Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 13, 2017

Mary Dejevsky, The Independent: North Korea's missile was fired at the ideal time for Japan – Donald Trump could now end up changing Asian politics

For Japan, the Abe-Trump talks this past weekend served only to confirm the country’s status as the most important US ally in Asia. Trump’s promises to take a hard line towards China offers another, less openly acknowledged, reason for Japanese enthusiasm toward Donald Trump

With uncertainty afflicting Europe on three fronts – over Brexit, relations with Russia and the future of the transatlantic alliance – it is easy to forget that similar uncertainty plagues other parts of the world, with potentially more immediate and more lethal effects. North Korea’s firing of a missile halfway across the Sea of Japan, at the very time when the Japanese Prime Minister was being hosted by the new US President, offered a salutary case in point. Let no one talk of North Korea as the “hermit kingdom”; Kim Jong-un is looking out and responding to what he observes.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- February 13, 2017

North Korea Tests a Missile, and Donald Trump -- Bruce Klingner, Daily Signal

China Hangs Tough. Trump Folds. China Ups the Ante. -- Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast

Why Trump Can’t Bully China -- Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate

No, Trump Did Not Back Down From China -- Harry Kazianis, RCW

What’s the future of relations with China, Japan under Trump? -- PBS News Hour

The Kremlin Is Starting to Worry About Trump -- Ivan Krastev & Stephen Holmes, Foreign Policy

Here Comes Fortress America? -- Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest

Is Trump leading the US on a warpath with Iran? -- Ted Regencia, Al Jazeera

'It is in Trump's interest to keep the Iran deal alive' -- Omid Khazani, Al Jazeera

Analysis: Baghdad's bloody protests mark resumption of Shi'ite power struggle -- Maher Chmaytelli, Reuters

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Question of Terrorism -- Shadi Hamid, The Atlantic

'Indonesia is on the brink of disaster' -- Rodion Ebbighausen, DW

Kazakhstan Going Into Soft Power Overdrive -- Paul Bartlett, Eurasianet.org

Trial over Cameroon's Anglophone protests exposes national divide -- Sylvain Andzongo, Reuters

A NATO of the Mind Limits Putin's Sphere of Influence -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg

Brexit can wait. Europe’s pressing worry is its fracturing eastern democracies -- Jan Kubik, The Guardian