Feeling guilty, feeling scared, hidden cameras everywhere!

I am more than somewhat bummed. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has run a fabulously paranoid series of articles but the Internet powers that be have chosen to not post these articles on the Nikkei Net website.

What a pain in the tail.

Yodo suru sekai: Kawaru rikigaku [in Eng. - A Wobbling World: the changing dynamics] fleshes out the realist right's darkest fantasies about Japan's place in the world. On Sunday, Part 1 Ikkyokutaisei no hokorobi [The Fraying of the Unipolar System] describes a Sino-Russian-led challenge to America's hyperpower status. On Monday, Part 2, Chotaikoku no genkai [The Limits on Superpowers] offers evidence that the Bush Administration cannot reorder the world according to its liking. The grand finale Miugoki dekinu Nihon [Japan Caught in a Catch-22] , published on Tuesday, is a cry of "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" unless, of course, the Koizumi Cabinet does exactly what the four authors suggest in the second-to-last paragraph.

For me, it is all great fun--like Heritage material in Japanese.

Anyway, neither the series nor the similarly paranoid supporting articles Shigen no henzai "Tsunabiki" umu [The misallocation of resources that gives rise to a "tug-of-war"] and Ajia gaikajumbi no tsukai michi [The way to make use of Asia's currency reserves] is available on- line.

This is bad. We live in a time of populism and economic expansion. If the paranoid want the people to buy into their vision, they need to offer up their fears for free.

Now on the other side of the globe, the Council on Foreign Relations is going in the opposite direction. Like the indefatigable Brad Setser and his international macroecomics blogging, the CFR seems intent on drowning us in more material than we can digest in a reasonable amount of time and still have a life.

Check out these posts/on-line essays.

Japan Also Rises

(The URL for this page was posted to the National Bureau of Asia Research's Japan Forum. I believe the poster left off the final "l")

The Promise and Pitfalls of China's 'Peaceful Rise'

Hu's 'Peaceful' Diplomacy

Sino-Russian Energy Ties

China, Africa, and Oil