NEWS WRAP

Divided attentions

• Blink and you'll miss Blinken | Due to land on Australia's shores shortly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the fourth Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting hosted in Melbourne before heading to Fiji and then Hawaii. He is expected to meet with a range of students, scholars, and technology leaders in Melbourne before heading to Fiji for the first visit by a Secretary of State since 1985. Blinken will then host the Japanese and Korean Foreign Ministers in Hawaii for a US-Japan-Republic of Korea Trilateral Ministerial Meeting. READ MORE HERE
    
• A pipe dream | President Biden said the nearly completed US$11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline project would be abandoned should Russia annex more Ukrainian territory. German policymakers are yet to clarify the prospects of the project should a Russian invasion occur. Amid bleak assessments from US officials, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's suggestion military action could happen “any day now”, the US president promised he can and will end the prospective pipeline blocking Moscow’s easy access to lucrative European gas consumers, if needed. READ MORE HERE
   
• "President Trump is wrong" | Former Vice President Mike Pence said “President Trump is wrong” regarding his assertion that Pence had the constitutional authority to overturn the 2020 election results. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee declared the Capitol insurrection was “legitimate political discourse” and condemned the two House Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, for their involvement in the Jan 6 investigations. READ MORE HERE
   
• 900,000 | In another bleak milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 900,000 Americans have died from the virus. While the spread of Omicron finally slows and the rate of hospitalisation falls, the death toll is a tragic reminder of the despair coronavirus has wrought in the United States. The president marked the occasion with a reminder of the importance to get vaccinated. READ MORE HERE
   

• Rogan stays on Spotify | Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, will allow the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to remain on its streaming service despite several artists’ boycott of the platform over allegations of Rogan spreading COVID misinformation and racism. Spotify is believed to have paid more than US$100 million for exclusive rights to Rogan’s podcast in 2020. In defence of his decision, Ek said “I do not believe silencing Joe is the answer” while condemning Rogan’s use of racial slurs and pledging US$100 million for the licensing of audio from marginalised groups. READ MORE HERE

ANALYSIS

Don't be so ready to cede the upper hand to Xi, Putin

Dr John Lee
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre

Russia has amassed around 130,000 troops on the Ukrainian border while China is coercing a growing number of countries. Their apparent confidence is taken as evidence that authoritarian states are ascendant while democracies are increasingly seen as weak, confused and in disarray. In truth, Russia and China have a far more precarious road ahead than the democratic polities they detest.

Let’s begin with the popular idea that a Russian or Chinese state ruled by one man with an iron fist means these countries are better at statecraft than democratic rivals. It is seductive reasoning. Democratically elected leaders have limited time in power, must balance different and competing interests, and cannot pursue objectives in a single-minded manner. In contrast, dictators can focus on using more elements of national power to achieve permanent ends.

The actual situation is much more awkward and intractable for Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. They seem to have become allies in their stand against the world’s liberal democracies. Both have identified themselves as the embodiment of Russian and Chinese nationalism respectively and, in the process, conflate threats to their personal power as a danger to their countries. In this sense, they are on a similar path.

Look at the enduring problems they have created with this mindset; for example, their intolerance for the existence of stable, functional and prospering democracies around them. They fear these democracies will inspire dissent and cause them to be accountable for their own shortcomings.

Russia is forced to use stretched resources to prop up corrupt and oppressive regimes in Kazakhstan and Belarus. China cannot allow liberal institutions in a thriving Hong Kong or accept cultural self-determination in Xinjiang and Tibet. As a result, Beijing spends more on internal security than on the People’s Liberation Army, the lion’s share of resources going towards suppressing these two restive regions.

This is an excerpt from an article published by The Australian.

BY THE NUMBERS

US troops around the world

As the first US reinforcement troops arrive in Poland and Romania, thousands of other US troops are stationed globally in allied countries. Japan has the most US troops stationed with more than 55,000 in 2021 followed by Germany with 35,000. In 2021 1,700 US troops were stationed in Australia, primarily Marines in Darwin. 

Read more By the numbers analysis here

VIDEO

The Quad: Will it ever work?

Ahead of Blinken's visit to Australia and the first in-person minister level meeting between the Quad countries, take a look back at one of USSC's past webinars: The Quad: Will it ever work from June 2020.

To discuss the challenges and future prospects of the Quad, USSC was joined by Lt General H.R. McMaster, Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute, Washington DC; Dr Charles Edel, former Senior Fellow at the US Studies Centre; Dr John Lee, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the US Studies Centre, and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Washington DC; and Dr Lavina Lee, Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University.

Catch more analysis on the United States on the USSC YouTube channel.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#BoycottBeijing