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Opinion: The future of the China-US-Russia triangle after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan

Opinion: The future of the China-US-Russia triangle after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan

Since February 24, 2022, the international community's focus was concentrated entirely on the war in Ukraine and the growing Russia – West confrontation. It seemed that nothing could change the situation until the end of hostilities in Ukraine. However, on August 2 and 3, almost everyone’s attention shifted from Ukraine to Taiwan. As the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, stated her intention to visit Taiwan, up to half a million people were watching the trajectory of her plane on air flight tracking sites. The negative reaction of China, including the warning of President Xi during his conversation with President Biden that those who played with fire would be perished by it, created hype around this visit. Many were discussing the possibility of Chinese military jets closing the airspace over Taiwan and preventing Pelosi’s plane from landing in Taiwan, while some enthusiasts were even contemplating the possibility of a US-China direct military clash. As Pelosi landed in Taiwan and met with the Taiwanese President, the global social media was full of amateur assessments about the strategic victory of the US and the confirmation of the US global hegemony. However, as the dust settles down, and information noise and manipulation eventually decreases, a more serious assessment is needed to understand the real consequences of this visit.
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As the Strait of Hormuz closes and diplomatic expulsions mount, the Gulf faces a reckoning it spent years trying to avoid

As the Strait of Hormuz closes and diplomatic expulsions mount, the Gulf faces a reckoning it spent years trying to avoid

Now entering its fourth week, the US-Israeli war on Iran has done something that years of regional tension and diplomatic manoeuvring failed to bring about: it has made the Gulf states' vulnerabilities visible to the world. Writing for the Arab Center in Washington, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen described the attacks on Gulf civilian and energy infrastructure as the most serious and sustained threats to the physical security of the GCC states since the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990–91. This is a measure of how quickly the regional order has been upended. On the first day of the war, Iranian missiles and drones struck not only military facilities hosting US forces but also hotels, energy infrastructure, and international airports across Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, and Kuwait. (Read the full article by clicking on the image above.)