World Politics Review

Last month, Burundi and Tanzania signed an agreement with two Chinese state-owned companies to construct a new railway to ports on the Tanzanian coast. At a cost of more than $2 billion, it is just the latest major infrastructure project financed by an outside power to be announced in Africa. These days, coverage of major infrastructure projects like these are usually framed in terms of the emerging geopolitical competition for minerals, which is not necessarily inaccurate. But there is more to these developments than geopolitical competition. Large-scale infrastructure projects built and planned across the African continent, which have attracted billions of dollars in investment in recent years, are essentially replicating colonial models of infrastructure, in turn recreating economic and trade relations—and their associated inequities—from a bygone era, Duncan Money writes. https://lnkd.in/eb9s7A_7

U.S. President Trump might be a dealmaker, but he seems most eager to spend. Specifically, he seems determined to spend all the global goodwill earned by the United States over the past 80 years. Some will contend that this is part of a grand design to reshape the basis for U.S. power. But the true cause could well boil down to one simple and powerful force: stupidity. Or as the folk wisdom puts it, never attribute to genius or malice what can be explained by incompetence. What’s more, it doesn’t seem that other major powers will necessarily reap benefits from Trump’s unforced errors. And this may not be because they are unwilling or unable to, but just because they seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot as well, columnist Paul Poast writes. https://lnkd.in/e4cgbcWD

Clashes broke out yesterday in several coastal cities between Syrian security forces and fighters loyal to the Assad regime, posing the first major security challenge to the interim government. Read more in today’s Daily Review:

There is little doubt that with Donald Trump as U.S. president, the trans-Atlantic alliance as we have known it, embodied primarily by NATO, is gravely wounded, perhaps irreparably. Trump is upending the security and diplomatic structures that have shaped the world’s geopolitical foundations since the end of World War II. The erosion of NATO’s cohesion will weaken the U.S. and Europe. It is a misguided initiative deliberately triggered by Trump. And yet, Europe and the U.S. are not about to march off on their separate ways. Their military and diplomatic bonds will undoubtedly look different moving forward. But Europe and the U.S. are linked by more than just security and political ties, columnist Frida Ghitis writes. https://lnkd.in/eY6PX6pg

“The instinct to give up on the fight against corruption is, in some ways, understandable,” as policing foreign officials might “derail cooperation on Washington’s other priorities,” I wrote in World Politics Review. “Still, the battle against corruption is well worth fighting.” “Among their?pernicious effects, bribes distort government decisions, waste taxpayer money, reduce the quality of public services and infrastructure, compromise public health and safety, increase the influence of criminal organizations over state institutions and provide inroads for Chinese and Russian influence. And while Washington’s complaints about corruption in Central America might give foreign investors pause, so does corruption.” https://lnkd.in/en8TDPSf

Defense topics were largely absent as a campaign issue in the runup to Germany’s recent elections. Nevertheless, when CDU leader Friedrich Merz—now the likely next German chancellor—announced his three priorities for any potential coalition government the day after the vote, Germany’s defense policy was first on his list. Since then, developments in trans-Atlantic relations have only made the issue more urgent. Now, as the first meetings to negotiate a possible coalition government take place in Berlin, what debates are taking place on the directions of security and defense policy for Europe’s largest and economically strongest country? And what changes are to be expected? https://lnkd.in/eMfFAhtY

US allies in Europe and Asia are increasingly deepening their direct security ties. South Korea and Poland’s agreement is just the latest example. Read more in today’s Daily Review:

Conflicts surged around the world last year, killing an estimated 233,000 people in Ukraine and Gaza, but also in Lebanon, Sudan and Myanmar, among others. In addition to the immediate humanitarian suffering, all these conflicts combine to exacerbate the climate crisis, while remaining invisible in the emissions accounting. The fact that we don’t know the scale of military emissions is no coincidence, however. Under the Paris Agreement, reporting them is voluntary. That’s a problem, Aryn Baker writes. https://lnkd.in/ed5e_A9A

WPR is excited to be partnering with New America’s Planetary Politics program, whose latest cohort of fellows will be bringing our readers innovative analysis on important issues facing our world. Meet this year’s fellowship class here:

With proposals announced yesterday, Germany’s prospective governing coalition has signaled it is prepared to return the country to its leadership role. That will be more than welcome in Brussels. https://lnkd.in/e5Exv2Gs