The Big Picture

The Big Picture brings together 4-5 Project Syndicate commentaries not just on topics in the news, but also on the deeper issues driving the news. Thanks to the unique resources available to the world’s largest provider of original, high-quality commentary, with the Big Picture, readers quickly gain the insights of diverse, authoritative perspectives on critical global events and challenges. The Big Picture surrounds a topic – from unrest in Iran and US tax reform to green finance and the broader sustainability agenda – with curated presentations featuring the world’s leading thinkers, practitioners, policymakers, and statesmen, providing an immediate, yet comprehensive view of the day’s most urgent news and issues.

 Photofusion/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Rudderless World Economy

Featured in this Big Picture
  1. Mohamed A. El-Erian,
  2. Daniel Gros,
  3. Larry Hatheway,
  4. Harold James,
  5. Michael Spence,
  6. Ngaire Woods
  • Donald Trump’s commitment to “America First” has found no clearer expression than in the announcement of tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, as well as a raft of Chinese goods. 

  • But the risks to prosperity run deeper, as Trump’s protectionism is accompanied by US withdrawal from global economic leadership.
  1. Matthew Chattle / Barcroft Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

    New Rumors About the Jews

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Michael Burleigh,
    2. Ian Buruma,
    3. Noëlle Lenoir,
    4. Dominique Moisi,
    5. Paulina Neuding
    • Accusations that British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tolerates anti-Semites among his supporters, Hungary's vicious official campaign against George Soros, frequent desecration of Jewish heritage sites, and recent incidents of murderous violence against Jews indicate that an old and reliable gauge of countries’ political health is heading into the red. 

    • Why is anti-Semitism making a comeback, and why now?
  2. LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

    Confronting China’s Digital Challenge

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Juergen Braunstein,
    2. Xiao Geng,
    3. Marion Laboure,
    4. Kai-fu Lee,
    5. Edmund S. Phelps,
    6. Kenneth Rogoff,
    7. Andrew Sheng,
    8. Robert Skidelsky,
    9. Jonathan Woetzel,
    10. Haiyang Zhang
    • Donald Trump has cut off Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer ZTE from its American suppliers for breaking sanctions against Iran, and the UK has banned ZTE on national-security grounds, which Trump also invoked in March in blocking Broadcom’s acquisition of chipmaker Qualcom. 

    • But what national security issue is really at stake?
  3. Matthew Daniels/U.S. Navy via Getty Images

    Striking Syria

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Joschka Fischer,
    2. Fawaz A. Gerges,
    3. Christopher R. Hill,
    4. Nina L. Khrushcheva,
    5. Jeffrey D. Sachs
    • US President Donald Trump has proclaimed “Mission Accomplished,” following a coordinated British, French, and American attack on Syria’s chemical weapons facilities. 

    • And yet the second Western missile strike in a year has left Bashar al-Assad's regime unmoved, suggesting that the mission needs to be redefined.
  4. PhonlamaiPhoto

    Brave New AI World

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Michael J. Boskin,
    2. Jacques Bughin,
    3. Harold James,
    4. Maciej Kuziemski,
    5. Christopher Pissarides,
    6. Peter Singer,
    7. Robert Skidelsky
    • From the future of employment to the power of the state, the advance of artificial intelligence is challenging our most basic assumptions about what defines us. 

    • Will machine learning and related technologies expand the range of human freedom, or limit it in unforeseen ways?
  5. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

    Trump Crashes the Party

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Benjamin J. Cohen,
    2. Fawaz A. Gerges,
    3. Bandy X. Lee,
    4. Chris Patten,
    5. Jeffrey D. Sachs
    • Now that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has joined the growing ranks of congressional Republicans who will not seek re-election this year, the GOP leadership is in tatters. 

    • Will US policymaking in the coming months more fully reflect Donald Trump's signature brand of chaos?
  6. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

    Mark Zuckerberg and the Whole Truth

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Mohamed A. El-Erian,
    2. Fred Hu,
    3. Simon Johnson,
    4. Mordecai Kurz,
    5. George Soros,
    6. Michael Spence,
    7. Guy Verhofstadt
    • Ahead of his congressional testimony regarding the misuse of 87 million users’ personal data, the Facebook CEO has said he would accept regulation of political advertising. 

    • But will legislators stop there in attempting to rein in social-media giants' often-pernicious behavior?
  7. BANDAR ALGALOUD / SAUDI KINGDOM COUNCIL / HANDOUT/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s Radical Prince

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Shlomo Avineri,
    2. Shlomo Ben-Ami,
    3. Ishac Diwan,
    4. Nabil Fahmy,
    5. Joschka Fischer,
    6. Bernard Haykel
    • By declaring that Israelis have a right to their own land, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has once again shown his readiness to ignore longstanding taboos and break with tradition. 

    • But are his conservative subjects ready for his revolution from above?

  8. Good President/Bad Emperor?

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Xiao Geng,
    2. Denise Y. Ho,
    3. Keyu Jin,
    4. Jim O'Neill,
    5. Stephen S. Roach,
    6. Andrew Sheng
    • The prospect that President Xi Jinping could remain in power indefinitely has caused much consternation outside China.

    • But within China, and among many serious observers, the elimination of the constitutional term limit on presidential incumbents has attracted a more positive, or at least nuanced, response.
  9. DAVID GANNON/AFP/Getty Images

    Footing the Infrastructure Bill

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Dominic Barton,
    2. Willem Buiter,
    3. Dag Detter,
    4. Justin Yifu Lin,
    5. Kevin Lu,
    6. Lenny Mendonca,
    7. Christopher Smart,
    8. Laura Tyson
    • Despite a proliferation of innovative funding mechanisms that reduce risks for taxpayers and private investors alike, the “hardware” of economic growth remains neglected in many advanced economies and underfunded in the developing world. 

    • What will it take to mobilize the political will to make the necessary choices?
  10.  Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    The Trade War President

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Mohamed A. El-Erian,
    2. Daniel Gros,
    3. Ricardo Hausmann,
    4. Justin Yifu Lin,
    5. Joseph E. Stiglitz
    • Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, followed by his administration's announcement of 25% tariffs on some $50 billion of Chinese imports, has predictably triggered a tit-for-tat response from China. 

    • With America’s closest allies rejecting Trump's protectionism, can the US really afford to go it alone?

  11. Hawking America First

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Christopher R. Hill,
    2. Stephen Holmes,
    3. Ana Palacio,
    4. Javier Solana
    • Though President Donald Trump campaigned against American military interventions abroad, he has consistently relied on generals to shape his foreign policy, and has now appointed two of the most hawkish figures in US foreign-policy circles to his administration's top diplomatic and national-security positions.

    • Should the world be bracing for another US-led war?

  12. Big Tech Bound

    Featured in this Big Picture
    1. Mohamed A. El-Erian,
    2. Simon Johnson,
    3. Mordecai Kurz,
    4. George Soros
    • The problems attributed to the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Twitter – from Russian interference in Western elections to market concentration and tax avoidance – have become almost too numerous to list. 

    • And now the search for solutions is on.