Showing 1 - 10 of 10
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.
Curious case of Sunak's snap election decision
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/06/2024
» 'Why did he do it? We were all told it would be the autumn and we were hoping by then we could turn things around. It is very perplexing," said a former cabinet minister after Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a surprise election for July 4.
Mideast missile madness gets even worse
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/01/2024
» Not all that long ago, attacking another country's territory was still seen as a big deal. It was, in legal terms, an "act of war", liable to have unpleasant and potentially unlimited consequences, including full-scale war. Very powerful countries occasionally made small, one-off attacks on very weak ones to "discipline" them, but even that was relatively rare.
Ukraine War a risky game of Mother May I?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/08/2022
» 'This obviously does not happen because of a thrown butt," said British Defence Minister Ben Wallace. But the Russian Ministry of Defence insisted that the explosions that destroyed at least eight warplanes at Saki Air Base in Russian-occupied Crimea on Aug 9 were due to "a violation of fire safety requirements".
Gifted James Lovelock was Darwin's heir
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/08/2022
» Jim Lovelock was a late bloomer. His first book, Gaia: a New Look at Life on Earth, was published in 1979 when he was already 60 years old. By the time he died last Thursday, on his 103rd birthday, he had written ten more books on Gaia, the hypothesis that has evolved into the key academic discipline of Earth System Science.
Climate report: The language of the scientists
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/08/2021
» There are 150 new coal-fired plants under construction or already approved and funded in the world, so you can't really say that we are taking global warming seriously yet. But at least the scientists who wrote the report on the state of play that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on Friday are starting to use the right language.
English speakers feel Covid's wrath
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/02/2021
» To those who obsessively followed Covid websites over the past 11 months, one thing demanded an explanation above all: Why were the worst death rates-per-million in the richest, most developed countries, and in the United States and the United Kingdom most of all?
Vladimir Putin, Navalny and Thomas à Becket
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/08/2020
» In 20 years of writing about Russia's President Vladimir Putin -- he was completely obscure before 1999 -- I have never before had reason to mention him and Saint Thomas à Becket in the same sentence. Finally, however, the time has come.
30 minutes in Salisbury and two Russians
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/09/2018
» Salisbury is a nice old English city with a fine cathedral, only an hour and a half from London by train, but it doesn't see many Russian tourists in wintertime. It's not as cold as Moscow, but Russians tend to prefer Mediterranean destinations for holiday breaks in early March -- unless, of course, they are planning to kill somebody.
'War on drugs' Duterte: A mass murderer in power
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/03/2018
» Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte once said that Ferdinand Marcos, who was overthrown by the first non-violent revolution ('People Power') in 1986, would have been the Philippines' best president "if he did not become a dictator". Just as Mr Duterte himself had the potential to be the Philippines' best president if he had not become a mass murderer.