| | | | Iran Standoff Exposes a Credibility Problem for Trump | | After so much criticism of president Obama's infamous "red line" in Syria, the standoff with Iran has exposed a credibility problem for President Trump, Max Boot writes in The Washington Post. Trump is a "Twitter tiger whose threats cannot be taken seriously," Boot writes, calling on the president to "put up or shut up" when it comes to his bluster.
Iran has found itself in a tricky spot, and Peter Jenkins writes at LobeLog that Tehran needs to find a creative strategy for dealing with Trump, rather than simply exiting the nuclear deal and enriching uranium. | | Saudi Arabia Goes Nationalist | | Under Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's monarchy is taking a nationalistic turn, Eman Alhussein writes in a new paper for the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Amid rising regional competition—especially with Iran—the regime has instituted a nationalist, "Saudi first" foreign policy that antagonizes its rivals. To make room for MbS's domestic reforms, the government has focused on nationalism over conservative Islam and has "unleashed an aggressive narrative that demands the loyalty of the population, introducing a new form of obedience that replaces the old social contract," Alhussein writes. The shift may come at a cost, Alhussein warns, as the "escalating nationalist narrative" risks worsening regional tensions, alienating Western allies, and unleashing grassroots sentiments the government won't be able to control. | | When Globalization Went Awry—and How to Fix It | | | Closed borders and nationalism might not be the answer, but "hyperglobalization" really has been harmful, Dani Rodrik writes in a Foreign Affairs essay. The post-World War II global financial order was built to allow flexibility for countries to respond individually to domestic needs, but as globalization took off, companies and lobbyists succeeded in pushing the free-trade system and more-uniform rules that emerged in the 1990s.
We need to reinstitute some national flexibility, Rodrik writes, allowing countries to protect certain industries and exercise control of capital inflows and outflows, depending on the ups and downs of their economies. Doing so might actually help globalization, which flourished in the postwar decades that involved softer rules and less global uniformity, Rodrik suggests. | | Istanbul's 'Seismic' Election | | After opposition-party candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu won Istanbul's mayoral rerun, The Economist calls annulling the initial results "one of the worst gambits of [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan's career." İmamoğlu "earned the sympathy and the votes of a growing number of disenchanted ruling-party supporters," the magazine writes, noting that İmamoğlu has broadened his party's appeal in ways it hasn't been able to do for decades.
İmamoğlu "undid more of the Erdoğanist identity by running an open and inclusive campaign," offering an antidote to the harsh nationalism of Erdoğan's party, David Gardner writes in the Financial Times. The election may provide a roadmap for Erdoğan's opposition and gives it an important geographic base, Gardner writes, calling the results "seismic." | | The State of Internet Censorship in China | | In the most recent episode of the Lowy Institute's Rules Based Audio podcast, interviews with New York Times China correspondent Chris Buckley and CNN Senior Producer James Griffiths shed light on how Internet censorship is evolving in China.
China's ruling party may not like online criticism, but the Internet "can be a feedback mechanism for the government, whereby it can understand controversies or concerns in the public that need to be addressed," Buckley says. One example: The #MeToo movement. As Chinese women came forward online and shared their stories, China's response was to censor the discussion—but it also began punishing offending male university professors, for instance, and instituted rules protecting female students. Government censors search for sensitive topics, but when new ones emerge organically, censors crack down "as stuff bubbles up," and "whole topics get cut off," Griffiths explains. | | | | | | |
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