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81. Between Giants: Strategic Autonomy for East Asia’s Middle Powers in the U.S.–China Rivalry

Author:
Yoochan Kong
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:
International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:
The intensifying rivalry between the United States and China places South Korea in a delicate strategic position where great-power competition pushes Seoul to choose sides. However, the concept of strategic autonomy shows that middle powers can still navigate a narrow but meaningful path of agency. This paper focuses on how South Korea can sustain strategic autonomy amid U.S.–China rivalry by recalibrating its alliance with the United States, protecting itself from Chinese economic and political coercion, and diversifying partnerships in security, technology, and diplomacy. The central research question asks how South Korea can strengthen its autonomy while managing asymmetric dependence on the United States and growing vulnerability to China. Drawing on historical alliances, the THAAD deployment, and debates over technology alliances, the paper argues that autonomy is not neutrality but, rather, proactive leadership, institutional resilience, and a commitment to democratic values. By doing so, South Korea can shift from a reactive state to a proactive actor shaping a regional order based on freedom and stability.
Topic:
Cold War, Economics, Science and Technology, Alliance, Rivalry, Strategic Autonomy, Coercion, Middle Powers, and Conflict Analysis
Political Geography:
China, Asia, South Korea, and United States of America

82. Risks for Europe of US dominance of global asset management

Author:
Dirk Schoenmaker
Publication Date:
04-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Asset managers work on behalf of asset owners, such as pension funds and insurance companies, allocating their holdings of household or other savings. In Europe, the market share of United States asset managers is rising, while that of their European counterparts is declining. US asset managers may even be about to overtake European asset managers in Europe. However, there are differences between US and European asset managers, and these could play out in the context of the European Union’s savings and investment union plan. On environmental, social and governance (ESG) engagement, European asset managers remain active, while their US counterparts increasingly vote against social and environmental resolutions. This is counterproductive for Europe’s sustainable finance agenda. To preserve the efficiency and efficacy of the EU asset management market, three steps should be taken: 1) strengthen stewardship policies, 2) create a central supervisor and 3) enhance strategic autonomy. Stewardship policies should be tightened and asset managers should highlight how their ESG policies aligns with those of the asset owners for which they work. A major element of this tightening would be the requirement to publish a detailed record of voting on shareholder resolutions. Strong supervision by the European Securities and Markets Authority should ensure that US asset managers are appropriately supervised across the EU. Asset managers apply a hub-and-spoke model, operating from Dublin and Luxembourg. National supervisors cannot effectively oversee the Europe-wide operations, which may create blind spots. A successful savings and investment union needs strong European players to allocate European savings to European investments. The European Commission should act to counter a home bias towards US investments. When hiring asset managers, pension funds and insurers should evaluate not only the lowest cost in the short term, but also financial and ESG performance in the long term.
Topic:
Climate Change, Finance, Investment, Sustainability, Capital, and Banking
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and United States of America

83. A new strategy to contain stablecoin risks in the European Union

Author:
Lucrezia Reichlin, Bo Sangers, and Jeromin Zettelmeyer
Publication Date:
05-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Stablecoins – a form of tokenised money issued primarily by non-banks – promise efficiency gains in payments but also bring new risks to financial stability and monetary control. Because of this, European Union policymakers have so far discouraged the development of stablecoins, instead favouring tokenised deposits issued by banks. This approach might well make sense in a one-jurisdiction world, but risks being counterproductive in the context of dollar-denominated stablecoins encouraged by the United States authorities. EU policy could push European demand for stablecoins outside the EU’s regulatory perimeter, leaving EU holders of dollar stablecoins exposed to US currency risks and US fiscal risks. The EU would also risk adoption by the digital settlement architecture of European financial markets of dollar-based conventions, and settlement activity may migrate away from the Eurosystem’s payments infrastructure in tokenised segments. A strategy to contain these risks without a regulatory race to the bottom should include: Acceleration of the European Central Bank’s Appia project to establish interoperability between digital ledger technology platforms and ECB payments infrastructure; Dispensing with the regulatory requirement to hold a large share of stablecoin reserves in the form of bank deposits; Allowing EU stablecoin issuers to remunerate stablecoin holders directly, as long as the remuneration rate is below the rate on ECB reserves and standard deposit rates; Giving EU-regulated stablecoin issuers access to the ECB’s balance sheet, including to lending-in-last-resort facilities.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Monetary Policy, European Union, Digital Economy, Cryptocurrencies, Digital Currency, Fintech, and Stablecoins
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America

84. Defence innovation and procurement reform: an empirical evaluation of the US Defense Innovation Unit

Author:
Ethan Kapstein, Javier Ospital, and Guntram B. Wolff
Publication Date:
05-2026
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Battlefields are evolving rapidly, with new technologies reshaping military strategy and tactics. Many of the new technologies originate in firms outside the traditional defence sector, rather than with the existing prime contractors. In the United States, the Department of Defense (DoD) created the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in 2015 to incentivise commercial tech companies to work on national security challenges. How successful has this new unit been in achieving its mission? We provide the first causal evaluation of the DIU’s effects on defence procurement. Using administrative procurement data and a firm-level panel covering 2017-2025, and employing propensity score matching, additional firm-level covariates and a staggered difference-in differences design, we find that the DIU has expanded both the extensive and intensive margins of defence contracting. We find not only a significant increase in the likelihood of receiving a DoD contract because of DIU treatment, but also in the size of the contract. Our findings show that defence innovation organisations can broaden and deepen the defence-supplier base. Governments updating their defence acquisition strategies in response to the lessons from recent conflicts can benefit from reforms that facilitate firm entry into procurement, overcoming the transaction cost and information asymmetry problems typical in defence markets.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, Science and Technology, Macroeconomics, and Innovation
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

85. Federal Government Spending Is a Leaky Bucket

Author:
Chris Edwards and Ryan Bourne
Publication Date:
06-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
People often hold optimistic views about federal government spending programs. They assume that new and expanded programs can fix the nation’s social and economic problems. The government is a powerful institution, and so people think that it can steer funding to individuals, businesses, and nonprofit groups to solve problems and aid those in need. However, solving problems through the federal government is not so simple. Spending programs require funding from taxation or borrowing, and both create collateral damage on the economy. As funds flow through the government, resources are wasted on bureaucracy, mismanagement, and faulty planning. As the remaining funds flow out of the government and into the private sector, they induce people to change their working and investing activities, further undermining the economy. Only a fraction of the tax dollars raised for programs ultimately delivers on the outcomes promised by policymakers. Economist Arthur M. Okun described this problem as a “leaky bucket.” When the government imposes taxes on some people to aid others, it is not a costless transfer of resources. Rather, it is like transferring water using a bucket riddled with holes. In this study, we describe the many types of holes in the government bucket, and we argue that the leakage of resources is large. We also argue that the government bucket gets leakier as federal programs and bureaucracies continue to expand. With the government running huge budget deficits, policymakers should rethink the many costly programs that it runs. Some programs are essential, and so policymakers should preserve them while reducing the types of waste or leakage that we identify. But many other programs are so leaky that their costs outweigh their benefits. These programs are spilling economic resources all over and should be eliminated from the federal budget.
Topic:
Government, Public Spending, and Fundraising
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

86. World Trade Without the US

Author:
James Bacchus
Publication Date:
03-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
As the Trump administration imposes a barrage of illegal and unprecedented tariffs on an ever-increasing number of imported products, the rest of the world is showing that it can continue trading despite these tariffs and without the United States. Other countries are lowering trade barriers with each other by concluding new bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements, and exporters are reconfiguring supply chains to route around American protectionism. Regardless of whether the United States remains indispensable to the global economy, international trade is still happening—and it is happening increasingly without the United States. At the same time, these countries should not be doing what they have mostly been doing: forging new trading arrangements outside the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the temptation to go outside the WTO legal framework is understandable, the better course of action would be for the other 165 WTO members to redouble their efforts toward trade liberalization within the institution while taking a different approach. That approach should be WTO-based plurilateralism that can build up to multilateralism, which is precisely how, over decades, the original General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) evolved into the WTO. For this approach to succeed, WTO members must move on from their continued insistence on decisionmaking by consensus, without waiting any longer for the United States. Consensus and American engagement at the WTO is ideal, but plurilateral agreements represent an opportunity to address unfinished business and negotiate rules that meet the demands of the 21st-century economy, while also leaving the door open for other countries to join any agreements if they are willing to be bound by them. The 165 other WTO members must also stand together to defend their rights under the WTO treaty. Although the singular actions of the United States have, at least for now, reduced the Appellate Body to a paper tribunal, that does not have to mean other WTO members have no recourse for standing up to the Trump administration’s bullying and for holding the US accountable under WTO dispute settlement.
Topic:
Treaties and Agreements, Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Donald Trump, and Protectionism
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

87. Politically Motivated Killers: 51 Years of Terrorist Murders on US Soil, 1975–2025

Author:
Alex Nowrasteh
Publication Date:
02-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Politically motivated terrorists are nonstate actors who commit violence to achieve political, ideological, religious, or social goals. Charlie Kirk’s recent assassination prompted many Americans to worry about the scale and scope of politically motivated violence. However, politically motivated terrorism is a small and vastly overstated threat regardless of the ideological motivations of the attackers. The 208 terrorist attackers who killed at least one person on US soil between January 1, 1975, and December 31, 2025, murdered 3,577 people. Murders in politically motivated attacks account for about 0.35 percent of all murders during that time, which translates to an annual chance of being killed in such an attack of about 1 in 4 million per year. The deadliest motivating ideology for those attacks is Islamism, which accounts for a total of 87 percent of all deaths and includes those who were murdered in the 9/11 attacks. Right-wing ideology is the second deadliest motivation at 10 percent, left-wing ideology at 2 percent, and unknown/​other, foreign nationalism, and separatism together accounting for less than 1 percent of all murders. Two attacks are responsible for most of the terror deaths on US soil: 9/11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Those two attacks caused 3,147 deaths, which is 88 percent of all terrorist murders over the 51-year period. Of the other 430 murders, right-wing terrorists account for 45 percent of people murdered, Islamists are responsible for 32 percent, left-wing terrorists are responsible for 16 percent, and attackers motivated by the other ideologies account for the remainder. The number of politically motivated killings is not increasing over time. Of course, murders don’t capture the totality of politically motivated violence or the amorphous feelings that people have that American politics are out of control. However, they are the best measure of the actual violence and an excellent indicator that the United States is not suffering through a wave of politically motivated terrorist killings.
Topic:
Political Violence, Terrorism, Non State Actors, and Ideology
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

88. Ending Community Development Subsidies

Author:
Chris Edwards
Publication Date:
01-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spent more than $20 billion on community development subsidies in fiscal year 2025. The spending flows to state and local governments for housing projects, welfare programs, disaster aid, sidewalk repairs, pickleball courts, business support, grants to nonprofit groups, and many other activities. Congress launched many community development programs in the 1960s to aid poor inner cities. Federal experts were supposed to skillfully help local officials grow their economies. That was the idea, but today HUD’s community development aid is spread widely to both poor and wealthy areas, and experience has shown that aid imposes costly bureaucracy on local investment activities. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating most of HUD’s community development spending. Given the need to reduce federal budget deficits, it makes sense to cut funding for local activities that local governments can fund for themselves. Also, HUD’s community development programs are plagued by intense paperwork, fraud and corruption, and pork-barrel politics. Americans would be better off funding investments such as sidewalk repairs locally, rather than sending their taxes to Washington and hoping that some of it trickles through the bureaucracies and back to their neighborhoods. Congress should end federal subsidies for community development. Local public services and investments should be funded by local governments and the private sector.
Topic:
Development, Investment, Private Sector, Public Service, Subsidies, and Local Government
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

89. The Future of Online Expression and Innovation Depends on Robust Section 230 Protections

Author:
David Inserra
Publication Date:
02-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Section 230 is a cornerstone of how online speech works in the United States. It allows websites and platforms to host user-generated content without being legally responsible for everything their users say, while still giving them the freedom to remove content that they and their users may find objectionable. This legal framework helped the internet grow into a place where millions of Americans can speak, create, organize, and do business. Section 230 removed legal incentives that discouraged content moderation, allowing online platforms to engage in the moderation of user-generated content without assuming liability for all user speech. Section 230 has enabled more free expression and innovation by protecting platforms from being held legally responsible for everything posted by their users. Weakening or repealing Section 230 would backfire, pushing platforms to over-remove lawful speech, limit features, or exit markets to manage legal risk. Expanding platform liability would entrench large incumbents by raising legal and compliance costs that small and new companies cannot absorb, ultimately reducing competition and innovation. As new technologies emerge, such as generative AI, preserving a stable speech-protective liability framework is essential for the United States to remain a leader in innovation and free expression.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Freedom of Expression, Innovation, and Speech
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

90. Understanding Debanking: Evaluating Governmental, Operational, Political, and Religious Financial Account Closures

Author:
Nicholas Anthony
Publication Date:
01-2026
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
This study examines the growing phenomenon of debanking—the sudden and often unexplained closure of individuals’ or organizations’ financial accounts. While media and political narratives often attribute these closures to political or religious discrimination, this study finds that the majority of debanking cases stem from governmental pressure. To identify this cause more accurately, the study distinguishes between four forms of debanking—governmental, operational, political, and religious—evaluating each form in turn. Based on public evidence, governmental debanking appears to be the most significant issue. Congress can correct this issue by reforming the Bank Secrecy Act, repealing confidentiality laws, and permanently ending reputational risk regulation. Doing so would reduce the incentives to debank, expose how widespread debanking has become, and cut out the tools that the government has used to pressure banks and other financial institutions.
Topic:
Government, Financial Institutions, Debanking, and Financial Disclosure
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America