Showing 1 - 10 of 27
Fanatics, an obsessive, and a belligerent fool
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2026
» We don't have to look very far to find a useful historical analogy for the current crisis in the Middle East. In 1967, Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, and Israel replied with a surprise air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground.
Is the 80-year 'Long Peace' about to end?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/03/2026
» The Trump/Netanyahu war in the Middle East will not spread any further, and nothing going on there threatens our collective existence. The only countries that have nukes in the Middle East are Israel and the United States. Iran has none now and has never even been close to having them.
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.
With Israel and Iran it's tit for tat for tit for tat...
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/10/2024
» It's more like a courtship ritual between exotic birds than a 21st-century war. First the Israelis assassinate Revolutionary Guard generals in an Iranian embassy on foreign soil. Tag. You're it.
The lost cause of the 'Catalan Pimpernel'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/08/2024
» Carles Puigdemont, the self-exiled leader of the Catalan separatist movement, aspires to become the new Scarlet Pimpernel. Last week he left Belgium, where he has lived as an unwelcome guest since he led a failed attempt to secede from Spain seven years ago, and had himself smuggled back to Barcelona, the capital of the region of Catalonia.
India's election result a surprise for Modi, BJP
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/06/2024
» 'Pride goeth before a fall", says the Old Testament, so India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was just begging for humiliation. It duly arrived.
Hope on horizon for starving Palestinians?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/03/2024
» Good news! The US logistical support ship General Frank S. Besson Junior has just sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, carrying the equipment needed to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza. That will enable the US to deliver food to the starving (yes, literally starving) Palestinian population of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.
Charting China's decline, at a slow pace
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/12/2023
» For several years now, I have had a file on my computer named "China -- has the moment arrived?" But I think I missed the moment -- or rather I forgot that these things aren't a moment, they're a process.
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.
China: Message from Russia on 'reunification'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/08/2023
» The Ukrainians have been cheering themselves up recently by sending drones to hit targets in Moscow's business district and the more exclusive western suburbs. (The Russians, who bomb Ukrainian cities and kill civilians almost every night, refer to this as "terrorism".)