MARK MacKINNON is the Globe and Mail's Senior International Correspondent and the author of The New Cold War: Revolutions, Rigged Elections and Pipeline Politics (2007), and The China Diaries, an ebook of his train travels through the Middle Kingdom with photographer John Lehmann. He has been covering international affairs and Canada's role in the world since 2001 and is a seven-time winner of the National Newspaper Award.