For a moment in May, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan looked as if he was the country’s most powerful man. Having seemingly won his standoff with Pakistan’s military, Khan chided the generals, saying their coercion would achieve nothing. But for the generals, coercion achieved quite a bit. Khan’s moment on top was ephemeral.
This year’s G-7 summit made it clear the group views China and Russia as threats to the international order and offered insights into how the Western powers plan to counter them. It seems the G-7 approach has three facets: ignore Russian intimidation, economically decouple from China and court nations throughout the Global South.
Over the past five years, Beijing has adopted a much more assertive military and diplomatic approach in Southeast Asia. While one could reasonably expect this to negatively affect China’s standing in the region, the opposite is the case. China’s influence in Southeast Asia has soared, largely at the expense of the United States.
