China’s Soft Power Is Making Its Mark as US Doubles down on Military Might

The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.

[I]t is difficult to see how the Gulf nations would agree to sign the Abraham Accords and how the Accords could be a precondition to peace with Iran.

Trump’s willingness to defend an ally may depend upon whether he currently gets along with its political leadership.

The Beijing summit did not produce a major agreement between the great powers on the region, but it firmly established that Middle Eastern crises are now deeply tied to the great-power dialogue.

In a globalised economy, the knock-on effect is less of a surge but more of a deluge that reaches East Africa with alarming speed.

During the Cold War, the United States occupied the apex of this triangular dynamic, pitting China and the USSR against each other. Today, it is Beijing that occupies that apex.

Europeans do not have a choice. They have to get along with both Xi’s China and Trump’s America.