Weekly Round-Up
Quincy in the news
May 10, 2020
You're invited to

COOPERATION OR COLD WAR: NAVIGATING U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IN TIMES OF COVID AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Date: Thursday, May 14, 2020
Time: 2.00pm - 3.00pm EST 

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U.S.-China relations are deteriorating rapidly, prompting fears of a new Cold War. This carries enormous costs and risks --many of them outside the traditional security sphere. How can the U.S. and China collaborate against COVID and future pandemics if they are entangled in a zero-sum competition? How can collective action addressing the existential threat of climate change be achieved if China and the U.S. -- the world’s top two polluters -- chose conflict over collaboration? 

To address these issues, the Quincy Institute invites you to a Zoom panel discussion with some of the foremost experts on U.S.-China relations, including on U.S.-China pandemic management cooperation and environmental collaboration.
Romney’s reckless China rhetoric risks new Cold War
By Rachel Esplin Odell, Senior Research Fellow for East Asia
Deseret News, 5/3/20

Tough talk on China is all the rage in Washington. Senate Republicans are directing GOP candidates to answer questions about America’s disastrous coronavirus response by blaming Beijing for the outbreak, while presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is accusing President Donald Trump of being soft on China.

Sen. Mitt Romney jumped on this bandwagon last week by calling on America to “seize the moment” of the pandemic to wage a grand geopolitical struggle against China. 
Why is the US removing its Patriot missile systems from Saudi Arabia?
By Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East
Responsible Statecraft, 5/8/20

The U.S. is removing Patriot anti-missile systems from Saudi Arabia as part of a broader drawdown of its military capacity placed there to counter Iran. While the military characterized the move as part of a planned withdrawal that reflects the view that Iran now poses less of a threat, the news has prompted debate over the timing of the decision.
The hedge fund man behind pro-Trump media’s new war on China
By Eli Clifton, Director of Democratizing Foreign Policy
Daily Beast & Responsible Statecraft, 5/5/20

A fortune made at a secretive hedge fund led by Robert Mercer — one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors — appears to be fueling a push for a confrontation with China across a number of connected media properties.

A tax document not intended for public disclosure reveals that a branch of the Epoch Media Group — a conservative media empire controlled by Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement with a stated goal of destroying the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — received over $900,000 from and was formerly led by one of Mercer’s longtime employees, Huayi Zhang, at the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.
America’s global role was already shifting. COVID-19 will accelerate it
By Steven Metz, Non-Resident Fellow
World Politics Review, 5/8/20

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, the United States could have decided that its great fight against totalitarianism was finally over. America could have downsized its involvement in all but the most vital parts of the world, lessened its dependence on imported energy supplies, demilitarized its global strategy and abandoned the quest for primacy. But it did not. By then, Americans had become addicted to primacy, convinced that a militarized form of global leadership was both vital and sustainable.
Webinar: Rethinking U.S. and European policy towards Syria
Panelists: Steven Simon, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Rim Turkmani, and John Hudson (moderator)
Quincy Institute, 5/9/20

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the European Council on Foreign Relations hosted a public Zoom panel assessing U.S. and European policy towards Syria. After nine years of devastating conflict, the panelists discuss what can still be achieved in the country and how and whether the U.S. and European countries can and should best advance their interests, while also addressing the needs of the long-suffering Syrian people. It also explores to what extent U.S. and European policy are likely to remain aligned.

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