Read Around the World in a Weekend: February 11, 2022
Please find our recommended weekend reads covering key issues and events around the world. We hope you find these informative, useful, and perhaps even fun. Please let us know if you want us to add anyone to our mailing list.
Russia/China
> Atlantic Council “The world’s top two authoritarians have teamed up. The US should be on alert”
The two leading authoritarians of our time have declared unprecedented common cause—perhaps even a de facto security alliance—with aspirations of shaping a new world order to replace the one fashioned by the United States and its partners after World War II. Putin and Xi put those aspirations to paper (see next post below).
> Office of the President of Russia “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development”
Following their meeting in Beijing last week, Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi released a 5,300-word joint statement outlining their vision for the world.
> Foreign Policy “China Can’t Carry the Russian Economy”
Putin’s courting of Beijing has paid more diplomatic than economic dividends. If the world – and the EU in particular – do implement severe sanctions as the result of an invasion of Ukraine, China cannot pick up the economic difference.
Ukraine
> Center for Strategic and International Studies “Hunger on the Heels of a Possible Ukraine Invasion”
Both Russia and Ukraine are suppliers of, and markets for, major agricultural commodities. If diplomacy fails, how could sanctions and conflict affect food security—for these countries, the region, and the United States? Of note: 70 percent of Ukraine is dedicated to agriculture and 95 percent of Ukraine’s wheat production is winter wheat.
United States
> The White House “Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States”
Late this afternoon, the White House released its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy blueprint. The report is the first regional strategy of the Biden Administration and is seen as the plan for dealing with an increasingly aggressive China. Alongside the report, the White House released an executive summary/fact sheet which you can read here.
> FiveThirtyEight “What Redistricting Looks Like in Every State”
Although Republicans went into the redistricting cycle with control over drawing more districts, it is actually Democrats who have gained ground from the process at this point. So far, redistricting has created 11 more Democratic-leaning seats nationally, three fewer Republican-leaning seats and eight fewer highly competitive seats. This is due to aggressive map-drawing by Democrats in states such as New York as well as court decisions overturning Republican gerrymanders in Ohio and North Carolina.
China
> The Atlantic “One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps”
If you took an Uber in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, there was a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets. Tahir Hamut Izgil arrived with his family in the United States in 2017, fleeing the Chinese government’s merciless persecution of his people. Tahir’s escape not only spared him near-certain internment in the camps that have swallowed more than 1 million Uyghurs; it also allowed him to share with the world his experience of the calamity engulfing his homeland. Here is what he witnessed.
> China File “A Vast Network of ‘New Era Civilization Practice Centers’ Is Beijing’s Latest Bid to Reclaim Hearts and Minds”
Since 2018, the Chinese Communist Party has opened thousands of centers across the country aimed at bringing party ideology and governance down to the neighborhood level. "By intertwining practical services with Party theory,” the planning documents show, the CCP seeks to reassert itself as a source of well-being and meaning in individual and collective life, restoring an intimacy between 'the masses' and their rulers that decades of economic liberalization have worn thin.
> Science Magazine “A Beijing think tank offered a frank review of China’s technological weaknesses. Then the report disappeared”
The study, written and published by Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies and overseen by the Institute’s President, was quickly removed from its website after being published. However, copies of the report were downloaded and are being widely circulated. Specifically, the report says scientific “decoupling” would harm more than the United States. It acknowledges that China still lags the United States in key technologies—particularly high-end semiconductors, operating systems and software, and aerospace.
India
> Foreign Policy “Modi’s Foreign-Policy Juggling Act”
Prime Minister Modi put India on the map as a great power. But strategy problems are piling up and not getting any easier with the growing Russia/Ukraine tensions and China’s economic and political growth in the region.
Latin America
> The National Interest “Will Russia Send Missiles to Cuba?”
Russia-watchers have been quick to invoke the Cuban Missile Crisis precedent, which implies that Russia would station nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles of some type in the Caribbean. But history may not repeat itself.
> FIU Digital Commons “The Return of Geopolitics: Latin America and the Caribbean in an Era of Strategic Competition”
It has become clear that the idea of focusing U.S. foreign policy on strategic competition enjoys widespread bipartisan support. U.S. statecraft is increasingly directed at the threats posed by powerful state rivals—especially China—as opposed to Salafi-Jihadist extremists and other non-state actors. Yet geopolitical rivalry is not simply something that happens “over there” in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. It also happens “over here,” within the Western Hemisphere.
> Americas Quarterly “What to Maker of Peru’s Latest Crisis”
In his first six months in office, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has sworn in three different cabinets. And his newest Prime Minister resigned only four days after being sworn into office. What to make of the political chaos and the looming risk of Peruvian Congress moving to impeach Castillo?
Africa
> Brookings Institute “Addressing Africa’s Duel Challenges: Climate Change and Electricity Access”
Africa is working to address a number of sustainability challenges including preserving the forests of the Congo Basin – second only to the Amazon to absorbing CO2 emissions. But there is another challenge: Nearly 600 million Africans lack access to electric power.
> Carnegie Endowment for International Affairs “Latest Milestone for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area: The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System”
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was launched January 13th and is seen likely to substantially reduce dependence on external currencies, and the associated financial volatilities. Moreover, cross-border transactions such as remittance transfer by migrants within Africa and exchanges among small businesses should be easier, quicker, and cheaper.
Technology
> Fortune Magazine “Is the metaverse takeover inevitable?”
Will most virtual meetings move from 2D camera image grids to the metaverse – a 3D space with digital avatars?
> The Atlantic “Beware the FOMO Bullies of Technology”
Are we living through a replay of the `90’s when most people just didn’t get “this internet thing” as we move to the Web3?
> AtlasVPN “TikTok Tracks Your Data the Most Out of Social Media Apps”
The Virtual Private Network (VPN) secure service conducted a survey of all the leading social apps and reports TikTok does the most tracking of users followed by YouTube.
Sustainability/Alternative Energy
> Fast Company “Inside the fight over electrifying the Postal Service’s cute new trucks”
Despite a Biden administration to electrify the entire federal fleet by 2027, the USPS is about to make a large purchase of new, gas-powered trucks. And even the electric version the post office is planning is arousing suspicion.
> Yale Environment 360 “It’s Not Just Climate: Are We Ignoring Other Causes of Disasters?”
Climate change is increasingly seen as the cause of natural catastrophes, from floods to famines. But a growing number of scientists are cautioning that blaming disasters solely on climate overlooks the poor policy and planning decisions that make these events much worse.
> Fast Company “These 12-mile-deep holes could convert power plants from fossil fuel to geothermal”
Using a new technology that employs energy waves to melt rock, the wells can do deeper than standard geothermal, potentially making the renewable energy work anywhere on earth.