Iranians have not seen as robust an economic recovery as many had expected to follow the JCPOA’s implementation. A morass of U.S. sanctions unrelated to the nuclear program has discouraged major international banks from investing in the country and made many companies wary of expanding into Iran. Read Here – Defense One
The New Singapore idea seems to be mainly that leaving the EU will allow the U.K. to cut taxes and roll back regulations, positioning itself as a free-market oasis just off the coast of Europe. Read Here – Bloomberg
Xi is the sixth man to rule the People’s Republic of China, and the first who was born after the revolution, in 1949. He sits atop a pyramid of eighty-seven million members of the Communist Party, an organization larger than the population of Germany. The Party no longer reaches into every corner of Chinese life, […]
Indeed, the US-China relationship is a classic example of the old saw: if you owe the bank a thousand dollars, you have a problem; if you owe the bank a trillion dollars, the bank has a problem. Trump holds the important cards and it is simply a case of whether he wants to play them. […]
The post-Cold War international system is coming to an end, and with it easy assumptions about the character of U.S. strategy toward the world’s great powers. After a period in which a dominant, U.S.-led Western coalition largely set and enforced the rules of the international order — and in which other major powers, such as […]
On the one hand, while Xi—a seasoned politician with a large staff who have likely been preparing for this meeting for months—is much better prepared for this week’s summit than Trump, he may also be more constrained than the White House expects, both in terms of what he can push and what he can offer. […]
After years of convincing the world that it is the singular dominant economic superpower China has lost that throne to the US, according a survey of 16 countries by the Pew Research Center. That’s notable given that as recently as 2012 the data showed that most countries surveyed chose China over the United States, Japan, […]
It is interesting that the theme of the “easternization” of the global system — the assertion that China is set to usurp the leadership role of an inward-turning United States — is not nearly as pronounced in the region as it is in the West. Read Here – Stratfor
Today, a quarter-century after the Cold War’s end, the West and Russia are again at odds. This time, though, at least on one side, the dispute is more transparently about geopolitical power, not ideology. Read Here – Project Syndicate
Two international lending institutions and Pakistan’s central bank have raised concerns about the debt burden of a huge China-led infrastructure program on the country’s improving but fragile finances. Surging Chinese imports for the initiative, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor program, have complicated Pakistan’s balance of payments problems during its second year of economic recovery […]
looking beyond borders 