That viral video of the leaders of Canada, France and the U.K. laughing about their U.S. counterpart at last week’s NATO summit was vivid yet anecdotal evidence of what the rest of the world thinks of President Donald Trump. Now comes some hard data showing America’s declining global reputation. Read Here – Bloomberg
Stupidity, especially in the political sphere, often comes with a side of brutality, and keeping track of it, rather than allowing it to pile on, might help us to hold fast to our higher selves. Also, there is something innately comical about stupidity; if we are forced to suffer fools, we can at least have […]
There is a specter haunting not just Europe but the whole globe, quaking the boots of established political parties, legacy media outlets, and transnational institutions of government and civil society. This creeping dread is gathered under the catch-all label of “populism.” Cosmopolitan elites are on alert for its “dangerous rise.” Unelected bureaucracies are being hollowed […]
Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a resounding election victory on Friday that will allow him to end three years of political paralysis and take Britain out of the European Union by Jan. 31. Brexit represents the country’s biggest political and economic gamble since World War Two, cutting the world’s fifth largest economy adrift from the […]
China’s diplomats are waging an increasingly assertive public relations campaign to counter growing international criticism over its handling of the unrest in Hong Kong, now in its seventh month. Diplomatic and political pundits believe the heightened activism among Chinese envoys underlines an overriding priority to prevent further internationalisation of what Beijing insists is an internal […]
Genuine ideological differences have returned to British politics. That is as true in foreign policy as in questions of domestic politics. The post-Cold War foreign policy consensus in UK politics around liberal multilateralism is fraying. Read Here – Chatham House
If it’s true that no person ever consciously chooses evil — a philosophical saw suggested by Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of the author of Frankenstein — Aung San Suu Kyi’s transformation from perfectly sympathetic former political prisoner to perfectly unsympathetic alleged war criminal is even more baffling. Read Here – OZY
To understand geopolitics we need to understand power, which in turn derives from the perception of national wealth. The way nation-states use their wealth to defend their interests helps to shape our perception of their place and their role in the world. Soil resources are among the most important elements of wealth. But it is […]
The American fracking for oil and natural gas boom will continue on through the 2020s. And why not? Since fracking took off in 2008, the U.S. has more than doubled our proven oil reserves to ~65 billion barrels. Natural gas reserves have surged over 80% to ~430 trillion cubic feet. Already the largest oil and […]
China’s attempts to woo South and Central Asian countries with a total of US$126 billion of investment in 17 years have proved the most polarising of its efforts to gain regional influence, because of concerns over debt traps, transparency and Chinese labour, according to research in the United States. Read Here – South China Morning Post
looking beyond borders 