Project Syndicate

The “Trump Doctrine” is merely the same wishful thinking that produced many of America’s long, costly, and unsuccessful military interventions, The Brookings Institution's Melanie W. Sisson argues. "Throughout the 1990s, Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq endured multiple US-led bombing campaigns for repeatedly obstructing International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations weapons inspectors. This cycle, as Vance knows well, culminated in 2003 with America’s “shock and awe” campaign, which set off a grinding eight-year war that killed thousands of US service members and roughly a half-million Iraqis."

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown touts the creation of a special international tribunal to charge Russia's president for the crime of aggression. "An unmistakable signal has now been sent that there will be no safe haven for Putin and the clique who made the decision to wage aggressive war against Ukraine. The future tribunal will allow investigations of all the highest-ranking leaders of the Russian state."

At our recent #LCAW2025 event, Asahi Group Holdings' Preeti Srivastav explained that delivering on sustainability demands fundamental reform of corporate structures and incentives. Did you miss the event? Click the link to watch the discussions. https://bit.ly/3GiQDtt Kantar European Climate Foundation Cascale London Climate Action Week #PSEvents

A quarter of America’s billion-dollar startups were launched by individuals who first arrived in the US as international students, points out Lee Jong-Wha. But foreign applications to US universities are now falling sharply. "International students account for 14% of enrollment at America’s top research universities, and 28% at elite institutions, such as the Ivy League universities, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the 2023-24 academic year, international students contributed nearly $44 billion to the US economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs."

The rise of DeepSeek, China’s manufacturing dominance, and Trump-induced policy uncertainty have led to renewed confidence within China’s tech industry, writes Karman Lucero. "The US AI industry now grapples with a chaotic regulatory environment under President Donald Trump’s administration, while China’s approach to AI governance has grown more flexible and supportive of innovation."

As Donald Trump wields tariffs to protect Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro from prosecution, the specter of a far-right international alliance is closer to becoming a reality, argues Jan-Werner Mueller. "US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose punitive tariffs on Brazil, with the explicit goal of protecting its far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, from a ‘witch hunt,’ marks a significant shift in tactics. What’s more, Trump’s meddling in other democracies in the name of ‘free speech’ serves powerful interests in the United States: tech companies that do not want to be regulated by foreign governments."

At our recent London Climate Action Week 2025 event, Lord Adair Turner said what governments must do to get more sectors to the “tipping point” beyond which green technologies are cheaper than traditional ones. Watch his closing keynote, as well as all three panel discussions, at the link. https://bit.ly/3GiQDtt Kantar European Climate Foundation Cascale #PSEvents #LCAW2025

Donald Trump has destroyed American power and prestige with dizzying speed. The new issue of our magazine, PS Quarterly: Post Americana, brings together leading voices to consider what this means for trade, security, cooperation, and the future of power. https://bit.ly/4kRvjKI

The most likely outcome of today’s tariff war is fragmented globalization, with economic connections reconfigured around competing powers and along regional lines, notes Brookings Global Economy and Development’s Zia Qureshi. "Trade geometry will become increasingly variable as groups of countries and sectors become more integrated and others less so. This fracturing will inevitably impose costs on everyone."

Europeans may be horrified by US President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. But the European Union’s decade-long crackdown on irregular African migrants is no less appalling, argues Adekeye Adebajo. "According to Amnesty International, the EU’s externalization policy, coupled with Italy and Malta’s hostility to rescue ships, were responsible for 721 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean between June and July 2018."