Cold Ambition: The New Geopolitical Faultline
In the same way that the US cannot let China have de facto control over the South China Sea, the US cannot permit the NSR to become a waterway over which Russia exercises unilateral jurisdiction.
On the Causes of European Political Instability
EU parliamentary elections are only a month away, elections in which far-right and far-left parties will potentially secure record seat allocations. Despite their seemingly different ideologies, they have one thing in common: support from the desperate youth and disaffected who have been dispossessed by the policies of the ECB. If real growth cannot emerge soon in Europe, the odds are very real that the political and economic project of the EU may well be fated to fail.
The Global Saudi Soft Power Offensive: A Saudi Princess and Dollar Diplomacy
Saudi Arabia appointed their first female ambassador in late February. Princess Reema bint Bandar al Saud has been appointed as ambassador to the United States, while the Crown Prince has undergone a series of meetings with leaders throughout Asia. These actions, as a whole, demonstrate an attempted global soft power campaign which the West must now respond to.
Kiev’s New Partner: A Betrayal of U.S. Interests
A former counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William C. Triplet, even went so far as to say that “the Ukrainians are getting away with taking the U.S. taxpayers’ money in the one hand while stabbing the U.S. Navy in the back with the other.”…the threat to American security stemming from Ukraine must be responded to; the U.S. ought to pressure an ally who may be betraying its interests.
US/China Trade War: A Winning Strategy?
With the ongoing trade war causing highly volatile relations between the United States and China, new evidence is emerging that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is reevaluating its position in the face of hardening American opposition.
China Dethroned: Market Capitalization Tumbles as Trade War Continues
The trade war between the world’s two largest economies is entering its second round, and China is taking a beating. Bloomberg writes that China has recently ceded its position as the world’s second largest economy in terms of market capitalization to Japan, whose equities it eclipsed previously in 2014. Chinese equities dropped in value to $6.09 trillion USD slipping well below the Japanese equity market, which is currently valued at $6.17 trillion USD.