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
Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade
The Summit Steadied Trade and Left Both Technology Separations Running: Trump and Xi extended the trade truce to January 10, 2027, and recommended about $30 billion of tariff relief in each direction, all in goods both sides treat as nonsensitive.
Trump-Xi Summit: What Was Agreed and What Comes Next
By the Basilinna Team
The Trump-Xi summit was certainly an exercise in “diplotainment”—but it was more than that. President Trump rolled out an extraordinary red carpet for Xi, from personally greeting him on the tarmac to the full pageantry of a state visit.
Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade
North American Trade Talks Carry Broader Technology Stakes: Canada’s EU overture reshape trading relationships over time, but its legal form is undefined and Washington has threatened a response.
Xi Jinping’s Egypt Visit
By the Basilinna Team
Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a two-day state visit to Egypt this week, his first visit to the country in a decade. Marking 70 years of diplomatic relations between Egypt and China.
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.
Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade
Canada’s Section 338 Tariffs Take Effect as Commerce Narrows Auto Relief and Bundles in Security: Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s late narrowing of Section 232 auto tariff relief to light vehicles, paired with a security-adjacent package on export controls, critical minerals, and defense, drove the talks’ collapse.
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.
Between Security & Commerce
By the Basilinna Team
President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Egypt, his first in a decade, highlights China’s deepening economic and political engagement across MENA. But this does not mean the region is shifting from the United States to China. The U.S. remains the region’s primary defense and advanced technology partner, while China is increasingly central to trade, infrastructure, manufacturing and investment.
Tech and Trade Strategic Insights: Beyond the Headlines
By Jake E. Jennings, Chair of Technology and Trade
USMCA Compliance Offers No Shield From the Section 338 Tariffs: Canada and the United States closed out more than a dozen ministerial-level contacts without a deal.
Monitoring Report: 2026 Iran War
By the Basilinna team
The interim U.S.–Iran memorandum of understanding signed in June remains suspended as a formal ceasefire but still provides the principal diplomatic framework for negotiations. Since late July, however, the conflict has entered another volatile phase in which military escalation and diplomacy have proceeded simultaneously.