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As the global COVID-19 pandemic engulfs the world, the grand strategy of revisionist powers will either falter or accelerate. At the dawn of the post-coronavirus world — whenever it might come — the Chinese Communist Party will push forward with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will...
As COVID-19 continues to impact markets and national and global economies, it is worthwhile noting that Gulf economies were already slowing before the virus hit the region. A comprehensive assessment by London-based Capital Economics, released on February 25 but based on statistics up to...
China’s economic juggernaut has been brought to its knees by COVID-19. In the first two months of this year, Beijing reported a 17% drop in exports, including a 28% drop in exports to the US, a 4% drop in imports, and trade deficit of $7.1 billion. For the Chinese government to publish such...
At a dinner party in mid-February, an architect told me that he was having a problem finishing his building projects. It was the carpets. Most wall-to-wall carpeting for big construction projects in the United States, he explained, comes from China. The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan — and the...
On February 24, the World Health Organization declared that the world should prepare for a possible coronavirus pandemic. Outbreaks in South Korea, Iran and Italy have caused alarm. Clearly, the virus has traveled widely and rapidly. Authorities have canceled concerts, carnivals and football...
Sino-US relations have been a marriage of mutual economic convenience that worked rather well for both countries for several decades. What is commonly referred to as “Chimerica” — where China produces products and purchases American treasury bonds, and the US purchases Chinese products and...
Pelé, Di Stefano, Maradona, Ronaldo, Neymar, Messi: Brazil and Argentina have produced some of the best football players in history — and currently. All the elite Europeans teams have Brazilians and Argentinians in their cast. The national teams are also the biggest rivals in the world’s most...
Seated in the heart of South America, Brazil is the continent’s biggest economy, instrumental in the development of its neighboring countries. Brazil’s population currently stands at 211 million; however, figures from the World Bank indicate that annual population growth is falling, with rates...
The US and China are the two biggest economies in the world. Over the decades, the two countries have been opponents, friends, frenemies and rivals. The US joined the European powers in the exploitation of China, opposed the spread of communism and fought Mao Zedong's young nation in Korea. This...
Profiting from his return to Europe to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO, US President Donald Trump used the platform to launch the opening salvos in a new skirmish in his endlessly improvised “America First” trade wars. On the same day, we learn that Brazil and Argentina are also under...
The TED website describes Kishore Mahbubani, a career diplomat from Singapore, as someone who “re-envisions global power dynamics through the lens of rising Asian economies.” This description is not just apt for Mahbubani but also for his new book, “Has the West Lost It?” The title may...
