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Chris Patten

Chris Patten

Writing for PS since 2000
158 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. Internet Scammers and Political Tricksters
    patten158_JUSTIN TALLISAFP via Getty Images_brexit Carl Court/Getty Images

    Internet Scammers and Political Tricksters

    Sep 27, 2023 Chris Patten highlights the link between rampant online fraud and the invulnerability of contemporary demagogues.

  2. A Smidgen of Hope
    patten157_ANTHONY WALLACEAFP via Getty Images_jimmylai Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

    A Smidgen of Hope

    Aug 30, 2023 Chris Patten highlights the crucial role of free speech in ensuring citizens' well-being in open societies.

  3. The Crisis of American Leadership
    patten156_Charles OmmanneyGetty Images_bushiraq Charles Ommanney/Getty Images

    The Crisis of American Leadership

    Aug 3, 2023 Chris Patten reflects on the disastrous long-term consequences of the United States' foreign-policy mistakes.

  4. Truth and Democracy
    patten155_John KeebleGetty Images_johnsontrumplies John Keeble/Getty Images

    Truth and Democracy

    Jun 29, 2023 Chris Patten explains why a commitment to an open, fact-based discourse is necessary to preserve political freedom.

  5. The Myth of Western Decline
    patten154_ Stefan Rousseau - PoolGetty Images_g7 summit Stefan Rousseau - Pool/Getty Images

    The Myth of Western Decline

    May 29, 2023 Chris Patten argues that Chinese leaders’ characterization of liberal democracy as decadent betrays their fear of it.

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  1. khrushcheva171_MIKHAIL METZELPOOLAFP via Getty Images_putinkim Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    Putin and Kim’s Cartoon Summit

    Nina L. Khrushcheva thinks that Russia's recent meeting with North Korea was intended primarily as a warning to the South.
  2. haykel18_MANDEL NGANAFP via Getty Images_mbs Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s New Nationalism

    Bernard Haykel explains the reasoning behind the Kingdom's ongoing domestic- and foreign-policy transformation.
  3. wagner22_Lukas SchulzeGetty Images_pollution Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

    The Green Growth Mindset

    Gernot Wagner sees doctrinaire debates about capitalism as irrelevant or even deleterious to the decarbonization effort.
  4. mallochbrown17_GIANLUIGI GUERCIAAFP via Getty Images_africawomenpolitics Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa Is the Future of Multilateralism

    Mark Malloch-Brown explains why the continent should be at the forefront of efforts to bring about international reforms.
  5. op_yi2_PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_chinahousing Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Chinese Bubble Long in the Making

    Yi Fuxian

    The Chinese government is very good at covering up small problems, but these often pile up into much bigger ones that can no longer be ignored. The current real-estate bubble is a case in point, casting serious doubts not just on the wisdom of past policies but also on China's long-term economic future.

    traces the long roots of the country's mounting economic and financial problems.
  6. bp industrial policy Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Industrial Policy Is Back

    From semiconductors to electric vehicles, governments are identifying the strategic industries of the future and intervening to support them – abandoning decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in the process. Are industrial policies the key to tackling twenty-first-century economic challenges or a recipe for market distortions and lower efficiency?

  7. fischer208_DrAfter123Getty Images_AIhuman DrAfter123/Getty Images

    Is AI a Master or Slave?

    Joschka Fischer wonders whether humanity can even hope to maintain control in an era of “mega-crisis.”
  8. haldar25_BettmannGetty Images_friedmanreagan Bettmann/Getty Images

    Laying Chicago Economics to Rest

    Antara Haldar

    From breakthroughs in behavioral economics to mounting evidence in the real world, there is good reason to think that the economic orthodoxy of the past 50 years now has one foot in the grave. The question is whether the mainstream economics profession has gotten the memo.

    looks back on 50 years of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the damage it has wrought.
  9. delong254_ Samuel CorumGetty Images_january6riot Samuel Corum/Getty Images

    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

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