• CHINA WATCHWhen Global Trade Is About More Than Money

    By Christy DeSmith

    International trade can yield far more than imports and exports. Economist’s new tool looks at how China is more effective than U.S. in exerting political power through import, export controls

  • CRITICAL MINERALSSecuring South Korea's Critical Minerals Supply Chains Through Trilateral Cooperation

    South Korea, Japan, and the United States’ trilateral partnership has expanded to include collaboration on economic security, including on critical minerals supply chains (CMSCs). A new report offers analysis, tools, and recommendations to strengthen South Korea’s CMSCs and economic security.

  • THE AMERICASGuyana’s President Wins Another Term in Election Watched Keenly by Venezuela and U.S.

    By Klaus Dodds

    Irfaan Ali, the leader of the People’s Progressive party (PPP), has secured a second term as Guyana’s president. Guyanese voters have endorsed Ali’s approach, expressed in his campaign, which was dominated by promises to use oil-related revenue to alleviate chronic poverty and support further social and economic development.

  • TECHNOLOGY RACEU.S.-China Tech Rivalry: The Geopolitics of Semiconductors

    The United States and China are locked in a high‑stakes contest for dominance in computing power. In response to US sanctions and export controls, China has ramped domestic chip design and manufacturing, aiming to create an all‑Chinese semiconductor supply chain that reduces dependence on foreign technologies.

  • ALASKA SUMMITHow Russia Emerged as the Clear Winner from the Alaska Summit

    By David Hastings Dunn

    The very act of meeting and the nature of the interaction were such that the summit did considerable damage to the U.S. and broader Western position on Ukraine. At the same time, it strengthened Russia’s stance considerably. Russia used the summit to its strategic advantage, coming away with more concessions than it could have hoped for. Trump’s calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine are now gone and the prospect of additional sanctions on Russia have evaporated. Moscow now has the US president advocating for Ukraine to cede additional territory to Russia over and above the amount it has already taken by force.

  • ARGUMENT: TRUMP’S ALASKA FAILUREHow Disastrous Was the Trump-Putin Meeting?

    In Alaska, Trump got played by Putin. Therefore, Steven Pifer writes, the European leaders and Zelensky have to “diplomatically offer suggestions to walk Trump back from a position that he does not appear to understand would be bad for Ukraine, bad for Europe, and bad for American interests. And they have to do so without setting off an explosion that could disrupt U.S.-Ukrainian and U.S.-European relations—all to the delight of Putin and the Kremlin.”

  • Quotes of the Day: Alaska Summit

    By Mr. Trump’s account, Mr. Putin behind closed doors also endorsed the lie that Mr. Trump actually won the 2020 election, only to have it stolen by Democrats.
          — Peter Baker, New York Times, 17 August 2025

    A Ukrainian intelligence officer says the Americans are being “unbelievably aggressive” in pushing Ukraine to forfeit more land. The Russian interest is clear enough, he says. “They want to maximize the package they will get in return—from sanctions relief, to the return of seized assets, to the re-opening of energy markets.” What, he says, is far less clear is why the Trump administration was pushing so forcefully to promote Russia’s interests.
         — The Economist, 17 August 2025

  • ECONMIC POLICYTariffs Can Improve U.S. Economy, but Global Trade Realities, Retaliation, Could Offset Gains

    By Karen Nikos-Rose

    The United States could achieve modest economic benefits by applying uniform tariffs on all trade partners, but the complicated realities of supply chains, global trade and its downstream effects on people and businesses could offset economic gains and even lead to significant losses. 

  • AIIncentives for U.S.-China Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation Across Artificial General Intelligence’s Five Hard National Security Problems

    By Michael S. Chase and William Marcellino

    The prospect of either the United States or the People’s Republic of China —or both—achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) is likely to heighten tensions and could even increase the risk of competition spiraling into conflict. But the emergence of AGI could also create incentives for risk reduction and cooperation. We argue that both will not only be possible but essential.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSSecuring South Korea's Critical Minerals Supply Chains Through Trilateral Cooperation

    By Fabian Villalobos et al.

    South Korea, Japan, and the United States’ trilateral partnership has expanded to include collaboration on economic security, including on critical minerals supply chains (CMSCs). A new report offers analysis and tools for supply chain net assessment, supply chain cooperation, and economic security.

  • CHINA WATCHThe Taiwan Scenarios 4: The Catastrophe

    By Nathan Attrill and ASPI Defense Strategy Staff

    By any measure, China’s four main choices for forcing unification with Taiwan—subversion, quarantine, blockade, or invasion—would all have far-reaching consequences for Beijing and the wider Indo-Pacific. The world must convince China that the road to Taipei is lined with peril, not prizes. If Beijing acts, it faces the wrecking of its global standing. Preventing conflict is not Taiwan’s burden alone.

  • CHINA WATCHBuilding Taiwan's Resilience

    By Marta Kepe and Scott W. Harold

    China’s increased military threats and intimidation activities against Taiwan and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have prompted Taiwan’s government and civil society to strengthen the country’s resilience.

  • WATER SECURITYWater Wars: A Historic Agreement Between Mexico and US Is Ramping Up Border Tension

    By Natasha Lindstaedt

    As climate change drives rising temperatures and changes in rainfall, Mexico and the US are in the middle of a conflict over water, putting an additional strain on their relationship. Partly due to constant droughts, Mexico has struggled to maintain its water deliveries for much of the last 25 years, deliveries to which it is obligated by a 1944 water-sharing agreement between the two countries.

  • COMMON-SENSE NOTES // By Idris B. OdunewuFragmented by Design: USAID’s Dismantling and the Future of American Foreign Aid

    The Trump administration launched an aggressive restructuring of U.S. foreign aid, effectively dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The humanitarian and geopolitical fallout of the demise of USAID includes shuttered clinics, destroyed food aid, and China’s growing influence in the global south. This new era of American soft power will determine how, and whether, the U.S. continues to lead in global development.

  • RARE EARTHChina and Rare-Earth Elements: Is Trump Blinking on Tariffs?

    By Ajey Lele

    On 2 April 2025, President Trump announced a significant shift in the US trade policy, imposing tariffs on multiple countries, with special emphasis on China. In response, on 4 April 2025, China placed export restrictions on REEs, which are also known as rare metals.