Altamar - Navigating the High Seas of Global Politics

The 7.4 million citizens of Hong Kong are living their most serious political event since the 1997 handover to mainland China. The spark of a protest over an extradition bill has morphed into a broader search for democratic rule in Hong Kong – with major geopolitical implications for China and the United States. Scott Kennedy, Freeman Chair in China Studies and Director for the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), discusses what’s next for the “Special Administrative Region.”

https://altamar.us/hong-kong-crisis-goes-global/

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Angela Merkel will step down as German Chancellor by 2021 – if not sooner amid growing health concerns. With no clear successor, her firm control over Germany’s economy, commitment to centrist democracy, and stabilizing influence in Europe’s foreign policy are all at risk. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, International Correspondent for NPR in Berlin, joins Altamar to discuss the vacuum of leadership amid a perfect storm of German and European politics. As politicians at home compete to fill the void, the continent faces Eurosceptic populist leaders, Trump’s trade threats, and challenges from Russia and China. Who can fill her shoes?

More at https://altamar.us/germany-life-after-merkel/ 

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Russia is a major world power under the nationalistic and personality-driven leadership of Vladimir Putin. The former KGB agent hasn’t hesitated to form alliances with the world’s least desirable regimes to expand the nation’s influence and reach. How far will Putin go to see Russia the top of the international food chain? Angela Stent, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University and author of Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest, joins Altamar to unpack Putin’s geopolitical calculus – and what it means for the United States.  

More at https://altamar.us/putins-long-game/

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Six months into office, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro faces diminishing political capital, a tense relationship with Congress, tumbling markets, and an increasingly radicalized group of supporters – not to mention scorn from the international community. What do Bolsonaro’s woes mean for a nation in desperate need of reform? Patricia Campos Mello, award-winning journalist and senior columnist at Folha de São Paulo, analyzes how Bolsonaro can address the challenges facing Brazil amidst dismal approval ratings and corruption investigations.

More at https://altamar.us/is-brazils-bolsonaro-sinking/

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Japan’s story is a geopolitical roller coaster. Entering the 21st century, the land of the rising sun found itself in deep political and economic malaise, and China was positioned to displace it. But the country has embarked on a major comeback, thanks in large part to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s “Abenomics.” Matthew Goodman, senior vice president and senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), joins Altamar to discuss Japan’s return to relevance, President Trump’s state visit under the new Emperor Naruhito, and what we can expect from Japan in the coming years.

More at https://altamar.us/japan-a-return-to-relevance/

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Nearly half of the world’s voters cast ballots in April and May of 2019, from Spain and South Africa to India and Indonesia. But in a world that is putting strongmen in office and where governments are weaponizing social media – are elections still the best thermometer of democracy’s health around the globe? Ian Bremmer, political scientist and president of Eurasia Group and G-ZERO Media, discusses how the democratic system can be strengthened amidst political polarization and voter disenchantment.

More at https://altamar.us/is-voting-passe-more-elections-less-democracy/

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Iceland is heralded around the world as a success story of social policy experiments and for its remarkable recovery from the global financial crisis – all with just over 300,000 inhabitants. Thóra Arnórsdóttir, former Icelandic presidential candidate and managing editor of Kveikur, the island nation’s only investigative journalism television program at the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, joins Altamar to help us move beyond the headlines and fairy tales, into the lessons and challenges of this unique country.

More at https://altamar.us/iceland-financial-bust-to-fairytale-success/

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The free press is at war with challenges not seen in a generation. Strongmen leaders around the world have declared the media enemy number one while “fake news” sows discord and confusion online. The press as an institution is struggling to fulfill its primary role: acting as the fourth estate to hold the powerful accountable. Altamar is joined by Sheila Coronel, an award-winning journalist and Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, to discuss the global war on journalism.

More at https://altamar.us/?p=660&preview=true

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Africa has achieved one of the fastest and most sustained growth rates in the past years, with economic forecasts surpassing other developing and emerging regions. A new scramble to open bilateral relations with African nations saw more than 320 embassies open across the continent between 2010 and 2016. John McDermott, Africa Correspondent for The Economist and Zemedeneh Negatu, Global Chairman of the Fairfax Africa Fund, engage in a lively debate on how Africa can balance growth and inequality and the role of the United States and China in the continent’s development.

More at https://altamar.us/africa-awakens/

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President Trump has pulled America out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, ending decades of nuclear cooperation between the U.S. and Russia. Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, explains how this nuclear middle finger to the world benefits Moscow, risks a Cold War-style arms race, and has grave repercussions far beyond the two superpowers.

More at https://altamar.us/nuclear-middle-finger/

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