Rahm Emanuel
Former White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama, former mayor of Chicago, and former U.S. ambassador to Japan; previously served as a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and as a U.S. representative from Illinois.
An Allied Economic Bloc Is the Answer to China
Rahm Emanuel argues that the United States should counter China not through unilateral tariffs or confrontation with allies, but by organizing a democratic economic bloc with the scale to resist Beijing’s coercion. That strategy, he says, depends on rebuilding American capacity at home—from research and manufacturing to immigration, education and housing—while pursuing political coalitions capable of governing rather than ideological purity. Emanuel also casts the Democratic Socialists of America as a separate project whose priorities, in his view, undermine the broader effort to defeat Trump and enact practical policy.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Deterrence Depends on Sustained Allied Capacity
Former U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel argues that China’s escalating coercion around Taiwan will test whether the United States can turn its alliances with Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan into a barrier to a quarantine or blockade. Alongside Anja Manuel and Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove, he contends that military arrangements remain substantial but deterrence is weakened by inadequate stockpiles, competing crises and doubts about U.S. political resolve. Their central claim is that allies can add capacity and coordinate more closely, but cannot replace sustained American leadership.