In The News

Belt and Rebranding Initiative: Interpreter

Nora Schlenzig April 21, 2020
The Belt and Road Initiative represents a wide variety of Chinese overseas initiatives, explains Nora Schlenzig of the Lowy Institute. “The initiative itself has gone through several rounds of rebranding since its official launch by Xi Jinping in 2013,” she explains, including One Belt, One Road Initiative and New Silk Road. “Supporters see it as a long-overdue plan for global infrastructure...

Authoritarianism Going Viral: Project Syndicate

Patrick Gaspard April 20, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has created the opportunity for leaders with authoritarian tendencies to consolidate power and reduce human rights. Many governments have used the pandemic to discriminate against strongholds of political opponents as well as ethnic, religious or racial minorities. After the virus emerged in China, the government applied coverup efforts and punished whistle-blowers. India’s...

COVID-19 Reshuffling the Global Power Deck? PRI

Indra Ekmanis April 16, 2020
In confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries quickly abandoned international cooperation and leadership traditions. “A global response is critical to tackling the challenges posed by the virus – from sharing data that accurately models the crisis, to collaborating on a vaccine and its equitable distribution,” suggested Nicholas Burns, former US ambassador to NATO during an interview with...

Age of Clashing Empires: New Statesman

Mark Leonard April 13, 2020
Analysts are less certain that nations bound by trade might find it impossible to head to war. The US-China trade war and Britain’s embrace of Brexit signaled that decoupling was already underway. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic applied sudden brakes and exposed weaknesses. “Britain will be exiting into a totally different world, one defined by competing blocs and protectionism rather than...

George Orwell Lives: The Times of India

Nayan Chanda April 6, 2020
George Orwell’s novel 1984 describes an unsettled society under constant surveillance by a totalitarian government promoting ignorance and striving to control every action and thought. In the absence of trust, leaders expect citizens to agree mindlessly with any proclamation regardless of the facts. Nayan Chanda compares the novel to China’s propaganda and censorship in touting its leadership...

Global Pandemic Strategy: Project Syndicate

Josep Borrell April 5, 2020
The world confronts a common enemy in COVID-19, and choices made today will shape individual communities and the world in the months and years ahead, explains Josep Borrell for Project Syndicate. A natural instinct is to fend for one’s self. “Going it alone all but guarantees that the fight will last longer, and that the human and economic costs will be far higher,” he writes. “Although the enemy...

Threat to Western Multilateral Order: New Statesman

Paul Mason April 3, 2020
The COVID-19 may soon present a geopolitical and security crisis in addition to the health and economic challenges, as the disease spreads from advanced economies and cities to rural communities and the global South. Fragile states could collapse. The United States and Europe, under stress, have not displayed traditional leadership roles with early pandemic communications or orderly distribution...