What matters for China is not whether Westerners believe the system is cracking. The question is: How do the Chinese view their own system?

2012 looks to be an interesting year for the already complex political triangle among the United States, Taiwan and China, what with each country undergoing political transitions. Should we expect policy continuity from President Ma Ying-jeou and the likely new Chinese leader Xi Jinping? What about continuity in the United States?

When an imperious bully like Fidel Castro starts to fear, his instinct is to try to sow fear among his enemies. Today, with his student and benefactor, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, dying of cancer, what the Cuban dictator fears most is that his bankrupt regime in Havana is about to lose billions in critical aid and oil.

As China grows less predictable and the United States less willing to shoulder its responsibilities, familiar patterns of bilateral relations must change.

Ever since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has maintained an aggressive and bellicose international security posture. Today, fully two decades after the end of the Cold War, North Korea's external defense and security policies look arguably more extreme and anomalous than ever.

At this event, a group of trade policy experts will assess the challenges facing the administration on trade policy and the Obama administration's options in this area going forward.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

Chris Christie has shown that confrontational leadership can get results and produce more admirers than detractors. Barack Obama has shown that lack of leadership leaves pretty much everyone dissatisfied.