From UPI Asia Online:
In 1999 this columnist put forward the theory of a “proxy nuclear state,” a country that has had nuclear capability grafted onto it by an outside power. Thus far, China has developed two such states — North Korea (to harry Japan) and Pakistan (to contain India). A third, Bangladesh, is well on the way, with Iran a likely candidate for a future in which tensions with the United States reach the 1950s level.
China’s warming strategic relationship with Russia has resulted in Moscow going along as the junior partner in what is shaping up to be a Sino-Russian partnership designed to constrain the United States, first in Asia and subsequently in Africa and South America. [Full Text]
M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University.