Showing 1 - 10 of 19
World leaders are destroying the rule of law
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/12/2025
» Russia's "big concession is they stop fighting, and they don't take any more land," US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, when asked what Russia was conceding in the thinly disguised surrender document he was trying to shove down Ukrainian throats. He truly is a 19th-century man at heart.
Too long in power a bad idea for leaders
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/07/2025
» Leading an entire country for a few years is a steep learning curve, but it's useful experience. Being in power for a dozen years makes most leaders arrogant and careless, but some remain more or less functional. Being in power for more than 30 years just makes you stupid. Consider Cambodia's Hun Sen and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Age begins to show for Chinese Communists
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/10/2024
» 'No one can stop the wheel of history," said China's President Xi Jinping on the recent 75th anniversary of the day when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proclaimed the creation of the People's Republic of China. And the wheel is indeed still turning -- but that may not be good news for the fourth-generation heirs of that revolution.
Bangladesh, Venezuela and democracy
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/08/2024
» If all that mattered was economic growth, then prime minister Shaikh Hasina would still be in power. She ruled Bangladesh for 15 continuous years during which the country's income per capita more than tripled. Yet she has been overthrown by the very same students who stood to benefit most from her remarkable economic achievements.
Did the West cause the war in Ukraine?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/06/2024
» There is one thing almost all populist nationalists agree on: the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the continuing carnage there was the fault of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). If Nato had not expanded to Russia's borders, it would all still be peace and love in Europe.
The whys and wherefores of expanding Brics
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/08/2023
» You can expand the curious organisation called the Brics, but you can't define it. In fact, it's hardly even an organisation: no headquarters, no secretariat. Even the (British) Commonwealth and la Francophonie have more substance: at least they share a former oppressor. Yet the Brics are expanding.
In Ukraine, the fightback gets underway
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/06/2023
» The furious speculation on whether the Ukrainian counter-offensive will succeed has been ongoing for several months already, so the first thing I must tell you is that I don't know. Nobody knows, not even the Ukrainians.
Syria: The rehabilitation of dictator Assad
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/05/2023
» There is no justice. Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator whose membership even the Arab League suspended 12 years ago, is off to Riyadh this week to celebrate his re-admission to the organisation. He will pay no price for his many crimes against humanity: the name of the game now is not retribution but 'rehabilitation'.
Pakistan bound for crisis amid changed reality
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/04/2023
» Last year US President Joe Biden called Pakistan "one of the most dangerous countries in the world", presumably because of its potentially lethal cocktail of nuclear weapons and unstable politics. But somehow it staggers on endlessly, never resolving its permanent political crisis but never quite exploding either.
Playing with fire 'in the garden of humanity'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/11/2022
» 'We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario," said Pope Francis in Bahrain on Friday. "In the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred."