Sholto Byrnes, The National
The world’s biggest trade agreement was signed on Sunday. Leaders from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, and the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations put pen to paper in a virtual conference to launch the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will represent 30 per cent of global gross domestic product and – at 2.2 billion people – 30 per cent of the world’s...
Nick Westcott, African Arguments
Virtually all Ethiopia’s neighbours and partners are against the conflict in Tigray, but can they stop it?
Simon Saradzhyan, RM
Robert Gates’ “Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World” constitutes the most coherent of recent attempts to catalogue the key instruments of modern America’s national power and then discern how the use of these instruments has evolved following the end of the Cold War and to what effect. Gates particularly excels in dissecting why, how and to what effect America has underutilized the non-military components of its power... Читать дальше...
Walter Mayr, Der Spiegel
Sebastian Kurz's supporters admire his chutzpah, but critics see the Austrian chancellor's stubborn maneuvering as a danger to the cohesion of the European Union. DER SPIEGEL paid a visit to his offices in Vienna.
H.R. McMaster with Bush Center
After the Cold War, we had reason to be optimistic. We had just won, the Soviet Union collapsed, and we demonstrated our military prowess as well during the 1991 Gulf War. But I think this period of over-optimism led to the widespread acceptance of some fundamentally flawed assumptions about the post-Cold War world. Among those was this idea that an arc of history had guaranteed the primacy of our free and open societies over closed authoritarian systems.
War on the Rocks
Rachel Cheung, WPR
More than a year ago, months into the escalating protests in Hong Kong, a reporter with a local television station, Tsang, put on a bulletproof vest for the very first time.* She had gone for a drink the night before, wondering if it would be her last. A few days earlier at a protest, a reporter standing next to her was hit in the eye and permanently blinded by a police projectile; on another occasion, her cameraman had yanked her from the spot right before a Molotov cocktail exploded at her feet. Читать дальше...
Connor Fiddler, RealClearWorld
The Chinese Communist Party has always been insecure about its rule. The combined shocks of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and the collapse of the Soviet Union only exacerbated that fear. To offset a revolution, the CCP established an informal social contract: The CCP can maintain political control only if it can deliver economic prosperity. 2020 has put that contract in jeopardy. The combination of a pandemic-induced economic crisis and Hong Kong’s democracy... Читать дальше...
Sean Quirk, Lawfare
An uptick in Chinese military activity around Taiwan and China Coast Guard presence at the Senkakus have kept the region on edge. Beijing seems keen to use military action short of war to test both maritime boundaries and the patience of officials in Taipei, Tokyo and Washington. Such a “shadowboxing” strategy is consistent with long-standing Chinese efforts that began at least in 2012 to “
James Crabtree, Nikkei
Tub-thumping leaders rewarded despite incompetent pandemic response
Hal Brands, Bloomberg
James Marks, The Bulwark
The Trump administration raised barriers to China acquiring American dual-use technology. The Biden administration should do even more.
J. Mandeu, Worldcrunch
Authorities in Belgium say that regardless of how Brexit negotiations unfold, fishers from Bruges have "royal privilege" to continue operating in British waters.
Michael Abramowitz, Persuasion
The U.S. election and the Covid crisis have distracted from repression around the world
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, German Marshall Fund
There is a sense of foreboding in Ankara regarding Joe Biden’s presidency. Presidents Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared to be kindred spirits and Trump went a long way in protecting Ankara against the bipartisan consensus in Congress to sanction Turkey. The government in Ankara will have a long list of expectations from the Biden administration, mostly things it would like it not to do. The two most critical ones are not sanctioning... Читать дальше...
Stefanos Manos, Ekathimerini
It would be prudent to temper our expectations that the United States under a new president will be able to effectively control Turkey’s expansionist dreams. It is true, some hope, that with Joe Biden there will be a shift to a values-driven foreign policy. Be that as it may, let’s face it, America is like a supertanker – it changes direction very slowly.
Ömer Taşpınar & Michael O'Hanlon, National Interest
The United States should certainly speak up and openly criticize Erdogan’s deepening autocracy. But in the meantime, it should also face reality. For all his own flaws, Erdogan still leads an important country—and is still the only person that the United States can attempt to do business even if there are major disagreements between the two countries.
George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures
In 2005, in a speech delivered in front of Russia’s Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe in Russia’s history. What he meant is that the fragmentation of the Soviet Union would cost Russia the element that had allowed it to survive foreign invasions since the 18th century: strategic depth.
