A Race to Close a Gamechanging Deal With Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Israel

November 25, 2020 by Brian Wang

Israeli Prime minister Netanyahu had a meeting with Saudi meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. There are also reports that Saudi Arabia is pressuring Pakistan to normalize relations with Israel. The Brookings Institute believes there are three possibilities for the Israel-Saudi meeting. 1. Actually achieving some normalization …

US Navy Plans 20% Fewer Aircraft Carriers and 20% More Ships

October 25, 2020 by Brian Wang

An Office of the Secretary of Defense review of the US Navy calls for reducing aircraft carriers by 20% to support a 20% increase in smaller ships. This would cut carriers from 11 to nine to add 65 frigates and unmanned ships. The addition of ships would be mainly (about 50) frigates. This would help …

Sudan Has Agreed to Normalize With Israel According to Reports

October 21, 2020 by Brian Wang

Sudan has reportedly agreed to fully normalize relations with Israel, an initial report by Israel Hayom stated late Wednesday night. A formal and public announcement on the normalization of relations is expected to take place in the next few days. The normalization agreement will likely be done before the November 3rd US election. The US …

Geopolitics With Energy Independence After Electrification and Fracking

January 11, 2020 by Brian Wang

Global oil demand could peak by 2030 with a rapid rise in electric vehicles, ride-sharing and self-driving vehicles. Trucks use 20% of the world’s oil and cars use 40%. This is from 1.5 billion cars. Total global trade is about $20 trillion out of a $90 trillion world economy. Oil and gas imports and exports …

China Will Have $45-70 Billion in Funds to Catch Up With Semiconductors

October 31, 2019 by Brian Wang

China’s first Big Fund to invest in semiconductors was made in 2014 with around $19-22 billion. The Phase 2 fund is being put together now and is already at $28.9 billion and could reach $47 billion. The fund is called the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Phase II Co., Ltd. (National Big Fund Phase …

Transcending Geography and the Future of World Power

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019 by Brian Wang

The world we know today has largely been shaped by geography, populations and agriculture. Peter Zeihan has some useful analysis of how geography has shaped geopolitics. He correctly notes the large advantages the US has had with the best farmland and the best connected river system. Rivers can transport goods at 15 times greater energy …

China-Italy BRI Deal Could Be as Historic as Marco Polo

March 20, 2019 by Brian Wang

In 1271, Marco Polo traveled from his home in Venice to China via the Silk Road. The Travels of Marco Polo had huge influence. Italy is now signing agreements to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China is investing in a new Venice port and in three other ports in Italy. This can boost trade …

The Possible Meaning and Impacts of Huawei Global CFO Arrest in Canada

December 6, 2018December 6, 2018 by Brian Wang

Huawei’s global chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has been arrested in Vancouver and is being sought for extradition by the US government. The reason was because Huawei violated US sanctions against Iran. Hong Kong fell about 2.5% and Tokyo stocks closed down 1.9%. Shanghai’s market fell 1.7%, while US stock futures were pointing down more …

Examining Challenges and Chances for a Successful Coup in Venezuela

December 6, 2018December 5, 2018 by Brian Wang

Nextbigfuture wrote several articles in early 2018, where we looked at the rapid economic and social collapse in Venezuela and believed it would lead to a military coup. Nextbigfuture predicted the coup would happen by the end of 2018. There are now about 26 days for that to happen. Clearly, this is highly unlikely. Venezuela’s …

Decades of geopolitics shows failure by not acting early and decisively

May 30, 2018 by Brian Wang

Writing in the Australian, Liberal senator and former senior army officer Jim Molan said the South China Sea battle already lost. * nothing short of all-out war capable of dislodging Chinese forces from a string of heavily fortified islands * one week after Beijing landed a long-range strategic bomber on Woody Island in the South …