Showing 11 - 20 of 130
The global recovery winds down
Oped, Published on 12/10/2022
» The post-Covid recovery has run out of steam. The latest update to the Brookings-Financial Times Tracking Indexes for the Global Economic Recovery (Tiger) shows that growth momentum, as well as financial market and confidence indicators, have deteriorated markedly around the world in recent months, many countries are either in or on the brink of outright recession.
Italy: The hard right nears the reins of power
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/09/2022
» There's an election in Italy this Sunday, almost exactly 100 years after Benito Mussolini's "blackshirts" marched on Rome and brought the first fascist dictator to power.
Could Boris Johnson make a comeback?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/09/2022
» As a child, outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly said he wanted to be "King of the World". He ended up in a somewhat humbler role, was rejected by his own party's members of parliament for his mendacity, corruption and incompetence, and will hand over to his successor, Liz Truss, on Monday. But the Fat Lady still hasn't sung.
Global shocks prompt rethink on supply chains
Oped, Published on 15/06/2022
» Starting in the 1980s, transnational production enabled the expansion of global trade and low prices for goods, contributing significantly to economic growth. But the shocks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war have shown firms that the efficiency gains implied by the global division of labour -- and just-in-time production -- come at the cost of resilience. With global supply-chain bottlenecks unlikely to resolve themselves soon, firms have turned their attention to reshoring or at least "friend-shoring", which seeks to combine closer geographic proximity with greater geopolitical peace of mind.
Asean/SE Asia and the cycles of history
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/06/2022
» The simmering geopolitical tensions between the United States and China and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine have turned the tide of history back to its historical norm. It is easy to see the global stage today as full of tension, confrontation, and conflict in a recurrent fashion. But it is worth recalling that merely 30 years ago, the world was in a different phase where a lasting peace seemed viable.
It is what it is … whatever it might be
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/05/2022
» An expression which is increasingly heard these days on television and in political comment is the rather cryptic "it is what it is". Not exactly an illuminating observation, and it prompts the question, "But, what is it?" Apparently it means a certain situation that cannot be changed however much you want and carries an element of resignation.
Nostalgia: It's worse than it used to be
Oped, Published on 07/05/2022
» Before the pandemic, nostalgia was a major force in global politics. Donald Trump promised to "make America great again", and Brexiteers won their political battle partly by idealising Britain's imperial past. While Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a "great rejuvenation of the Chinese people", Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo an pursued neo-Ottoman ambitions, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban lamented the Kingdom of Hungary's territorial losses after World War I.
The French election, round two
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/04/2022
» French President Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the presidential election last Sunday, but he's still in trouble. He knew he would be. Here's what he said last Saturday.
Illiberal politicians and other threats to democracy
Oped, Published on 22/02/2022
» The emergence of illiberal politicians across the West has led to prophecies about the end of democracy. In the United States, Donald Trump is manoeuvring to return to the White House in 2025, after attempting to overturn an election that he lost in 2020. In France, not one but two far-right populists are running for president. And in Italy, Matteo Salvini of the League and Giorgia Meloni of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy will be plausible contenders for the premiership when Italians go to the polls in 2023.
Global Britain's Indo-Pacific tests
News, Published on 03/02/2022
» It is worth harking back to what Prime Minister Boris Johnson said when he was a foreign secretary: "We should have absolutely no shame or embarrassment in championing our ideals around the world and in this era of dithering and dubitation, this should be the message of Global Britain to the world: that we stick up for free markets as vigorously as we stick up for democracy and human rights." While he may have stumbled on his own rules during the Covid restrictions in the UK, those words he spoke as foreign secretary could not be more relevant to the direction of Global Britain today.