The Big Picture

As Germany’s chancellor since 2005, Angela Merkel has been a pillar of the European and global order. But whoever succeeds her following the country’s September 26 federal election must also address massive structural challenges and widespread popular anxieties at home.

While recent advances in artificial intelligence may not justify either excessive optimism or dystopian visions, the technology will significantly reshape economies and societies. But will geopolitical competition and a surfeit of hype hamper progress toward setting standards for this critical technology’s responsible development and use?

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are forcing policymakers and citizens alike to rethink some basic assumptions about economic behavior. Not surprisingly, this has put economists in the cross-hairs, as a growing chorus – within and outside the discipline – challenges longstanding orthodoxies.

The Taliban's stunningly swift return to power after 20 years of fighting American-led troops and the Western-backed Afghan government raises profound questions about the future of Afghanistan, the region, and, most importantly, America's role in the world. Has the graveyard of empires claimed another victim?

Across the advanced economies, governments are having to combat not only the coronavirus’s highly contagious Delta variant but also a substantial hard core of vaccine resistance. Yet in the developing world, the major obstacle to achieving herd immunity is not so much vaccine acceptance as access – and for that, rich countries are largely to blame.

With ambitious spending plans and efforts to curb corporate power, US President Joe Biden hopes not only to spur an inclusive economic recovery, but also to defuse widespread anger among American workers. But with the US economy already rebounding strongly from pandemic-induced recession, critics warn that there are dangers to excessive stimulus.

Digital-currency competition in the coming years will likely pit central banks against a host of private challengers. Will upstart cryptocurrencies have the firepower and the following to overturn the monetary status quo, or will the current financial establishment prevail?

A toxic combination of COVID-19, economic anxiety, and mounting popular anger threatens to erode support for democratic institutions across the region. If national leaders and the international community fail to respond effectively, the wave of unrest that has gripped country after country will likely grow worse.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic means that the upcoming Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Japanese capital, originally scheduled to take place in 2020, will be unlike any before. What is not new is that many are asking whether the spectacle is worth the cost.

As US and NATO troops prepare to leave Afghanistan by mid-July and the Taliban make rapid territorial gains, the outlook for the country’s long-suffering people is becoming bleaker by the day. The withdrawal is also likely to undermine regional security, embolden Islamist militants, and damage America’s already shaky international standing.

As the Communist Party of China marks its centennial, it can celebrate more than 70 years of uninterrupted rule, decades of rapid economic growth, and the country’s rise to global superpower status. But will President Xi Jinping’s domestic clampdown and aggressive foreign policy ensure the survival of one-party rule, or hasten its decline?

The United Kingdom’s vote in a referendum on June 23, 2016, to leave the European Union delivered a sharp populist shock to the political establishment there and throughout the West. Five years on, the consequences of that decision, for both the UK and the EU, are coming more sharply into focus.