As to Eastern Europe, there has been much debate within Obama's administration about how and where to draw the line in dealing with Putin's Russia. When the U.S. president visited Tallinn, Estonia, he decidedly drew the line along NATO's boundaries, which do not encompass non-member Ukraine.

At a NATO summit in Wales, U.S. and European leaders searched for new measures that will have more impact than the economic sanctions imposed so far, as they have realized that sanctions alone will not force Moscow to reverse course.

They came up with plans for a 4,000-member rapid response force, which even the New York Times called useless against an actual invasion. So they are slapping another round of sanctions on Russia while they continue to mull over whether to provide arms to Ukraine's beleaguered military.

Tension has been rising between China and the United States ever since a Chinese J-11B fighter plane intercepted a U.S. sub-marine hunter P-8 Poseidon Navy aircraft flying over the South China Sea along China's coast on August 19, 2014. China considers the surveillance flight an unfriendly act and asked the United States to cease such actions. The U.S. refuses, claiming the flights are justified because of a "lack of transparency" in China's military buildup. The pretext is absurd, and the logic pure arrogance.

Even worse were the words of the commander of U.S. nuclear sub the USS Michigan (SSGN 727), Captain Benjamin Pearson, bragging about the vessel's presence in the East and South China Seas since last December to conduct surveillance, training and other undisclosed missions, and citing these missions as evidence of the U.S. Navy's commitment to supporting Washington's strategic "rebalance" to the Asia Pacific region. He even claimed that, "We do operations in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and Philippine Sea. This area is like our big backyard!" according to a report published in Jane's Defense Weekly on September 8, 2014.

To shore up troubled relations between China and the U.S., Obama sent his National Security Advisor Susan Rice to Beijing. She was also in Beijing to prepare for the U.S. president's November visit. Let's see what happens then.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

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