Global Outlook

How to de-risk a lexical change that represents dangerous trends: fragmentation, decoupling and confrontation.

Is there a way out of the current constant political, economic and, above all, military escalation? Despite the seeming hopelessness of an end to the power struggle with Putin, despite the escalating situation in East Asia, despite the many wars and conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Mali etc., it is necessary to think about the possibilities for ending these wars on the security, political/diplomatic and economic levels.

Amid a troubling geopolitical environment, USIP’s Frank Aum discussed the prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula with Yonsei University’s Dr. Moon Chung-in, who has advised three South Korean presidents on North Korea policy and was one of the architects of the “sunshine” engagement policy in the 1990s.

India has long been interested in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that was established in 1975, after India’s ‘peaceful nuclear explosion’ in the previous year, to prevent misuses of transferred nuclear technology and materials. In 2008, the NSG controversially decided to grant India a ‘clean waiver’ from its strict rules linked to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

That India is a key actor at the international climate negotiation table was well displayed at the recently concluded Convention of Parties (COP) 27 at Sharm El-Sheikh. The summit which sought a renewed solidarity among the parties to achieve the promises made at Paris in 2015 saw India being an assertive yet cooperative party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

When following the news over the past three years, one might get the impression that the world is living through a permanent state of crisis. While climate change is arguably the most important challenge of our time, headlines were frequently dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and more recently skyrocketing energy and food prices.