Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Being protectionist and world leader isn't possible
News, Published on 31/05/2024
» President Joe Biden likes to call the United States "the indispensable nation". By that, he means that America is the only power simultaneously mighty and benevolent enough to preserve whatever is left of a liberal order -- one in which rules and multilateral institutions govern, among other things, a system of relatively free international finance and trade.
Henry Kissinger brought Germany redemption
News, Published on 01/12/2023
» His timbre was just one reason I always looked forward to hearing Henry Kissinger, who died yesterday after living a full century, expound on international relations. It was gravelly and deep, and grew only more so over the years. But it wasn't just the voice. It was his unique accent, eccentric to some but strangely familiar to me.
Hamas hostage crisis bodes terror for the world
News, Published on 28/10/2023
» Hostage-taking, like collective punishment, is among the most barbaric but also oldest tactics in human warfare. And yet something qualitative changed on Oct 7, when Hamas went on its murderous rampage in Israel and abducted more than 200 innocent people into the Gaza Strip. What Hamas, Israel and others do in the coming days and weeks will set new precedents that may open a 10th circle of hell in this and other conflicts to come.
Past offers a way forward in Ukraine
News, Published on 02/09/2023
» It seems increasingly likely that the Ukrainians won't be able to drive out the Russian invaders, and that the Russians won't succeed in swallowing any more of Ukraine either. What, aside from unimaginable human misery, comes next?
If Prigozhin's gone, long live Putin – and Wagner?
News, Published on 26/08/2023
» Yevgeny Prigozhin might have retired in peace some day. Or he could have been found writhing in the throes of Novichok, a nerve agent favoured by Russia's spy agencies. He might also have fallen out of a window, crashed in his car, or slipped in his bathroom -- like so many Russians lately, and like any of us potentially.
Ni hao, Mr Zelensky, it's Xi Jinping on the line
News, Published on 22/03/2023
» The two most fraught conversations this week both have Chinese President Xi Jinping on one side. In Moscow, he's currently talking to his Russian counterpart and host, Vladimir Putin. In a video conference or phone call that's assumed to follow within days, he'll then interface with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Hydrogen is and isn't the future
News, Published on 10/11/2020
» Surely hydrogen is the future of energy. Why else would the European Union, as part of its Green Deal, plan to shovel 470 billion euros (17 trillion baht) into infrastructure to electrolyse and use the stuff? Why else would China, Japan and South Korea be placing their own huge bets on the gas?