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Global Affairs Session 36 14 May 2026 US AND CHINA: COMPETING AND COOPERATING Eight decades of rivalry, engagement and uneasy partnership The United States and China are the world's two largest economies, and their relationship has swung from Cold War hostility to cautious engagement to today's strategic rivalry. From the 1949 revolution to Nixon's opening, from Deng Xiaoping's reforms to the 2026 technology contest, the two powers have moved from enemies to trade partners to competitors — and are now searching for a way to compete and cooperate at the same time.

Global Affairs Session 29 5 May 2026 HOW AND WHY THE USSR COLLAPSED The rise, achievements, structural weaknesses and final dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union transformed a largely agrarian empire into an industrial, military and scientific superpower, but its centrally planned economy, closed political system, costly arms race and unresolved national tensions gradually weakened the state. Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms exposed these problems while loosening central control, and the failed August 1991 coup accelerated the USSR’s final dissolution.

Global Affairs Session 16 16 April 2026 WHY IS NATO FRACTURING? From Cold War collective defence to contemporary alliance strain NATO was created after the Second World War as a collective-security alliance centred on Article 5. It survived the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, expanded after 1991 and took on wider security roles. Yet Donald Trump’s transactional approach, uncertainty over alliance commitments and different pressures arising from the Ukraine and Iran conflicts have exposed important political and strategic strains.