Stay updated with breaking news from Blue Dot Network. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
For the past several years, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean has become a regular feature in international headlines. Time and again, Sri Lanka has been displayed as an example of the dark underbelly of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious, multibillion-dollar connectivity corridor spanning half the globe.
In contrast to the BRI’s “railroads to nowhere,” the United States can reframe global infrastructure development around the citizens who need it the most.
This blue dot in space is the only planet we have. We must take care of it. Like any other great challenge, this demands a seriousness of effort paired with the honesty and courage to insist on practical, realistic, efficacious policies. The planet doesn’t know we have national borders. We do. It’s a reality that can’t be ignored and won’t change. The idea of erasing the freedoms of peoples and the sovereignty of nations to address environmental issues is unrealistic and unnecessary. Nations will cooperate and compete, just like in any other matter of international affairs.
With the global infrastructure shortfall expected to reach $15 trillion by 2040, the World Forum for Africa (WOFA) and other experts have called for improved dialogue towards integration of labeling and certification ahead of infrastructure development in the continent.
"American Sunset?” was the title of a panel I was recently asked to join at a prominent international conference. The organizers were interested in exploring the implications of America’s “decline,” and specifically its impact on the security order in the Indo-Pacific.