Showing 1 - 10 of 23
The fire this time is for US climate science
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/03/2026
» In 1953 Ray Bradbury, an American writer, published a book entitled simply Fahrenheit 451. It was a novel about an American fireman in a not-too-distant future who realised that he was doing his job all wrong -- because his job was to burn books, which were banned in that future America. (451°F is the temperature at which paper catches fire.)
Musk, Trump and Mao have a lot in common
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/07/2025
» The only place where some people still see Elon Musk as a political genius is China. "Brother Musk, you've got over a billion people on our side backing you," wrote a fan on Weibo, China's biggest social media site. "If Elon Musk were to found a political party," wrote another, "his tech-driven mindset could inject fresh energy into politics."
Keeping the 'rule of law' alive and well
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/03/2025
» On Tuesday there was a vote in the Bundestag, the Lower House of the German parliament, that may have changed the course of history. When the vote came out "Yes", you could feel the tectonic plates shift. Germany had voted to rearm.
In Russia, the really dangerous ones are sane
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/04/2024
» There are plenty of crazies in Russian politics who make bizarre claims about their country's victim status ("the evil West made us do it") and issue blood-curdling but implausible threats about using nuclear weapons on their enemies. But the really dangerous ones are quite sane.
Israel vs the ICJ: Is this a waste of time?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/01/2024
» The two sides have had their day in court -- one day each, actually. The 17 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have now retired to consider what interim decisions they should make on South Africa's accusation that Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip amount to the crime of genocide. Is this just a waste of time?
Ukrainian breakthrough is a slow affair
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/09/2023
» It's nothing like the great breakthroughs of the mid-20th century wars, when combined air and ground forces would tear a hole in the enemy line, the tanks would pour through, and the front would roll back several hundred kilometres before it stabilised again.
What the Global South thinks of the Ukraine war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/04/2023
» There is a deep and growing rift between "the West" and "the Rest" about the need to resist and defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is because it is really a war in defence of sovereignty, which ought to be something every sovereign country can buy into -- but Western governments publicly insist that it is a war in defence of democracy.
A resurgence of alliances is an echo of past wars
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2023
» Alliances are as old as civilisation. Older, actually: almost every hunter-gatherer band that anthropologists have studied, from the New Guinea highlanders to the Yanomamo in the Amazon, made alliances with other groups to try to protect themselves.
Might Russia use its 'tactical' nuke weapons?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/08/2022
» On Aug 25, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced that the country's combat aircraft have been "upgraded" by the Russians to carry nuclear weapons, and Belarusian pilots are being trained to deliver them. It got a single paragraph, or no notice at all, on most news sites. Nobody panicked.
3 wars, 2 truces: at least some hope out there
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2022
» Two weeks ago, the three biggest wars in the world were in Ukraine, Ethiopia and Yemen. Now truces have silenced the guns and the air strikes in two of the three. They are only temporary truces so far, but there is a reasonable chance that they could grow into something more permanent.