Articles
Articles in major media and academic publications written by New Silk Road Monitor Editor Afshin Molavi.
Africa’s Future and the Emerging World
By Afshin Molavi If you want to understand our collective future, look no further than Africa. Let us start with the obvious: Africa’s demographics. According to UN projections, Africa’s population is set to double by 2050 to 2.4 billion. Looking further ahead to the...
A Greek economic renaissance could benefit the broader Arab world
By Afshin Molavi - Shortly before Greece’s recent election, the gifted orator and then-Prime Minister Alexei Tsipras delivered a rousing speech to a cheering throng of supporters, at one point declaring that his main opponent could not achieve what he was experiencing...
The New Silk Road Runs Through the UAE
October 2018 - By Afshin Molavi - When Chinese President Xi Jinping flew to Africa on his way to the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit this past summer, he followed a route that has become familiar to many Chinese travelers: he stopped in...
As Chinese Dragon Slows, Middle East Will Feel the Heat
By Afshin Molavi China’s economy is slowing, which is both inevitable and alarming. Inevitable because no economy can defy gravity and grow at nearly double-digit rates on average for three decades, as China’s did from 1989 through 2018. And alarming because the...
How the Middle East Can Survive Trade Turmoil
A few months ago, a devastating hurricane tore through a stretch of beach in the US state of Florida, destroying homes in its path – with one exception. One house stood tall amid the wreckage, virtually intact with a few bruises here and there. It was no accident....
Interviews
Afshin Molavi interviews some of the world’s leading thinkers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and writers, in a series known as Tea with emerge85.
CEO of UAE High-Tech Parts Manufacturer Looks to Future
Al Ain is not the sort of place you would associate with a high-tech manufacturing revolution, but something akin to that is taking place in the modestly-sized Emirati city best known for its lush greenery and date palm oases. Tucked away in an aerospace...
FT’s Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator Looks Eastward
It was 1992 when Gideon Rachman got what he calls his first “proper job as a foreign correspondent”, after The Economist sent him to Bangkok to cover Asia. The timing was good: Asia was rising. China had unshackled its economy more than a decade earlier,...
