Showing 1 - 10 of 19
Several bad options for US in Iran standoff
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/04/2026
» The Iranians know they have won, but President Trump doesn't get it yet. He's still at the stage of counting up the US and Israeli air strikes and assuming that those numbers mean a US victory is possible. But five gets you ten that the Iranians are already thinking about nuclear weapons. Not their own, which don't exist. America's.
No 'New World Order', only global disorder
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/09/2025
» There is no "New World Order", although there is certainly a new world disorder.
Too long in power a bad idea for leaders
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/07/2025
» Leading an entire country for a few years is a steep learning curve, but it's useful experience. Being in power for a dozen years makes most leaders arrogant and careless, but some remain more or less functional. Being in power for more than 30 years just makes you stupid. Consider Cambodia's Hun Sen and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The world is warming up faster than ever
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/02/2025
» I'm very cross with myself. My last two articles were about Donald Trump saying he might invade Greenland, and then about Mr Trump declaring that he would annex Canada (but no threat of physical violence so far, just extreme economic pressure).
The lost cause of the 'Catalan Pimpernel'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/08/2024
» Carles Puigdemont, the self-exiled leader of the Catalan separatist movement, aspires to become the new Scarlet Pimpernel. Last week he left Belgium, where he has lived as an unwelcome guest since he led a failed attempt to secede from Spain seven years ago, and had himself smuggled back to Barcelona, the capital of the region of Catalonia.
Second chance beckons for South Africa?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/06/2024
» Cyril Ramaphosa is the president of South Africa again, but everything else is different. He got his job back in a vote late on Friday, but only because at the last moment he managed to cobble together a coalition that has a majority in parliament. It's so new that the coalition partners still haven't agreed on who does what in the new government.
Zimbabwe and a dose of 'ruling party syndrome'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/08/2023
» 'No one will stop us from ruling this country. You will be lost if you don't vote for Zanu-PF," said President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe. A bit more arrogant than the usual election pitch in most parts of the world, perhaps, but not unusual in Zimbabwe, one of the southern African countries suffering from "ruling party" syndrome.
Hun Manet now PM but father still in charge
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/08/2023
» On Monday, the most amazing political survivor of the 20th century, Hun Sen, formally passed the rule of Cambodia down to his eldest son Hun Manet after about 38 years in power.
Sahel coups are just another 'Great Game'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/08/2023
» If you are a democratically elected leader in one of Africa's Sahel countries -- let's say, Niger -- and you suspect that the army is plotting to overthrow you, what's the best countermeasure? Should you:
Tunisia: The last Arab democracy goes under
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/07/2022
» Tunisia would seem to have everything going for it. Average salaries are the third-highest in all of Africa's fifty countries, just behind Morocco and South Africa. Literacy is 97% among the under-30s, population growth is only 1% a year, and it's a democracy that functions under the rule of law. Or rather, it was.