Showing 1 - 10 of 12
The case of the disappearing senior generals
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/02/2026
» Armies can be used against both against foreigners abroad and against citizens at home, but the two roles require quite different equipment and tactics. The same applies to their commanders: you need a different kind of general if you think that the primary task of their troops will be controlling dissent at home.
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.
Feedback on climate – not in front of the kids
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/01/2025
» 'This does not mean the international +1.5ºC target has been broken because that refers to a long-term average over decades." If those carefully chosen words don't set your alarm bells ringing, you have not travelled much in the land of lawyers.
South Korea: Very competitive and childless
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/03/2024
» There are enough people to go around: eight billion now, compared to two billion less than a hundred years ago. Fifty-one million in South Korea, compared to only twelve million a hundred years ago. So why are South Koreans obsessed about their low birth rate?
Before the Great Ukrainian Offensive
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/04/2023
» Monday's stunt, when Yevgeny Prigozhin held a Russian flag in his hands and declared that his "Wagner" mercenary soldiers have finally conquered the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, probably marks the end of the Russian winter offensive. It was just a charade, of course.
China and Covid: The cost of infallibility
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/05/2022
» Even the pope claims to be infallible only on matters of faith and doctrine.
Why this year's COP26 isn't going to deliver
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/10/2021
» 'The world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7°C of heating," said UN Secretary General António Guterres. "There is a high risk of failure of COP26." That's the global climate summit that meets every five years (but was postponed last year because of the pandemic) to plot a course away from climate disaster. And it really isn't looking good.
Another Nobel Peace Prize winner goes rogue
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2021
» Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 2019, waited the statutory two years before launching his genocidal war in Tigray last November.
Azeri-Armenian ceasefire set to last
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/11/2020
» This time, the truce will last. The 2,000 Russian troops flying into Armenia this week and fanning out to police the ceasefire lines in Nagorno-Karabakh are being sent there for five years renewable, and neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan will challenge them.
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."