The Fletcher Forum is pleased to share a sampling of articles from our latest print edition of the journal, focused on global challenges posed by Great Power Competition. To read more, we invite you to subscribe to The Forum and thank you for your readership and support.
Interviews
Reset or Relapse? U.S.-Russia Relations in the 21st Century- A Conversation with Ambassador Thomas Pickering
America’s Place in the New World Order- A Conversation with Joseph Dunford
Articles
COVID Information Warfare and the Future of Great Power Competition by Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann, Doowan Lee, and Andrew Dowse
The coronavirus pandemic has ushered in a golden age of information warfare. Russia and China—the two most prominent authoritarian regimes contraposing the liberal, rule-based international order the West has strived to build and promote—have prospered most during the current COVID crisis. We look at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) and Kremlin’s key COVID information warfare characteristics and explore how they are reshaping Great Power competition. We conclude with some suggestions regarding resilience and a joint counterstrategy.
The Trojan Dragon Comes to the Balkans by Wendy Robinson
In recent years, China has been expanding its influence throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe through the One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI). One area that has come under recent Chinese influence is the Balkan states bridging Europe and Asia. Technological development, especially through 5G networks, is a primary means of growing China’s pull. However, the European Union is wary of the new Chinese influence in the Balkans and has tried to pull these states closer to the EU. It remains to be seen how the two opposing powers will reconcile their mutual goals for influence in the Balkans.