Project Syndicate regularly features predictions by leading thinkers on a topic of global concern. After another year marked by great-power rivalries, rising security risks, a string of coups, land grabs, outright war and shifting strategic alignments, the role of hegemonic, middling and rising powers has become more fluid than at any time since the end … Read more
NEW YORK – To gain a glimpse of the kind of strains many countries will face in 2024, it can help to focus on the challenges facing a single country. Consider Egypt’s recent experience. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the sharp global increase in grain and fertilizer prices disrupted the Egyptian economy, which … Read more
NEW YORK – If one event dominates the coming year, it will almost certainly be the U.S. presidential election. Barring something unexpected, we are likely to see a rematch of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump, with the outcome being perilously uncertain. One year out, polls in key swing states give Trump the advantage. The election … Read more
WASHINGTON – Only a few years ago, at the Communist Party of China’s 19th National Congress in 2017, President Xi Jinping declared that “socialism with Chinese characteristics … (is) blazing a new trail for other developing countries to achieve modernization.” At the time, many countries across the Global South seemed eager to learn China’s formula … Read more
LOS ANGELES/LUCERNE, Switzerland – Although our age is defined by humanity’s disproportionate influence on the planet, we ourselves are undergoing profound changes. Tasks that previously could be accomplished only through human labor are increasingly being performed by machines, including many tasks that rely on creativity. Far from a distant theoretical possibility, artificial intelligence has arrived … Read more
KYIV – Nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war’s end seems nowhere in sight. Nonetheless, Ukraine has already won numerous important battles, many of which we began fighting long before Russia’s latest assault on our country. These victories will, I am certain, help to ensure our final victory in … Read more