WORLD ROUNDUP – 8-14 SEPTEMBER 2025China Is Ditching the Dollar, Fast | Russia Just Attacked NATO. Again. | Brazil’s Historic Conviction | The Promise and Peril of Ethiopia’s New Mega-Dam, and more
CHINA WATCH
· China Is Ditching the Dollar, Fast
· How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate
· Nuclear Energy Now –Russia to Help China Overtake the United States in Nuclear
· Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World
· Pentagon Plan Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat
· Why Isn’t China Interested in Nuclear Risk Reduction?
MIDDLE EAST
· Gulf Powers Question U.S. Protection After Israeli Attack on Qatari Soil
· Israel’s Qatarstrophic Error
· Israel’s Strategic Declaration
· Syria’s Foreign Fighters: Strategic Asset or Looming Threat?
RUSSIA’S POLAND INCURSION
· The Kremlin’s Plot to kill NATO’s Credibility
· Russia Just Attacked NATO. Again.
· Trump’s Incompetence Has Created the Conditions for More Bloodshed
· Now Putin Knows He Can Cross NATO’s Red Lines and Get Away with It
· Russia’s Reckless Provocation
· Russia Tested NATO in Poland. NATO Flunked.
· Is NATO Prepared for Autonomous Warfare?
THE LONG VIEW
· The Top 10 Trump Administration Foreign-Policy Mistakes
· Brazil’s Historic Conviction
· Brazil Keeps Telling Trump to Get Lost
· The Globalists of MAGA
· Right-Wing Influencers Are Turning to Foreign Affairs
· Strategic Autonomy Is Europe’s Only Choice
MORE PICKS
· Outlawry in the Caribbean
· As Sabotage in Europe Mounts, So Do Calls to Retaliate Against Russia
· Europe’s Delusions Over What It Means to Deter Russia
· Africa Is Now Calling the Shots
· The Promise and Peril of Ethiopia’s New Mega-Dam
CHINA WATCH
China Is Ditching the Dollar, Fast (Economist)
Officials believe that the yuan has finally come of age.
China’s leaders sense an epic opportunity. President Donald Trump’s erratic trade policy, gaping fiscal deficits and threats to the independence of America’s Federal Reserve risk badly hurting the dollar. It has slumped 7% on a trade-weighted basis since January, and had its worst start to a year since 1973. By contrast, China’s tightly controlled currency, the yuan, has reached its highest level since Mr. Trump was re-elected in November. Foreign investors are piling in. So are many governments looking for dollar alternatives.
How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate (Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis, Wired)
A series of corporate leaks show that Chinese technology companies function far more like their Western peers than one might imagine.
Nuclear Energy Now –Russia to Help China Overtake the United States in Nuclear (Emily Day, National Interest)
According to the Chief of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear corporation, Russia will help China meet its goal of reaching 100 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power and overtake the United States as the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy.
Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World (Zeyi Yang, Wired)
Geedge Networks, a company with ties to the founder of China’s mass censorship infrastructure, is selling its censorship and surveillance systems to at least four other countries in Asia and Africa.
Pentagon Plan Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat (Paul McLeary and Daniel Lippman, Politico)
This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.
Why Isn’t China Interested in Nuclear Risk Reduction? (Wu Riqiang, Lawfare)
It’s time for China’s approach to arms control to evolve. The United States can help.
MIDDLE EAST
Gulf Powers Question U.S. Protection After Israeli Attack on Qatari Soil (Vivian Nereim, New York Times)
The brazen attempt to kill the political leaders of Hamas in Doha could upend the foundations of an American-led order in the Middle East.
Israel’s Qatarstrophic Error(Economist)
Its extra-territorial campaign against terrorists has to have limits.
Israel’s Strategic Declaration (Daniel Byman, Foreign Policy)
By striking Qatar, Netanyahu has forsworn negotiations and expanded the battlefield.
