Jim Sleeper 3 October 2025
united-states
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- Rabia Turnbull 9 September 2025On a crisp morning in Citrusdal, trucks brimming with oranges idled under the blazing South African sun, farmers watched helplessly as port authorities halted shipments to the United States. A new 30 percent tariff, one of the highest imposed by the Trump administration, had shut off access to one of South Africa’s largest export markets. For families whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, the shock was immediate, putting an estimated 30,000 jobs at risk.
- Hussein Ibish 12 May 2025From May 13-16, President Donald J. Trump will repeat the opening gesture of his first administration by making the initial major diplomatic travel of his second term to Saudi Arabia (excluding his unanticipated visit to Rome for the funeral of the late Pope Francis) but this time also including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. This trip comes at a highly significant moment in U.S.-Gulf Arab relations, and all parties will have specific agendas and deliverables at stake. Overall, Trump’s trip reinforces the centrality of these partnerships for all sides and signals that he continues to view Gulf Arab countries as important partners, not just for the United States but for his personal and political goals.
- Federica Zoja 11 November 2022Mohammed Bin Salman is deftly playing a chess game aimed at positioning the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a foreign policy leader both regionally and internationally, exploiting each of the great powers’ primary weaknesses (and desires): energy prices in the US, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and China’s desperation to assert its regional dominance. His sudden rise to the head of the desert kingdom was consolidated recently with his appointment as Prime Minister and heir apparent to his aging father, securing his untouchability and immunity when it comes to human rights violations, putting partners like the United States in the particular quandry of not being able to use their traditional soft power levers and leaving evermore domestic dissidents at risk.
- Giovanni Panzeri 19 May 2022In recent decades the world has gradually understood the importance of transitioning to a clean energy economy, buoyed by the prospective of catastrophic environmental collapse. However, few know that this transition largely rests on the employment of a few critical minerals whose global demand is set to skyrocket in the near future. Of particular importance in this case are the so called “rare earth” minerals, which have been at the center of US-China tensions on trade and technology in the recent decade. This article will give a brief account of the current situation regarding the rare earth elements supply chain and how it has been at the center of Us-China competition.
- Giuliano Amato 15 July 2020A reflection on the changing international scenario after the pandemic by former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, building on the legacy of this year’s Venice Seminars.
- Michel Wieviorka 5 May 2020Populism is not really a concept and the recent wave all over the world should be called maybe “neopopulism”. Neopopulism is not in itself extremism, nationalism, radicalization. But due to its mythical structure, it may lead to these phenomena.
- Alan Patten 5 February 2020Populist claim that traditional cultures today are under threat. There are three cases were majority rights claims are plausible as a principle of liberal democracy, says Alan Patten.
- Marina Forti 13 January 2020The extraordinary national unity stemmed by General Soleimani’s assassination has suddenly turned into fresh, heated protests against Teheran’s regime. Will it cope?
- Stanley Greenberg 6 September 2019People in America once again engage strongly in politics. They have enough of anti-government, anti-immigration and polarization extremism that blocks democratic governance.