The Atlantic (July/August Issue)
Although Donald Trump called Kim “a madman with nuclear weapons,” North Korea’s leader “appears to be neither suicidal nor crazy.” In fact, “he has acted with brutal efficiency to consolidate that power; the assassination of his half brother is only the most recent example. As tyrants go, he’s shown appalling natural ability…. his moves have been nothing if not deliberate and even cruelly rational.” With only bad options for dealing with the North, this is “perhaps the most reassuring thing.”
Tags: Ability, Assassination, Brutal efficiency, Deliberate, Kim, Madman, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Power, Rational, Reassuring, Trump, Tyrant
Washington Post (May 7)
“The anti-E.U. French leader Marine Le Pen’s larger-than-expected defeat Sunday in her nation’s presidential election was a crushing reality check for the far-right forces who seek to overthrow Europe: Despite the victories for Brexit and Donald Trump, they are likely to be shut out of power for years.”
US News & World Report (April 17)
“Clearly, Trump’s foreign policy, if it can be called that, is to ratchet up tensions and trouble and keep the world at bay, wondering what he will do next… Trump’s character is a terrible limitation as an unpopular president, yet it has taken him to the pinnacle of power.”
Tags: Character, Foreign policy, Limitation, Power, Tension, Terrible, Trouble, Trump, Unpopular
Chicago Tribune (January 3)
“Nothing significant happens in Russia, and no action is taken by Russia, without the knowledge of the man who has held total power there for 17 years, first as president and later as unchallenged dictator.” Putin has essentially “eliminated every form of real political and social opposition in Russia.” In short, the United States “doesn’t have a problem with Russia — it has a problem with Putin.”
Tags: Dictator, Opposition, Power, President, Putin, Russia, U.S., Unchallenged
LA Times (November 6)
“Conservatives shouldn’t trust Trump with their votes, or the Constitution.” If elected, he would “be able to abuse his power with impunity — and, based on his own statements and his track record, he would feel little restraint in doing so.
Tags: Abuse, Conservatives, Constitution, Impunity, Power, Restraint, Track record, Trump, Votes
Wall Street Journal (July 5)
The downfall of former Politburo member Ling Jihua may mark the end of “paramount leader Xi Jinping’s purge of political rivals under cover of an anticorruption campaign.” It’s not likely to end the intrigue. “While the ‘tiger hunt’ for top-level cadres may be over, that doesn’t mean Mr. Xi has consolidated power. China’s political struggle continues in other guises. This will make government policies unpredictable and risks conflict spilling out into public view in ways not seen since 1989.”
Tags: Anticorruption, Conflict, Downfall, Ling Jihua, Politburo, Power, Purge, Risks, Rivals, Unpredictable, Xi Jinping
New York Times (August 18)
“Brazil is in tatters. The economy is in a deepening recession.” On top of that Petrobras is facing a “massive corruption scandal” and the country’s credit rating was just downgraded by Moody’s. “In all this turbulence, it is easy to miss the good news: the fortitude of Brazil’s democratic institutions.” Specifically, “in pursuing bribery at Petrobras, federal prosecutors…have not been deterred by rank or power, dealing a blow to the entrenched culture of immunity among government and business elites.”
Tags: Brazil, Bribery, Business, Corruption, Credit rating, Democratic institutions, Downgraded, Economy, Elites, Government, Immunity, Moody's, Petrobras, Power, Prosecutors, Rank, Recession, Scandal
The Economist (May 9)
“Powerful computers will reshape humanity’s future.” Many experts warn artificial intelligence could also threaten humanity’s existence. We must and can “ensure the promise outweighs the perils.” This will require putting constraints “in place without compromising progress. From the nuclear bomb to traffic rules, mankind has used technical ingenuity and legal strictures to constrain other powerful innovations.”
Tags: AI, Constraints, Humanity, Innovation, Perils, Power, Progress, Promise, Rules
USA Today (January 21)
While the manifold challenges we face today “may be obvious, how to resolve them is less clear. In the past you would have looked in the boardrooms or parliaments of the world for solutions.” Today, as the face and style of leadership morphs, “solutions can be found in the minds of a new generation of leaders who have realized that the nature of leadership and power are changing.”
Tags: Boardrooms, Challenges, Leadership, Parliaments, Power, Solutions
Washington Post (December 3)
“In authoritarian politics, as in life, attitude is everything, or almost everything.” Vladimir Putin has demonstrated a relentless desire to hold onto power by any means necessary. “Those who hope that falling oil prices, or Western sanctions, or a combination of the two, will force a change of course in Moscow — much less a change of regime — must reckon with the fact that Putin has seen that scenario once already, in Gorbachev’s time. And he seems determined that the sequel, if any, will end differently.”
Tags: Attitude, Authoritarian, Gorbachev, Moscow, Oil prices, Politics, Power, Putin, Western sanctions
