Recent weeks have been intensive for us interested in political economy and international relations. Prime minister Boris Johnson continues to struggle against parliament over Brexit, President Trump’s conduct have led House of Representative Democrats to launch an impeachment process against him, Turkey has invaded northern Syria, and protests in Hong Kong continues. I can’t cover all these topics in any great detail so this week I’ll instead give my reasons as to why it’s worth paying attention to.
The Brexit story seems endless, several deadlines have come and gone yet the divorce seems never to materialise. It’s easy to loose interest in Brexit but I believe it will be crucial to understand Brexit to understand what happens in the British isles, it seems likely that Brexit will be a defining moment for the United Kingdom and Ireland for the coming decades. That said I don’t recommend following the details of the trade deals, instead focus on broader issues like the Irish border.
The current American President have been divisive for years and pundits and political enemies of the President have long said that he needs to be removed before he causes serious damage to the country’s interest and standing in the world. Whether the President is removed or not is, to me at least, most interesting as a proxy for understanding how American politics will work going forward. American politics have always had a plutocratic element, but the current President makes it much more pronounced. Will President Trump be punished for his norm-breaking or is this the new normal?
Turkey’s invasion is to me a signal that Turkey is a rising power. It will be interesting to see how America and Russia decide to deal with Turkey’s invasion, and to see how the other regional powers react. While the Syrian civil war is, in all likelihood, a closed chapter at this point the conflicts in the Middle East are not. I also wonder how this will affect NATO, and EU-Turkey relations.
The protests in Hong Kong have been going on for many weeks now, and it could be seen as an embarrassment for Beijing that the protests are still going on. As the eyes of the world is on Hong Kong China will have to try to defuse the protests without using too much violence. Hong Kong is in a way the perfect battleground for Great Power competition as it would be a way for the US to kill two birds with one stone by supporting the protesters both in the name of democratic values and in order to annoy China. Could the fact that the US hasn’t been too vocal on the subject mean that Washington is keen on an end to the trade war, presumably with President Trump triumphantly declaring victory?
Which current events do you find the most interesting? I’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s worth watching and the issues I brought up in the blog post. You can tweet me at @ipolecoblog if you want to get in touch with me. If you want to read my last blog post you can find that here. Please come back on Sunday evening for a new blog post, and thanks for reading!
Written by Karl Johansson, Founder of Ipoleco.
Cover Photo by Pixabay on Pexels
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