Theodore Roosevelt’s bull terrier once chased the French ambassador up a tree. Commander, President Joe Biden’s German shepherd, had to be rusticated after repeatedly biting Secret Service officers. British politician Gavin Williamson refused to remove a tarantula he kept in a glass tank from the office. He defended the presence of Cronus by insisting the “clean, ruthless killer” was “part of the team”.
The past decade and a half have seen upheaval across the globe. The 2008 financial crisis and its fallout, the Covid-19 pandemic and major regional conflicts in Sudan, the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere have left residual uncertainty. Added to this is a tense, growing rivalry between the US and its perceived opponents, particularly China.
A self-confessed “heretical prophecy” by the analyst Marko Papic landed in my e-mail inbox recently. Mr Papic is chief strategist at BCA Research, which produces analyses that are widely read by the investment community.
It is bad enough to contemplate a war in Asia. It is grimmer still to think through a nuclear one. But somebody has to. And so Andrew Metrick, Philip Sheers and Stacie Pettyjohn, all of the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS), a think-tank in Washington, recently gathered a group of experts to play a tabletop exercise – a type of wargame – to explore how a Sino-American nuclear war could break out. The results were not encouraging.
It’s your first day at work. You are curious to learn and motivated to contribute. You know you have a steep learning curve and want to ask questions or learn from your mistakes with a growth mindset.
With the world turning increasingly fragmented, polarised and protectionist, countries like Singapore that rely on free trade face immense challenges. But there are opportunities too amid today’s upheavals. One such is to be found in rapid technological advancements, especially that offered by generative artificial intelligence (AI).