Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Putin provides a shot in the arm for Nato
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 12/07/2023
» When Nato held its annual summit in Brussels two years ago, all 31 presidents and prime ministers of the alliance’s member states dutifully showed up, but their hearts weren’t really in it. France’s President Emmanuel Macron had publicly declared Nato “brain-dead” in 2019, and nobody could find a good reason to disagree.
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.
Sri Lanka: A bad 'Band of Brothers'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 16/07/2022
» 'How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked (in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises). "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." Sri Lanka is much the same.
Lebanon was cursed even before the blast
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 13/08/2020
» Beirut has been living with car bombs and air raids on a sporadic but continuing basis for so long that it would probably make sense to rebuild this time with shatterproof glass. The torrent of broken glass falling from a thousand shattered buildings probably accounted for half the 158 dead found so far in Beirut and certainly for most of the 6,000 wounded.
What went wrong in Hong Kong?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/05/2020
» 'We are the meat on the chopping board," said Martin Lee, founder of Hong Kong's Democratic Party. "They have set a precedent for Beijing to legislate on Hong Kong's behalf." Or as Dennis Kwok, a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, put it rather more succinctly: "This is the end of Hong Kong."
Covid-19 offers odd glimpse of a new future
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/03/2020
» They teach you in journalism school never to use the phrase "...X has changed the world forever". Or at least they should. Covid-19 is certainly not going to change the world forever, but it is going to change quite a few things, in some cases for a long time. Here's nine of them, in no particular order.
Is the Wuhan 'devil virus' a 'black swan'?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/02/2020
» China officially went back to work on Monday, after an extended two-week Lunar New Year holiday, while the authorities struggled to get the spread of the new coronavirus under control. But a lot of Chinese are not going back to work yet, and the spread of the "devil virus" (as President Xi Jinping called it) is manifestly not under control.
The North Korea crisis: Why now?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/05/2017
» Apart from Donald Trump's need for a dramatic foreign policy initiative, is there any good reason why we are having a crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons testing now?
'Three Brexiteers' run gauntlet of EU trade negotiations
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/07/2016
» So far, so good. Boris Johnson, the face of the "Out" side in last month's Brexit referendum and now Britain's new Foreign Secretary, got through his first encounter with the 27 other foreign ministers of European Union countries on Monday without insulting anybody.
China: Another Chairman Mao?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 11/03/2016
» Opening the National People's Congress in Beijing last week, Prime Minister Li Keqiang set China's growth target for the coming year at 6.5-7%, the lowest in decades. Only two years ago, he said that 7% was the lowest acceptable growth rate, but he has had to eat his words. He really isn't in charge of very much any more.