WASHINGTON The West is suffering from what one leading strategist calls an “autoimmune disease†in trying to fight the IS. The self-defense mechanisms championed by Donald Trump and his European neo-populist counterparts have gone into toxic overdrive — weakening the West’s body politic and making the extremism fever far worse. David Kenning, a British counter-radicalization expert, made this provocative argument ...
Read More »Resolving S China Sea row crucial
China’s endeavours to spread its wings over South China Sea is causing tremendous alarm and tension among neighbouring states which view Beijing’s encroachment towards their sovereign regional waters as an outright use of force to commandeer their regional coasts. Given its strategic location, China, the world’s second largest economy, claims large swathes of one of the world’s busiest shipping ...
Read More »How FB is taking artificial intel to crazy new heights
Kevin J. Ryan SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS F acebook already knows a lot about you—just look at the people in your “suggested friends†section or the carefully selected advertisements that seem to correlate pretty nicely with your recent browsing history. But the social network wants to get a whole lot smarter. That’s according to a blog post on Wednesday announcing ...
Read More »Duterte’s defense diplomacy conundrum
As soon as the inaugural festivities are over, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s administration will begin preparing for one of the most important diplomatic events of his presidency: the 2017 Philippine chairmanship of ASEAN. Not only will the occasion be significant for the country, it will also be milestone for the organization, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding during ...
Read More »FTAs: Economic integration or economic spheres of influence?
In the past few years the rhetorical back and forth between China and the United States over economic institutional governance has intensified. Along with concerns over the governance of multilateral development banks and the role of China’s currency in the International Monetary Fund, free trade agreements (FTA) have become part of a war of words over the future of the ...
Read More »Windmills, world trade and the environment
Michael Froman When the winds of change blow, a Chinese proverb says, some people build walls and others build windmills. Given the tremendous environmental challenges the world faces, it’s not enough just to build windmills. We need to develop a range of innovative environmental technologies, and we need to break down barriers to trading them worldwide. Global trade in ...
Read More »Europe isn’t ready for the sharing economy
Sharing economy platforms such as Uber and Airbnb have been struggling as some European countries attempt to regulate and make sense of their business. The European Union has finally come up with some guiding principles for its members, mildly telling them that the “collaborative economy,” as the bureaucrats call it, is generally a good thing that shouldn’t be banned. The ...
Read More »Airbus to make original A320 jets amid Neo wait
Paris / Bloomberg Airbus Group SE will continue building the older variant of its single-aisle A320 aircraft until at least 2019, two years later than intended, as glitches with the re-engined Neo version curb handovers of the new plane. Customers due to take the New Engine Option jets next year will be invited to swap to the less expensive ...
Read More »Emirates pushes to get its 142 superjumbos
Dubai / Bloomberg Emirates, the largest operator of Airbus Group SE’s A380 superjumbo, has all but given up on getting an upgrade of the double-decker with new engines and is instead making a more modest pitch to the planemaker: please don’t drop the program altogether. “I can’t force Toulouse to do anything,†Emirates President Tim Clark told reporters on ...
Read More »Wal-Mart CEO McMillon urges workers to reimagine future
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark / AP Wal-Mart’s CEO urged employees to reimagine its future in a fast-shifting retail landscape. The company is at a crossroads, as its long-held dominance in pricing and convenience has been chipped away at by Amazon and dollar stores. But it’s fighting back on multiple fronts, growing more aggressive with prices and going after Amazon, both online ...
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