Four humble suggestions for the American administration to restart bilateral ties on the right foot. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is arriving in Rome on Thursday to meet with the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Pope Leo XIV. The apparent purpose is to mend relations after recent ruptures and friction. […]
The US and Iran have reached a plateau where they could really negotiate, as the power balance in Tehran evolves. Meanwhile, China’s game could be at a turning point, and the Pope is in it. In a twilight between war and peace, Iran may not yet have found its new dimension. The nation is in […]
As the first round of negotiations between the US and Iran failed, Chinese interests may loom larger, and Tehran may need a deal with America more than ever. The Iran of the ayatollahs has institutional and strategic depth. The institutional depth was evident after the attack in mid-June of last year. The regime did not […]
A Book review, Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000-2000 by Avner Greif, Guido Tabellini, Joel Mokyr The book offers a truly convincing answer to an enigma that has troubled me for at least 30 years. That is, China is not deaf or blind; it’s not that it hadn’t heard or seen the Western […]
(US intervention in the Middle East and its plans on the Indo-Pacific might have something to learn from Mao’s strategy about Japan in 1937. Eventually, Japan was defeated, and Mao took power in China.) In the spring of 1938, 88 years ago, Mao Zedong gave a set of three talks titled On Protracted War. It […]
Iraq and Iran, barely separated by a consonant’s ending, are close even in alphabetical order, bringing back many memories. China may require a major political shift. It was impossible in the past 50 years because power was dispersed. It might now be possible since President Xi Jinping has concentrated all the power. However, they could […]
In this article, Francesco Sisci “heretically” compares two organizational models that seem to be opposites: the Catholic Church and the Chinese Communist Party. Why is this comparison important for the Church, both as an institution and as a community of faith? The Catholic Church is incapable of viewing itself from an outside perspective and never […]
