Global Politics
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Biden’s First Year in Review
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When Joe Biden took office from Donald Trump on 20 January 2021, he promised a return to normalcy in America. Yet, as Biden marked his first year in the White House this past week, his administration has been beset by slumping poll numbers and is reportedly planning a “reset.” What’s gone wrong for the US president, and where has he…
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The Downplayed Role of the Asian Theatre in WWII
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Despite the acknowledgement that the Second World War was composed of three major theatres (Europe, Asia, and the Pacific), the Asian battlefield remains a marginalized topic outside of Asia. Here, I argue that it is problematic to downplay the role of the Asian battlefield, and that wars in mainland Asia and the Pacific should be…
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OPR Interviews John Ikenberry
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Interviews editor Fonie Mitsopoulou and Professor Ikenberry discussed topics such as the crisis of authority being faced by the US on the international stage, the rising Chinese threat to this order, as well as wider themes of liberalism and democracy.
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China and Taliban-Led Afghanistan: Opportunities and Challenges
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For the past 20 years, Afghanistan has heavily relied on international aid and investment to finance its economy and state activities. About 75% of the government’s non-military budget was supported by the United States and other international donors. Once the Taliban ascended to power, however, most of the foreign aid and investment disappeared along with…
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The Province Provides: On the Role of Inter-provincial Competition in Climate Change Response in China
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Much of the existing literature on China’s climate change response has focussed on either the efforts of the Chinese civil society[1], or those of the central administration in Beijing[2]. Such accounts note the significant room for collaboration and conflict between the state and citizenry in tackling climate change.[3] I seek to highlight and advocate the…
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Why There Might Be No Long Game for China
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In light of China’s skyrocketing economic and military capabilities, nothing seems to be more urgent than a balanced strategy for China’s geopolitical influence. Chinese hegemony, in Asia at least, had been previously presumed to be slow in coming. This rapid growth has therefore raised tremendous concerns for the United States and its allies, triggering a…
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Theorizing Chinese Investment In Peripheral & Semi-Peripheral Nation States
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The rise and fall of powers is founded in their economic influence, which is furthered by strategic and diplomatic capabilities. The People’s Republic of China has proliferated an aggressive diplomatic endeavour across the globe through supply-chain penetration and investment. A stark example of the same is the Belt and Road Initiative, the responses to which…
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Xi Jinping’s Egalitarian Education Reform
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Wealth inequality is a serious issue in China. According to data published by Shijiazhuang University of Economics, the top 20 percent of the population earns roughly 30 times more than the bottom 20 percent (Jia Hua, Qingxia, Mengnan Zhang, 2015), and the first month Covid-19 lockdown caused low-skill migrant workers’ income to lose 100 billion…
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A Renewed Space: Rural Communities and the Countryside
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21st Century political wisdom has been invested in a city-based future for most of the world. City-life is seen as the future of the world. Paul Collier in 2010 espoused that ‘as populations grow and the Southern climate deteriorates due to global warming, the South will necessarily urbanize. The future of populations will live not…
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The Taliban Takeover: Implications for South Asian Security
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The Taliban regime recently announced the formation of a caretaker government in Afghanistan. It has since gained notoriety for its inclusion of terrorists wanted by America and exclusion of ethnic minorities and women. The US expressed strong condemnations over the move. But at the same time, it and other countries in the West and beyond…