The Cold Peace with Erich Elkins

In this conversation, I discuss our new geopolitical reality &#8216;The Cold Peace&#8217; with Erich Elkins. We discuss the importance of design thinking for policy problems, the roots of Western decline, Erich&#8217;s experience meeting Xi Jinping and how it shaped his thinking on the leader, the objective of China&#8217;s recent family-friendly reforms, the upcoming Philippines election, the country&#8217;s position in the Indo-Pacific, whether the first island chain can hold, why we are living in a &#8216;Cold Peace&#8217; rather than a &#8216;Cold War&#8217;, the risk of conflict over Taiwan, and many more topics.<br/><br/>You can see the visual overlay that follows our conversation on YouTube. Some episodes are posted as videos before coming out in the podcast feed, so if you want to access new content early, be sure to subscribe to the channel. <br/><br/>You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click &#8220;Listen in podcast app&#8221; &#8212; which will connect you to the show&#8217;s feed.&#160;Alternatively, you can click the icons below to get it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.<br/><br/>If you enjoy this conversation and would like to help the show, leaving us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts is the easiest way to do so.<br/><br/>To give us a review, just go to&#160;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/tw/podcast/policy-people/id1525978880?uo=4&#38;itscg=30200&#38;itsct=podcast_box">Policy People</a>&#160;on Apple Podcasts and hit &#8216;Write a Review&#8217;.<br/><br/>Erich Elkins is the Co-founder and Director of the Sydney-based firm Next Real Ventures, which brings US and European technology solutions to the Indo-Pacific and is the primary representative in the region for <a href="https://haptx.com/">HaptX</a>, the world&#8217;s leader in dual-use robotics and VR wearables. Erich has been at the forefront of the design and deployment of innovative tech solutions, such as Extended Reality(XR) and Urban M