WORLD ROUNDUPAmerica Must Cut Its Reliance on China—Now | Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy Enters Uncharted Waters | Rampant and Relentless: Israel’s Settlers Make Their Move, and more
· Coup Coming? With Paetongtarn Shinawatra Removed from Office, Thailand Is in Chaos
· America Must Cut Its Reliance on China—Now
· How the Peace Deal Between Azerbaijan and Armenia Could Die in the Cradle
· Rampant and Relentless: Israel’s Settlers Make Their Move
· China’s Military Is Now Leading
· Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy Enters Uncharted Waters
Coup Coming? With Paetongtarn Shinawatra Removed from Office, Thailand Is in Chaos (Joshua Kurlantzick, (CFR)
On Friday, former Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was removed from office by Thailand’s top court. She was removed supposedly because she committed ethics violations via a leaked phone call to Cambodia’s de facto leader Hun Sen that, the court said, showed she “lacks the qualifications and possesses prohibited characteristics” that disqualify her from being prime minister. On the call, which happened during the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict, she appeared to insult Thai generals and act like she would serve at Hun Sen’s pleasure.
Courts getting rid of Shinawatra prime ministers, though, is not a new situation in Thailand. As Reuters notes, “Paetongtarn, who was Thailand’s youngest prime minister, becomes the sixth premier from or backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family to be removed by the military or judiciary in a tumultuous two-decade battle for power between the country’s warring elites.”
America Must Cut Its Reliance on China—Now (David Sauer, National Interest)
China dominates the rare earth industry—and has shown it is willing to weaponize its market power to wring concessions from its competitors. America needs a way to fight back.
How the Peace Deal Between Azerbaijan and Armenia Could Die in the Cradle (Nima Khorrami, War on the Rocks)
The South Caucasus has long been a geopolitical fault line caught between Russia, Iran, and Turkey, scarred by decades of confrontation and conflict between not just Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also Russia and Georgia, which fought a war in 2008. Armenia’s traditional reliance on Russia for security and trade has been shaken by Moscow’s ambivalent stance during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the subsequent Azeri takeover of the region in 2023, and by disruptions in vital supply routes linked to Iran and Georgia. These events, in turn, have pushed Yerevan towards the West, culminating in a U.S.-facilitated memorandum with Baku on 8 August.
Envisioned as part of a wider Central Asian-European trade route, the central pillar of the deal is a 43-kilometer-long passage — to be jointly administered by Armenia and the United States and called the Trump Corridor for International Peace and Prosperity — through Armenia to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan. However, while the deal is already being hailed in Washington as a major breakthrough, its success mainly hinges on Armenia overcoming deep domestic political divisions, institutional mistrust, and constitutional hurdles that could derail a final peace treaty. All of these could kill the deal in the cradle.
Rampant and Relentless: Israel’s Settlers Make Their Move (Economist)
They are unleashing a plan to sabotage two states.
China’s Military Is Now Leading (Sam Roggeveen, Foreign Policy)
Wednesday’s parade proved the regional military balance has irrevocably changed.
Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy Enters Uncharted Waters (Christopher Sabatini, Foreign Policy)
The sinking of a small boat the U.S. president said was carrying drugs violated traditional procedures.
