Navigating Our Endless Now

News footage on a giant screen outside a shopping mall in Beijing shows Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and China's President Xi Jinping shaking hands during a welcoming ceremony before their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, on May 8, 2025. China's President Xi Jinping said on May 8 he had held "in-depth, cordial, and fruitful" talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Moscow. (Photo by Pedro PARDO / AFP)

Foreign policy writers are in danger of running out of cliches. How often can one reuse the old Lenin line of “weeks where decades happen”?

But here we are: in one week, India and Pakistan crept closer to full war, and China moved to warm up its relationship with the European Union only for Chinese president Xi Jinping to jet off to Moscow where he released a strikingly nuclear war-themed joint statement with Vladimir Putin. Oh, and let’s not forget the trade talks with the U.S. coming up this weekend.

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by Cobus van Staden

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