Trade wars assure losers, not winners. So far, Trump announced tariffs on imported solar panels and modules, washing machines and parts, steel and aluminum fall far short of waging one. At the same time, his rage to reduce America’s trade deficit with China could launch a bilateral one hurting both countries. Countless numbers of US…
In the previous article I explained how the invention of the nuclear device altered the balance of power after WWII and during the cold war era. In this second article I intend to explain why nuclear-armed powers decrease the likelihood of a nuclear apocalypse, as counterintuitive as it seems. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in…
A US aircraft carrier recently docked in Vietnam for the first time since the American military withdrawal in 1975. This hitherto unprecedented move in the post-war relations between the US and the ASEAN-member state is clearly intended as a signal towards China, with whom Vietnam is involved in a contentious dispute over the South China…
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is set to host a US aircraft carrier from the pacific fleet. The USS Carl Vinson will be docked in Vietnam, and this will send a clear message of hostility from Vietnam to the People’s Republic of China. The South China Sea has been a point of contention in recent…
Will China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping disprove Lord Acton’s famous maxim that all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Are we entering an era where many of the world’s great nations are ruled by strongmen, despots or modern monarchs? Look at America’s would-be king, Donald Trump; Russia’s Vlad Putin; and India’s Narendra Modi. China’s…
From 1945 to the present day, the US and its close European allies have developed a geopolitical narrative which in the minds of its authors, offered a blueprint for international peace and prosperity. According to this narrative, confrontational multi-party democracy, a rejection of constitutional secularism, an internally de-regulated market, an adversarial press and geopolitical alliances…
