Shared wariness over China is the main reason the U.S. and Vietnam have embraced each other. But it shouldn’t be the only one.

There have been more than a few hints that the Obama administration intends to pursue deeper nuclear arms cuts. A strategic review issued in early January reiterated the administration’s belief that U.S. deterrence requirements can be achieved with a smaller nuclear arsenal. Moreover, the United States...

Only by continuing to act on the high seas as it always has can the United States hope to maintain a system of international rules that serves its own interests. Ratifying UNCLOS could very well have the opposite effect.

The British surrender of Singapore to the Japanese in 1942 should be instructive to U.S. policymakers eyeing China’s rise. War isn’t inevitable, but history is full of surprises.

There are good reasons why the rhetoric from Moscow is harsher than Beijing’s. For a start, China knows lashing out at the U.S. is counterproductive.

Withholding needed arms from Taiwan in the present makes a future conflict--and US intervention therein--more likely. A cordial relationship with Beijing today wouldn't seem to be worth the future costs to the United States.

The United States will certainly debate the issue about whether the plot can be blamed on the Iranian government as a whole, or whether it can simply be dismissed as the desperate act of rogue elements among Iran’s competing power centers.

Noda's most important challenge will be an apathetic citizenry that has lost faith in its leaders and whose demand for competent leadership from the DPJ has been dashed by the failure of former prime ministers Kan and Yukio Hatoyama.