China’s Ports Edge
October 14th, 2024
Via The Wire, a look at how Chinese ports continue to outperform their American counterparts: For three days last week, dockworkers no longer dotted the terminals at ports across the U.S.’s eastern and Gulf Coasts. The short-lived strike ended after the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents the port operators, agreed to raise salaries, allaying fears […]
Read more »Liberia Signs Deal With Elon Musk’s Starlink
October 14th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, an article on Liberia’s agreement with Starlink: Liberia has signed a one-year licensing agreement with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service, in a bid to boost coverage across the poorly connected West African state. Internet coverage in Liberia currently stands at around 60 percent, acting chairman of the Liberia Telecommunications […]
Read more »China’s Zijin and Australia’s AVZ Grapple Over DRC’s Lithium
October 14th, 2024
Via The Africa Report, a report on the tussle between China’s Zijin and Australia’s AVZ over the DRC’s lithium: Home to one of the largest untapped lithium deposits in the world, the Manono site in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the scene of a fierce commercial battle. To the naked eye, these thousands […]
Read more »Speeding Up the Economy: The Role of Methamphetamines in the Southeast Asian Boom
October 12th, 2024
Via The Diplomat, an article on how – faced with ruthless economic demands – increasing numbers of Southeast Asian workers are turning to a cheap, addictive drug that enables them to “work without stopping:” Like many teenagers around the world, Ngo started using drugs after being encouraged by his friends. But what separates his experiences […]
Read more »Two Paths: Why States Join or Avoid China’s Belt and Road Initiative
October 12th, 2024
Courtesy of Oxford Academic, an interesting new paper examining why countries join or avoid China’s BRI: Abstract Although China’s motives for developing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have been well studied, scholars have yet to comprehensively examine why states seek to join the initiative. We fill this gap by examining how and why states […]
Read more »Can China’s Global South Strategy Achieve Its Objectives in Central Asia?
October 12th, 2024
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a report on China’s foreign policy toward Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan which has had contrasting results over the years: The notion of the Global South has been characterized as “an intellectually elusive but emotionally rich term.” The multifaceted term Global South can refer to over 120 countries. It is used to describe regions and nations suffering […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.