The Earthquakes of Erdogan
As an Economist headline editor put it recently, “Turkey sits at the crossroads of tectonic plates as well as civilisations.” And when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Gaziantep, Turkey caused a confirmed death toll of 50,783 souls, it highlighted the risk of autocratic license, boasting, and related corner-cutting to…
A Way of Thinking About China
Foreign Relations Thinking: Issue Set-Up We’ve heard the ineffective “or” questions: Is China an adversary, competitor, partner, or opponent to the United States? Is China a near-peer, or peer power? Which is the greater threat, China, Russia, or global terrorism? The honest answer is, “Yes, all of the above, with a regular doses of the unexpected.”…
Writing on the Kremlin Wall: Putin’s government arrests 4,500 Russians and Counting
With 4,500 arrests and counting during Navalny freedom protests, Putin’s authoritarianism is showing its deterministic premise that individuals’ free will should not clash with the will of the state, no matter the letter and spirit of the laws. Alexei Navalny was poisoned, recovered in Germany, and was swiftly arrested and jailed on returning to Russia.…