On April 11, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio became only the second Japanese prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Kishida’s speech was received positively, yet he surprised many with his bold statements. While acknowledging the current challenges in the world and political climate in the United States, Kishida did not hold … Read more
A bipartisan consensus in the U.S. House of Representatives culminated in the passage of legislation in that, if also passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, would require the Beijing-based company, ByteDance, to either divest from its U.S.-based subsidiary – TikTok – or have it be removed from the U.S. market … Read more
Australia’s primary security problem is an emotional one. Australia is a country so deeply unsure of itself that it exists in a constant state of anxiety about its place in the world, and in particular over its strategic relationship with the United States. Illustrating these anxieties, this week Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell made what … Read more
In response to the U.S. House bill to force a sale of TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, Donald Trump said, in an interview, “Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.” In his latest comments, Trump reversed his position from 2020, when, as president, … Read more
When I studied history at university, a lecturer instructed us to read the diaries and memoirs and newspaper articles written a few weeks before a global disaster. How did the ordinary Frenchman regard the state of the world in June 1914? What was the average Pole thinking in August 1939? Then we were instructed to … Read more
The United States “faces an increasingly fragile global order strained by accelerating strategic competition among major powers, more intense and unpredictable transnational challenges, and multiple regional conflicts with far-reaching implications,” the U.S. intelligence community’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment states. The assessment, an unclassified summary of which has been published annually since 2006 (with the glaring … Read more
TheStarsHub — Aggressive rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula continues to ratchet up. US Vice President Mike Pence reiterated this week that the “era of strategic patience” was over, days after Pyongyang attempted another missile launch and analysts warned a sixth nuclear test could be imminent. Through all the rhetoric and saber-rattling however, it can be … Read more
Donald Trump is close to securing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination after a winning streak in early GOP primaries. To take it up a notch, the former U.S. president wants his mounting clout to be felt not only by his challengers within the country, but also by the United States’ biggest international competitor: China. To … Read more
2024 will see the governments of China and Russia attempt to use their political and economic influence to influence critical elections. Beijing seeks to block the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from sweeping Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on January 13. Moscow, meanwhile, aims to shore up Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election on November … Read more
It is less than a year before the U.S. election in 2024, when American voters will decide on the president and the governing direction for the next four years. The current president, Joe Biden, is most likely to run as the Democratic nominee, while former President Donald Trump could still represent the Republicans. In other … Read more