What Caught My Eye (no. 38)
Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week
Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.
Christopher Mims and Nate Rattner, “When AI Hype Meets AI Reality: A Reckoning in 6 Charts,” The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2025. Mims and Rattner analyze how record spending on data centers and chips is colliding with the physical and economic limits of infrastructure. Tech giants are pouring unprecedented capital, much of it financed through debt, into AI supercomputers, while startups like OpenAI face mounting losses and staggering projected outlays. Yet shortages of transformers, turbines, and power capacity are delaying construction, and experts warn that meeting electricity demand will take a decade or more.
Yaroslav Trofimov, “The Nuclear-Arms Race Is Now a Three-Way Contest,” The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2025. The Journal’s chief foreign correspondent reports that a new nuclear arms race has emerged among the United States, Russia, and China, the first three-way contest of its kind. China, long a minor nuclear power, is rapidly expanding toward parity with Washington and Moscow, while Russia is testing novel nuclear-powered delivery systems and deploying warheads to Belarus. U.S. modernization efforts, still sized for bilateral nuclear competition with Russia, now appear inadequate as Beijing refuses negotiations and pursues nuclear expansion to deter U.S. intervention over Taiwan. Trofimov argues that global nuclear stability is eroding as all three powers kick off a new arms race.
Thomas Wright, “What if ‘America First’ Appears to Work?” The Atlantic, November 18, 2025. Wright argues that Donald Trump’s second-term foreign policy has evolved into a more radical version of “America First,” one that weaponizes U.S. economic leverage over allies while downplaying ideological and strategic competition with adversaries. The risk is that American voters may be convinced by Trump’s nationalist, transactionalist approach. Wright argues that internationalists have to figure out what America’s role in the world should look like and advocate for it.
Laura Pitel, Alice Hancock, Steven Bernard, and Sam Learner, “The Surreal 45-Day Trek at the Heart of NATO’s Defence,” Financial Times, November 18, 2025. This FT investigation details the logistical and bureaucratic obstacles that could delay the Alliance’s ability to move forces eastward in a crisis. Drawing on interviews with senior generals and EU officials, the authors describe how crumbling bridges, narrow tunnels, and mismatched rail gauges could stretch deployment from western ports to the eastern flank to 45 days — a timeline NATO hopes to cut to five.
Michael Stott, “The ‘Donroe Doctrine’: Trump’s Power Play in Latin America,” Financial Times, November 19, 2025. The FT’s Latin America Editor, writes that with one of the largest U.S. military mobilizations in the Caribbean in decades, President Donald Trump has revived a 21st-century version of the Monroe Doctrine to reassert American dominance across the Western Hemisphere. He reports that Trump’s show of naval and air power against drug cartels pressures Venezuela and signals a broader hemispheric retrenchment focused on migration control, narcotics interdiction, and curbing Chinese influence. Emphasizing “America’s backyard,” the administration has rewarded allies such as Argentina’s Javier Milei while punishing left-leaning governments in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela with tariffs and military threats.
Lingling Wei, “China Is Priming Its People and the World for a New Pressure Campaign on Taiwan,” The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2025. The Journal’s chief China correspondent reports that Beijing is escalating a dual “pen and gun” strategy to isolate Taiwan and prepare Chinese society for potential confrontation. Through state-controlled media, including the new television drama The Silent Honor, China is glorifying Communist agents martyred in Taiwan’s past, fostering patriotic sentiment for “reunification.” Xi’s emphasis on nationalist media narratives and external pressure mirrors earlier mobilizations ahead of major political moves, suggesting that the campaign is designed to normalize “gray zone” coercion and lower the threshold for future confrontation.
The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, (Vox Media Podcast Network). A new podcast by President Biden’s national security adviser and his principal deputy goes behind the headlines to analyze how power is exercised in Washington and other capitals. Every Friday.
Face-Off: The U.S. vs. China (Rowhome Productions), Season 3. The third season of Face-Off, the critically acclaimed podcast by former New York Times Beijing Bureau Chief Jane Perlez kicked off this week with a look at the generational divide in China.
Allison Martell, David Lague, Clare Farley, and Minami Funakoshi, “China’s shadow navy trains to take Taiwan,” Reuters, November 20, 2025. Reuters uses ship-tracking and high-cadence satellite imagery to show Beijing rehearsing an invasion architecture that combines the PLA with a vast civilian fleet. Deck cargo ships and roll-on/roll-off ferries practiced beach offloads near Jiesheng, with a temporary floating pier assembled and dismantled in hours; by one snapshot, getting 330 vehicles clustered ashore. Taipei calls parts of the spectacle “cognitive warfare,” but experts warn the drills reflect concrete planning to put troops on the ground, raising the stakes for U.S. and allied responses.
Finally, in case you missed it here are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.
Wednesday was Donald Trump’s 300th day in office. I assessed his foreign policy record in my regular bimonthly column for Politico Europe.
The latter part of the week was dominated by the news that the Trump Administration had developed a 28-point plan to end the war in Ukraine. I wrote about my reaction to the plan and examined some of the more outrageous points on America Abroad. I also wrote about the Steve Witkoff, principal US author of the plan for The Observer. I analyzed the latest about talks in Geneva on CNN.
Friday’s World Review was the first produced by the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and will be broadcast on WBEZ Radio on Monday. A very exciting new kickoff for the show. I was thrilled to be joined by Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, Peter Spiegel of The Washington Post, and James Harding of The Observer. We devoted the entire show to Ukraine. You can watch or listen to the latest episode.
This week’s World Review focused on the race to electrify energy production and growing criticism among “America First” supporters of President Trump’s overseas focus rather than problems at home.
Happy reading, watching, and listening!