Globalization: Are You In or Are You Out?

China’s Intelligent Weaponry Gets Smarter

China’s technology and artificial intelligence development is making significant progress that the United States has undermined. The United States has always assumed they are in the lead in technological advances. According to the article, “Andrew Ng, chief scientist at Baidu, said the United States may be too myopic and self-confident to understand the speed of the Chinese competition.”

While in the past, most defense technology has been developed by the government. Most advanced technology now is being but private technology companies. While Chinese companies have a relationship with the Chinese government, American companies cannot do same.”But if you’re thinking about the big, iconic tech companies, they can’t become defense contractors and still expect to get access to the Chinese market.”

This article is an example of the US losing some of its power and China is quickly expanding its power.

This video series by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, shares the stories of refugees all over the world. It really puts things into perspective, especially given the current state of the world and Trump’s recent policies aimed at banning refugees from entering the U.S.

This New York Times article discusses a recent phone call between President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull which illustrates the impact that Trump’s refugee policies are having both at home and abroad. The reportedly tense phone call was over a previous agreement by the Obama administration for the U.S. to accept 1,250 refugees being detained on Manus Island. A rift with Australia, one the United States’ longstanding allies, could be detrimental for international relations. Trump openly expressed his anger over Twitter and tweeted that he would review the “dumb” deal. Although Australia stated that the U.S. has agreed to uphold the agreement, what impact will Trump’s policies and twitter “rants” continue to have on U.S. foreign relations?

The United Stated and president Trump’s administration survive substantial challenges :international terrorism ,nuclear weapons and global warming as three critical issues .I read in this article that one of the most critical issues is cyberterrorism that means” the use of computers to disrupt or fear the society”. Americans view  this issue as a threat to the United States for the next 10 years that needs quick responses from the  new administration.

I read this article about a potential conflict of interest for Trump’s liaison to the business community. It seems that this individual did act legally and ethically in the sale of his business to a Chinese firm, and the deal is being heavily scrutinized. As he says in the article – “They know they cannot talk to me, so what influence are they buying?” I was just wondering – and this goes for other members of Trump’s team too – is it really possible to completely avoid conflicts of interest with foreign countries where they’ve done business? This aide is making a clean break from his company so it probably all looks OK on paper, but he will still know people at the company who will be affected by Trump’s trade policies, so couldn’t he always have conflict?

The question of this course: “Are you in or are you out?” is not theoretical. It is one of the key issues confronting this country and many of our key allies.

Underneath that big question are a host of others:  Are global institutions slowing us down? Are our allies taking unfair advantage of us?  Is free trade fair trade? Can walls protect us from transnational threats like disease, climate change and terrorism? For that matter can the alliances built up after World War II do any better?  What do we lose–in ideas, in creativity, and humanity–if we close ourselves off from the rest of the world?  I look forward to reading your posts and to our discussions in class and on this blog.