The Boxer Protocol was an unequal treaty that recognised the right of foreign powers to station troops in China. Many believe it precipitated the fall of the Qing dynasty. The memories are bitter. But China today is the world’s second-largest economy, and a global power that is feared by others. It cannot continue to be […]
COVID-19 will trigger a sharp drop in household incomes in Middle East and North African (MENA) countries that are fragile and in conflict situations, such as Afghanistan, Djibouti, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and Somalia. As export earnings suffer and social distancing reduces domestic activity, incomes will decline—especially for informal and low-skilled workers, including within large internally displaced […]
By many measures, 2020 is looking to be the worst year that humankind has faced in many decades. We’re in the midst of a pandemic… The world economy is in free fall, with unemployment rising dramatically, trade and output plummeting, and no hopeful end in sight. A plague of locusts is back for a second time […]
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, in October 1957, Washington finally understood that the Soviet Union was not solely a formidable ideological antagonist but also a technological and military rival… The COVID-19 pandemic may be China’s unlikely Sputnik moment. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
The era of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, launched with the promise of largesse, is now likely to go down in history as a period of unprecedented belt-tightening. The 34-year-old known as MBS, already set on reducing his kingdom’s dependence on oil, has now found the insurance offered by the precious commodity pulled out […]
To those already predisposed to favour domestic production over international trade, the COVID-19 pandemic seems like a case in point. Yet a closer look at the facts shows that, if anything, the current crisis offers powerful evidence of why we need global supply chains and widely distributed production. Read Here – Project Syndicate
The viruses and related diseases are not necessarily new but the spillover to humans appears to be occurring with increasing frequency. These viruses are unfamiliar to human immune systems and therein lies the problem… When further propagated by global supply chains, what previously might have been isolated pockets of disease turn into global concerns—and in […]
The United States once built an international order that all but assured its own primacy. Yet of late, it has changed jobs from that of chief architect and builder to chief arsonist. The new U.S. narrative is one of victimisation—at the hands of everybody, but especially the Chinese—and Washington seems to want to burn the […]
Instead of using all the powers of the US federal government to limit the ravages of COVID-19, President Donald Trump’s administration is wasting precious time and energy blaming China for the spread of the virus. Pundits speak of a new cold war. But if the United States really intends to confront China in a struggle […]
The more India rises, the more it must expect Chinese opposition, and it will have to also work with other powers to ensure that its interests are protected in the neighbourhood, the region and the world. The balance will keep shifting between cooperation and competition with China, both of which characterise that relationship. Read Here […]
looking beyond borders 