China lake . . .

Most Americans probably missed the news stories the other day about the U.S. and Australia firming up military ties. And in fact, it really isn't much news that America and Australia have a military alliance; Aussies and Yanks have been fighting and training shoulder to shoulder for quite a while.

But the announcement itself was significant, even beyond the details, because it's part of a counter to China's increasing development of a blue-water navy, and its continued assertion that the South China Sea is, bascially, a Chinese lake.

Those developments are behind (and embedded in) the plot of the Red Dragon Rising series. (Plug alert: book two just came out in paperback; book three is out in January.) But one of the best general discussions I've seen of the real issues involved were in this SRATFOR video, here:

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20111115-stratfor-conversation-george-friedman-and-special-guest-robert-kaplan

You may not agree with any of the speakers, but they're worth listening to.