Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Fanatics, an obsessive, and a belligerent fool
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2026
» We don't have to look very far to find a useful historical analogy for the current crisis in the Middle East. In 1967, Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, and Israel replied with a surprise air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground.
Theatre of white refugees from South Africa
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/05/2025
» As my flight landed in South Africa on Sunday, I looked in vain for the plane that was due to take off with the first 49 white, Afrikaans-speaking "refugees" of the many thousands who are supposedly going to find safety from racist persecution in Donald Trump's United States.
Congo: Where the tail is still wagging the dog
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/03/2025
» 'Joseph Kabila boycotted the election and is preparing an insurrection because he is the AFC," said President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo last October, and lo! It is coming to pass just as he predicted. But you can't tell the players without a programme, so a little bit of explanation first.
Vintage tonnage keeps Russian oil flowing
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/01/2025
» The name is brilliant: "vintage tonnage". It evokes 17th-century pirate vessels flying the skull-and-crossbones, 18th-century ships-of-the-line bristling with cannons, or even 19th-century clipper ships in full sail bringing tea to England and America. The images are always romantic and often beautiful.
Fascism rising in France, but don't panic…
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/07/2024
» Nothing else in France looks like the 1930s, so why should fascism? There really is a fascist movement in France, although it avoids torch-lit marches and jackboots. It has even stopped the Holocaust denial (mostly).
The bigger game: Israel and Saudi Arabia vs Iran
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/06/2024
» Gaza, IDF, Hamas, Mr Netanyahu, famine, terrorism, genocide, and on and on: the loud, incessant clatter of local issues and tactical moves almost drowns out the low, grinding noise as the Middle East shifts inexorably into a new strategic alignment. But it's happening, and it's still about oil, sort of.
Stop making the 'Munich in 1938' analogies
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2024
» Scarcely a week passes without some media pundit or attention-seeking historian warning that a Great War is nigh. As always, there are enough signs and portents around to make that sort of prediction plausible, but it's rarely correct. In fact, it hasn't been correct now for 79 years.
The unravelling of Burma's military rule
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/12/2023
» The Burmese army is a leading candidate for Nastiest Army in the World. Even more than Pakistan's army, it is the tail that wags the dog: rather than the army serving the country, it's the other way around.
Boing! The Anthropocene is upon us
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/07/2023
» 'I was there when the Anthropocene was born. It was so amazing," said Dr Katherine Richardson, leader of the Sustainability Science Centre at the University of Copenhagen. "It was actually in 2000, at one of these meetings of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Scientific Steering Committee."
Farewell to neutral Sweden and Finland
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/05/2022
» It's easy to imagine Vladimir Putin coming into the shop marked "Sweden", breaking some fine china accidentally on purpose, and growling: "Nice little shop you've got here. It would be a pity if something happened to it." But Sweden is not a pottery shop, Mr Putin is not a Mafia capo, and what's going on in the Baltic now is not a protection racket.