Showing 1 - 10 of 139
Surviving the collapse of the population
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/02/2026
» 'To them that hath shall [more] be given" is generally a reliable guide, especially in economic matters, but it doesn't work if the beneficiaries are too stupid to take advantage of the gift. The scarce and precious commodity in this case being people, who are in increasingly short supply.
What would happen if Khamenei falls?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/01/2026
» The demonstrations began again in Iran last week, only two years after the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement convulsed the country for months. However, the current protests are potentially much broader than that episode because they are driven by the collapse in Iran's currency, the rial (now 1,420,000 to the US dollar), and the explosive rise in the cost of living.
Venezuela: Performative purging
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/12/2025
» 'If you're on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl or whatever, headed to the United States, you're an immediate threat to the United States," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week. So it's perfectly reasonable for the US armed forces to kill everybody on that boat (including a "double tap" on any survivors in the water).
Marking time at the COP30 climate summit
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/11/2025
» Populist parties are already in power in some developed countries and waiting just outside the door in many more. The key trick of populist politicians is to tell the voters what they want to hear, and the voters definitely do not want their lives to be disrupted by global heating, so they are told it is not happening. It's "the world's biggest con", in Donald Trump's words.
Arab fraternity weakens and hegemons rule
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/11/2025
» 'This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper," wrote T S Eliot in 1925, probably responding to the profoundly unsatisfactory aftermath of World War I (although with a poet, you never really know). At any rate, it's happening again, this time in the Middle East.
Forget Canada. Better invade Venezuela first!
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/10/2025
» Question: Why do some Canadians want Mr Trump to invade Venezuela?
The air war: plywood and Styrofoam
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/09/2025
» 'Nato is responding with unity and strength," said British defence secretary John Healey. "If you've got drones that are putting Polish lives at risk, then Nato will take them out. There's no firm confirmation on intent, but in the end that's not the point. It's still reckless. It's still dangerous."
Gaza Strip pantomime ending at last
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/07/2025
» The coordinated chorus of despair by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and their various henchpersons and flacks was quite impressive. The message was that everybody should stop hoping for a negotiated peace. Mr Netanyahu has stared Mr Trump down once again, and the four-month pantomime search for a new ceasefire in Gaza is at an end.
Bolsonaro coup attempt won't land him in jail
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/05/2025
» Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's former president and Trump clone, is facing trial for encouraging a plot that would have restored him to power after he lost the 2022 election, but it is unlikely that he will ever end up in court.
South Asian nuclear war would hit globe
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/05/2025
» India and Pakistan have had several shooting matches since they carried out a total of nine underground nuclear weapons tests in 1998. However, they don't make Putin-style thinly veiled threats to use their nukes (around 170 nuclear warheads each at the moment), and they do understand that escalation from smaller, "conventional" wars is the real danger.