China’s embrace of economic reform in the 1980s and 1990s reshaped the global economy and deepened its ties to the West, ushering in an era of free trade and multilateral cooperation. Several recent books revisit this period, showing how early optimism gave way to nationalism, protectionism, and strategic rivalry. Read More Here
The former Chinese premier was heralded as a reformer, but change never came. Read More Here
One year after the protests that ousted Sri Lanka’s president and government, reforms remain elusive and the national crisis is far from over. Read More Here
The kingdom’s transformation has huge implications for the United States and Middle East. Read More Here
New legislation in Europe carves out a bold new path in tech policy, but it creates the impression this path is cost-free. It is not. Read More Here
For the West, China is a disputable issue, even more so its phenomenal economic growth in recent decades. There are many question marks, in the West, over the emergence of China as the new economic, political, and recently also technological power. What is the secret behind China’s unprecedented success story? Read More Here
Xi’s power is not unlimited, and can only overcome opposition if he continues to show economic success, especially restructuring and reforms, which have not been successful so far. Whether it is the resentments of the government officials or public intellectuals and liberals who have been most affected by Xi’s muzzling of dissent, they can only […]
What’s the larger picture of Mohammed bin Salman as a reformer? The prince is trying to prepare Saudi Arabia for a post-petroleum order, in theory by unlocking competitiveness and creativity. His plan is detailed in Vision 2030. It includes reducing the number of royal family members on the government payroll. It also increases domestic tourism—based on […]
Across Asia, the world has supposedly been witnessing the return of the strongman. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been grasping more and more control in his own hands since claiming power in 2012. Two years later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and President Joko Widodo (known as “Jokowi”) in Indonesia won office by selling themselves […]
On the surface, the similarities between 1960s Iran and modern Saudi Arabia seem self-explanatory. Like Saudi Arabia today, Iran in the Pahlavi era was ruled by a monarchy with a close (but complicated) relationship with the United States. Indeed, Tehran and Riyadh would go on to become the “twin pillars” of Nixon’s strategy for keeping the […]
looking beyond borders 