What Actually Mattered This Week: US Democracy Summit, Biden-Putin Meeting, Olympic Boycott
WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERED THIS WEEK
My thoughts on some of this week’s biggest news stories:
The US is in a good position to lead a global summit on the economy. On security. Heck, even on vaccine diplomacy.
But not on democracy.
The most important piece of this week’s Biden-Putin meeting: It was proceeded and followed up by meetings to coordinate policy with key allies.
The US, UK, and EU have a united front on Ukraine (unlike Afghanistan).
Even after Biden’s diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, the US-China relationship isn’t on the brink of crisis. It’s better today than it was back during the Anchorage summit.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
You had that three-and-a-half-hour meeting between Biden and Xi. You got some cooperation on climate, some on the energy, Petroleum Reserve release, and you'll probably see a little more on trade. So the boycott is a bump, but on balance, the relationship is trending a little bit better than it had been.
Prefer long-form analysis? Here are my thoughts on Russia-Ukraine tensions.
TRUTHS, DAMNED TRUTHS, AND STATISTICS
The world’s richest 10% control 76% of global wealth.
The bottom 50%: 2%.
THE GZERO WORLD WE’RE JUST LIVING IN
GRAPHIC TRUTH
YOUR GZERO WORLD
Few people know more about the Taliban than journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who wrote the book on the group — literally.
In the months after 9/11, his critically acclaimed 2000 study Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia became a go-to reference as the US geared up to invade Afghanistan and knock the militant group from power.
Now, twenty years later, with the US out of Afghanistan and the Taliban back in charge, I sat down with Rashid to learn more about the Taliban today in a GZERO World interview.
How much has the group changed since the days of soccer-stadium executions, television bans, and blowing up world heritage sites? How should the rest of the world deal with them?
For a longer, more in-depth version of my interview with Rashid, check out the GZERO World podcast.
WORLD IN 60 SECONDS
As Presidents Biden and Putin meet, how are US-Russia relations at the moment?
What's going on with the US boycott of the Beijing Olympics?
Finally, what's the omicron update?
Find out in this week’s World in 60 Seconds!
Do you like what you’ve seen? Subscribe and stay informed.
BECAUSE THE INTERNET
How maps can confuse us:
WHAT TO READ THIS WEEK
The Great Leveler – by Walter Scheidel
Are you wondering what Covid might mean for economic inequality? This book has thoughts.?
Economic inequality is on the rise. What will it take to reverse it? A lot, according to Scheidel. He suggests that only massive calamities have been responsible for meaningful reversals of wealth and income inequality over the last few millennia. The “four horsemen of leveling” include: mass mobilization wars, transformational revolution, state failure, and… pandemics. For any of these to qualify, they need to be big, like world wars and communist revolutions big. The 14th century black death qualifies because it killed so many people that peasants suddenly had much more leverage, resulting in higher wages and more economic independence. So what does that mean for Covid-19? Is the “Great Resignation” a sign??In a Guardian interview from April 2020, Scheidel was pessimistic that a leveling was on the horizon: ?“It depends on how severe the crisis is going to be, how long it’s going to last and how much it’s ultimately going to interrupt supply chains,” he said. Well…
DEEP THOUGHTS
“You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” – Maya Angelou
Thanks for reading! Please subscribe for more analysis from GZERO Media.
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.
Licensed Realtor at National Realty Guild
3 年Biden having a democracy summit seems dubious at best.
*Gournalist*Extrapreurer| |Disruptive Innovator| |Biotechnology Subject Matter Expert| |Project Management| | (CBD)Cannabis Business development consultant |Un-Learner and Re-Learner | PMI Certified Critical-Thinking|
3 年When 10 % rich controls 60 % of worlds wealth ,how its possible to unit the world on the issue of climate change.
Music Lessons and Recording Sessions at Mountjoy Music Studio. Corner of Betts and Smith.
3 年Canada has joined the boycott! A wonderful and yet surprising move given the faux-liberals love affair with socialism. Now if only we'd stop trading with the dictatorship that murdered over 100 million innocent Chinese citizens during the "revolution/bloodbath" and enslaved millions more since.