Showing 91 - 100 of 101
Ignorance is guiding our policy-making
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/08/2016
» To cut to the chase, the five most ignorant countries in the world are Mexico, India, Brazil, Peru and New Zealand. And the five best informed are South Korea, followed by Ireland, Poland, China and the United States. Ignorant about what? About the realities in their own country.
IS is fomenting a Muslim backlash
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/08/2016
» 'Our country is at war," said French President Francois Hollande after a priest was murdered near Rouen in front of his congregation by two attackers who claimed to be serving Islamic State. It's the sort of thing leaders feel compelled to say at times like this, but it does send the wrong message.
Nail in coffin of Turkish democracy
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/07/2016
» Turkey's democracy is dead. It was dying anyway, as President Recep Tayyib Erdogan took over media outlets, arrested political opponents and journalists, and even re-started a war with the Kurds last autumn in order to win an election. But once part of the army launched a coup attempt on Friday night, it was dead no matter which way the crisis ended.
Face-off looms over South China Sea
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/07/2016
» Next Tuesday, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will issue its ruling on China's claim to practically all of the South China Sea. And already the main military contenders are moving more forces into the region.
Migrants, euro, Brexit: the EU at risk
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/04/2016
» A recent headline in the leading French newspaper Le Monde said it all: "Migrants, the Euro, Brexit: The European Union is mortal." And it's true. The EU could actually collapse over these three threats.
The 'least bad' outcome to the Syria war
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2016
» After the Syrian army recaptured the city of Palmyra from the Islamic State (IS) a week ago, US State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted that the liberation of the ancient city was a "good thing". But he could not resist adding: "We're also mindful, of course, that the best hope for Syria and the Syrian people is not an expansion of [President] Bashar al-Assad's ability to tyrannise the Syrian people."
Brussels bombings put in perspective
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/03/2016
» Belgium may be a boring country, but it still seems extreme for a Belgian politician to say that the country is now living through its darkest days since the end of the Second World War. Can any country really be so lucky that the worst thing that has happened to it in the past 70 years is a couple of bombs that killed 35 people?
Russia's Syria mission 'accomplished'
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/03/2016
» He wasn't standing on an aircraft carrier with a banner saying "Mission Accomplished" behind him, but Russia's President Vladimir Putin was a lot more credible than former US president George W Bush when he declared his country's military intervention in the Middle East a success. And most of the Russian forces in Syria are going home after only five months, not the eight years that American troops stayed in Iraq.
China: Another Chairman Mao?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/03/2016
» Opening the National People's Congress in Beijing last week, Prime Minister Li Keqiang set China's growth target for the coming year at 6.5-7%, the lowest in decades. Only two years ago, he said that 7% was the lowest acceptable growth rate, but he has had to eat his words. He really isn't in charge of very much any more.
Saudi Arabia's risky gamble is driving the oil downturn
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/02/2016
» ‘The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent,” said John Maynard Keynes (or maybe it wasn’t him, but no matter). At any rate, that was the eternal verity the Saudi Arabians were counting on when they decided to let oil production rip — and the oil price collapse — in late 2014.