Trust is hard to build and easy to destroy -- it's a truism of psychology. Now we're seeing it in how US allies are responding to Trump. Short-term, you get negotiations. Long-term, a less influential America and a more diversified (and nuclear) world. My analysis: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/w...

In our podcast about international trade, we discuss Trump's view of the world as a zero-sum one, harking back to the mercantilists of old. This is an excellent article by @damiencave.bsky.social via @nytimes.com that links to this. #EconSky www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/w...

Sometimes history is defined by a way of looking at the world. Are we in an age of zero-sum thinking? I've been mulling this piece for a while, maybe since childhood. Where have you seen zero-sum thinking in your life? And how are you managing its impacts? www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/w...

We are grateful that @ucpress.bsky.social allowed us to publish the interview without a paywall, so all readers could access this material, and we are appreciative of NYT’s Vietnam bureau chief @damiencave.bsky.social for sharing Huy Đức’s story in this form. Below: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/w...

“Ruthlessness will be rewarded, toothlessness will be exploited. I expect Huntington is smiling from the grave.” foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/21/s...

Lot of talk these days about toxic this and toxic that. Here's the real thing, its impact, and what happens when the U.S. stops taking care of messes it created in other parts of the world -- where it wants and needs friends. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/w...

“The streets are Vietnam’s coliseum. Especially in cities, they are the forum where society’s biggest conflicts — between government control and personal freedom, between the elites seeking harmony and strivers seeking income — have long played out.” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/w...

Australia isn’t perfect but after my many years there, I still wish Americans would pay attention and learn from Oz. Pragmatism and sacrifice for public good makes for a healthier nation, and fires are just one example www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/o...

Probably the mist interesting piece I’ve read on American power and the world in quite a while reader.foreignaffairs.com/2025/01/07/t...

Wrote a bit about Trump and the 19th century, which may be worth studying more closely for a glimpse into the next four years and maybe longer. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/w...

Good look at China’s looming demographic challenge from a place already feeling it www.wsj.com/world/china/...

The Gilded Age is one touchpoint; a related thought I’ve had: America is becoming more like Guatemala when I covered it a decade ago; lots of vigilantism and private security for the rich. Tolerance for extreme inequality leads to private security, public insecurity.

I made a stop in My Lai out of respect; I left with a dispatch that taught me a lot about Vietnam and what Americans might learn if they paid closer attention to non-American perspectives www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/w...

New to this place. I’m an NYT reporter, opening a new bureau in Vietnam, roaming around the world, and a dad who often writes about that too. I was a big digital media booster for most of my career. Now, less so. Not convinced virtual anything is good for us anymore but I’m here to try again.