It is not just American businesses that are figuring out how to balance the ethical demands of their domestic public with those coming out of an increasingly influential China.
The US and EU’s contradictory policies on Kosovo could undermine the stability of the Western Balkans.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/trump-eu-kosovo-conundrum-191126173921274.html
Economic powerhouse is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure projects around the world.
China is financing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure projects — including ports, roads, bridges, railways, power plants, telecommunications networks and much more — in partnering countries throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-belt-and-road-cbc-1.5372916
One way of thinking about the world’s trading system is as a sports match featuring a sprawling, brawling international cast of players, each with their own tactics and tricks. The game works best when there is a referee, and for nearly 25 years a group of seven judges at the World Trade Organisation (wto) has done the job. But on December 11th this body will cease to function, because America is blocking new appointments to it. The referee’s departure will make cross-border commerce unrulier and, in the long run, invite an anarchy that would make the world poorer.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/11/28/the-trading-systems-referee-is-about-to-leave-the-field
During the past nine months, there have been major episodes of civil unrest in several countries across the globe. Focusing mainly on the recent mass protests in Iraq, Lebanon and Chile, this briefing draws on the concept of “revolts from the margins” to explain these events.
Do economic sanctions work? Are big democracies any good at spreading democracy? What is the root cause of terrorism? It turns out that data analysis can help answer all these questions — and make better foreign-policy decisions.
Interesting listen, particularly the first part on the efficacy of economic sanctions. Great to make connections between Global Politics and TOK as far as how we know what we know (whether a certain policy approach is effective).
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/chicago-live/
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s war is an ethnonationalist attack on Kurds and their aspirations.
Mr. Erdogan’s war is an ethnonationalist attack on Kurdish people and their aspirations, and an attempt at using Turkish military might to engineer demographic changes on land that belongs to more than one nation.
The Hindu-nationalist government unilaterally changes the game in Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir, infuriating Pakistan and risking strife
An IB Global Politics Site 