Clinton signed and forwarded it to the Senate for advice and consent, but it was never ratified.

– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan analyses the current situation in Syria.

– The Atlantic – Robert D. Kaplan on how a former enemy became a crucial U.S. ally in balancing China’s rise

– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan writes that the Obama administration “pivot” to the Pacific, formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last November and reiterated more recently by the president himself, might appear like a reassertion of America’s imperial tendencies just at the time when Washington should be concentrating on the domestic economy. But in fact, the pivot was almost inevitable.

– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan compares the situation in Europe in 1848 to today’s Arab Spring.

– BBC – British efforts to help topple Colonel Gaddafi were not limited to air strikes. On the ground – and on the quiet – special forces soldiers were blending in with rebel fighters. This is the previously untold account of the crucial part they played.

– New York Times Magazine – To know the future of Egypt, watch what happens to Mohamed Beltagy, the embattled hero of the revolution.

– Christian Science Monitor – Martin van Creveld writes that many analysts say the Middle East is the focus of a geopolitical power struggle between the United States and Iran. That misses the primary thread of events – namely, the ongoing soft partition of the Arab republics between Turkey and Iran, with Turkey the stronger power.

– US Naval War College Review – An analysis of the geopolitical issues surrounding the South China Sea.

– The Economist – China is using a new tool to boost its influence abroad. Is it the right one?

– New Yorker – How far can the resistance to Vladimir Putin go?

– New York Times Magazine – Sure, they can be infuriating, not to mention duplicitous, paranoid and self-pitying. But you try being a U.S. ally.

– The Atlantic – Pakistan lies. It hosted Osama bin Laden (knowingly or not). Its government is barely functional. It hates the democracy next door. It is home to both radical jihadists and a large and growing nuclear arsenal (which it fears the U.S. will seize). Its intelligence service sponsors terrorists who attack American troops. With a friend like this, who needs enemies?

– Economist – America reaches a pivot point in Asia.

– New Yorker – Jon Lee Anderson on the last days of Muammar Qaddafi.

– Geopolitics / Pakistan – The Journalist and The Spies – Dexter Filkins reports on the murder of a reporter who exposed Pakistan’s secrets.

– The Atlantic – James Fallows writes that just after the streets of Tunisia and Egypt erupted, China saw a series of “Jasmine” protests-until the government stopped them cold. Its methods were subtler than they had been at Tiananmen Square, and more insidious. Was the regime’s defensive reaction just paranoia? Or is the Chinese public less satisfied-and more combustible-than it appears?

– New York Times Magazine – Syria’s rebel youth have had to teach themselves everything.

– The Atlantic – The longtime Atlantic writer reflects on what the United States — and he personally — got wrong and right about Afghanistan and Iraq.

– Daily Telegraph – Very interesting look at how the end game in Tripoli unfolded…