In recent months… there have been disturbing signals that Beijing is reconsidering its peaceful approach and contemplating armed unification. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made clear his ambition to resolve the Taiwan issue, grown markedly more aggressive on issues of sovereignty, and ordered the Chinese military to increase its activity near the island. Read More Here
The Biden administration held its first summit-level meeting with Quad allies in March but is only now stepping up its ASEAN-related diplomacy, notably with less robust senior-level engagement. Washington has paid lip service to “ASEAN centrality” in recent statements, but in practice is it really aiming for “Quad centrality?” Read More Here
Leading analysts argue, for example, that the United States should take advantage of new leadership in Washington, impending U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a growing Pakistani need for foreign investment, not just to engage Pakistan, but to reset U.S.-Pakistani relations. Read More Here.
There is wide agreement that vaccinating the world is the only way to end the pandemic. But no one has yet operationalized a plan or marshaled the support to achieve it. The result is a world divided into two parts: one vaccinated and the rest threatened by COVID-19 for years to come. Read More Here
Although prominent cryptocurrency advocates are politically connected and have democratized their base, regulators simply cannot sit on their hands forever. Malicious ransomware attacks targeting growing numbers of firms and individuals could prove to be the tipping point. Read More Here
In this multipolar order, while more evenly distributed with the rise of the European Union, India, and Japan, among others, power remains heavily concentrated in the hands of a so-called “triangle,” of which the United States and China command two sides, with the third occupied by Russia. Read More Here
For several months, Annalena Baerbock has been the It Girl of German politics. Baerbock, who is the Green Party candidate for chancellor, has been widely touted as a successor to Angela Merkel. Her party has stood roughly at parity with the conservative Christian Democratic Party at about twenty-nine percent in the polls. Read More Here
While this crisis will leave scars, it would be inaccurate to see only adversity ahead. Emerging markets can not only reclaim their hard-won economic gains, but do even better than before the pandemic. Obviously, a first step depends on procuring, producing and distributing vaccines to end this pandemic. Read More Here
Despite presenting his agenda as the antithesis of Donald Trump’s, President Joe Biden, like his predecessor, is managing global affairs as an extension of domestic politics and economic policy. The goal of what the Biden administration calls “foreign policy for the middle class” is to promote the interests of America’s middle-class and working people. Read […]
If China historically had pursued the path that its current paramount leader, Xi Jinping, seems to want to take, it would not be a rising economic superpower. History shows that it is in China’s own interest to allow for more regional autonomy and less centralization. Read More Here
looking beyond borders 