WORLD ROUNDUPIran Is a Problem Without a Solution | The e-CNY and China’s Quest for Smarter Surveillance | The Realists' Grand Experiment, and more

Trump Is About to Learn That Iran Is a Problem Without a Solution  (Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser, Foreign Policy)
There are no great deals, good options, or Hollywood endings when negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue.

The Programmable State: The e-CNY and China’s Quest for Smarter Surveillance  (Yaya J. Fanusie and Emily Jin, Lawfare)
China’s digital yuan could set a global precedent for programmable money—and for state-controlled financial surveillance.

Mozambique’s Quiet Threat to Regional Stability and U.S. Interests  (Emilia Columbo and Mike Brodo, War on the Rocks)
A wave of violently suppressed political protests following the October 2024 National Election Commission’s announcement that the ruling party candidate Daniel Chapo had won the presidential election has rocked Mozambique. Coupled with an ongoing insurgency in the north and a spate of kidnappings of business leaders, these challenges risk jeopardizing U.S. strategic interests, specifically political stability and access to strategic resources such as critical minerals.
Protecting U.S. interests will require the Trump administration to take a balanced approach that, leveraging America’s economic heft, both preserves the existing bilateral partnership with Mozambique while pushing for greater government accountability and transparency.

Taiwan’s Biggest Problem in Steeling Itself for War with China is Cultural  (Yuster Yu and Michael A. Hunzeker, War on the Rocks)
Any effort to enhance cross-Strait deterrence must start with the culture of its officer corps. Taiwan needs uniformed leaders who are willing to address hard truths, embrace innovation, and place strategic thinking above parochial interest, legacy systems, and bureaucratic convenience. To get from here to there, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te ought to trim the bloated ranks of his general and flag officer corps and insist that the military finally produce a coherent blueprint for mounting a genuine, asymmetric, whole-of-society defense of Taiwan. The Lai administration should insist on — and the Kuomintang-dominated Legislative Yuan will need to support — the creation of institutional mechanisms to enhance civilian control over the military. Washington can and should help by addressing the arms backlog, if only to prevent Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense from using it as an excuse; toning down public demands for dramatically higher defense spending; making it clear that other forms of support are conditional on efforts to address these cultural problems; and helping the Lai administration develop a coherent blueprint for asymmetric defense.