Future Directions International

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and its deep and ongoing negative financial effects, FDI must close its doors for the final time. As CEO and Institute Director, I wish to thank all our readers over many years, our range of benefactors who have contributed and all those who have written for us, provided advice and encouraged us to continue for as long as possible. Read more: https://bit.ly/3H1zos9

A formal alliance between the world’s largest and most powerful democracies would constitute an unstoppable force. It could prove a very potent deterrent to China’s misbehaviour along the Line of Actual Control border with India, and, when further considered in light of the AUKUS alliance and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue alignment, in the South China Sea. Read more: https://bit.ly/3k2L8k8

In the midst of Pakistan’s serious economic challenges, Saudi Arabia’s offer of US$4.2 billion in financial assistance will help to bring Saudi-Pakistan relations back on track. The Saudi move is also intended to signal that, while improving ties with India, it also wants to check any further deterioration of links with Pakistan and that, in spite of the recent rising clout of the UAE and Qatar, Riyadh is still the dominant strategic player in the Gulf. Read more: https://bit.ly/3CERv4v

Foreign aid for Rohingya refugees has declined since the economic fallout triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the world must not turn its back and should aid Bangladesh, which hosts the vast bulk of the refugees, by providing comprehensive financial assistance. The failure of repatriation, together with funding shortages, could risk untoward future developments, the toll of which the international community will not be able to avoid. Read more: https://bit.ly/3mAHUGo

China’s goods trade with the Portuguese-speaking countries, many of which supply the raw materials that have powered China’s own economic transformation, continues to grow, aided by the status of Macao as a Portuguese-speaking Special Administrative Region. Read more: https://bit.ly/2ZFTHdL

While Pakistan has hinted on multiple occasions that it wants a multi-dimensional relationship, not just one driven by security, the US has made it clear that, in the short term, ties with Pakistan would be centred on Afghanistan. While it was believed that the Biden Administration may tweak its predecessor’s policy, it has essentially followed a similar approach. Given the state of Pakistan’s economy, it cannot depend solely on Beijing and more acrimony with the US is not good news. Read more: https://bit.ly/3pBwJz0

Megaprojects are not the panacea for all infrastructural deficiencies, but they are one of the best available options for addressing Bangladesh’s particular infrastructure deficiencies, transport crises and power shortages in a sustainable manner. Read more: https://bit.ly/3jxULHx

Life in Mashhad, the holiest city in Iran, is shaped by two competing discourses: the “shrine” and the “secular”, with political support for the former allowing it to overshadow every other aspect of the city. The increasing dominance of a discourse with totalitarian characteristics could expand from Mashhad to the whole country under President Raisi’s administration. Read more: https://bit.ly/2ZdkQoh

In spite of serious differences and Moscow’s proximity to Beijing, there is a growing realisation in Washington that a working relationship with Moscow is essential on a number of issues, including Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal. Read more: https://bit.ly/3pgg4Rx

Instead of promoting peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, the New Atlantic Charter could see China and Russia forge a united front against the US-led security partnership in the region. Read more: https://bit.ly/30GCYHx

While the preservation of American democracy should be a lodestar of any US foreign policy, having employed hard power over 200 times since the end of the Cold War, such events as Washington’s exits from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, with their human, economic and political costs, demonstrate the limitations of using excessive military force as a leading component of foreign policy. Read more: https://bit.ly/3iZOnZs

Paris’s anger at having lost the contract to supply conventionally-powered submarines to the Royal Australian Navy is redolent with unmitigated hypocrisy. Read more: https://bit.ly/3DywOre