| | | | And the World's Soft Power Leader Is… | | France is the new global leader in "soft power," according to a new report, replacing a United States that it says is "turning in on itself" and away from promoting free trade and "American values like democracy, human rights, and free speech."
The report, produced annually by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and Portland, a strategic consultancy, ranks countries' ability to influence global affairs based on a range of non-military factors like education, business and culture. It praises France for its "positive global outlook," and attributes its rise in large part to President Emmanuel Macron. "The nation's youngest ever president is riding a wave of domestic and international popularity – bolstered by his savvy online presence – as he looks to deliver on his pro-business and pro-EU agenda."
In second place is the United Kingdom, with the United States in third. The report warns in particular that a "weakened U.S. State Department is going to diminish America's ability to leverage its existing soft power assets. The planned cuts to the State and the inability of the White House and Secretary of State to get key appointments in place is undermining America's diplomatic capability. This must be addressed."
Rounding out the top five: Germany and Canada.
| | Trump Is Half Right About America's Decline: Sandbu | | | President Trump has a point about America – its decline is by no means a figment of his imagination, writes the Financial Times' Martin Sandbu. Yet the truth is that the United States "is weak not because it has uniquely been cheated out of a golden age of factory jobs by foreigners, but because it has failed to create a prosperous new future for all at home."
"[W]hile he may be a fiery prophet of U.S. decline, he is wrong about the wider world. If other western countries display a quiet confidence vis-à-vis Mr Trump, it is because they have reason to. Their unrepentant globalism is striking," Sandbu writes. "Canada's reconsecration of its globalist destiny matches its ambitious welcome of refugees. Europe and Japan are creating one of the world's largest free trade areas. The EU vows not to withdraw from globalization but to shape it to its values of solidarity. Japan is leading the other spurned partners from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Mr Trump has pulled out of, in an effort to complete trade liberalization without U.S. participation." | | Politics in Britain Is Getting Really Ugly: The Economist | | Britain isn't alone in the ugly turn its politics has taken – just look at the United States and Turkey, The Economist's Bagehot columnist writes. But the timing couldn't be worse – Britain is engaged in historic negotiations, and it needs reasoned debate to avoid disaster.
"Why has British politics become so unpleasant? The answer to almost everything these days is Brexit, which has split the country and inflamed opinion. But Brexit is a symptom as well as a cause," The Economist argues.
"Britain is suffering from a malign combination of economic disruption and stagnation. Smart machines are eliminating some jobs, reorganizing others and spreading anxiety. Average pay has declined by some 7% since the financial crisis of 2008. People might be willing to accept disruption if it were accompanied by improvements in living standards, or perhaps to tolerate stagnant living standards if they were accompanied by stability. But the combination of the two is uniquely dangerous, unleashing a wave of populism that is gaining momentum."
| | Iran's Judiciary Tightens Screws…On Its President | | Recent moves by Iran's judiciary, including sentencing a U.S. graduate student to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of spying, suggests a "high-stakes power struggle" between President Hassan Rouhani and hardliners in the judiciary, Erin Cunningham writes in the Washington Post.
"[T]he actions by the judiciary and [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei paint a picture of a hard-line establishment hitting back at an outspoken and popular president who has promised to curb some of the regime's worst excesses," Cunningham writes.
"In recent weeks as well as during the May presidential campaign, Rouhani rapped the judiciary for what he said were arbitrary arrests and a history of atrocities. He also criticized the economic role of the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's most powerful security institution, at the expense of the country's private sector." - The nuclear deal is in trouble. The nuclear deal with Iran appears to be slipping away, writes Robin Wright in the New Yorker.
"Now that the U.S. has imposed new sanctions, [Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad] Zarif said that Iran would reciprocate. Tehran's parliament responded to growing tensions with the Trump Administration by increasing funds for Iran's missile program, the Revolutionary Guards, and its élite Quds Force, which has a controversial presence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. The move is striking because parliament is dominated by reformers and centrists loyal to Rouhani, who have often split with hard-line elements in the Guards' leadership. On this issue, they have united," Wright says.
"The cycle of tit-for-tat, which defined volatile relations between Washington and Tehran for more than three decades after the 1979 revolution, is back in play."
| | China's Censors Just Got Even More Formidable | | Officials in China have been perfecting a new skill as part of ramped up censorship efforts: Making images in one-on-one chat apps disappear before they even reach the intended recipient, the Wall Street Journal's Eva Dou reports.
"Chinese internet censorship first concentrated on the development of word-screening software to root out politically objectionable content. As a result, internet users over the past couple of years turned to sending photos to evade cyber police. In response, censors upped their game by demonstrating the ability to purge images from group chats and public posts," Dou writes.
"In a new report, researchers from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab said they observed that WeChat expanded its image censorship to one-to-one chats for the first time, in the wake of [dissident Liu Xiaobo's] death on Thursday."
| | America Might Have a Jobs Problem. Because of Canada | | Young businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, but the Trump administration's decision to delay implementation of a rule aimed at attracting foreign entrepreneurs could see America lose out in the competition for talent, writes Wired's Issie Lapowsky. Especially to Canada.
"According to the Kauffman Foundation, which studies and promotes entrepreneurship, young companies account for almost all net new job creation and 20 percent of gross job creation in the U.S. The foundation has also found that roughly a quarter of tech and engineering firms are founded by immigrants, and employ an average of 21.37 people per company," Lapowsky writes.
"It's little wonder, then, that as the United States keeps these entrepreneurs in legal limbo, other countries, from France to Chile, are all too eager to take them in. In January, France launched its French Tech Visa, and in April Chile announced that its tech visa approval process would take just 15 days. But with its geographic proximity to well-heeled Silicon Valley investors, cultural similarities, and lack of a language barrier, Canada is emerging as an attractive option for foreign-born founders seeking a foothold in North America."
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