What Actually Mattered This Week: UNGA, US-France Relations
WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK
My thoughts on some of this week’s biggest news stories:
Trump vs Biden’s UNGA speeches are night and day, but actual differences in US foreign policy are significantly smaller than the international community hoped and expected.
Biden’s speech made the right policy statements on climate change, but there’s no approved US plan to achieve NetZero by 2050 and zero cooperation with China. This is a big part of why limiting global warming to 1.5C isn’t possible.
There were also no direct China references, but direct opposition to a New Cold War. Essentially US-China is in a holding pattern right now. The Biden team doesn’t want relations to get much worse, but don’t know how to move forward given US domestic constraints and zero trust/very limited avenues for cooperation with Beijing.
If Biden wants to repair the relationship with Macron, he could ask France to join the Quad and invite him to the White House summit on Friday.
But I’m delighted to see the French ambassador is coming back to Washington next week. It was a self-inflicted crisis that Biden was wise to address seriously and immediately.
TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS
% who have confidence in Merkel to do the right thing re world affairs:
Spain 86%
France 82%
Australia 79%
Canada 78%
S Korea 75%
Italy 74%
Japan 73%
UK 72%
US 63%
Greece 30% (near-Grexit still stings)
-Pew
THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN
领英推荐
GRAPHIC TRUTH
YOUR GZERO WORLD?
António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, does not mince words when it comes to the dire state of the world. "We are standing at the edge of an abyss," Guterres warns. COVID is "defeating" the global community and a climate catastrophe is all but assured without drastic action. Amidst this unprecedented peril, there remains a startling lack of trust among nations. And yet, there is still hope. In a frank (and in-person!) GZERO World interview, I headed to the UN ahead of the annual General Assembly week to discuss COVID, climate, the US-China rift, and the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.
For a longer, more in-depth version of my interview with Secretary-General Guterres, check out the GZERO World podcast. ?
WORLD IN 60 SECONDS
How did President Biden's first address to the United Nations General Assembly live go?
The US is to lift pandemic travel restrictions. What will happen after that?
Did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's election gamble pay off?
Find out in this week’s World in 60 Seconds! ?
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BECAUSE THE INTERNET
How to win when politics are broken.?
WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK
To Rule the Waves by Bruce Jones
Bruce Jones has written a timely and important reminder that, with all due respect to sophisticated 21st century cyber weapons, good old-fashioned naval power, enhanced with these new technologies, remains crucial to our collective future. To Rule the Waves makes an utterly convincing case that, in a globalized world, navies are essential sources of both opportunity and risk for all of us. And the accessible style and fascinating stories in it makes this one of the (all-too) rare works that foreign policy wonks can share with people who never read these kinds of books.?
Watch the book trailer here .
DEEP THOUGHTS
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
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Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and foreign affairs columnist at TIME. He currently teaches at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and previously was a professor at New York University. You can follow him on?Twitter ,?Facebook ,?and?Instagram.
Chairman Emeritus World Bank - IMF African Society/Life Time Achievement Award conferred by Africa Trade and Investment Global Summit(ATIGS)/President African Development Associates(ADA)LLC
1 年Sidi's Takeaways (Global South-centric): 1. " The World is at an Inflection Point". Therefore, it's not going to be back to business as usual [Biden], 2. Biden: (a) "UNSC has to change". He hinted that Africa should have a permanent member status in the UNSC and (b) the "World Bank" and IMF have to be reformed in order to give Voice to Africa. The Founding fathers (G7 countries) run the IMF and World Bank. NOT FAIR! OMISSION: 3rd world Debt! At least 55 of the least developed countries are already debt-distressed and historic COVID-19 borrowing has sunk many African countries knee-deep in debt A massive Debt Default is bound to destabilize the global economy. However, most of the borrowing is done by the world's largest economies and they borrow at either Zero interest rate or 4 to 5 times lower interest rates than the. rates to the least developed countries. "Global debt hit a record $307 trillion in the second quarter of the year despite rising interest rates curbing bank credit, with markets such as the United States and Japan driving the rise . More than 80% of the latest debt build up came from developed world with U.S., Japan, Britain and France registering the largest increases [source: Int'l institute of Finance].
Biden speech was about nothing. Biden international policy is reminiscent of Trump policy, however, Biden speeches and rhetoric is at odds with his policy. He is just trying to fool the world. Trump believed in his rhetoric, Biden I do not know.
The Product Guy - Supply Chain Expert - Speaker - Grid Solutions
3 年C'est very pas good
Policy Analyst/Advisor
3 年Allies should negotiate and find common ground!