• Israel-Hamas War a Reality Check for India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

    The ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas has underlined the challenges facing an ambitious initiative to build a new trade route from India through the Middle East to Europe, according to analysts.

  • Ethiopia's Dam Dispute Could Escalate

    The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam conflict has lasted for more than a decade without a resolution. Some experts warn that any further delays in settling the outstanding issues could have dire consequences.

  • Training Future Supply Chain Leaders

    The field of supply chain management (SCM) deals with managing the complex, global webs of product design, manufacturing, inventory, warehousing, inbound and outbound logistics, and returns activities that underpin everything we use or consume.

  • China, U.S. Escalate Trade-Restrictions War

    The Chinese government announced Friday that it would tighten export controls on graphite, a material essential to the construction of batteries used in electric cars and other green energy systems and of which China is the world’s preeminent supplier. The move came days after the Biden administration announced that the United States would widen the list of semiconductors that it prevents from being exported to China.

  • U.S.: China's Nuclear Arsenal Exceeding Predictions

    China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than expected, according to the latest unclassified Pentagon assessment, with a senior U.S. defense official warning the Chinese military is “on track to exceed previous projections.”

  • U.S., Marshall Islands Security Deal Will Limit China’s Access to Western Pacific

    The Republic of the Marshall Islands and the U.S. signed agreements Monday evening that will give Washington a stronger presence in the Western Pacific and the right to deny China and other nations access to the islands’ territorial waters.

  • Analysts: Congressional Budget Battle Gives Beijing Opening in the Pacific

    When Congress passed temporary funding for the U.S. government at the end of September, it left out economic assistance for two small Pacific nations that U.S. defense officials say are critical to Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy and are targets of China’s aggressive influence campaign.

  • What’s Causing the Panama Canal Logjam

    Low water levels have, the result of prolonged drought conditions, led to a traffic jam at one of the world’s busiest maritime passages. The Panama Canal Authority has capped the number of ships that cross the canal each day, and has restricted their maximum weight and draft, or how deep below the waterline a ship sits. The bottleneck demonstrates how accelerating climate change is threatening global supply chains.

  • Book Review: How Xi Jinping Derailed China’s Peaceful Rise

    In just one decade, Xi Jinping managed to dismantle the collective leadership system carefully crafted by Deng Xiaoping; sour China’s relations with most of its neighbours; and set China on a collision course with the United States. A new book offers an answer.

  • U.S.-China “Tech War”: AI Sparks First Battle in Middle East

    The U.S. has restricted exports of some computer chips to the Middle East, to stop AI-enabling chips from getting to China. But there’s no information on which countries are affected, or how chips would get to China. What is becoming clear is that AI could well become a new source of friction between democratic and autocratic states.

  • Fact Sheet: Disinformation, Propaganda, Censorship -- China’s Effort to Construct a Global Information Ecosystem

    China’s information manipulation efforts feature five primary elements: leveraging propaganda and censorship, promoting digital authoritarianism, exploiting international organizations and bilateral partnerships, pairing co-optation and pressure, and exercising control over Chinese-language media. 

  • China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment

    China is pouring billions of dollars into efforts to reshape the global information environment and, eventually, bend the will of multiple nations to Beijing’s advantage, according to a new assessment from U.S. officials.

  • Nagorno-Karabakh: The World Should Have Seen This Crisis Coming – and It’s Not Over Yet

    The global community and its institutions, including the EU, arguably let Azerbaijan get away with its military adventures, which only spurred the country on. As a result of the Azerbaijani attack on the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 and the forced exodus that followed it, this region will soon be empty of Armenians – for the first time in more than two millennia. The lesson of the tragedy now unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh is that verbal condemnations and appeals do not stop the aggression of authoritarian states.

  • China's South China Sea Tactics Push Manila to Become More Assertive

    In a bold move, the Philippine coast guard this week publicly cut loose a floating barrier installed by China near a disputed South China Sea lagoon, highlighting how Beijing’s actions are fueling forceful responses, analysts say. It also could help rally other countries in the region to stand up to Beijing.

  • The BRICS Expansion and the Global Balance of Power

    In early September, the BRICS group of five countries with emerging economies announced it would expand its ranks by six nations. This would loosely link together countries representing about 30 percent of global GDP and 43 percent of global oil production. MIT political scientist Taylor Fravel examines the potential and limitations of a bigger BRICS group of countries — and what it means for the U.S.