Bangladesh is set to hold parliamentary elections next January. But only time will tell whether there will be real change at the top or whether the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League will remain in power. In recent months there has been an increase in political protests calling for a neutral interim government ahead of the polls opening. But these protests have only resulted in...

Fragility & Resilience

First up on The World and Everything in It: leaders in Beijing are signaling they want to patch up their rocky relationship with Washington. But do they really? In recent years, China has been rapidly building up its military with an eye toward rivaling the might of the U.S. Armed Forces while stealing sensitive information from the U.S. government and intellectual property from American businesses at an alarming...

Democracy & Governance;  Mediation, Negotiation & Dialogue

Shortly after New Year’s Day in 2019, China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the moon, where no mission had gone before. U.S. intelligence officials say they did so quietly, taking their time to verify the rover had landed in one piece and protecting themselves from embarrassment. Hours passed before Beijing announced its historic achievement to the...

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

The United States is a heartbeat away from a world war that it could lose. There are serious conflicts requiring U.S. attention in two of the world’s three most strategically important regions. Should China decide to launch an attack on Taiwan, the situation could quickly escalate into a global war on three fronts, directly or indirectly involving the United States. The hour is late, and while there are options for improving the U.S. position, they all require serious...

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed on Wednesday to reestablish military-to-military contacts and reaffirmed an open phone line between the commanders in chief – vital steps toward reducing the risk of accidental conflict between the nuclear-armed superpowers. On another key agenda item for the Biden administration, the leaders said they would cooperate to reduce the flow from China of precursor chemicals used to make the illegal...

Democracy & Governance

Breaking a yearlong silence between them, President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met Wednesday in Silicon Valley and vowed to reduce tensions in the world’s most important bilateral relationship. Among other things, they agreed to resume military communications and impede the flow of deadly fentanyl from China. “For two large countries like China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an...

Conflict Analysis & Prevention;  Democracy & Governance

When Bahrain's lower house of parliament announced that the kingdom's ambassador had been recalled from Israel early this month amid the fighting in Gaza, Bahraini authorities swiftly denied it. As signatories of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords to establish ties with Israel under former U.S. President Donald Trump, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are facing a diplomatic test during the Israeli assault on Gaza that followed the...

Conflict Analysis & Prevention

When it comes to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, China is taking a back seat. President Xi Jinping’s first public comments about the course of the conflict, which has captured global attention and diverted the energies and focus of the Biden administration, came almost two weeks after it began. Xi showed more political restraint than his autocratic fellow traveler Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in a recent speech said his “fists clench and eyes tear up” when he sees...

Democracy & Governance