US and Allied Tariffs Could Democratize China

Posted on March 14, 2025 by admin

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 3, March 2025

By Anders Corr

President of the United States Donald Trump speaking at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Source: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

The Chinese Communist Party is reacting to the Trump administration’s revolution in U.S. foreign policy with a full-court press in the media. President Donald Trump’s overtures to Russia’s Vladimir Putin are put front-and-center by Beijing so China can appeal to Europe, which sees Mr. Putin as anathema due to his invasion of Ukraine. And, the CCP is using Mr. Trump’s tariffs, against not only foes like China, but friends like Canada and the European Union, to criticize the United States as returning to the “law of the jungle.” In such a world, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on March 7, small countries are disadvantaged relative to large countries. However, Mr. Trump’s tariffs against China, if adopted by all U.S. allies, would so threaten China’s economy as to potentially increase public disapproval with the CCP and encourage China’s democratization. This would remove the CCP’s support for Russia, killing the two biggest authoritarian birds with one stone. It is the one policy around which the United States, Europe, and Japan can best unite to bring down America’s traditional adversaries. Continue reading →

The Concentration of Power: Book Review

Posted on February 24, 2025 by admin

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 2, February 2025

Concentration of Power Cover - Anders Corr.jpg

Concentration of Power Cover.jpg

By John Gardner

The Concentration of Power: Institutionalization, Hierarchy & Hegemony
By Anders Corr
291 pp. Optimum Publishing International. $19.95

I believe the present and future are best interpreted through the lens of the past. Dr. Anders Corr’s book, The Concentration of Power: Institutionalization, Hierarchy & Hegemony, is that lens for those devoted to a broader understanding of historical hierarchies and their effects on the rise and fall of civilizations. This dissection of the “enduring conflict between those at the bottom who seek freedom, those in the middle who seek to protect the benefits of their own position at the top of sub-hierarchies, and those at the top of meta-hierarchies seeking to institutionalize and aggregate (power),” is worthy brain food for big-thinkers.

Dr. Corr’s work on “the steady institutionalization of power over time” delves deep into how the power structures of civilization, good or bad, form; and acts as a road map and warning for mankind. It is a profound thought on human nature to ask why humans typically seek to expand their institutions and power, even when that power is no longer necessary. Why did the French Revolution, which started with admirable ideals, turn barbaric while the American Revolution did not? Relinquishing the grip on power is the answer from Dr. Corr, but that is antithetical to human nature. Growing up, my dad told me numerous times of how Americans wanted George Washington to be “President for life,” but he declined to, and in that “set an example for future Presidents”. My dad admired his integrity. Continue reading →

Amodei’s AI Plan To Democratize China

Posted on January 16, 2025 by admin

Image of US and Chinese flags painted on computer chip.

Flags of the USA and China on a semiconductor. William Potter.

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2025

By Anders Corr

A new strategy that could peacefully democratize China and other autocratic states was published recently. By ensuring a democratic lead in artificial intelligence (AI), its benefits could be used to incentivize autocracies into nonaggression against democracies. Then, AI could unblock information and defeat autocratic censorship, ultimately improving education in autocracies to the point that Chinese people themselves would successfully drive and achieve democratic reforms.

While using the stick of military AI to deter autocracies has long been discussed, the idea of using the carrots from AI to buy peace with autocracies, and then using the same technology to defeat censorship and achieve democratization in those countries, had not, to the best of this author’s knowledge, been published before October. Continue reading →

Italy’s New Government: Business as Usual

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Assistant Editor

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2023

Lorenzo Ammirati

The image depicts a poster with a stylized black-and-white illustration of a woman wearing a military-style uniform and cap, reminiscent of fascist propaganda art. The background features the Italian flag with vertical green, white, and red stripes. Below the image, in bold black and red text, is the label "MUSS-MELONI", which is a play on the names of Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, and Giorgia Meloni, the Italian politician. The image appears to be a piece of street art or protest art, criticizing Meloni by drawing a parallel between her and Mussolini.

Poster of Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy Party, 2022. Source: Duncan Cumming via Flickr.

Nationalist identarian right-wing party Fratelli d’Italia (“Brothers of Italy”) was the only major Italian party to oppose former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s “national unity” coalition government which governed Italy between February 2021 and September 2022. Among the key campaign promises made by Fratelli d’Italia’s leader and current Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during the electoral campaign of September 2022 was a break with the economic policies of the Draghi government. However, the first Italian female Prime Minister has thus far demonstrated the opposite orientation.

In fact, Meloni’s sphere of decision making on economic policy is severely limited. Italy’s extremely high levels of public debt (above 150% of GDP) coupled with weak trust from financial markets and the European Union’s tight fiscal rules make it very costly (both financially and reputationally) for any Italian government to finance new public policies. Additionally, investments are currently mainly being made through the European Union’s Recovery Instrument, an ad-hoc fund created after the COVID-19 pandemic which lends money for EU approved projects, greatly constraining the power of the Italian government.

Continue reading →

Nixon and Kissinger Talk China: Satire

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Assistant Editor

Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 10, No. 5, May 2022

A black and white image depicting Former President Nixon and Henry Kissinger engrossed in conversations the White House.

Former President Nixon and Henry Kissinger engrossed in conversation, 1972. Source: Wikimedia.

Tony Zielinski
Attorney at Law

Editor’s note: This satire is meant for purposes of humor and should not be interpreted as historically accurate.

Henry Kissinger: Mr. President, I suggest we open up formal relations with Communist China and they will be our allies against the Soviet Union.

President Nixon: Do you feel we can trust their leader, Mao Tse Tung?

Henry Kissinger: Mao Tse Tung is the greatest mass murderer in history. He is responsible for more deaths than Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. He is a ruthless unscrupulous tyrant. So my answer is a most resounding yes.

President Nixon: Yes…I think I understand and can work with someone like that.

Henry Kissinger: A big challenge will be how we deal with Democratic and free Taiwan. They have been great friends and allies. Communist China regards them as a renegade state and China will not rest until they conquer Taiwan and take away their freedoms. China will subjugate them to unspeakable brutality because they dared to have freedom of speech, freedom of press, and the right to vote for their elected representatives. Mao will never forgive them.

Continue reading →