https://www.scmp.com/rss/512021/feed Dr Alexander Görlach is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Alexander Görlach Alexander Görlach Growing up in West Germany in the 1980s, America was omnipresent. Aside from Hollywood and Coca-Cola, there was one US brand that stood out: Harvard. The university’s name stood on a par with the highest echelons of knowledge. In high school, we learned about Ivy League institutions and, like other nerdy kids across the planet, I dreamed about being a student at Harvard and being immersed in deep conversations about the most crucial questions concerning human existence. Fast forward 20-something... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3313050/harvard-trumps-mind-bears-little-resemblance-reality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3313050/harvard-trumps-mind-bears-little-resemblance-reality?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Jun 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Not so long ago, governments in the capitals of the Western world were devoting considerable time and energy to readjusting their relationship with China. The shift was motivated by concerns that Beijing’s foreign and trade policies under President Xi Jinping could pose a security threat. Two concepts were primarily on the table: “de-risking”, which can be understood as risk minimisation, and “decoupling”, a policy aiming for complete disentanglement of the Chinese and American... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3303309/us-led-globalisation-falters-china-europe-relations-can-flourish?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3303309/us-led-globalisation-falters-china-europe-relations-can-flourish?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Mar 2025 12:30:08 +0000 The invitation of Brazil, India and Indonesia, among others, to the Group of 7 (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, last week highlighted the changing international order. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flew in to Hiroshima, he did so not to convince the already-aligned representatives of the richest democracies in the world to continue to support his cause. Rather, it was to win over the leaders of the aforementioned countries, who are among those often referred to as the “Global... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3221555/inviting-brazil-india-and-others-g7-summit-hints-what-fairer-liberal-world-order-might-look?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3221555/inviting-brazil-india-and-others-g7-summit-hints-what-fairer-liberal-world-order-might-look?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 May 2023 17:30:15 +0000 While in most capitals in the democratic world, calls for resilience prevailed at the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a representative study has found that large groups in China (42 per cent), India (54 per cent) and Turkey (48 per cent) wished for the war to end now, even if it meant Kyiv ceding territory to Moscow. This split in opinion is the result of a year-long communication war on how to perceive the war and resolve it. In the wake of this interpretation controversy,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3211878/why-china-should-support-ukraine-and-condemn-russias-aggression?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3211878/why-china-should-support-ukraine-and-condemn-russias-aggression?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:30:13 +0000 The death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, conjures up different memories around the world. To a person from Germany, the reunification of the country is inextricably linked to his name. In the aftermath of this historic event, scholars and writers tried to make sense of the world that was to come. Two of the most notable publications of the post-Cold-War era are Francis Fukuyama’s End of History and Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations. The former saw the dawn of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3190978/wealth-inequality-china-us-reveals-failure-learn-lessons-fall-iron?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3190978/wealth-inequality-china-us-reveals-failure-learn-lessons-fall-iron?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Sep 2022 22:45:31 +0000 President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have grown closer in the last couple of months. This was particularly obvious when Putin was made Xi’s guest of honour at the opening gala of the Winter Olympics earlier this year. Nothing could come between the two new friends, the two declared in a joint statement after their meeting on the sidelines. However, the recognition of the separatist regions Donetsk and Luhansk by Putin three weeks later put the new friendship under... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3169098/what-russia-should-learn-about-limits-ideology-real-world-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3169098/what-russia-should-learn-about-limits-ideology-real-world-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:00:22 +0000