Policy

US leadership in Asia is consolidating, not fading Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and key ASEAN partners are tightening defense and tech ties with Washington This hardening coalition outweighs rhetoric and is reshaping education and industry

Short-video nationalism is entertainment-driven but spreads grievance fast When it targets Japan, boycotts and tourism losses impose real costs Teach short-form literacy and use narrow, transparent rules to curb harms A sing

Power of Siberia 2 shifts China’s energy risk from tankers to pipelines With Alaska LNG, Asia gains buyer leverage and softer price spikes—not an oil crash Winners will master contract design, sanctions exposure, and long build timelines

Australia’s diversity is high; classrooms decide cohesion Data show immigrant students succeed with language support and safe schools Priorities: rapid language screening, teacher training, and clear cohort tracking Australi

Policy uncertainty, not polarization, drives Spain’s talent loss Low vacancy rates and selective outflows show thin, unreliable opportunities Fix it with stable multi-year funding and fixed calendars to lift hiring Spain entered

China’s rare earth monopoly sits in midstream refining and magnet production, not mines An education-led push—rapid training, teaching factories, and industry-linked research—builds the workforce to shift capacity Procurement, recycling, and allied coordination then cut risk faster than tariffs alone

Reciprocal tariffs face a Supreme Court test over presidential authority They raise import prices, squeezing school budgets and families Targeted trade tools and smarter procurement beat blanket tariffs The stakes are clear and s

Japan rearms as Russia–China aligns ASEAN trusts Tokyo yet wants guardrails Education builds consent via maritime literacy The key number is 66.8.

Public R&D subsidies de-risk innovation in poor countries Brazil’s Embrapa shows ~110% productivity gains and ~17:1 payoffs Fund local adaptation, build capacity, and open data to crowd in private capital Brazil achieve

The bottleneck is investable projects, not capital Build regulated grids and education contracts that generate steady, social returns With clear rules, Southeast Asia sovereign wealth funds can turn savings into national progress

APEC economic cooperation keeps delivering even without a U.S.–China truce Mid-sized members drive results through trade facilitation, mobility, and digital trust Train skills; scale ABTC and CBPR. This year, there is an

Undersea cable security is now core education infrastructure in Southeast Asia Taiwan’s 2025 cable disruptions show how gray-zone incidents can cut classes, exams, and research ASEAN must build redundancy and protect its seabed links

Importers paid first; households pay next Diversified supply chains raise prices and cut choice Use narrow, time-bound tariffs with pro-trade fixes to limit welfare loss There is one statistic that should guide discussions a

The EU can afford to wait, but China cannot German auto troubles have hardened Europe’s stance Europe now builds leverage through new trade routes and partners In 2024, the European Union ran a €304.5 billion goods defic

Eurozone heterogeneity warps school budgets and learning PISA gaps and uneven rate pass-through show one-size-fits-all reforms fail Index funding to local prices, tier pay and pathways, add cushions, and scale proven pilots

Digital ad tax won’t make users subscribe; costs are passed to advertisers and small creators Keep ads, but ring-fence a low levy to fund open education and shield SMEs with ad-credit rebates Add transparency, data portability, and a public-interest ad exchange to shift power without paywalls

European scholar networks lift collaboration and raise median quality U.S.

Coercion hardens Taiwan’s views; education diplomacy builds trust Extend China’s regional magnanimity to Taiwan with visas, credit recognition, scholarships, and joint labs Protect academic freedom, track mobility and co-production, and scale successes to shift opinion

Takaichi’s rise is a pragmatic bet, not a protest vote Shrinking cohorts demand an education reset—protect funding, cut teacher overload, use AI with guardrails Judge success by delivery: fair consolidation and measurable gains in teacher time