The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
What is China's vision for a new world order?
English Summary
The panel argues that China under Xi is pursuing a long-term effort to reshape international order around sovereignty, regime security, and reduced Western dominance, while avoiding costly ideological bloc politics. Speakers cite evidence including Beijing’s security-first governance model, parallel institution-building (e.g., BRI, AIIB, SCO, BRICS-adjacent platforms), efforts to de-risk supply chains and build economic leverage, and selective mediation diplomacy aimed especially at the Global South. They also emphasize tensions in China’s approach: it promotes an alternative governance narrative but still works inside existing institutions, and its global ambitions are constrained by domestic economic pressures and external pushback. For policymakers, the implication is to treat China’s strategy as structural and adaptive rather than episodic, requiring coordinated responses on economic resilience, technology dependence, and coalition-based diplomacy rather than issue-by-issue reactions.
中文摘要
該場座談認為，習近平治下的中國正推動一項長期性布局，試圖在主權、政權安全與降低西方主導地位等原則上重塑國際秩序，同時避免代價高昂的意識形態陣營對抗。與談人提出的證據包括：北京以安全優先的治理模式、平行制度建構（如「一帶一路」、亞投行、上合組織及與金磚相關的平台）、在供應鏈「去風險化」與經濟槓桿建構上的作為，以及特別面向全球南方的選擇性調解外交。他們亦強調中國路線中的張力：一方面倡議替代性治理敘事，另一方面仍在既有制度內運作；其全球雄心同時受制於國內經濟壓力與外部反制。對決策者而言，其政策意涵是應將中國戰略視為結構性且具調適性，而非偶發性行動；因此需要在經濟韌性、技術依賴與聯盟式外交上採取協調回應，而非按議題逐案反應。
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