It’s pointless to complain when America’s allies ask in so many words, “What have you done for us lately?” To the rest of the world, America looks like a declining power, because it is a declining power. Read More Here
Pakistan got what it wished for—but will come to regret it. A Taliban takeover will leave Pakistan more vulnerable to extremism at home and potentially more isolated on the world stage. Read More Here
To call 2021 the summer of discontent would be a severe understatement. From Cuba to South Africa to Colombia to Haiti, often violent protests are sweeping every corner of the globe as angry citizens are taking to the streets. Read More Here
The longer he remains in charge, the more the political structure will conform to his personality, his objectives, his whims, and his network of clients. Xi, in turn, becomes more important to China’s political stability every day he sits in office. Read More Here
After more than a decade, President Xi Jinping returned to Lhasa, leading a delegation to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the administrative and religious capital of the Tibet autonomous region. Read More Here
China and the U.S. are shipping goods to each other at the briskest pace in years, making the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship look as if the protracted tariff war and pandemic never happened. Read More Here
The Pentagon sees artificial intelligence as a way to outfox, outmaneuver, and dominate future adversaries. But the brittle nature of AI means that without due care, the technology could perhaps hand enemies a new way to attack. Read More Here
As China’s factory-gate prices soared this year, investors worried the country would become a new source of inflation for the rest of the world. Instead, the world’s second-largest economy has helped alleviate some price pressures caused by the pandemic, and appears likely to keep doing so—at least for a while. Read More Here
Involving central banks in allocating money on the basis of “greening” compels them to make political decisions for which governments should be held accountable. The UK government’s new climate remit for the Bank of England is thus a further step in its abdication of responsibility for ensuring a healthy, sustainable economy.
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
