The Learners' Den

US President Donald Trump whispering in China's Xi Jinpin ear In this new age of ambiguous strategic rivalry in geopolitics among Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, etc., I thought the United States, under President Trump’s second term, would seek strategic relationships based on mutual interest and respect. I thought the alarming bell he had been ringing at his campaign trails about why he must take on China to contain its rapid economic and military growth and its increasing dominance in the South China Sea was serious from the first day in office. I thought he would build win-win bridges across the world to facilitate mutual partnerships and access for Africa, Asia, and Europe to US markets, and vice versa. Instead, Bibi Netanyahu lured him into a war with Iran: he also threatened to buy Greenland forcefully; again, slapped a swath of trade tariffs on foreign countries; and later deodorized this strategic blunder with sanctions and extreme regulations for foreigners. It's ...

Established in 1975, the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) aimed to promote “economic integration,” improve security, and foster regional cooperation to counter common threats to peace and political stability in the region. The bloc included 15 signatory countries. For many years, the region was afflicted by the uprising of extremist groups such as Boko Haram, Islamic State, and other minor non-state actors. Moreover, the vast majority of the population is living in abject poverty (less than one dollar per day) due to corruption and economic downturn. This prompted the military officers to topple the civilian governments in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea through coups and counter-coups.  After a diplomatic impasse with the junta officers and ECOWAS delegation, the bloc, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, threatened to take economic and military action. While military action was just rhetoric, the countries faced sign...

Photo: The Atlantic President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping of China The most prominent sentiment put forward by so many people in the discussion of geopolitical rivalry or shift in the global balance of power between the United States of America (USA) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) is that Washington's global preeminence is rapidly declining while Beijing is growing in an unprecedented manner. Often, this sentiment is not true in its entirety. Although I must concede that China's tremendous progress in the last decades has been astonishing. According to some nebulous economists, the United States of America's global hegemony is "declining rapidly" in the face of China's rapid economic growth in the last few years. This argument may be valid if Xi Jinping had not changed the orientation of the Chinese economy recently. It is pertinent to know that China under Xi Xinping today is more like any other ruthless authoritarian regime, focusing on how to ge...