Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Cuban missile crisis redux in Nicaragua?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/07/2022
» It was a piece of news so obscure and implausible that I missed it when it first surfaced last month. The news was that the Russians are going to put hypersonic nuclear missiles into Nicaragua and terrify the Americans into backing down over Ukraine. Or kill them all if they don't.
The 'pink tide' is rising in Latin America
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2022
» 'Corruption isn't fought with slogans on TikTok," complained veteran Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. But social media can win elections, and a right-wing dark horse called Rodolfo Hernández, who calls himself the "King of TikTok", may crush Mr Petro's hopes of becoming Colombia's first-ever leftist president next Sunday.
Will Russia opt to play the 'Cuban card'?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/01/2022
» After a week of intense discussions about "security" between Russia and the Nato countries, this is the week when the Western allies will send their written replies to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Various pundits, some of whom have actually been to Russia, warn us that there will be "War in Europe" if Mr Putin's demands are not met.
Winter is on the way in Afghanistan
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/11/2021
» The first snow of the winter will reach Kabul any day now, and the death rate will start to climb: mostly children, at first, but it will not really be the cold that kills them. The cold will only finish the work that malnutrition began months or years ago -- but the other cause of their deaths will be a different kind of freeze.
The 'defence' follies of 'little boys' at play
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/03/2021
» In the early decades of the Cold War, this was the season when North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) defence chiefs would announce their spending plans for the next year, and they would almost always "discover" some new threat from the Soviet Union to justify the money. In the United States, for example, the intelligence services traditionally found a Soviet armoured brigade hiding in Cuba every February or March.
Anti-abortion laws and radicalisation
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/12/2020
» 'Get your rosaries off our ovaries," chanted the women marching in support of the referendum that made abortion legal in Ireland in 2018. Two years later the 2020 election broke the century-long stranglehold on power of the two centre-right parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. They got fewer than half the votes even together.
Look at history, Syrian sanctions won't end war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/06/2020
» Last week the US imposed new sanctions on Syria: a "sustained campaign of economic and political pressure" to end the nine-year war by forcing President Bashar al-Assad to UN-brokered peace talks where he would negotiate his departure from power. Mr Assad's wife was already cross about not being able to shop at Harrod's or Bergdorf Goodman, so he should crumble any day now.
Happy ending if US strikes Iran? Not a chance
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/05/2019
» US President Donald Trump is well known for his desire to cut American military commitments overseas. Indeed, it is one of his most attractive characteristics. But his attention span is short, he plays a lot of golf, and he does not have the knack of choosing good advisers.
Shared delusions of Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/11/2018
» "It's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape," the Snowflake-in-Chief told Fox News on Sunday, defending his refusal to listen to the recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being murdered and sawn into pieces in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2. "I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible."
Why China won't budge on N Korea
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/11/2017
» Over the next few days, Donald Trump will be visiting the leaders of Japan, South Korea and China, and the same topic will dominate all three conversations: North Korea. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in will be looking for reassurance that the United States will protect them from North Korea's nuclear weapons, but in Beijing Mr Trump will be the supplicant.