Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride

November 19, 2016

As the Trump juggernaut rolled across the US on election day, turning the political map red, anxious foreign leaders began to contemplate a new world order of a kind few had envisaged.

Could it be that Donald Trump, the quintessential change agent, would administer the last rites to Pax Americana, the US-led rules-based Western order that had prevailed since 1945, thereby achiev­ing what China, Russia and legions of anti-American jihadists had failed to bring about? Read more

Joko Widodo’s visit a chance to build solid partnership

November 4, 2016

President Joko Widodo’s forthcoming visit to Australia is an oppor­tunity to reset relations with Indonesia after three years of ­remarkable turbulence, even by the volatile standards of the past.

But a cautionary reminder: Australian governments are prone to excessive exuberance about the prospects for enhanced relations with Indonesia Read more

Delays in retaking Mosul are symptoms of a malaise that’s destroying Iraq

October 8, 2016

Mosul in early autumn looks peaceful from the Bashiqa ridge. The first positions of the Iraqi Kurdish army, the Peshmerga, are here, 12km from the city. The occasional mortar shell lands somewhere in the vicinity once in a while. Further off, one can sometimes hear the distant thunder of heavier ordnance. But mostly it’s quiet. Read more

Will China rule the world? Asian superpower faces uncertain future

October 8, 2016

Will China rule the world? Many of its citizens hope so, an understandable desire given the country’s emergence from a century of relative weakness and “national humiliation” at the hands of foreigners in an otherwise extended period of pre-eminence in Asia going back millennia. Read more

Investing in a Turbulent World

October 3, 2016

Geopolitics is back, with a vengeance, and needs to be elevated to a first order risk when weighing investment decisions. This is the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the disconcerting bout of geopolitical volatility that is sweeping the globe from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. Read more

Rare Harmony as China and U.S. Commit to Climate Deal

September 4, 2016

HANGZHOU, China — President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China formally committed the world’s two largest economies to the Paris climate agreement here on Saturday, cementing their partnership on climate change and offering a rare display of harmony in a relationship that has become increasingly discordant. Read more