Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Peace on Earth? Democracy everywhere?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/12/2025
» Democracy is in retreat or at least on the defensive almost everywhere, while wars are getting bigger and more frequent. The trend lines are frighteningly bad.
The link between climate and talk of 'remigration'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/10/2024
» 'Remigration": the word had a harmless origin, as a term academics used to describe the phenomenon of migrants who failed to thrive in their new home and decided to go back to their birth country.
Why I yelled at the TV during Harris's speech
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/08/2024
» When you find yourself shouting at the TV, you know it's time to take a break. I reached that point last week, watching Kamala Harris's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, and what I yelled at the screen was, "The enemy is us!"
Schrödinger's Island: Taiwan election 2024
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/01/2024
» Taiwan's fate is as unknowable as usual, even though we know who the next president will be. The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) William Lai, vice-president under outgoing President Tsai Ing-Wen, will almost certainly win the election tomorrow because the two opposition parties failed to agree on a joint candidate and will split the slightly-less-anti-China vote between them.
Earthquakes, Turkish politics and culpability
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/02/2023
» If you are trying to dodge the blame for a great disaster, the best policy is to say that it was God's will. So Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting one of the 6,000 buildings that collapsed on their sleeping residents in eastern Turkey last week, said: "Such things have always happened. It's part of Destiny's plan."
Napoleon and world history: What if...?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/05/2021
» Napoleon Bonaparte doesn't come up much in conversation these days, which is hardly surprising given that he has been dead for two centuries. On the other hand, today will be exactly 200 years since he died, so maybe we could make an exception just this once.
Hong Kong: The 'British' 3 million
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/07/2020
» We will grant BNOs five years' limited leave to remain [in the United Kingdom], with the right to work or study," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the UK parliament on July 1. "After five years, they will be able to apply for settled status. After a further 12 month with settled status, they will be able to apply for citizenship."
Is the Wuhan 'devil virus' a 'black swan'?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/02/2020
» China officially went back to work on Monday, after an extended two-week Lunar New Year holiday, while the authorities struggled to get the spread of the new coronavirus under control. But a lot of Chinese are not going back to work yet, and the spread of the "devil virus" (as President Xi Jinping called it) is manifestly not under control.
Golan Heights show conquest still an option
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/03/2019
» When President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday affirming Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, there was an outcry that went far beyond the Arab world. His action went against the international rule on the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force", we were told -- conquest, in less lawyerly language. Alas, that is just an ideal, not a hard-and-fast international law.
One step forward, two steps back for cultural progression
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/10/2018
» There was bound to be a backlash to the "Me Too" movement, and the struggle over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court is clearly part of that culture war. "Me Too" is going to lose this battle unless there is some new and horrendous revelation of Mr Kavanaugh's past behaviour in the next few days, and lots of people in the US and elsewhere see this as evidence that the war itself is being lost.