All posts tagged: global affairs

How the GOP’s Thinking on International Issues Evolved

How the GOP’s Thinking on International Issues Evolved

The long decline of the Republican Party’s internationalist wing may have reached a tipping point. Since Donald Trump emerged as the GOP’s dominant figure in 2016, he has championed an isolationist and nationalist agenda that is dubious of international alliances, scornful of free trade, and hostile to not only illegal but also legal immigration. His four years in the White House marked a shift in the party’s internal balance of power away from the internationalist perspective that had dominated every Republican presidency from Dwight Eisenhower through George W. Bush. But even so, during Trump’s four years in office, a substantial remnant of traditionally internationalist Republicans in Congress and in the key national-security positions of his own administration resisted his efforts to unravel America’s traditional alliances. Now though, evidence is rapidly accumulating on multiple fronts that the internal GOP resistance is crumbling to Trump’s determination to steer America away from its traditional role as a global leader. In Congress, that shift was evident in last week’s widespread Senate and House Republican opposition to continued aid for …

Henry Kissinger’s Indifference to the World’s Most Helpless People

Henry Kissinger’s Indifference to the World’s Most Helpless People

Henry Kissinger, who died today at the age of 100, was determined to write his own place in history. Richard Nixon’s and Gerald Ford’s former secretary of state and national security adviser burnished his own reputation through his memoirs and books, by cultivating the press and foreign-policy elites, and winning the adulation of politicians as varied as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. For his 100th birthday on May 27, he was celebrated at a closed-door black-tie gala at the New York Public Library attended by the likes of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns. Yet for all the praise of Kissinger’s insights into global affairs and his role in establishing relations with Communist China, his policies are better remembered for his callousness toward the most helpless people in the world. How many of his eulogists will grapple with his full record in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Chile, Argentina, East Timor, Cyprus, and elsewhere? Dismissing the arguments of dovish White House staffers, he came to endorse a secret U.S. ground invasion of …

India Isn’t Signing Up for China’s New World Order

India Isn’t Signing Up for China’s New World Order

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed delegations from across the developing world to Beijing today to celebrate his pet project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The forum, the third of its kind, is meant to display China’s influence in the global South and show that Washington’s efforts to isolate and pressure Beijing can’t succeed: China simply has too many friends. But one very important person was absent. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have steadfastly refused to join Xi’s infrastructure-building program and have promoted alternatives instead. Just last month, Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden announced a joint project to connect India to Europe through the Middle East by rail and ship. Modi’s absence from the Belt and Road forum is a sign that the rivalry between the United States and China is not the only one shaping global affairs. Another, between India and China, may have geopolitical consequences that are equally important. At stake are the shape of the global South and its role in international governance. Whose vision prevails—Xi’s or Modi’s—will …

U.S. v. Google – The Atlantic

U.S. v. Google – The Atlantic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic. Challenging Power, Again The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was in office. Titanic had just won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Backstreet Boys were ascendant. And Microsoft was in court, teeing off against the Justice Department over claims that it was a monopoly. That landmark case, which ultimately resulted in a settlement, was the last time the government took a major tech company to trial for antitrust issues. That will change next week, when the U.S. et al v. Google trial begins in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department (joined by a group of states) has sued Google, claiming that the search giant illegally protected its market position by striking exclusive deals—in particular, one with Apple starting 18 years ago that set Google as the default search engine …