The Current Discussion: China's on a resource-buying spree, most recently paying US$13 billion for a stake in an Australian mining company. Is this a threat to your nation and its economy? To the world's?

The late Middle East historian Albert Hourani once wrote
"[He] who rules the Near East rules the world; and he who has interests in the world is bound to concern himself with the Near East." For more than half a century, the United States has made its interests apparent to the world via a clash of political and economic endeavors. Business interests have been pursued under a veil of democracy which, when imposed, have the potential to spark the type of blowback we are witnessing today.

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The Current Discussion: Are the U.S. and Europe right to recognize Kosovo and continue to poke Russia with a stick?
In the summer of 2006, I rode a bus through the winding mountain roads from Sarajevo to Podgorica sitting next to a young Montenegrin studying medicine in Bosnia. It was his first trip home since his country gained its independence. While many believed Montenegro's secession from Serbia was inevitable, the young man spoke of his country using the kind of poetry one might use to describe their lover. However, shortly into his epilogue about the future of his country, our discussion turned to Kosovo. His opinions surprised me. "It will be very sad if Kosovo wins its independence but in this political atmosphere, I don't see any way that Kosovo can become part of Serbia," he told me. "Kosovo brings too many emotional problems to Serbia."

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