Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Subscribe here. July 8, 2022 |
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Fareed: The West Risks Failure in Ukraine |
The West's strategy in Ukraine "is in danger of failing," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column, calling for urgency and adjustments.
"Western leaders should recognize that economic sanctions (on Russia) simply will not work in a time frame that makes any sense," Fareed writes. "They should increase as much of the supply of energy worldwide as they can but also dial back those sanctions that clearly are causing more pain to the West than Russia. Meanwhile, they should amp up military support to Ukraine, erring on the side of taking more risks. Freeing up the blockade around Odessa would be a huge economic win for Ukraine, and a shattering symbolic defeat for Russia. Winter is coming. Homes in Europe might not have enough heat. Troops in Ukraine will find it harder to dislodge Russians once the snow blankets the land. Time is not on our side." |
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Abe's Assassination Shocks Japan—and the World |
The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stunned many. Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, who will join Fareed on Sunday's GPS to discuss the assassination and its impact, calls it a "shocking tragedy in one of the world's most stable democracies … a JFK moment for Japan, maybe even bigger," in video analysis at GZERO Media.
"It's hard to think of a more unexpected place for this to happen," Gearoid Reidy writes for Bloomberg Opinion. "Japan prides itself on being a safe society. The impact of sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, nearly 30 years on, still reverberates precisely because such incidents are so rare—shootings in particular."
Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Abe is being remembered as a towering political figure: "one of Japan's most consequential Prime Ministers since the end of the Second World War," who ended "a revolving door of prime ministers that allowed Japan to focus on longer-term strategy for economic recovery and military security," as the Wilson Center's Abraham Denmark and Shihoko Goto wrote, respectively, when Abe resigned amid health problems in 2020. |
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A Stunning Assault, in a Society Largely Free of Gun Violence |
Japan's relative peace, security, and lack of gun violence make Abe's assassination all the more shocking, commentators have noted.
"In 2018, Japan, a country of 125 million people, only reported nine deaths from firearms—compared with 39,740 that year in the United States, according to data compiled by the Sydney School of Public Health at the University of Sydney," writes CNN's Nectar Gan, pointing to Japan's tight controls on guns. In 2017, Japan had "0.25 guns per 100 people, compared to about 120 guns per 100 people in the US, according to the Small Arms Survey, a project of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva."
Worldwide, Japan's gun-homicide rate ranked lowest among large, high-income countries, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association report on 1990–2016 global gun-homicide data, as the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation presents them. | |
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Global Britain Presses On |
Where does the UK go from here, after the resignation Thursday of Prime Minister Boris Johnson? Aside from a scramble among Conservative MPs for the top job, Economist correspondent Matthew Holehouse suggests in a short video that the "wave of populism" Johnson has embodied may recede among Tories. Meanwhile, Holehouse notes, the UK faces inflation, "strain(ed)" public services, and lingering Brexit questions over its border with Ireland, as it moves ahead.
"The country needs a serious prime minister who can set about restoring trust in politics, and in Britain," writes former 10 Downing policy-unit head (under past prime minister David Cameron) and current Financial Times columnist Camilla Cavendish, who will join Fareed on Sunday's GPS to discuss the fallout of Johnson's exit. "Johnson's permanent revolution led nowhere. It must end, today, and be replaced with something he never understood—sober, serious government." |
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What to Make of Chile's Draft Constitution? |
Chile may account for the world's boldest political experiment, currently: After massive protests in 2019, voters installed a constitutional convention to rewrite Chile's national charter, before electing then-35-year-old Gabriel Boric as President last December. The convention has been noted for its unorthodox composition.
With the release this week of a draft constitution, Americas Quarterly's Nick Burns identifies its top lines, including provisions on health care and environmental protection (the draft includes constitutional rights to physical and mental health and a clean environment); a putative transformation of the Senate into a "Chamber of Regions"; and a requirement that administrative bodies be comprised of at least 50% women. Unsurprisingly, the document has found detractors: The Economist writes it off as budget-busting and unrealistic. |
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