Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Jason Miks.

September 6, 2017

Are Fears Over Trump's North Korea Rhetoric Overblown?

Fears that President Trump's recent rhetoric might make the Kim Jong Un regime even more paranoid – and perhaps trigger a preemptive North Korean attack – could be overblown, suggests Adam Cathcart in Foreign Policy. In fact, "the opposite may be closer to the truth."

"North Korea's leadership, if not all its diplomats and public servants, has an especially finely tuned ear for the exaggeration in Trump's language, given their own regular use of hyperbole and empty threats," Cathcart says. "The country can easily digest raw physical threats, so long as Trump does not assault the ideological basis of the North Korean leadership or directly imply that the country needs an internal coup. Trump's continuous threats and stoking of a crisis atmosphere may even assist the ongoing consolidation of Kim's autocratic rule by bolstering his domestic image as the protector of the Korean people."

Fareed: A sad reminder about the Trump presidency. Fareed says the latest crisis over North Korea was also a reminder "of one of the saddest things to watch around the world with this president: how his words have lost credibility."

"The president of the United States tweeted: 'The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.' The obvious implication of that is that the administration was considering stopping trade with China," Fareed says.

"For a start, shutting down trade with China would impose enormous damage on the U.S. economy. But what was fascinating was that no one seemed to take the president's words seriously. Why? Because the feeling now around the world is that this is Donald Trump, and so when he says things like this, it doesn't really mean anything.

"So, for example, Trump suggests the United States might attack North Korea, but it doesn't happen. He suggests he's going to recognize Taiwan, but he doesn't do it. He threatens to abandon NAFTA, but that doesn't happen. And, of course, he says he is going to build a wall. I can't remember a time in my life when the words of the president of the United States were dismissed so widely, so easily."

Russia's Deadly AI Ambitions

The United States and China might be the leaders in artificial intelligence (AI), but Russia is increasingly looking like it intends to be a leader in weaponizing such technology, argues Gregory Allen for CNN Opinion.

"Over the past five years, Russia has been aggressively investing in new military robotics and unmanned systems and testing these systems in Russia's conflicts in Ukraine and Syria," Allen writes. "Today, Russia's military robots and drones are remotely operated, but in the future Russia plans to field 'intelligent robotic complexes,' meaning robotic military units powered by AI systems that can fight and kill without need for a human operator. In fact, the Russian Military Industrial Committee has approved an aggressive plan that would have 30% of Russia's combat power consist of entirely remote-controlled and AI-controlled robotic platforms by 2030."

Why Dubbing Hurricane Irma a Category 6 Makes No Sense

Irma may be the most powerful Atlantic basin hurricane in history, but ignore the chatter about classifying it a Category 6 storm, writes Maggie Astor in the New York Times.

"The purpose of the categories, known as the Saffir-Simpson scale, is to quantify a hurricane's destructive power, and the destructive power of a Category 5 hurricane -- one with sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour -- is virtually total," Astor writes.

"This is not to say there is no difference between a storm that brings 160-mile-per-hour winds and one that reaches 190…[A] hurricane with 200-mile-per-hour winds has four times -- not just double -- the force of one with 100-mile-per-hour winds. And wind is not the only factor; barometric pressure and other characteristics also affect how destructive it will be.

"But practically, once a storm has leveled a city, there is little more it can do."

Is Xi Struggling to Control China's Military?

Recent changes to the leadership of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) suggest that Chinese President Xi Jinping is still trying to take full control of the country's military. But it won't be easy, suggests Brahma Chellaney in the Hindustan Times.

"[J]ust as a dog's tail cannot be straightened, asserting full civil control over the PLA is proving very challenging. After all, the party is ideologically and morally adrift and depends on the PLA to sustain its political monopoly and ensure domestic order. The PLA, with its soaring budgets and expanding role to safeguard China's overseas interests, sees itself as the ultimate arbiter of Chinese nationalism," Chellaney argues.

"The PLA's increasing clout has led China to stake out a more muscular role, including resurrecting territorial and maritime disputes, asserting new sovereignty claims, and using construction activity to change the status quo."

Why Pakistan Could Walk Away from U.S. Relationship

President Trump's r ecent speech on Afghanistan criticizing Pakistan hasn't gone over well with officials or the public in the country. That is prompting some in Pakistan to consider "lowering the curtains on its relationship with America," suggests Michael Kugelman in the National Interest.

"Trump is poised to apply draconian new tactics to drive Pakistan away from nonstate assets that make Pakistan's Indian enemy vulnerable, and he has already encouraged India to deepen its presence on Pakistan's western flank," Kugelman writes. "If Pakistan were to walk away from its partnership with the United States, it wouldn't be wandering into the wilderness; it would be marching into the wide-open embrace of Beijing, which is cementing its already-deep partnership with Pakistan as it builds out the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor."

What the World Gets Wrong About Africa

The Kenyan Supreme Court's decision to annul the results of the presidential election over "irregularities and illegalities" underscored the significant strides Africa has made on democracy and accountability, argues David Pilling for the Financial Times.

"The world still regards Africa as a continent of coups. That view is hopelessly out of date. In 1990, 12 African leaders owed their position to a military putsch, with only six in charge as a result of multi-party elections, according to the Brookings Institution. By 2016, 45 leaders had gone through a multi-party process -- many, admittedly, far from perfect -- with none in sub-Saharan Africa having gained power directly through a coup d'état."

The World's Best University Is…

For the first time ever, British universities take the top two places in the Times Higher Education's latest global rankings, but U.S. institutions still dominate the list – for now, at least.

Forty-one of the top 100 universities are in the United States, with the California Institute of Technology, Stanford and MIT rounding out the top five after Oxford and Cambridge.

But this year's list, which ranks universities on a range of factors including teaching, research and citations, also notes the continuing rise of Chinese institutions.

"The Asian giant is now home to two universities in the top 30: Peking and Tsinghua. The Beijing duo now outrank several prestigious institutions in Europe and the U.S. Meanwhile, almost all Chinese universities have improved, signaling that the country's commitments to investment have bolstered results year-on-year."

Forward

Copyright © 2017 CNN

What did you like about today's Global Briefing? What did we miss? Let us know what you think: GlobalBriefing@cnn.com

unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences