SS: In a move towards modernization, nations have invested in hypersonic munitions. Unlike the air launched ballistic weapons employed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (HGVs) are maneuverable and are much harder to intercept. As the development of HGVs and other next generation munitions advances, states able to develop and deploy them gain an advantage.
The French and German ministers of state for Europe, Laurence Boone and Anna Lührmann, emphasised in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV that the two countries are confident that partial institutional reform of the EU will be possible within this year.
SS: In a move to further European integration and reduce the ability of lone dissenters from stalling legislation, the heads of France and Germany are seeking to remove the unanimous agreement from EU votes. A qualified majority option would ensure that the top nations in the EU could pass through legislation without having smaller nations on board. This is intended to help expand the union, pass reforms and address stalled foreign policy goals. This move is expected to be met with backlash from nations like Hungary and Poland
When India overtook China in April to become the world’s most populous nation, observers wondered: Will New Delhi surpass Beijing to become the next global superpower? India’s birth rate is almost twice that of China. And India has outpaced China in economic growth for the past two years—its GDP grew 6.1 percent last quarter, compared with China’s 4.5 percent. At first glance, the statistics seem promising.
This question has only become more relevant as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington this week. From a U.S. perspective, if India—the world’s largest democracy—really could trump China, that would be something to shout about. India is China’s natural adversary; the two countries share more than 2,000 miles of disputed, undemarcated border, where conflict breaks out sporadically. The bigger and stronger China’s competitors are in Asia, the greater the prospects for a balance of power favorable to the United States.
Yet before inhaling the narrative of a rapidly rising India too deeply, we should pause to reflect on four inconvenient truths.
First, analysts have been wrong about India’s rise in the past. In the 1990s, analysts trumpeted a growing, youthful Indian population that would drive economic liberalization to create an “economic miracle.” One of the United States’ most thoughtful India analysts, journalist Fareed Zakaria, noted in a recent column in the Washington Post that he found himself caught up in the second wave of this euphoria in 2006, when the World Economic Forum in Davos heralded India as the “world’s fastest-growing free market democracy” and the then-Indian trade minister said that India’s economy would shortly surpass China’s. Although India’s economy did grow, Zakaria points out that these predictions didn’t come true.
Second, despite India’s extraordinary growth over the past two years—when India joined the club of the world’s five largest economies—India’s economy has remained much smaller than China’s. In the early 2000s, China’s manufacturing, exports, and GDP were about two to three times larger than India’s. Now, China’s economy is about five times larger, with a GDP of $17.7 trillion versus India’s GDP of $3.2 trillion.
Third, India has been falling behind in the race to develop science and technology to power economic growth. China graduates nearly twice as many STEM students as India. China spends 2 percent of its GDP on research and development, while India spends 0.7 percent. Four of the world’s 20 biggest tech companies by revenue are Chinese; none are based in India. China produces over half of the world’s 5G infrastructure, India just 1 percent. TikTok and similar apps created in China are now global leaders, but India has yet to create a tech product that has gone global. When it comes to producing artificial intelligence (AI), China is the only global rival to the United States. China’s SenseTime AI model recently beat OpenAI’s GPT on key technical performance measures; India has no entry in this race. China holds 65 percent of the world’s AI patents, compared with India’s 3 percent. China’s AI firms have received $95 billion in private investment from 2013 through 2022 versus India’s $7 billion. And top-tier AI researchers hail primarily from China, the United States, and Europe, while India lags behind.
Fourth, when assessing a nation’s power, what matters more than the number of its citizens is the quality of its workforce. China’s workforce is more productive than India’s. The international community has rightly celebrated China’s “anti-poverty miracle” that has essentially eliminated abject poverty. In contrast, India continues to have high levels of poverty and malnutrition. In 1980, 90 percent of China’s 1 billion citizens had incomes below the World Bank’s threshold for abject poverty. Today, that number is approximately zero. Yet more than 10 percent of India’s population of 1.4 billion continue to live below the World Bank extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day. Meanwhile, 16.3 percent of India’s population was undernourished in 2019-21, compared with less than 2.5 percent of China’s population, according to the most recent United Nations State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. India also has one of the worst rates of child malnutrition in the world.
Fortunately, the future does not always resemble the past. But as a sign in the Pentagon warns: Hope is not a plan. While doing whatever it can to help Modi’s India realize a better future, Washington should also reflect on the assessment of Asia’s most insightful strategist. The founding father and long-time leader of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, had great respect for Indians. Lee worked with successive Indian prime ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Ghandi, hoping to help them make India strong enough to be a serious check on China (and thus provide the space required for his small city-state to survive and thrive).
But as Lee explained in a series of interviews published in 2014, the year before his death, he reluctantly concluded that this was not likely to happen. In his analysis, the combination of India’s deep-rooted caste system that was an enemy of meritocracy, its massive bureaucracy, and its elites’ unwillingness to address the competing claims of its multiple ethnic and religious groups led him to conclude that it would never be more than “the country of the future”—with that future never arriving. Thus, when I asked him a decade ago specifically whether India could become the next China, he answered directly: “Do not talk about India and China in the same breath.”
Since Lee offered this judgment, India has embarked on an ambitious infrastructure and development agenda under a new leader and demonstrated that it can achieve considerable economic growth. Yet while we can remain hopeful that this time could be different, I, for one, suspect Lee wouldn’t bet on it.
SS: In this opinion piece, the author posits that India will not be the next China. His thoughts on this due to India's traditional failure to fully capitalize on its youth dividend, lack of focus on manufacturing, laggard pace on development of emerging technologies and slow progress on social upliftingment of its population.
in fairness, the goal of nations isn't necessarily to be a global super power. Even the author acknowledges that India is on track to ensure her citizens have good opportunities and good lives. India will, by its shear size, always remain geopolitically relevant, just not in a global power type of way. I'm not even sure if the Indians desire superpower status and the responsibilities/costs associated with it.
The rebellious leader of the Wagner mercenary group said he had ordered his troops back to base, but analysts say the serious challenge to the Russian president will diminish his authority.
SS: After the Wagner March to Moscow ended, analysts are more convinced of Putin's weakness and of the likelihood of further instability in Russia's future. While it is unclear what made Prigozhin abandon his potential coup, it is clear that the Russian response was overall lacking. Political opponents of Putin have certainly taken note and more organized mutiny might occur in the future.
SS: In this opinion piece, the authors argue that the West's approach to the developing world is insufficient and giving adversarial nations like Russia and China an advantage in gaining influence. The "global south" is not a monolith, there is a need to dispel notions amongst the developing world that westen nations are arrogant or hypocrites.
Hey Lemmy! I have a rather unusual request that requires your creative thinking. I'm embarking on a 3-day pooping marathon (don't ask why), and I need food suggestions that will maximize my bathroom visits. Feel free to get wild with your ideas! Bonus points if the food also makes me sweat. Let's make this a memorable...
I've just rediscovered my childhood Gameboys, I grew up in the 90s and had an original, a color, an advance and an sp. My game collection has whittled down over the year to the usual suspects, Pokemons, Zelda's, Mario's and some other standards. But I want to dive into some games that 7 year old me would have brushed over. So...
LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States would have deep concerns about Chinese military activities in Cuba, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was planning a new training facility there. Speaking at a press conference in London after wrapping up a trip this...
SS: In a seemingly "tit-for-tat" move, it appears China is building military and intelligence stations on the northern coast of Cuba directly confronting the US in the Carribean. The US has so far down-played this with recent reports of the US having knowledge of Chinese intelligence posts in Cuba as far back as 2019. These revelations come as Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a diplomatic trip to China to simmer down tensions.
You can change your homepage in settings to subscribed. So whenever you hit home it takes you to your subbed page. I keep on it All for now since so many magazines are empty but as the site fills out I will switch it to subbed.
It is a strange balance between the two. On paper they should be allies. Both are technically secular, liberal democracies with broad freedoms enshrined to their respective populaces. India has a huge English speaking population so cultural exchanges in forms of music, moves, media, etc are easier.
However India sees itself as a future global pole, they do have the potential to be one and I don't think the US has consensus for where they see India long term. They want a strong India to challenge China in Asia and Chinese influence in the "global south" as a whole. They want an Indian arms industry that is somewhat adjacent to the Western industry so that India is able to pry away nations that traditionally rely on Russia and prevent China from consolidating too much in that space. They would like an India that is economically strong but entangled with the West more that China.
India takes issue with the US for it's support of Pakistan and other malicious power around India. India has local interests that run counter to US aims as well. India doesn't want Iran or Russia to get too weak and dependent on China so they have to keep on good terms with these nations. I think the biggest developments will happen as both India and the US learn to compromise on these issues and collaborate everywhere else.
White sky trails force France to reveal hypersonic weapon test (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Defence agency admits ‘unprecedented’ experiment after bemused onlookers share photographs of the high velocity flight
EU reform: France, Germany confident on reaching agreement this year (www.euractiv.com)
The French and German ministers of state for Europe, Laurence Boone and Anna Lührmann, emphasised in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV that the two countries are confident that partial institutional reform of the EU will be possible within this year.
Will India Surpass China to Become the Next Superpower? (foreignpolicy.com)
Four inconvenient truths make this scenario unlikely.
The mutiny in Russia may be over. But it still damages Putin (www.npr.org)
The rebellious leader of the Wagner mercenary group said he had ordered his troops back to base, but analysts say the serious challenge to the Russian president will diminish his authority.
The Global South is tired of the West's disrespect (asia.nikkei.com)
Relationship can be repaired with fulfillment of past promises and more sincerity
Don't forget to check out "Trending Communities" in Lemmy
You may come across one you just might like. They change on a regular basis.
Poll: A historic number of Americans don't want a Biden-Trump rematch (thehill.com)
Unconventional Food for a 3-Day Pooping Marathon?"
Hey Lemmy! I have a rather unusual request that requires your creative thinking. I'm embarking on a 3-day pooping marathon (don't ask why), and I need food suggestions that will maximize my bathroom visits. Feel free to get wild with your ideas! Bonus points if the food also makes me sweat. Let's make this a memorable...
I think "fediverse" is a dumb name.
I understand why it's called that, I just wish it was called "verse" or something less lame sounding.
D&D Movie (lemmy.world)
Anyone seen it? Is it awful?
what's your favorite Gameboy game that isn't Pokemon or Mario?
I've just rediscovered my childhood Gameboys, I grew up in the 90s and had an original, a color, an advance and an sp. My game collection has whittled down over the year to the usual suspects, Pokemons, Zelda's, Mario's and some other standards. But I want to dive into some games that 7 year old me would have brushed over. So...
US would have 'deep concerns' about China military activities in Cuba, Blinken says (www.msn.com)
LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States would have deep concerns about Chinese military activities in Cuba, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was planning a new training facility there. Speaking at a press conference in London after wrapping up a trip this...
📢Entire mod team on r/mildlyinteresting removed and locked out of their accounts after changing their rules upon community's request. (media.kbin.social)
cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/65577...
Mockup: I'm a fan of having all my favorite subs/magazines to access on a glance.
India and the US are Grappling with Uncomfortable Truths (thediplomat.com)