Showing 1 - 10 of 20
Somaliland: Mixed motivations
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/01/2026
» Last week Israel was the first country in the world to establish diplomatic relations with Somaliland. Not Somalia, a wreck of a country on the East African coast that has been mired in civil war for the past thirty-five years, but Somaliland, a different country just north of there that has been peaceful, relatively prosperous and even democratic for all those years.
Symbolic acts won't create a real Palestine
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/09/2025
» Ten more countries are recognising Palestine as a sovereign state in the course of this week. That brings the total up from 147 to 157. It's a big deal to an extent because for the first time it includes quite a few big, rich Western countries (France, the UK, Canada and Australia). But it is not unified, and it still controls no territory.
Climate change: the August deadline
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/08/2024
» When you spend four years writing a book on climate change, you get to know most of the leading players. I have never seen them so dismayed.
Trump and the last stand of the US Christians
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/07/2024
» The past week has been a roller-coaster ride for Donald Trump.
ICJ's efforts to build rule of law must continue
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/01/2024
» Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, dismissed the ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip with the words "Hague Schmague". US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was equally dismissive, saying that the case brought before the ICJ by South Africa was "meritless".
Why won't Putin go to South Africa?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/07/2023
» Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he won't be going to South Africa for next month's summit of the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), although all the other leaders will be there. In fact, another couple of dozen national leaders who want to join the club will also be there. Why is Mr Putin staying away?
Prigozhin and the aftermath of Russian folly
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/06/2023
» 'I said to Putin: 'We could waste [Prigozhin], no problem. If not on the first try, then on the second.' I told him: 'Don't do this'," said Aleksander Lukashenko, long-ruling dictator of Belarus, clearly delighted at having upstaged his arrogant Russian counterpart. The worm had turned, and it was the Russian dictator who needed help.
International law must prevail in Ukraine war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/02/2023
» Just before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which falls tomorrow France's President Emmanuel Macron declared that he wanted to see Russia "defeated, but not crushed". That is a very fine distinction, but an important one.
Is Ukraine winning the war too much?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/12/2022
» When the two most senior military and intelligence officials in Washington make the same obvious error in public three times in three weeks, you have to wonder what they are really up to. Can it just be simple ignorance, or do they have a hidden agenda?
It pays to have the right enemy in election races
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/12/2021
» The right enemy can be a major asset in politics, as Chilean voters have just demonstrated once again. All the opinion polls had the two presidential candidates neck and neck before Sunday's election, but a few days before the vote it came out that the father of far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast was a Nazi.