Recommended Articles: Week 4

This blog will regularly recommend interesting newspaper and journal articles for you to read. This week's topics are: China's soft power, the China-Mexico relationship, Shinzo Abe's pragmatism, Russia and China's reaction to the Mali intervention, and Japan's interest in easing rules on foreign intervention.

1. Asia Times Online - Russia, China grapple with Mali's future
   Focuses on China and Russia's role in the French intervention in Mali, while comparing their current role to their reaction in the crisis in Syria.
   
   
2. Asia Times Online - When soft power fails
   Discusses the failure of China's soft power in the Asian region, juxtaposing it with the soft power of the United States.
   
   
3. Time Magazine - Ready or Not, Japan to Ease Rules on Foreign Intervention
   Highlights how, after the raid in Algeria, Japanese leaders may ease to rules on Japanese foreign intervention to protect Japanese citizens abroad.
   
   
4. Asia Times Online - China-Mexico ties hitting 'all-time low'
   Focuses on the troubled China-Mexico bilateral relation.
   
   
5. Foreign Affairs - Japan Keeps Its Cool: Why Tokyo's Government is More Pragmatic Than Hawkish
   Discusses how Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party have pursued a pragmatic stance in Japan's affairs with China, South-Korea and South-Asian states.