Ed Hall, Conservative Home
Millions of us are facing serious economic hardship unexpectedly, and dramatic restrictions on our rights to conduct our lives as normal are in place, and may be increasingly firmly enforced. What is clear to me, is that the view that the state is the organ that fixes everything, manages everything, funds everything, plans everything, houses us, feeds us, cares and even feeds our children, brings us home from broken holidays or provides emergency cash for food and drink is misplaced. Читать дальше...
George Eaton, New Statesman
Rather than a burden, the welfare system is a form of collective insurance against life’s hazards.
Sarah White, RealClearWorld
Venezuela will likely become the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, but it remains a blind spot for the Trump administration. On March 31, the U.S. government indicted Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, on drug trafficking and money laundering charges while ignoring calls from the international community to suspend its sanctions regime during the pandemic.
James Temperton, Wired
It started with one doctor. On January 22, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws published an interview with Kris Van Kerckhoven, a general practitioner from Putte, near Antwerp. “5G is life-threatening, and no one knows it”, read the headline. One scientifically-baseless claim in this article, published in a regional version of the paper’s print edition and since deleted from its website, sparked a conspiracy theory firestorm...
John Chapman, RealClearDefense
The media-fed conflagration surrounding the removal of U.S. Navy Captain Brett Crozier as commander of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-72) has finally claimed its intended scalp: Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly resigned yesterday afternoon, after meeting with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Modly had made the decision to relieve Crozier of command on Thursday, April 2; on Friday, virally-spread
R. Tiersky, RCW
Placing the coronavirus pandemic into a historical context involves two levels of analysis. The first task is to analyze the pandemic itself as a global health problem. The second is to assess its consequences for national, international and global governance. So far, and rightly so, the focus has been on global health, plus the pandemic’s dire economic consequences. But we are beginning to assess how the world’s geopolitical order will be affected.
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Josh Rogin, Washington Post
The Chinese government’s mismanagement of the covid-19 outbreak, and how the United States should respond, are caught up in the partisan politics of Washington. But around the country, Americans in both parties increasingly agree that the United States needs a tougher, more realistic China strategy that depends less on the honesty and goodwill of the Chinese government.
Paul Heer, National Interest
It is too soon to tell what net impact the COVID-19 pandemic crisis will have on the U.S.-China relationship. Several indicators point toward an accelerated deterioration as the two sides point fingers of blame at each other and compete for credibility and influence amidst the global response. But the crisis is also highlighting the opportunity—and the need—for Beijing and Washington to join forces against the virus, and thus open a path toward greater bilateral cooperation and the building of mutual trust. Читать дальше...
Benjamin Russell, AQ
Mexico’s president has resisted the fiscal stimulus pursued in much of the region. Some experts say he’s ignoring reality.
Fabrice Deprez, FPRI
The Moscow lockdown announced on March 29 is an unprecedented event in Russia’s post-Soviet history, as are the similar measures introduced across the country to slow the spread of COVID-19. Yet, the way that Russia has responded to the outbreak so far has followed an unusual pattern: early, swift action was followed by several weeks of uneasy lethargy, and then, as the number of cases picked up, a new surge of activity outsourced from the Kremlin to the regions. The... Читать дальше...
Dani Rodrik, Project Syndicate
Puglierin et al, ECFR
ECFR’s national offices discuss the emerging divisions between EU member states on the economic response to covid-19.
Karnitschnig & Mischke, Pol. EU
The crisis has convinced Germans that Trump is not just untrustworthy, but dangerous.
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
Though “supply chain” became a household term only in the past generation, it has been around since humans have been engaging in commerce. One group had fish and the other had arrowheads. In order to fish, the fishermen needed nets, which another group provided, while the arrowheads went to a group that could hunt for animals, whose kill disseminated through the system by exchange with those providing arrowheads. This is obviously a poorly thought out scenario... Читать дальше...
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Why the Germans and Dutch are right to resist this way of sharing coronavirus costs
Bethan Jones & Fabio Montale, New York Times
This is what a country a month into lockdown looks like: desperate, hungry and scared.
Jeffrey Mankoff, WOTR
Rarely do two countries’ leaders hold a joint press conference proclaiming their intention to “deepen relations” barely one week after a clash between their militaries left dozens dead. Yet, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, did just that on March 5 following more than six hours of talks at the Kremlin, where they agreed to a ceasefire to prevent the increasingly dangerous crisis over the Syrian rebel stronghold of...
Michael Auslin, Spectator
It’s business as usual in Asia’s vital seas.
