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Why Pakistan sees China as a "force for stability"
Pakistan’s most important relationship may be its deep strategic partnership with China. The two countries have close security ties and economic alignment, especially when it comes to managing their mutual adversary India. On GZERO World, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Khar gives her view on the China-Pakistan relationship, which she sees as a stabilizing force in Southeast Asia. Given so much geopolitical uncertainty right now, Khar explains, the world has just started noticing Pakistan and China’s strong ties. But the relationship goes back decades.
Khar says Pakistan doesn’t see the world in competing blocs, and believes there’s value in maintaining friendly relations with Western countries as well as its immediate neighbor, China. Beijing’s Belt and Road program has made significant investments in Pakistan, which has sped up Pakistan’s development and allowed it to strengthen economic partnerships with its neighbors. When multilateral institutions stopped financing infrastructure projects, China was able to provide goods and investment loans, helping to build trains and highways in Pakistan, as well as Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan.
“This is a country [the world sees] as very belligerent, very hegemonic. We’ve always seen in our region, an immediate neighbor to China, that it only relies on economic relationships,” Khar says, “Within Pakistan and the broader region, China has been a force of stability.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
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Pakistan needs to stand up to India, says former Foreign Minister Hina Khar
After nearly eight decades of on-again-off-again conflict, India and Pakistan neared the brink of all-out war last spring. The intense, four-day conflict was an unsettling reminder of the dangers of military escalation between two nuclear-armed adversaries. Though the ceasefire was reached and both sides claimed victory, Delhi and Islamabad are still on edge and tensions remain high. On the GZERO World Podcast, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Khar joins Ian Bremmer to discuss Pakistan’s response to India’s strikes, which she believes were unjustified, and why Pakistan needs to defend itself from further aggression.
One fifth of the world’s population lives on the Indian subcontinent, and Khar says putting them at stake because of a political conflict is dangerous because “you do not know how quickly you can go up the escalation ladder.” Bremmer and Khar also discuss the US role in mediating the conflict with India, Pakistan’s domestic and economic challenges, its strategic partnership with China, and the dangers for global security if the world abandons a rules-based international order.
“As someone who was representing this country as foreign minister, I used to wonder, why were we reduced to eating grass to become a nuclear power?” Khar says, “And now, that is the only thing providing deterrence and security against a country which feels it can attack us anytime, any day.”
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're publishedPresident Joe Biden addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., on Sept. 19, 2023.
Biden to deliver final UNGA address at precarious moment for US and world
President Joe Biden will deliver his last address as a world leader to UNGA on Tuesday at a moment of disarray for both the US and the international community. Biden’s speech comes amid deepening political divisions in the US — just weeks ahead of a historic presidential election — and in the face of multiple major wars. The war in Gaza, and the tensions it’s fueling across the Middle East, will hang particularly heavy over Biden’s remarks.
Biden is also leaving office at a time when countries across the Global South are pointing to major double standards in terms of how the West — especially the US — approaches and upholds international values and norms. Critics of the US, for example, feel it has shown far more concern for civilians in the war in Ukraine than Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
A new report from the Munich Security Conference, which was discussed Monday at an event on the sidelines of UNGA, found that the US scored worst — alongside Russia, China, and European countries — among five out of nine countries surveyed on whether these actors treat countries like theirs with respect. To put it another way, there appears to be a growing perception in the Global South that Western countries like the US talk the talk when it comes to upholding international rules but don’t always walk the walk.
“We are all in a mess” and dealing with “fractured” societies, Samir Saran, president of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, said at the event. Saran pointed out that a presidential candidate in the US, which tends to view itself as an example for the world, has recently experienced two assassination attempts.
To rebuild trust in Western-dominated institutions like the UN, the world “needs to go back to the design table,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, chair of the board of Women Political Leaders, another speaker at the event.
We’ll be watching to see what themes Biden hits on during his address on Tuesday, and whether he uses the opportunity to reassure skeptics that the US remains a steadfast partner and global leader.
At the Munich Security Conference, Trump isn't the only elephant in the room
The Munich Security Conference (MSC) is all about providing a space to address the elephant in the room and fostering discussion on that one big topic people would rather avoid, says Benedikt Franke, the forum’s vice-chairman and CEO. But there’s more than just one elephant this year — a herd.
GZERO’s Tony Maciulis spoke with Franke in the lead-up to the conference about the various “elephants” on the agenda: The war in Gaza, Donald Trump, AI, and the war in Ukraine, to name a few.
They also delve into how the conference has always been defined by turning points for the world, recounting times when the forum collided with major historical moments — or made history itself. The 2024 MSC comes amid a year in which a record number of voters will head to the polls in dozens of critical elections across the globe when many people feel increasingly pessimistic about the future.
Franke says the conference hopes to answer the question of how to inject some optimism back into discourse on the world’s problems. “We don't want this to be a doom and gloom conference, we want to do everything we can to look for the silver lining at the horizon, for the low-hanging fruits, and there are many,” he says.
Join Ian Bremmer and a panel of experts this Saturday, February 17, at 12 pm ET/9 am PT/6 pm CET for our Global Stage discussion at the Munich Security Conference: Protecting Elections in the Age of AI.
Keep up with GZERO's Global Stage coverage of MSC 2024 for more.
AI is an opportunity to build trust with the Global South: UN's Amandeep Singh Gill
AI is a test case for addressing the ballooning trust deficit with the Global South, says the UN Secretary-General's special technology envoy Amandeep Singh Gill. If the Global South is not included meaningfully, it will widen the gap, with real geopolitical implications.
At a GZERO Global Stage discussion broadcast from the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gill warns that we can equitably spread the benefits of AI only if we step outside current business models, working with the Global South to integrate more practices like public-private partnerships. If we're truly serious about bridging the digital divide, says Gill, "we need to work together on those issues. That'll build you the trust with the Global South."
The conversation was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.
Watch the full conversation here: How is the world tackling AI, Davos' hottest topic?
AI for all: Leave no one behind, says Microsoft's Brad Smith
Artificial intelligence could level the playing field for individuals across an array of disciplines...if people have access to it. Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, points out that access to AI tech remains a privilege that is still unavailable to hundreds of millions around the world.
Speaking in a GZERO Global Stage discussion from the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith points out that while the conversation about AI seems advanced in Davos, a lot of people in the Global South don't yet have access to AI, let alone basic needs like electricity, access to electronic devices, and internet connectivity.
“In a sense, we do the Global South a tremendous disservice if we talk about AI all the time as the next thing,” he said. First, "close the electricity divide, the broadband connectivity divide, the device divide, and then you can close the AI divide on top of it."
The conversation was part of the Global Stage series, produced by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft. These discussions convene heads of state, business leaders, technology experts from around the world for critical debate about the geopolitical and technology trends shaping our world.
Watch the full conversation here: How is the world tackling AI, Davos' hottest topic?
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- The Global South is angry and mistrustful - Ian Bremmer ›
- Can we use AI to secure the world's digital future? - GZERO Media ›
- Microsoft's Teresa Hutson on rebuilding trust in the Age of AI - GZERO Media ›
- France's AI Action Summit maps a European vision for AI - GZERO Media ›
AI in 2024: Will democracy be disrupted?
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Fellow, Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and former European Parliamentarian, co-hosts GZERO AI, our new weekly video series intended to help you keep up and make sense of the latest news on the AI revolution. In this episode, she shares her reflection on AI in 2023.
Hello, this is GZERO AI. My name is Marietje Schaake. It's the end of the year, and so it's the time for lists. As we see so many top fives, top threes, top tens of the key developments in AI, I thought I would just share a couple of reflections. Not list them, just look back on this year, which was remarkable in so many ways.
We saw a huge explosion of discussion around AI governance. Are companies, the ones that can take on all this responsibility of assessing risk, or deciding when to push new research onto the market, or as illustrated by the dramatic saga at OpenAI, are companies not in a good position to make all these decisions themselves and to sort of design checks and balances all in-house? Governments agree. I don't think they want to let these decisions to the big companies, and so they are really stepping up across the board and across the globe. We've only recently, in the last days of this year, seen the political agreement around the EU AI Act, a landmark law that will really set a standard in the democratic world for governing AI in a binding fashion. But there were also a lot of voluntary code of conduct, as we saw at the G7, statements that came out of the AI Safety Summit like the Bletchley Park Declaration, and there was the White House's executive order to add to the many initiatives that were taken in an attempt to make sure that AI developments at least respect the laws that are on the book, if not make new ones where needed.
Now, what I thought was missing quite a bit, looking at the AI Safety Summit, for example, but also in discussions in my home country, the Netherlands, there were elections where AI did not feature at all in the political debate. Is a better discussion, more informed, and more anticipatory about job displacement? I think it is potentially a most devastating and most disruptive development, and yet we don't really hear so much about it short of reports by consulting firms that predict macroeconomic benefits over the long run. But if you look at the political fallout of job displacement and the need to have resources, for example, to reskill and retrain people. There is a need for a much more public debate and maybe even to start talking about the T-word, namely taxing AI companies.
What I also think is missing still, despite having had more reference to the Global South, is true engagement of people from all over the world, not just from the most advanced economies, but really, to have a global engagement with people to understand their lived experiences and needs with regard to the rollout of AI. Because even if people do not have agency over what AI decides about them, there will still be impact even if people are not even online yet. So I think it is incredibly important to have a more global, inclusive, and equal discussion with people from all over the world, and that will be something I'll be looking out for the year 2024.
What I also think is missing still, despite having had more reference to the Global South, is true engagement of people from all over the world, not just from the most advanced economies, but really, to have a global engagement with people to understand their lived experiences and needs with regard to the rollout of AI. Because even if people do not have agency over what AI decides about them, there will still be impact even if people are not even online yet. So I think it is incredibly important to have a more global, inclusive, and equal discussion with people from all over the world, and that will be something I'll be looking out for the year 2024.
And then last, and certainly not least, 2024 has been called the Year of Democracy. I hope we will say the same when we look back a year from now. There will be an unprecedented amount of people going to the polls, and there are still a lot of question marks about how disruptive AI is going to be for the public debate, the political debate, new means of manipulating, sharing disinformation with synthetic media that is really, really hard to distinguish from authentic human-uttered expressions. Really, the combination of AI and elections, AI and democracy deserves a lot more attention and will probably draw attention in the year where billions of people will take to the polls, 2024.
For now, let me wish you a happy holiday season with friends and few screens, I hope. And we will see each other again afresh in the new year. Happy New Year and happy holidays.
- AI explosion, elections, and wars: What to expect in 2024 ›
- The world of AI in 2024 ›
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- How AI threatens elections ›
- AI, election integrity, and authoritarianism: Insights from Maria Ressa ›
- How to protect elections in the age of AI - GZERO Media ›
- When AI makes mistakes, who can be held responsible? - GZERO Media ›
- AI's potential to impact election is cause for concern - EU's Eva Maydell - GZERO Media ›
"Access is a fundamental right" - Digital activist Vilas Dhar
The world is fast becoming increasingly digital, with 60% of global GDP driven by digital participation, but over two billion people still lack basic connectivity access.
Vilas Dhar, a leading activist for a more equitable tech-enabled world, emphasizes three elements contributing to this divide: connectivity, data gaps, and technical capacity.
“Access is a fundamental right and not something to be solved by delivering a last mile piece of fiber or connectivity.” he commented during a Global Stage livestream event at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Dhar also acknowledges the growing concern of artificial intelligence and the question of who will lead regulation.
“We live in a world where AI is in every headline, and we absolutely acknowledge that the vast majority of AI capacity is held in private sector tech companies. This is in and of itself a digital divide.”
The discussion was moderated by Nicholas Thompson of The Atlantic and was held by GZERO Media in collaboration with the United Nations, the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, and the Early Warnings for All initiative.
Watch the full Global Stage conversation: Can data and AI save lives and make the world safer?
- Should internet be free for everyone? A Global Stage debate ›
- The fight to “connect every last person” to the internet ›
- COVID upended the job market & focused employers on skills ›
- 2 billion new internet users joined in 5 years but growth is uneven ›
- US-China tech tensions: the impact on the global digital landscape ›
- The digitalization divide: opportunities and challenges in emerging markets ›