Tokyo is ramping up international partnerships and investments to offer an alternative to Beijing’s signature foreign-policy project. For the first time in 15 years, Japan’s foreign minister last month paid a visit to the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka, shepherding a dozens-strong delegation of business leaders eager to deepen economic ties between the two countries after a year of increasing security cooperation.

If India has long been perceived, and rightly so, as a reluctant player in international affairs, but that perception is quickly coming to an end. Indeed, by organizing a major international forum, the Raisina Dialogue, for the third year in a row, Delhi is signaling that it is now seeking to play a much more active role in dealing with the colossal economic, environmental, and political changes and disruptions  affecting the world.

The US and China are headed for a technological arms race that could disrupt the status quo of global trade, according to Thierry de Montbrial, founder and executive chairman of the French Institute for International Relations, and chairman of the World Policy Conference.

China, Russia and the U.S. see potential and risks. And for now, there's still no form of governance to oversee AI development — technology moves faster than diplomacy.

In 2014, the deceleration of global growth trends revealed wide disparities between emerging countries. While the big emerging countries face a decline in their growth potential, smaller ones continue to show resilience and drive in what seems to be a difficult international grid.

Russia is trying to “sow chaos” in Europe by betting big on Marine Le Pen and France's far right.
 

Europe needs better relations between Moscow and Washington. President-Elect Donald Trump spoke on the campaign trail of mending U.S. relations with Russia. 

Francis Yi-hua Kan is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University.