Our Insights
Featured Insights Selected by Our Experts
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The Return of the Koh Ker Ganesha
with Brad Gordon, Channy Set, and Nguon Chhay Song | Hosted by Deborah Lehr
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CES, Digital Trade, and the Future of Tech Supply Chains
with Ed Brytzwa | Hosted by Jake E. Jennings
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Iran, The Days After: The Succession
By the Basilinna team
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Why China Is Pushing Trade Facilitation Despite a Record Surplus
By Leigh Wedell and Ruihan Huang
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Mexico Now America’s Top Trading Partner as USMCA Review Looms
By Abel Hibert, Senior Fellow
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Nature as National Asset: How the Middle East Is Turning Biodiversity into Economic Opportunity
By Basilinna Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO.
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China Economic Stimulus Tracker
A comprehensive timeline of announcements and policy actions implemented by the Chinese government to stimulate economic activity.
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From the Middle Kingdom to the Saudi Kingdom: Opportunities Abound
By Yasser Elnaggar, Chair of the Middle East and Africa
Explore all of our Insights, Interviews, Commentary, and More
Xi Jinping’s Cultural Diplomacy in Cairo
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
When President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo this week for his first state visit to Egypt in a decade, trade, investment and geopolitics were inevitably high on the agenda. But Xi also made something else unusually prominent: culture.
China-Arab Cooperation Extends Beyond Oil And Into The Desert
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
At a time of geopolitical competition and shifting alliances, China and the Arab world are finding common ground around a problem they share: the desert.
Cultural Diplomacy: The Soft Power That Crosses Borders
By Irina Bokova, Executive Director
As the United States approaches America 250, what opportunities do you see for culture to deepen U.S. engagement with the world? Where can culture have the greatest impact in strengthening international relationships and shaping global engagement in the decade ahead?
Adaptation Is No Longer Optional
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
Recent geopolitical shocks have forced a fundamental reassessment of risk. War, supply chain disruptions, and rising fragmentation have shown that resilience can no longer be assumed, but it must be built. While attention has focused on geopolitical risk, climate risk, equally consequential, is now converging with it.
Biodiversity Is a Language We Are Only Beginning to Understand
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
As we mark International Day for Biological Diversity, we often speak about biodiversity in the language of loss: disappearing species, degraded ecosystems, shrinking forests, warming oceans. These statistics are staggering and important. Scientists estimate that we could lose up to half of the world’s species by mid-century if current trends continue.
Coal Is Rising in China’s Clean Energy Transition
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO, and Ruihan Huang, Director
China’s energy transition is entering a more complex phase than commonly assumed. While the country is rapidly scaling up renewable energy – China now leads the world in both investment and deployment – coal production and coal power investment are also increasing.
See you on the field: America’s coming decade of sports diplomacy
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek orator Isocrates observed that athletic festivals allowed people to set aside their conflicts, gather together, and renew bonds that united them. The ancient Greeks understood something: Sports have always been a form of diplomacy.
USMCA 2026 and Economic Security: The Convergence of Technology, Trade, and National Security
By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade
The USMCA Review Is Becoming a Test of North American Technology Security. The 2026 review of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement was initially framed as a routine, if politically sensitive, “check-in” trade exercise.
Mexico Now America’s Top Trading Partner as USMCA Review Looms
By Abel Hibert, Senior Fellow
Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has made reducing the trade deficit with key partners—Mexico, Canada, and China—a central goal of his trade policy. In 2024, the combined deficit with these countries reached $545.7 billion USD.
Saudi Arabia’s Washington Visit: A New Chapter in a Strategic Economic Partnership
By Deborah Lehr, Chair and CEO
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent visit to Washington represents a turning point in the U.S.–Saudi relationship. While the headlines focused on major geostrategic outcomes—advancing the sale of the F-35, deeper cooperation on emerging technologies, and renewed attention to regional stability including Sudan—the foundation of the visit was unmistakably economic.