Showing 1 - 10 of 26
It could take 1 Danish soldier in Greenland
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/01/2026
» In 1910, Henry Wilson, the British army officer charged with planning for a possible war with Germany, visited the French officer doing the same job in Paris, Ferdinand Foch. The Anglo-French alliance was still a tentative, semi-secret thing, so Wilson asked Foch, "What is the smallest British military force that would be of any practical assistance to you?"
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).
Trump can't do that much climate damage
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/01/2025
» 'Drill, baby, drill", exulted the new President of the World (American branch), but he will find that the oil and gas industry isn't listening. As Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, tactfully put it in November: "I'm not sure how 'drill, baby, drill' translates into policy."
Gaza ceasefire under pressure from all sides
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2025
» In the 80 hours between Wednesday, Jan 15, when the Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced, and Sunday, Jan 19, when it went into effect, Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 123 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said it had tried to avoid civilian casualties, but it had to kill the "terrorists" of Hamas wherever they were.
Turning a little debate into a major crisis
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/12/2024
» One of the daily miracles of the media world is that there is always exactly enough news to fill the slot.
Global warming and the burning issue of money
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/11/2024
» It's hard to imagine a less plausible venue for the annual UN-sponsored conference on climate than the dictatorial petrostate of Azerbaijan. Baku, the capital, has a walled medieval centre that's worth a day or two, but offshore the shallow Caspian Sea is littered with a century's worth of old and new oil wells.
New Caledonia pragmatism pips nationalism
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/09/2024
» With the sole exception of the fifty people on Pitcairn Island, the United Kingdom (once known as the British Empire) liquidated its holdings in the Pacific Ocean long ago. France, by contrast, has a half million citizens in the Pacific (and another two million living in other bits of its former empire on islands in all the world's major oceans).
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.
Unrest stems from France's turbulent past
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/07/2023
» On Saturday, the fifth day of violent protests all over France against the police killing of an unarmed teenager, Nahel Merzouk, the daily arrests dropped below 1,000 for the first time, but the violence became even more extreme.
COP27 meet: A case of the glass being half full
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/11/2022
» As after every climate summit, the air is filled with shouts of rage and despair. What was agreed was unclear and inadequate, and what was left undecided or simply ignored was vast and terrifying. For example, they still haven't managed to agree that the world needs to stop burning fossil fuels.