Peace pleas directed at the Kremlin must be extended to Washington: its ‘mission creep’ tendencies and hostility towards Beijing – whose influence with Moscow might have made all the difference – threaten to extinguish hopes of a near-term diplomatic solution in Europe.

While nuclear weapons use is often labelled unthinkable, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that option now seems to be on the table. China has long had a clear no-first-use policy, but the US does not commit to this, stressing nuclear deterrence instead.

Talks between Lee Hsien Loong and Joe Biden reflect Singapore’s role as interlocutor for the US in Asia, which can only be good news for a conflict-weary world. Dismissed by some for its size, Singapore boasts a strategic location, high GDP, and a demonstrated ability to work with China.

Former California governor Jerry Brown has turned his attention towards trying to improve US-China relations in the name of global stability. For both countries to survive and thrive, they must find a way to cooperate as well as compete.

China has staked out a position ambiguous enough to allow quick movement away from the perception of complicity with Moscow. Clear thinking by Beijing is of the utmost importance to end Russia’s shelling of Ukraine and to keep the world from tipping into nuclear catastrophe.

The threat of nuclear force calls for greater attempts at negotiation and a willingness by the West to make concessions to provide Putin with a way out. Beijing’s relations with Moscow, plus its core principles of non-interference and ‘no first use’ of nukes make it an ideal mediator.

On the matter of Russia and Ukraine, Beijing has been notably careful not to endorse any invasion. It is Washington that should stop taking a dim view of countries with national interests different from its own.

Trying to outflank the US by gaming geopolitically with Putin is a risky business, given the Russian president’s image abroad. For its part, the US needs to show greater selectivity about when and where to try to plant the American flag or export the American way.

Russia is seeking to influence Ukraine while Washington keeps a close watch on both Moscow and Beijing. The Biden administration is on shaky ground domestically and needs a foreign-policy win after the Afghanistan fiasco.

US-China relations have been on a downward spiral since the end of the Clinton administration. Today, a US foreign policy that requires the choosing of sides has little future. This should be obvious when Asian countries like the Philippines feel the need to buy missiles.

In the US, the urge to bury the past is part of a widening political and class divide that threatens to tear the nation apart. A society that feels the need to put statues into storage ought not to criticise others for dealing with their history.

In arguing against human exceptionalism, environmental philosopher Melanie Challenger observes that we respond to status threats as if they were existential challenges. With the US afraid of losing its pre-eminent status and China aiming to regain it, a clash seems inevitable, but is eminently avoidable.

The appearance of progressive, level-headed analysis in a publication like Foreign Affairs suggests movement in US policy towards China. Even though the US-China virtual summit produced little of note, there are still ways to bridge the growing gap between the two countries.

The former US president’s keynote speech at COP26 showed he still has the ability to unite and inspire a crowd to action. Obama can speak to the issue of Beijing-Washington relations as a special citizen of the world, and China should welcome the idea.

Sadly, a global consensus on a problem does not equate to global action on the solution. Governments are simply not going to let people freeze no matter how rational the negotiated carbon reduction goals.

Some leaders in the region are showing signs of a new, collective economic conscience. While Fumio Kishida and Xi Jinping head efforts towards a more equal society, Joe Biden’s attempts to do likewise are crumbling in Congress.

The problem with US foreign policy right now is not its secretary of state but its continuing ways of thinking about the rest of the world. A happy ending without seemingly inevitable US-China conflict is out there, but the US should start by rewriting its own playbook.

Thoughtful ideas from Koreans north and south of the DMZ are the best remedy for the tensions. Outside powers claim to want to help fix the problem, but almost 70 years after the Panmunjom armistice, reconciliation is no closer.

There are no poetics in our politics these days as we look for role models of peace in the wrong places. Classical music offers a welcome alternative to the secular sirens of contemporary politics.

The tragedy of Afghanistan has made clear that the US is no longer the ‘indispensable nation’. Let’s hope that China, which so resents being lectured by the US, won’t make the same arrogant mistakes overseas as America.

Americans’ insistence on seeing China as an increasingly assertive power affects their judgment and undermines needed reflection. Let’s hope China and its leaders are too smart to play the role that has been marked out for them by the West’s fearmongers.

The US cannot save the world by itself, as much as it wants to. America must accept that China, while so different and deeply competitive, must pitch in. On China’s part, with a population on the decline, it must seize the hour if it means to prove it is exceptional.

Asia needs a progressive geo-economic evolution led by a friendlier, outward-looking Japan, not further remilitarisation. Japan does best and offers neighbours its best when it keeps its military on a leash while unleashing its impressive entrepreneurial powers.

Viewed calmly, the new world order is simple: China is back, so just deal with it. But to a Washington in cold war mode, Beijing can do nothing right.

A new report that takes a holistic view of the China challenge acknowledges the Chinese dream as a driving force behind Beijing’s strategic decisions. Biden and his team should take note, and direct their attention to rebuilding America.

Joe Biden is pulling the plug on the Afghanistan conflict, but unwisely taking a hard line against China. The situation around the East and South China seas is making the world nervous, and Beijing, for its part, must not misread Washington.

Suspicions of Beijing’s intentions must give way to a more realistic assessment of the impact on the world as a once-sleeping giant awakens. Respect for an ancient civilisation like China must go hand in hand with humility, recognising America has its own problems to fix.

India, grappling with a coronavirus resurgence, will not be pushed to take the US side against China. Washington’s move towards a cold war with Beijing, amid frosty relations with Moscow, will only drive the two nuclear powers closer.

Broadly speaking, America needs a new path, rethinking its assumptions about itself and foreign policy, before dealing with Beijing and Moscow. The Biden administration’s possible choices for US envoy to China, and the decision to leave Afghanistan, seem steps in the right direction.

A Taiwan embroiled in war would pump uncertainty into the world economy as it is an important exporter of semiconductors. Wrap it up in war and you choke the global electronic supply chain just as the world is starting to recover from the pandemic.