Morning Brief, Thursday, December 14

Two years into his first term, how has U.S. President Joe Biden fared on foreign policy? Is there a clear Biden doctrine? Is America in a stronger or weaker position globally?  The answers ...Show moredepend on whom you ask.  Join FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a lively discussion about the Biden administration’s foreign-policy successes and failures half way through his first term, with Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Nadia Schadlow, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former U.S. deputy national security advisor for strategy during the Trump administration.  

This week, Germany and the United States announced that they would be supplying Ukraine with dozens of Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams tanks to combat Russia’s invasion. Moscow said these tanks we...Show morere more evidence of direct and growing involvement by the West in the conflict. How will the delivery of these tanks change, and potentially escalate, fighting in Ukraine? And is NATO as united as it was earlier in the war? For the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, watch FP executive editor Amelia Lester’s timely conversation with FP’s team of reporters.

The last few years have brought historic challenges for multinational companies. Nationalism and protectionism were already on the rise when COVID-19 shut down global supply chains. Then Rus...Show moresia invaded Ukraine, and businesses around the world confronted a decision on whether to pull out of the Russian market. It raises a series of questions: In a fractured world, how do companies with large global footprints decide which side to pick? How does industry define it values? And what happens if the United States and China continue down a path of decoupling? FP’s Ravi Agrawal sat down with industry leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss how businesses can build resilience amid a turbulent geopolitical era. The panelists included Anne Richards, CEO of Fidelity International; Carmine Di Sibio, CEO of Ernst & Young; Mathias Miedreich, CEO of Umicore; and Lubna S. Olayan, chair of the executive committee of Olayan Financing Company. Watch the full interview for insights on how industry thinks about deglobalization, the U.S.-China rivalry, the war in Ukraine, and much more. Or read a transcribed Q&A here. Also this week in Davos, Ravi convened four business leaders from the energy sector to examine how digital technologies and data can help reduce the energy industry’s carbon emissions. Speakers included Boston Consulting Group CEO Christoph Schweizer, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark, Schneider Electric CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, and SLB’s Dr. Katharina Beumelburg. Watch the full discussion here.