Pulse: China


The Caribbean in the Crossfire: Between Covid-19, Narcotics, China, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

My newest work on how the combination of Covid-19, Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, PRC engagement in the Caribbean, and transnational organized crime dynamics, are gravely stressing and transforming the Caribbean.

Parallel Universes: EconVue Spotlight April 2022 - Has the 4th Estate Eaten Up the Other Three?

Most Russian experts and military strategists I follow doubted Putin would invade Ukraine. I agreed with their rational arguments, but here we are. I’m reminded of the Haruki Murakami novel 1Q84. The heroine alights from her taxi and gradually discovers that she is living in a world where everything is almost the same, except there are two moons. Since Covid began, I doubt I’m alone in feeling that I have somehow gotten off at the wrong stop, and am living in a hellishly perverse alternative universe.

The Risks of Chinese Engagement in the Americas

This short work gives particular attention the increasing PRC presence in the digital economy and its technologies, as well as providing recommendations for US policymakers.

China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy?

This book provides a balanced and compelling framework for understanding PRC engagement in the region that recognizes both the opportunities and threats to the region, and that recognizes the legitimacy of the search for economic opportunities by both China and the region in the context of transparency, rule of law, and a level playing field for the benefit of all.

The Day After: Planning for China Scenarios that Profoundly Alter the Strategic Environment

This work examines the strategic implications of the incorporation of Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under three scenarios.

Alberto Fernandez' Magical Odessey to Russia and China

President Alberto Fernández’s state visit to Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) this month was tragic for Argentina—its national interests, its reputation as a democratic voice in the region, and moderates within Peronism who sincerely believe in the government as a tool for social justice and progress.

Preparing for Deterioration of the Latin America and Caribbean Strategic Environment

The article examines the historically unprecedented turn to the Left, and to authoritarian populist regimes, across in Latin America and the Caribbean.

EconVue Spotlight January 2022 - Skating, On Thin Ice

In just a few weeks, the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing. Both Japan and China were unlucky in their timing; these Games without an audience must be bittersweet for participants as well. For me personally, they bring back memories.

EconVue Spotlight - Appointment in Samarra?

Last month, a bit past the peak of fall foliage, I went to Vermont to visit family. Along the way I decided to stop by one of the many small cemeteries that dot the state to see the only monument to the 1918 Pandemic in the US. Hope Cemetery was beautiful, graced with stone gates, on a shining autumn day and a place where the eternal and the impermanent exist side by side.

China’s Strategic Military Advance in Argentina

The military component of international engagement by the People’s Republic of China has long proceeded cautiously, in support of the economic engagement led by PRC-based SOEs. Some have anticipated the imminent establishment of a base by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Panama since the Chinese firm Hutchison Whampoa won concessions to operate two ports there in 1999, or in El Salvador, since the announcement of Chinese plans for a megaproject at La Union.

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