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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Asia’s New “Game of Thrones”

As US power recedes, Russia and China compete for regional advantage.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Sergei Guneyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Sergei Guneyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders are flocking to Washington, but their summit isn’t the most important thing going on this summer. Neither is the Democratic Party crisis over President Biden’s debate performance. Events in Asia, where Russian President , Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have all made high-profile trips, are driving world developments. The center of global politics has shifted to the Indo-Pacific. What happens in the Eurasian heartland matters more to world politics and American interests than anything in the Atlantic world.

That makes world politics harder for most Americans to read. Authoritarian states like China, Russia, Vietnam and North Korea conceal their domestic political struggles behind veils of secrecy and censorship. Democratic countries like India, Indonesia and Japan are so complex and so culturally different from the U.S., that even well-traveled and well-read Americans can struggle to follow developments there.

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