July 24, 2020

Wilson Weekly

Holding a Pen in One Hand, Gripping a Gun in the Other

When New Zealand sold sensitive drone technology to China in 2017, the nation's trade minister remarked that it showed his country could export more than "dairy and lamb." But is New Zealand breaking its own laws -- and international commitments -- to do so? Global Fellow Anne-Marie Brady's new report analyses a trade relationship with global relevance.

EVENT | VIDEO AND QUOTES

The Politics of Corruption in Russia and Ukraine

“There’s a lot of corruption, especially at the upper levels,” says Jordan Gans-Morse, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, “but it has to be kept in check to a degree or they would not be able to do some of the geopolitical things they would want to do.”

EVENT | VIDEO AND QUOTES

Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe

“I wonder if it would’ve been possible for a Gorbachev to appear after Stalin,” says Timothy J. Naftali, Associate Professor of History at NYU, “because the questions that Gorbachev raised could really only have been raised as a result of the collapse of the Soviet experiment.”

GROUND TRUTH BRIEFING

Canada at the United Nations, What Next? A Conversation with Canada’s New Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae

“There is a significant growth in authoritarian populism around the world,” observes Ambassador Rae. “And Canada is not going to be silent about that. And about the impact on civil liberties.”

PODCAST | NEED TO KNOW

How To Lose the Information War - Book Chat with Nina Jankowicz

Private spaces on the Internet can be just as dangerous as public spaces, says Nina Jankowicz, especially when bad actors “identify… and weaponize” the disinformation circulating within them.

FELLOWSHIP COMPETITION

Calling All Researchers!

The Wilson Center’s residential fellowship competition is open. Scholars, practitioners, journalists and public intellectuals are invited to submit policy-relevant, non-advocacy fellowship proposals that address key challenges confronting the U. S. and the world.

NOW

From COVID-19 to Black Lives Matter: Is This a Moment of Real Change?

WILSON IN THE NEWS

China Retaliates Over US Consulate Closing (Here & Now / WBUR)

Robert Daly assesses how the U.S. and China's tit-for-tat consulate closings will play out in the larger arc of relations between the two nations.

The State of China's Environmental Policy (China Voices)

"When the economy slows down,” says Jennifer Turner, “it’s a lot more difficult to devote your energies to environmental issues… At the National People’s Congress, they didn’t even set a GDP growth target.”

How to Lose the Information War (Reddit AMA)

Nina Jankowicz argues that “the first tenet of any counter disinformation policy needs to be that disinformation is a threat to democracy, no matter whether it's foreign or domestic in its source.”

Will Russia Weaponize Its Wheat As the World Combats the Coronavirus? (The National Interest)

Sherri Goodman and Clara Summers write that “Russia has revealed that it will not be a reliable source of grain the next time it suffers a pandemic or extreme weather. We ignore this lesson at our peril.”