Newsweek: Washington Cries Wolf - Council on Foreign Relations

Home | Site Index | FAQs | Contact | RSS | Podcast

Must Read

Related Materials
Does China Pose a Military Threat?
Online Debate
Updated March 26, 2007
The Scope of China's Military Threat
By Esther Pan
Backgrounder
June 2, 2006
Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People's Republic of China, 2006
Essential Documents
May 2006
China's Aircraft Carrier Dilemma
By Andrew S. Erickson and Andrew R. Wilson
Must Read
Autumn 2006
Misguided Missile Defense
By Stephen E. Flynn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies and John Tierney
Op-Ed
March 28, 2008
See Also

China, Defense/Homeland Security, Defense Policy & Budget
Newsweek: Washington Cries Wolf

Author:
Andrew Moravcsik

March 31, 2008

Newsweek's special correspondent Andrew Moravcsik reports that although Beijing's new military-spending figures caused some alarm in the Pentagon, a closer look at the numbers, and China -- while hardly benign -- starts to look a lot less sinister. Earlier this month, China announced a 17.6 percent increase in its 2008 defense budget, up to $58.8 billion. This followed a 17.8 percent increase last year, for a country that already has a 2.3 million-person military -- the world's largest. What's misleading is the fact that China's military modernization isn't accelerating; it's been slowing for decades. China's military means are not excessive; they're appropriate to its geopolitical situation.
Full Text of Document
New CFR Books

In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?

Walter Russell Mead recounts the story of the centuries-long rivalry between the English- speaking peoples and their enemies in God and Gold.

Complete list of CFR Books.

New from the Council: Policy Options Papers

Kenya

In this POP, Adjunct Fellow Michelle D. Gavin suggests steps the Bush administration could take to promote political and ethnic reconciliation and to restore the viability of Kenya’s governing institutions.

Pakistan

In this paper, Senior Fellow Daniel Markey poses a set of recommendations for the United States to consider in response to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.