Donald Trump has spent much of his second term as president of the United States proposing to erect monuments to himself: a 76-foot triumphal arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery; a gilded, giant ballroom at the White House; a planned renovation of the Kennedy Center (renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center); and a broader effort to remake the Washington, D.C. landscape to suit his aesthetic preferences.
The visuals of this week’s summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping were carefully crafted to showcase the equality between the U.S. and China.
CAIR – A group of developing countries launched the Borrowers’ Platform on April 15 to create a stronger collective voice in debt management discussions and international financial negotiations.
PARIS – The war in Iran has caused a dramatic redistribution of global wealth.
PARIS/LOVELAND-The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced in early April a plan to deliver half of its government services using agent-based artificial intelligence (AI) within the next two years. According to the plan, AI will play the role of an “executive partner” that “analyzes, decides, executes and improves in real time” without human intervention.
NEW YORK – As the economic consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran become clear, policymakers around the world are losing patience. That became abundantly clear at the recent spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, D.C., where British Finance Minister Rachel Reeves bemoaned the “madness” of a war that is “not ours.”
SANTIAGO – For decades, global power has come from Europe and the United States. At least that’s what I thought when I first set foot in the Northern Hemisphere as a graduate student at Cambridge University. But the management of Chile’s international economic relations under former President Gabriel Boric has shown how much power the Global South can wield if it so chooses.
BERLIN – What will Europe be like without the U.S. military and political presence? Europeans had better start preparing for this prospect, because it is no longer in doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump wants to end the North Atlantic Alliance and is well on his way to achieving this goal. The only question that remains is whether he will officially withdraw from NATO or simply devastate it with his disdain and contempt.
Over the past 16 years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the longest-serving head of government in the European Union, has taken all sorts of actions to tip the electoral scales in favor of his ruling Fidesz party. However, that party may well lose Sunday’s election, raising the question of next steps.
TEL AVIV – When news broke that the United States had agreed to a two-week truce with Iran, I immediately recalled an exchange described by U.S. Col. Harry Summers in 1982. “You’ve never beaten us on the battlefield,” Summers told a former North Vietnamese colonel. “Yes, but we won the war,” came the emphatic reply.
We live in a world of senseless suffering and impending catastrophe, where the idea of moral progress has seemingly become incomprehensible. Modern society suffers from two epochal crises: the rise of anti-democratic forces and climate change. But what if today’s tragedies turn out to be a source of hope?
SINGAPORE – Recent energy crises, particularly the war with Iran, have shown how vulnerable many countries are to conflict, disruption and coercion. Not surprisingly, governments around the world are rushing to rethink their diversification and energy transition strategies.
After announcing that the Iranian military was “gone,” U.S. President Donald Trump asked Britain, France, Japan and South Korea, as well as China, Iran’s strategic partner, to send minesweepers and naval forces to open the Strait of Hormuz. When the allies refused, the request turned into a warning: NATO faces a “very bad” future if it refuses.
LONDON/LOS ANGELES – China’s just-concluded “Two Sessions” – the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – sent a clear message: technology will be a major driver of the country’s economic future.
The energy systems of the ASEAN+3 countries, a group that includes members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea, are under increasing strain. Climate shocks are jeopardizing infrastructure and security of supply. Rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure has caused a surge in demand for electricity. Geopolitical tensions are creating new volatility in global energy markets.
WASHINGTON, DC – The purpose of international sanctions is to inflict economic damage on an adversary. If you’re the United States, you do this by seizing assets or banning transactions with certain countries, often targeting specific people or organizations close to the targeted regime. Given the global reach of the dollar system, U.S. sanctions tend to strike fear everywhere. But now the U.S. finds itself in the shoes of the one receiving them.
The chaotic crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has made clear how power works in the twenty-first century. It reminds us that the greatest long-term threat to the United States is not China’s military buildup or Russian aggression, but the gradual fragmentation of the system of alliances that has provided its global leadership since World War II.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, first imposed last April and continually modified since then, have failed to start a global trade war. Instead of retaliating against the US, much of the world effectively capitulated. This response was often seen as political weakness, especially in Europe. However, it was based on sound economic logic.
NEW YORK – The United States and Israel have launched a war that the Gulf states tried to avert by investing heavily in diplomacy. Now their civilian infrastructure is under daily attack.
The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is a blatant violation of international law. So are almost all other wars launched since the 1945 United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of force except in self-defense or, as in the case of the Korean War (1950-53) and the First Gulf War (1990-91), with Security Council authorization. The current war with Iran stands out not for its illegality but for its lack of a clear or achievable objective.
