Cannabis, Cities, and Empires

In 2014, the world shifted in major ways. The U.S. state of Colorado legalized adult-use cannabis, more than 50 percent of the world population lived in cities for the first time, and Pax Americana ended with the announcement of Xi Jinping's China-centric Belt and Road Initiative and Putin's Russian annexation of Crimea. Great Power competition brings frontier technologies and political innovation with imperial cities to match. A century once believed to be "the end of history," is beginning its slow curve into the cyclical timeline of human nature.

Cannabis, Cities, and Empires is a weekly newsletter analyzing the global momentum of cannabis legalization, urbanization, and the return of great power competition in the 21st Century.