A rarely seen occurrence happened in Europe this week: a humbled China apologized to Europe, after the country’s ambassador to France questioned the sovereignty of post-Soviet countries. It has renewed the conversation about what could happen if Europe, armed with a unified China policy, went toe-to-toe with Beijing.
The music industry’s intangible and less-noticed tangible contributions to the climate crisis—like the emissions used by streaming services and the environmental impact of touring—as well as the obstacles that hinder the mitigation of those contributions exemplify the issues faced by nearly every industry around the world.
U.S. policy in Latin America is now strongly shaped by the question of China’s involvement and influence there. But while the U.S. will not convince countries to turn away from Beijing, it could help governments negotiate a better and more fair playing field, for China and other foreign powers operating in their countries.
The pace of innovation when it comes to AI is leaving many outside observers, and even industry insiders, stunned. Some now worry about AI’s potential impact on the global economy and the role humans will play in it. The concerns are understandable, but we should not overreact. Humans will continue to thrive in the AI-driven economy.
Powered by intense opposition to a law that would require Dutch farmers to severely cut their nitrogen emissions, the populist Farmer’s Citizens Movement has suddenly become the most popular party in the Netherlands. It’s a taste of things to come as democracies seek to enact measures to protect the environment.
While many governments around the world promote green growth as a way of combatting the climate crisis, some have started to doubt whether this will be enough. Could degrowth, an alternative way of organizing society beyond economic growth, be the way to achieve rapid emissions reductions and a more equitable world?
For years, Russia analysts have tried to make sense of President Vladimir Putin’s rule by reaching for comparisons with key moments in Russian history. Yet a more useful approach than looking to Russian history would be to compare the Putin regime with similar regimes over the past 70 years in Egypt, Pakistan and Yemen.
Could a coalition of non-Western countries find a pathway to peace between Russia and Ukraine? Brazilian President Lula da Silva talked up this prospect on a visit last weekend to Beijing. Along with China’s own 12-point “position paper” on ending the war, that has focused attention on non-Western powers’ potential to broker peace.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has disrupted the global nuclear energy market, with unpredictable implications for global energy security. While the decoupling from Russian sources of nuclear fuel and reactors makes perfect sense to some policymakers, disruptions of the status quo entail significant costs—and sometimes risks.
Instead of the major economic crisis that was previously predicted, Latin America appears to be in a period of stagflation—growing too slowly to meet populations’ needs, with high but not crisis-level inflation. But several presidents are now questioning the independence of the central banks, a potential warning sign to the region.
Friction between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church is not new. But tense relations reached boiling point during Easter celebrations last week with further arrests in Ortega’s latest brazen crackdown, putting the devout in the middle of a power struggle between two mighty forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a three-day state visit to China last week, during which the war in Ukraine, Europe’s ties with Beijing and trade between France and China topped his agenda. But Macron’s messaging during the trip was confusing and raised questions about his vision of European strategic autonomy.
Mali’s government is struggling to assert its authority as more communities fall to various Islamist groups. After a decade of faltering counterinsurgency efforts, it might be time to take a closer look at the biggest obstacle to stability —the Malian state’s chronic inability to counteract shadow governance structures.
The recent protests that erupted across Israel in opposition to a proposed “judicial reform” put the spotlight on an increasingly prominent issue: the politicization of the judiciary. More and more, democratically elected governments around the world have been dismantling checks and balances to undermine judicial independence.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s gradual emergence from diplomatic isolation has gained further momentum with his country’s reestablishment of official relations with Saudi Arabia. But Syria’s isolation may not be over quite yet, despite the seeming progress Damascus has made in engagement with its regional neighbors.
A recent report from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan documented terrible human rights violations taking place in the country, named individual perpetrators and called for prosecutions. But certain obstacles could prevent the International Criminal Court from being the venue for such a trial.
One hundred days into his new term in office, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is returning to familiar policy approaches in an effort to restore Brazil’s regional and global leadership. But a difficult domestic political and economic environment may constrain his foreign policy ambitions.