Number 7

Implications of the Trump Presidency for Global Climate Action

After four years of deriding President Biden’s energy policies as “industry-killing, jobs-killing, pro-China, and anti-American,” Donald Trump is executing a radical pivot. He is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, revoking financial commitments made under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, terminating USAID-funded initiatives in renewable energy, conservation, and climate adaptation, and decelerating decarbonization at home — to cite just a few early moves. Railla Puno takes inventory and analyzes the known and anticipated impacts.

A Civil Society-Based Approach to Online Misinformation: The Experience of Taiwan

Taiwan’s recent general elections were accompanied by extensive attacks of online misinformation designed to confuse and disrupt the process. Authors Wen-Chen Chang and Yu-teng Lin argue that Taiwan’s response to these attacks embodies “civic constitutionalism” in action, with civil society organizations taking the lead to identify and correct the misinformation while the government played a supporting role.

Decoding the Supreme People’s Court’s Services and Safeguards Opinions

Over the past seven years, the Supreme People’s Court has issued almost 30 documents that contain the phrase “judicial services and safeguards.” These documents have received little attention but they represent what is becoming the SPC’s most important function in the Xi Jinping era: translating Chinese Communist Party policies into guidance for lower-level courts.