WPR Weekly Review

"Rubio's vision of Western primacy" and "China's weaponization of rare earths."

Views expressed in this geopolitical news and analysis are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 18 October 2026, 2137 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

October 18, 2026 Hi everyone, this is Elliot Waldman, WPR’s editor-in-chief. Welcome back to our Weekly Review, where we recap the highlights from our coverage over the last week and preview what’s on deck. This is the limited, free version of the weekly email. To get the full edition each week, upgrade now. If you have any comments or feedback, just hit reply to send them along. Top Stories Here are some of the week’s major developments that we covered in our Daily Review newsletter. (If you don’t already receive the Daily Review, you can adjust your settings here.):       India’s ‘Cockroach’ Movement Reveals Modi’s Vulnerability: Protests continued in India this week as youth activists continued to mobilize against a purge of 130 million names from the nation’s voter rolls. The government used draconian measures to … Read more here.             The Law of the Sea Is Increasingly Under Attack: Drone attacks targeted two commercial vessels off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast last Tuesday, sinking one of the ships, with 11 sailors still missing. The day before, in the Indian Ocean, the French navy … Read more here.             Trump’s Anti-Cartel Initiative Gets Boots on the Ground: The U.S. military is deploying hundreds of troops to Panama for initial training in jungle warfare, The New York Times reported Wednesday, before sending them on to Colombia and Honduras, where they will train with … Read more here.       The Week’s Highlights U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in Athens, Greece, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP photo by Mark Schiefelbein) Rubio’s Vision of Western Primacy Is Just Empire by Another Name. On Friday, Judah Grunstein looked at a recent speech by the U.S. Secretary of State, and what it means for U.S. foreign policy. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech at the foot of the Parthenon in Athens that underscored the centrality of the Western civilizational narrative to the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Rubio declared that the path the U.S. and Europe take in the coming decade “will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline.” Rubio framed the challenge as not just civilizational survival, but maintaining the West’s position of dominance over the rest of the world, which he characterized as “deserved” and “earned.” Whereas the Western civilizational narrative that resurfaced in the 1990s kept the racialized hierarchies embedded in nativist anti-immigrant sentiment implicit, Rubio’s version has more in common with the 19th-century one that justified … Read the rest here. China’s Weaponization of Rare Earths Was No Accident. And on Wednesday, Mary Gallagher looked at the strategy behind China’s weaponization of critical minerals. The U.S. and Europe have been caught flat-footed by China’s use of export controls over critical minerals. China’s control of the world’s largest deposits of rare earths, and more importantly 90 percent of global processing and refining capacity, gives it ample leverage, as Beijing demonstrated last year when it rolled out export controls in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The forcefulness of China’s moves has led some Western officials to accuse Beijing of a decades-long scheme to place a boot on the neck of the global economy. In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, Gloria Xiong and Jessica Chen Weiss complicate this view by … Read the rest here. The Week’s Most-Read Story Tents sheltering a Palestinian family stand atop their home, damaged during Israeli army strikes, in Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo by Abdel Kareem Hana) Navi Pillay, International Law and the Finding of Genocide in Gaza. And in this week’s top story by views, Paul Poast looked at the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s controversial choice of South African-born international lawyer Navi Pillay as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. … Read the full piece here. What’s On Tap And coming up this week, we’ve got: Juan Fernando Herrera Ramos on what determines whether Global South countries benefit from trade with China. Robert Pee on the Trump administration’s populism promotion agenda overseas. Tangi Bihan on the latest “coup within a coup” in Guinea-Bissau. That’s it for now. Until Monday, —Elliot Waldman The Week On WPR Americas   Trump’s Anti-Cartel Initiative Gets Boots on the Ground A troop deployment reported yesterday is the latest step in institutionalizing the Trump administration’s Americas Counter Cartel Coalition.   Mega-Prisons Aren’t the Answer to Latin America’s Crime Problem The new maximum-security prisons popping up around the region are an incomplete solution, at best. Asia-Pacific   The Shady Foundations of Kyrgyzstan’s Economic Boom Kyrgyzstan has been a principal beneficiary of Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. and European sanctions amid the war in Ukraine.   China’s Weaponization of Rare Earths Was No Accident Beijing views critical minerals as part of its broader industrial policy to dominate global manufacturing.   Understanding the Contradictions in Beijing’s Climate Policies China is the world’s leading producer and exporter of green energy technology, but also the largest consumer of polluting coal. Europe   France and South Korea Want a Middle Power Coalition—to Save the Film Industry The two countries are joining forces as a time of crisis for the entertainment sector. Their partnership faces numerous challenges. Middle East & North Africa   Navi Pillay, International Law and the Finding of Genocide in Gaza By awarding the peace prize to Navi Pillay, the Nobel committee stepped squarely into the middle of public debate. United States   Trump’s Pro-Russian Turn Puts Ukraine—and Europe—on Edge As European powers intensify their efforts to help Ukraine, Trump appears dead set on acting in Russia’s best interest.   Trump’s Diesel Gamble Reveals Washington’s Waning Leverage Trump is pushing for an energy ceasefire, but he will be hard pressed to make such a deal between Putin and Zelenskyy hold.   Voting Rights Emerges as a Key Flashpoint in the World’s Largest Democracy A purge of 130 million voters from the rolls has sparked another wave of mass protests in India, undermining the Election Commission’s credibility.   India’s ‘Cockroach’ Movement Reveals Modi’s Vulnerability The recent upsurge in popular protest driven by the party’s rise reveals a shifting landscape of power in India. Global   Rubio’s Vision of Western Primacy Is Just Empire by Another Name The Trump administration’s civilizational turn will alienate potential partners and undermine America’s interests.   The World’s Autocrats Are Winning the War of Narratives Amid an accelerating wave of democratic decline, authoritarian regimes are expanding the global reach of their state media outlets.   The Law of the Sea Is Increasingly Under Attack States and nonstate actors alike are using conflicts to erode the principles of freedom of navigation underpinning the global trading system.

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