On September 21, Aleksandra Gadzala Tirziu wrote a piece for the New York Sun making the case that the newly established Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation does not do enough to combat China’s rising influence in the Global South. As it stands, the Partnership aims to serve as a forum to engage in collective problem-solving and uphold coastal environment security. Tirziu contends that while it is a step in the right direction, the Partnership misses the mark in its explicit avoidance of “security, defense, and governance” – all areas in which autocratic powers, like China, are active across the Global South. Tirziu also made a similar, more succinct argument in the Monocle Magazine’s daily newsletter, the Monocle Minute.
[The Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation] could have given Global South countries greater agency over critical policy areas and facilitated America’s improved relations with their respective governments. No doubt environmental considerations matter. Yet the reality is that, in today’s geopolitical environment, defense, security, governance – the very issues that the initiative skirts – matter more. Someone should tell Washington.
