Covid-19 And The Turbulent History Of Globalization
There is perhaps no time like the present for reflecting on globalization, the buzzword of the century, but a word that may now be under threat. For example, China showed that global trade and...
Author: Professor John West
Book Review: The deadly legacy of the Cold War in the modern world
The anti-communist purge in Indonesia in the 1960s is retold in a compelling examination of US Cold War policy. Book review: Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method: Washington’s anti-communist crusade and the mass murder program that...
Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War [Book Review]
The US/China relationship — arguably the most important in the world — is on a downward spiral. The authors of Superpower Showdown describe it as a “romance gone bad.” We often read reviews claiming that a...
Time for middle power global leadership?
An alliance of middle powers might be the best bet for new global leadership, as both the US and China have lost credibility through the COVID-19 pandemic, but will they step up? The West has...
[Book Review] British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, intercolonial relations and the Empire
The appalling treatment of Indians under the White Australia Policy is argued by Kama Maclean to weigh over current ambitions to develop a special relationship between the two countries. As China asserts itself more...
Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World
The Chinese Communist Party’s global influence operations are covert but pervasive, and are undermining Western democratic institutions. Hidden Hand is very welcome in raising our awareness of this, and the stakes involved. Most rising powers endeavour...
Book Review: What’s Holding China’s Economy Back?
Book Review: Dexter Roberts The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: The Worker, the Factory, and the Future of the World (St Martin’s Press, 2020) CCP’s discriminatory hukou system is a great obstacleto changing from world’s factory to a...
COVID-19 a grim reminder that international cooperation needs to step up. Now
The COVID-19 crisis has struck a divided and fragile world and exacerbated divisions The COVID-19 crisis comes in the midst of great power rivalry between China and the US. Strangely, the crisis has highlighted...
The end of Hong Kong as we know it
Beijing is killing the goose that laid the golden egg, as it imposes its own national security law on Hong Kong, writes John West. From British to Chinese colonialism Hong Kong is basically a...
Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping | Book Review
By most accounts, China has behaved badly through the COVID-19 pandemic. Fascinating insights can be derived about China’s present behaviour by looking into its past. An initial cover-up. Punishment of whistle-blowers. Permitting international travel...
