Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening plenary of the 2017 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos. Here are 10 quick takeaways from the 50-minute address, which touched upon globalization, protectionism, world economy and China’s development among other subjects. Read Here – Xinhua
What comes next in Iraq is on everyone’s mind. Trump will inherit Iraq, its internal ethnic divides and external pressures between Iran and Saudi Arabia. He will inherit a complex, deliberate way of war solidified over eight years by Obama, yet born of the experiences of U.S. generals — including several who will now serve […]
When Xi Jinping addresses business elites at Davos, the Chinese president will find himself an unlikely champion of the trade-based global order Donald Trump has derided. His new role could prove to be one of his biggest tests. Read Here – Bloomberg
In January 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his farewell address after serving two terms as U.S. president; the five-star general chose to warn Americans of this specific threat to democracy: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise […]
Last year turned out pretty well for Chinese President Xi Jinping. The economic slowdown stabilised, relations with neighbours such as the Philippines improved, and Xi strutted the global stage while hosting the Group of 20 for the first time. The year ahead, however, could be more trying as Donald Trump enters the White House and […]
Rafsanjani’s death reflects a growing reality for Tehran’s theocrats. The first generation of revolutionaries are now in their late sixties, seventies, and eighties. They are, literally, a dying breed. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has served as Supreme Leader since 1989, will be seventy-eight this year. Read Here – The New Yorker
This year marks the most volatile political risk environment in the postwar period, at least as important to global markets as the economic recession of 2008. It needn’t develop into a geopolitical depression that triggers major interstate military conflict and/or the breakdown of major central government institutions. But such an outcome is now thinkable, a tail […]
Short of last-minute diplomacy, Donald Trump will inherit another hostage crisis with Iran on Inauguration Day—thirty-five years after the first hostage drama at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran ended, as Ronald Reagan was sworn in, and exactly one year after the Obama Administration’s swap to free five more Americans. Read Here – The New Yorker
The uncertainty surrounding what a Trump presidency will mean for Russian behavior in Eastern Europe hints at a larger point: The biggest unknown for U.S. interests in the world in 2017 may lie not in Russia or North Korea or the Middle East, but in the United States itself. Read Here – Defense One
This past year brought no relief to those fighting the scourge of terrorism. Terrorists carried out horrific attacks around the globe, including at airports in Brussels and Istanbul, at crowded festivals in Berlin, Nice, and Baghdad, at restaurants in Bangladesh, and at various locations throughout Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Read Here – The Cipher […]
looking beyond borders 