In 1989, Francis Fukuyama suggested that history had reached its end, not because events would cease, but because humanity had supposedly resolved its deepest political question: how to live. Liberal democracy, he argued, met the human demand for recognition (what the Greeks called thymos) more fully than any rival. After the fall of communism, politics […]
Author: Makena Tom
What Silicon Valley and Shenzhen Forgot
At a startup fair in Shenzhen, often called China’s Silicon Valley, a robotic arm salutes the Chinese flag while a camera scans the crowd for faces to greet by name. Six thousand miles away in Palo Alto, an engineer pitches an AI model that can generate lifelike images of anything, except, he jokes, “political context.” […]
Serve the People, March the Nation
In Beijing’s 2025 military parade, symbolism mattered as much as firepower. Alongside next-generation drones and hypersonic missiles, President Xi Jinping stood in a Mao-style suit, flanked by foreign dignitaries like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Chinese state media called it a celebration of national “rejuvenation,” but for those who came of age during the […]
India’s Regulatory Crossroads: Can It Balance Growth and Control in the Tech Era?
In just two years, a 194 million dollar investment by Apple’s supplier, Foxconn, has turned Chennai into a thriving tech hub. This shift, fueled by policy overhauls and geopolitical shifts, positions India as a prime alternative to China’s production dominance. But how did India get here, and what hurdles remain as it steps into the […]
Space Race 2.0: Profits, Power, and the Politics of the Cosmos
Capitalism is out of this world—quite literally. The commercialization of space is propelling us into a second space race, one that is fundamentally different from its Cold War predecessor. Unlike the 20th-century contest between the United States and the Soviet Union, this new race is driven by private enterprise, technological ambition, and the pursuit of […]