By the late Qing period, Chinese officials were confronted with problems hardly conceived of in Confucian classics—but on the other hand, vanishingly few U.S. policymakers have degrees in science or foreign languages, and yet they nevertheless make decisions regarding nuclear weapons, biotechnology, and international trade. Read More Here
China has unquestionably studied the Japanese ordeal to find out which policies work and which don’t. Unfortunately, Japan’s economy has been stationary for about three decades, so there is not much help coming from that side. Read More Here
The U.S. military exit from Afghanistan has predictably escalated internal turmoil and increased regional security concerns in neighboring countries like China. In the United States, though, there have been fears that China will step in to fill the gap left by Washington. Read More Here
That an empire’s strength might actually be its weakness, creating vulnerabilities to exogenous shocks that didn’t exist in earlier stages of its history, bears consideration in light of the comparatively poor performance of Western countries in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More Here
India is worried. As the last U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, there is palpable fear in New Delhi that the return of the Taliban to power might mean the return of Pakistan-funded jihadi groups that have a history of attacking India. Read More Here
After two decades, the United States is finally leaving Afghanistan, and only 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. In both countries, the insurgencies continue. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. In both wars, Washington hoped that imposing democratic reforms could protect the population, win hearts and minds, and defeat the insurgency. Read More Here
Spirituality, whether pursued via faithfulness, tradition or sheer exploration, is a way of connecting with something larger than oneself. It is perhaps no surprise that tech companies have discovered that they can be that “something” for their employees. Who needs God when we’ve got Google? Read More Here
The use of social media has no single preordained outcome. These platforms cannot “bring the world closer together,” as Facebook’s mission states, and help connect only democracy-loving people. Read More Here
Though they have received most of the attention, supply bottlenecks are hardly the only factor to consider when assessing the recent surge of inflation. Far more important are broader structural changes in the economy and the alarmingly complacent attitude of central banks. Read More Here
There was a dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020, the United Nations said today – much of it likely related to the fallout of COVID-19. While the pandemic’s impact has yet to be fully mapped*, a multi-agency report estimates that around a tenth of the global population – up to 811 million people – […]
looking beyond borders 