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Chris Patten

Chris Patten

Writing for PS since 2000
172 commentaries
3 videos & podcasts

Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong and a former EU commissioner for external affairs, is Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the author of The Hong Kong Diaries (Allen Lane, 2022).

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  1. Can the Liberal International Order Survive Without America?
    patten172_Scott OlsonGetty Images_trump Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Can the Liberal International Order Survive Without America?

    Feb 5, 2025 Chris Patten urges Western countries to safeguard the institutions that have underpinned their postwar stability.

  2. China Won’t Save Labour’s Britain
    patten171_WPA PoolGettyImages_starmer_xi WPA Pool/Getty Images

    China Won’t Save Labour’s Britain

    Dec 31, 2024 Chris Patten urges British policymakers to focus instead on crafting polices that really can promote economic recovery.

  3. The Sources of Japanese Resilience
    patten170_YUICHI YAMAZAKIAFP via Getty Images_japan Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP via Getty Images

    The Sources of Japanese Resilience

    Dec 6, 2024 Chris Patten emphasizes the country’s ability to avoid the divisive politics currently plaguing other liberal democracies.

  4. The New Threat to Free Speech
    patten169_EVARISTO SAAFP via Getty Images_twitter EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images

    The New Threat to Free Speech

    Sep 19, 2024 Chris Patten highlights governments’ struggle to manage online extremism while upholding a fundamental right.

  5. The Enduring Lessons of Stalin’s Wartime Endgame
    patten168_PhotoQuestGetty Images_post ww2 PhotoQuest/Getty Images

    The Enduring Lessons of Stalin’s Wartime Endgame

    Aug 21, 2024 Chris Patten reflects on how the events leading up to the end of World War II helped shape today’s international order.

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  1. lachman1_Jemal CountessGetty Images for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation_USdebt Jemal Countess/Getty Images for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation

    Trump’s Looming Deficit Disaster

    Desmond Lachman explains why the US president’s trade tariffs and planned tax cuts are at odds with basic economic realities.
  2. mazzucato80_WPA PoolGettyImages_starmer_ai_speech WPA Pool/Getty Images

    Governing AI for the Public Interest

    Mariana Mazzucato & Tommaso Valletti explain why the UK government’s recently released AI “action plan” misses the mark.
  3. chellaney184_ Sergio FloresGetty Images_trumpmodi Sergio Flores/Getty Images

    Putting the Trump-Modi Bromance to the Test

    Brahma Chellaney hopes that the US and Indian leaders take concrete steps to reset and deepen the bilateral relationship.
  4. alemanno2_Thierry MonasseGettyImages_vdl_competitiveness_compass Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

    The Dark Side of EU Deregulation

    Alberto Alemanno warns that the bloc’s efforts to reduce bureaucratic red tape will do more harm than good.
  5. GettyImages-2196139559

    Daniel Gros on DeepSeek, Germany's malaise, EU competitiveness, and more

    Daniel Gros hopes that a Chinese startup's apparent AI breakthrough will provide a much-needed boost to European competitiveness, advises the EU on how to deal with Donald Trump, urges Europe to improve conditions for bottom-up innovation, and more.
  6. bremmer39_Steve PfostNewsday RM via Getty Images_USwindfarm Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images

    Trump Will Not Kill the Global Energy Transition

    Ian Bremmer

    Despite Donald Trump's promise to boost fossil-fuel production, the economic and technological forces driving the clean-energy revolution cannot be stopped. The global transition will power forward, even if America has abandoned climate leadership, and even if the road ahead includes a few more bumps.

    assuages fears that the global energy transition will be thrown into reverse by the new US administration.
  7. brown117_Robert HradilGetty Images_WHO Robert Hradil/Getty Images

    A Reformed WHO Should Make Its Case to America

    Gordon Brown wants to reassure the Trump administration that a revamped organization could serve US and global interests.
  8. tbunde6_New Look CastingGettyImages_globe_jigsaw New Look Casting/Getty Images

    The Age of Multipolarization

    Tobias Bunde & Sophie Eisentraut think a better future depends on whether a world with more poles can find ways to mitigate dangerous divisions.
  9. eichengreen200_PhotoQuestGettyImages_IBM_computer_france PhotoQuest/Getty Images

    Will US Export Restrictions Work?

    Barry Eichengreen

    Perhaps US efforts to cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductors will be more successful than analogous restrictions on tech exports to France in the 1960s. But we now have at least one data point – DeepSeek – that suggests otherwise.

    questions the effectiveness of efforts to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors.

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