A New Order For The Indo-Pacific

China has transformed the Indo-Pacific region’s strategic landscape in just five years. If other powers do not step in to counter further challenges to the territorial and maritime status quo, the next five years could entrench China’s strategic advantages. Read Here – Project Syndicate

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How China Interferes In Australia

Australia is the canary in the coal mine of Chinese Communist Party interference. Over the past 18 months, the country has been shaken by allegations of the Chinese party-state working to covertly manipulate the Australian political system and curate the wider political landscape. There are claims of Beijing-linked political donors buying access and influence, universities being co-opted as […]

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Trump’s Opening To North Korea Is No Surprise

Let’s face it: Trump likes strongmen. He likes Putin, Erdoğan, Duterte and Xi. It’s the namby-pamby Western leaders, especially the women like Merkel and May, whom he views with disdain. From this perspective, Kim is the big kahuna, the ultimate catch. A good relationship with him might even pave the road to Stockholm, where Trump […]

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The Politics Of Trade Wars

One inconvenient feature of the global trading system is that efforts to protect the jobs of voting workers in one country risk affecting jobs, and perhaps votes, in another. Thus President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported aluminium and steel, offered with the rationale that American metalworkers had been losing jobs to foreign competition, alarmed […]

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The Return Of Global Russia

Russia’s agenda is straightforward: to assert its influence at the expense of Washington and the rules-based international system. The Kremlin’s toolkit includes: leveraging economic and business ties, exerting political influence, harnessing the information space, and forging or deepening military ties with key countries. Where the United States and its allies have pulled back or failed […]

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There’s Nothing Shocking About Xi’s Rise

The expectation that China would amicably integrate into a global order defined by the West, and radically transform itself in the process, was always wishful thinking. Writing about Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wondered if China was inheriting “a colossal Trojan horse” that over time would bring down the Beijing […]

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A Trade War On The Poor

Last week, President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would be slapping steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminium set off fears of a global trade war. But in reality, the international trading system has been unraveling for some time. After taking a quick glance at the World Trade Organization today, one might be excused for […]

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Xi May Scare Asia Back Into Washington’s Orbit

One thing seems certain about Xi Jinping’s move to establish himself as China’s dictator for life: The bolder and more openly assertive foreign policy he has pursued since taking power five years ago is here to stay. The conventional wisdom is that the U.S., its Asian allies, and the broader international order are thus in […]

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Globalisation Has Created A Chinese Monster

Confidence in globalisation saw massive amounts of Western capital and intellectual property flow to emerging markets, above all to China. But few in the West registered the geopolitical significance of this at the time. Instead, they praised the economic growth story. And not without good reason: the integration of China into global markets lifted a […]

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