Chinese leaders were determined to make the agreed deal work. They consulted widely. In the years leading up to 1997 I met with top leaders several times a year, both as a governor of the American Chamber of Commerce and—more often and more significantly—as chair of the Economic Committee of the Business and Professionals Federation, a group of top Hong Kong business leaders that had helped…
Questions about ‘security’ provide a lens that brings issues of national independence into sharp focus. In the first instance, security concerns the ability of a state to protect its inhabitants from danger. The idea that security is the first responsibility of government has long been a political mantra. But choosing strategies to ensure a country’s eff…
In the United States, many political leaders throughout history have come from powerful families. For Barack Obama, this is far from the truth. His upbringing was in humble circumstances, and, while he doesn’t fit any typical political mold, he is already considered by many to be one of the most dynamic figures in U.S. politics. His oratory skills, direct style, and ability to communicate are…
Most legal thinkers and practitioners view law as fundamentally terrestrial. Indeed, law—in its Eurocentric iteration at least—ultimately imagines itself as beginning and ending on terra firma. Land is perceived as a fully historicized, mapped, and regulated space that stands in stark opposition to the seemingly a-temporal, empty, and unruly sea.…
"Beautifully crafted...moving and candid...this book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride's The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams's Life on the Color Line as a tale af living astride America's racial categories." In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his li…