Category: Fellows

Why the Global South Will Become New Champions of Climate Action

To international visitors, Bonn—tucked along the Rhine River valley in western Germany—can feel like a time capsule. “Many things never change,” my local hosts told me, gesturing proudly toward the Bonn Minster, the Romanesque church that has anchored the city center since the Middle Ages. After more ...

Why Has China Resumed Artificial Island Construction in the South China Sea?

After nearly a decade-long hiatus, China in October quietly resumed artificial island construction in the South China Sea, according to commercial satellite imagery. Rather than focusing on the Spratly Islands, where Beijing already has de facto control over seven maritime features with airbases on three of them, ...

Leading from the “Global Middle”: China’s Bid to Host the New Ocean Treaty

"China's financial commitments are simply more tangible and easier to grasp than those of Europe," one delegate from an island state remarked to me on a bright spring day in late March, as we both gazed out at the East River from the United Nations Headquarters. ...

The Asia-Pacific’s New Oil Order

In response to Iran’s partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United States has begun implementing a counter-blockade—leveraging naval patrols, sanctions enforcement, and selective interdictions to constrain Iranian oil exports and raise the costs of Tehran’s strategy. Rather than restoring stability, however, this tit-for-tat dynamic is ...

The Panama Paradox: China’s Escalation Ladder and the Rise of Logistics Coercion

More than two months ago, Panama’s Supreme Court annulled a long-standing contract that allowed Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, located at either end of the Panama Canal. The decision essentially removed a Chinese-linked company from two of the most ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The Emerging China-Global South Energy Nexus

This month brought quietly momentous news: for the first time ever, the world’s share of renewable energy surpassed that generated by burning coal. 
China is one of the world’s biggest consumers of coal and is therefore partly responsible for bringing us to our current carbon crisis. 

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How China Became Part of Peru’s Political Crisis

In mid-February, Peruvian president José Jerí was removed from his position of head of state after only four months in office. The ousting wasn’t particularly shocking. Peru has experienced a prolonged governance crisis, with seven presidents cycling through office over the last ten years, the shortest tenure ...

China Was Not Absent From the Shield of the Americas Summit

In early March, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted 12 Latin American leaders for the “Shield of the Americas” Summit. There was much speculation around the summit’s objectives: some viewed it simply as an opportunity to gather Latin American leaders aligned with Trump for a photo-op. Others thought ...

What’s Behind the Submarine Cables Tying Up Chile’s Presidential Transition

A political transition is underway in Chile this week. President-elect José Kast will be sworn in on Wednesday, and Chile’s long-standing commercial relationship with China will be put to the test. Just days before the inauguration, a dispute about a ...

What to Watch After China’s Strategic Setback at the Panama Canal

On Thursday last week, Panama’s Supreme Court delivered a ruling that was felt in some of the highest offices in both Beijing and Washington. The court declared that the concession granting control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports to Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based ...

U.S. Defense Strategy Signals a Harder Line on China in Latin America

In January, the Trump Administration published its 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS). The document, which was released without fanfare, confirms that a strategic shift is well underway in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin American and Caribbean states are on the receiving end of that shift.  

China’s 2026 Challenge in Latin America and the Caribbean

2025 was a rather tumultuous year for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Donald Trump’s return to the White House exacerbated geopolitical dynamics in the region, particularly in the realm of the U.S.-China strategic competition. From tariffs to claims that China ...

China-Central Asia in 2026: From Resource Access to Structured Interdependence

2025 marked an important inflection point in China-Central Asia relations. Not because China’s presence in the region was new, since Beijing has been a significant economic actor for more than a decade, but because the composition and structure of that engagement began to change in more visible ...
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