Showing 1 - 10 of 11
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.
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.
Syria: It's those jihadis on the march again
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/12/2024
» One week in, the ceasefire in Lebanon seems to be holding, but everything is connected: only three days later, the civil war in Syria started up again after a de facto four-year truce.
Never mind the climate, just watch the wars
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/11/2023
» With practically all the media bandwidth for non-local news taken up by two tribal territorial struggles that would not have seemed out of place in the 15th century AD -- or indeed the 15th century BC -- you may have missed the latest release from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Massacres and guns, from the US to Serbia
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/05/2023
» Here's how to sound wise when writing a story about mass killings and gun control. Last week saw two such massacres in Serbia (eight deaths and nine deaths, respectively) and only one in the United States (eight killed in a mall in Allen, Texas).
The Quad and the next Cold War with China
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/09/2021
» The creation of an Australia-United Kingdom-United States military alliance last week caused a tempest in a teapot, but the real action was elsewhere. In Washington on Friday the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ("Quad" for short) held its first-ever face-to-face summit, and defined the sides in the great-power confrontation for the next generation.
The Quad wakes up ... to take on threat of China
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/03/2021
» It has been quite pleasant living on a planet where most of the great powers were not locked up into two hostile nuclear-armed alliances, but nothing lasts forever. Creeping shyly on to the stage via Zoom, the successor to Nato emerged into public view last Friday.
Forced schooling of Mongolians driven by fear
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/09/2020
» 'Residential schools" were a common feature of European settler societies (except New Zealand) until quite late in the 20th century, and their purpose was not just to educate but to "deracinate" their aboriginal pupils: to cut them off from their roots. The Chinese government would reject the analogy with its last breath, but it is now doing the same thing.
A glimpse of the looming migrant 'Armageddon'
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/03/2020
» Turkey has opened the floodgates, and soon Europe will be drowning in immigrants. "Hundreds of thousands have crossed," Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on television, "and soon it will reach millions." And it must be true because you can see it live on your medium of choice.
Missing all exits on Highway to Hell
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/12/2019
» 'The point of no return is no longer over the horizon," warned UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as the 25th climate summit (COP25) opened in Madrid two weeks ago, and the multitude of delegates from more than a hundred countries presumably understood what he meant. But they ignored it anyway.