The post-Cold War era is over and a dangerous new era of great power competition has begun.

Blog Post by Michelle Kurilla

May 23, 2024 10:42 am (EST), CFR

The latest episode of The President’s Inbox is live! This week, Jim sat down with David E. Sanger, White House and National Security Correspondent for the New York Times. David recently published New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West. They discussed the United States’ return to great power competition.The President’s Inbox

America’s New Cold Wars, With David Sanger

David Sanger, the White House and national security correspondent for the New York Times, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how the post-Cold War ended and why the new era of geopolitical rivalry began.

Here are four highlights from their conversation:

1.) The post-Cold War era is over. The United States no longer enjoys its unipolar moment. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and through the 2000s, the United States and the West made a series of misjudgments about where Russia and China were headed. They assumed that Russia and China would want to become more integrated into the U.S.-led world order. David acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin stated explicitly in 2007 that he would do the contrary, while China’s ambitions were unclear initially. David said, “this was a failure of imagining a world in which these powers wanted to return to a past era of greatness and weren’t going to sit still for a unipolar world, run out of Washington under Washington values

Continue reading America’s New Cold Wars →

 

By Jessie Yeung and Nectar Gan, CNN

Updated 4:23 AM EDT, Thu May 23, 2024

Soldiers pose for group photos with a Taiwan flag after a preparedness enhancement drill simulating the defense against Beijing’s military intrusions in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan on January 11, 2023. Daniel Ceng/APCNN — 

Tensions are once again ratcheting up in the Taiwan Strait, with China launching military drills encircling Taiwan just days after the democracy swore in a new leader long loathed by Beijing.

Continue reading China has launched new drills encircling Taiwan. Why now? →

“I hid in my bed, I didn’t go outside at all…”

“… I wouldn’t leave my bed for even half a step.”

“To be honest, I felt like I had given up.”

By Jessie Yeung, Sophie Jeong, Carlotta Dotto, Woojin Lee, Kenneth Uzquiano and Saki Toi

Published May 25, 2024

(CNN) — Charlie was 15 when his life inexplicably shrank to fit within the frame of his lower bunk bed in his family’s cramped Hong Kong apartment.

“I felt very depressed, confused, like I didn’t know what I wanted,” said Charlie, who’s now 19 and still learning how to navigate the world outside.

Charlie is among millions of hikikomori, a Japanese term for people who cut themselves off from society, sometimes for months or years – often Gen Z and Millennials in the prime of their youth.

The phenomenon first emerged in Asia, and is particularly well-documented in Japan – but similar stories are surfacing in other parts of the world including the United States, Spain and France.

Continue reading A shrinking life: Why some Asian youth withdraw from the world →