33 articles
Donald Trump’s second-term policies have already been detrimental to America’s economy and national security. While his administration has delivered a massive gift to China, there is still a chance for Europeans and others mourning the loss of US global leade…
Some might hope that Donald Trump’s alienation of US allies can be reversed under the next administration. Yet regardless of how his trade wars, territorial claims, and coercive tactics play out, the damage to the West as an idea and organizing principle of w…
If Donald Trump thinks he can compete with China while weakening trust among American allies, asserting imperial aspirations, cutting aid budgets, and otherwise diminishing American soft power, he is likely to fail. Though restoring what he has destroyed will…
As US income taxation comes under threat, and as the effects of US policies are exported abroad, the concentration of wealth could accelerate worldwide. But it is not too late for other countries to step in and halt the globalization of plutocracy.
The net effect of Trump’s wayward tariffs, refusal to confirm WTO appellate judges, and repeated invocation of “national security” to cloak mercantilism is likely to erode global trade norms that were built up over eight decades. The result will be a rapid di…
Multilateral organizations may be facing their most severe challenges to date, but the multilateralists have not suddenly disappeared. Many leaders still recognize the inescapable logic of the modern world, and bottom-up efforts at rule-making and regional co…
With Donald Trump's return to the White House having cast doubt on longstanding security guarantees, some policymakers and strategists across the American alliance network are considering whether they will need their own nuclear deterrence. Is the global nucl…
Notwithstanding Chinese leaders' stated global vision, the regime's diplomacy must serve the interests of its domestic political economy first and foremost. Filling a sudden void in global leadership left by America's withdrawal is not necessarily aligned wit…
For all the proclamations of the end of free trade, the global flow of goods and services has reached new highs in recent years, and the global trade-to-GDP ratio remains substantially higher than it was in 2000. While tariffs pose a major challenge to the sy…
US President Donald Trump believes that foreign leaders can be dealt with like Americans, with fantastic promises and obnoxious bullying. But the empty offer of a “beautiful” future does not move dictators like Vladimir Putin, who has in mind his own specific…
US President Donald Trump seems determined to run the world like a private corporation, casting himself as CEO while treating other leaders as subordinates and discarding long-standing diplomatic norms. By humiliating European countries and sidelining major p…
With his unorthodox approach to politics, Donald Trump promised radical change, which he is now delivering at home and abroad. But history offers plenty of lessons about where such strategies lead, and the outcome is rarely what their proponents had in mind.
With the group's rotating presidency passing to the United States, many expect that Donald Trump’s presence at the helm will further reduce the effectiveness of a once-promising multilateral economic institution. But that need not be the case if Trump focuses…
Under President Donald Trump, entrusting inexperienced loyalists to handle issues of national and global concern has become the norm, and personal enrichment the through line of US foreign policy. The result is the Ukraine "peace deal" Trump's cronies cooked …
From Ireland to Palestine, the 20th century’s partitions promised stability but delivered bloodshed, animosity, and ethnic cleansing. A new book traces how the breakup of the British Indian Empire unleashed a chain of upheavals that redefined South Asia and s…
From US President Donald Trump’s weaponization of trade to the erosion of US Treasuries’ status as safe-haven assets and breakneck investment in AI, the last year has shaken the foundations of the postwar global economy. As 2025 comes to an end, we asked PS c…
As authoritarian leaders seek to delegitimize independent news and AI blurs the line between facts and falsehoods, journalists around the world are fighting to be heard above a rising tide of misinformation and propaganda. In this environment, news outlets mu…
While Donald Trump's use of the presidency to enrich himself is unprecedented in American history, it does have analogues in Russia and other former communist countries. In fact, by appointing incompetent subordinates who owe him everything, Trump recalls a t…
For now, and in the foreseeable future, fiscal adjustment is a political non-starter in the US, where the prospect of higher taxes or cuts to Social Security and Medicare is a surefire way to lose votes. But this is probably where the country is headed, thoug…
Behind the facade of unity, global banking supervisors are split between fear of over-regulation and concern that easing rules invites a repeat of the 2007-09 financial crisis. With the US rethinking supervision and scaling back enforcement, its break from Ba…
US President Donald Trump has made good on his threat to take military action against Nigeria to save Christians from a “genocide.” Trump has three possible motives: his mercantilist quest for rare-earth minerals, his pandering to evangelical Christians, and …
Donald Trump’s second presidency has reset global expectations, making uncertainty the defining feature of today’s geopolitical and economic landscape. While the path forward remains unclear, the year ahead will likely be marked by greater geopolitical and fi…
For all Donald Trump’s talk about security, he proves far more interested in lining his own pockets. No country that hosts a major Trump-branded property or strikes a high-profile business deal with a member of Trump’s inner circle – including some with well-…
US President Donald Trump claims that Europeans are engaging in "censorship" when they require digital platforms to be transparent about their algorithms and to remove already illegal content. With the US recently barring entry to five Europeans it accuses of…
Last year will be remembered as one of global reckoning. The future of the international order remains unknown, but now we know which countries are best prepared to adapt to the loss of what came before.
The US military operation to arrest Nicolás Maduro underscores President Donald Trump’s view of the Western Hemisphere as a region where US interests take precedence. Russia and China will welcome this as a sign that Trump shares their vision of a world divid…
The federal cap on credit-card interest rates that US President Donald Trump has proposed would, in theory, prevent issuers from gouging customers. But not everyone agrees that this would be good for Americans, especially lower-income households that are ofte…
As the post-Cold War era recedes, a more regional and competitive order is reasserting itself. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that larger powers would seek to shape their immediate surroundings – not only out of ambition, but also because they f…
The US sees regimes it can strike and concludes that striking them resolves the dangers they pose. But eliminating a visible adversary does not neutralize the underlying threat; it merely transforms that threat into something elusive, decentralized, unaccount…
If Donald Trump walks away from the war with Iran now, the threat to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will remain, risk premia on oil prices will stay permanently higher, and Trump’s own popularity will sink even further ahead of this year’s midterm elections…
While the rest of the world is mainly concerned about the energy disruptions caused by the Iran war, the Gulf countries are more anxious about the Islamic Republic’s threats to their desalination facilities. If the US attempts to seize Kharg Island, it could …
As November’s midterm elections approach, US President Donald Trump must stop pushing for a weaker dollar, which will exacerbate the affordability pressures many Americans face and harm the country’s fiscal position. Fortunately, there are several policy inst…