Update to Subscribers

Dear readers,

In the 17 months that “Conflict” has been live on Substack, I have published some 110 posts — mostly once a week, sometimes more depending on the news flow. I fully intend to keep doing this for as long as my mind and body hold up. So far, so good — thankfully, on both counts. Or at least, that’s what they tell me.

My goal for “Conflict” remains pretty much the same as when I started — to stimulate and provoke debate on the increasingly contentious and vitally important US-China conflict. As such, this platform has been something of an extension of the arguments I developed in my last two books on this general topic — Unbalanced (2014) and Accidental Conflict (2022). I am already at work on a Tolkien-like third installment of this trilogy. Hopefully, it will be a book with a happier ending than the first two.

I write because I am passionate about the debate. This goes back to my Morgan Stanley days, when I was actively engaged in the Wall Street battle for thought leadership. Even now, nearly 15 years after I left Morgan Stanley, I still feel that spark of intellectual engagement every time I hit the “send” button.

I am not doing this for financial return. All my dispatches are free — and will continue to be so. A small portion of you have been generous enough to pledge an annual contribution to “Conflict.” Inasmuch as my subscriber base has now grown to a critical mass, I have just activated the paid subscription option. For those of you so inclined to convert to paid status, I will most likely offer a chat-room option. More to come on that.

From the start, “Conflict “ was an experiment. It was initially an effort to test the idea market for thematic engagement. Your responses have encouraged me to keep the flame burning.

A sincere thanks to all of you for your loyal readership.

Stephen Roach