Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Oil's geopolitical premium is gone
News, Ron Bousso, Published on 25/12/2025
» Global oil markets faced multiple black swan events in 2025 -- including the Israel-Iran war and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refiners -- yet they were barely fazed. This calm may be the new normal in an era of energy abundance, even as the world becomes a more dangerous place.
Countries that are in step must trade together
Oped, Todd G. Buchholz, Published on 14/09/2024
» Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree on little except a disdain for free trade. Ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, Mr Trump has threatened a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports, while Ms Harris, whose policy positions remain murky, has indicated that she would follow in President Joe Biden's footsteps with "targeted and strategic tariffs". American politicians' free-trade enthusiasm of the 1980s and 1990s has vanished, and this scares other countries, which know that the United States -- despite its wobbles and foibles -- remains the world's most attractive trading partner.
The bigger game: Israel and Saudi Arabia vs Iran
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/06/2024
» Gaza, IDF, Hamas, Mr Netanyahu, famine, terrorism, genocide, and on and on: the loud, incessant clatter of local issues and tactical moves almost drowns out the low, grinding noise as the Middle East shifts inexorably into a new strategic alignment. But it's happening, and it's still about oil, sort of.
The reason why China won't fight the Houthis
Oped, Yun Sun, Published on 23/02/2024
» Chinese policy in the Middle East is shaped by two factors: China's threat perceptions and its strategic calculus regarding its great-power competition with the United States. And when it comes to dealing with the US, China's approach comes down to three "nos": no cooperation, no support and no confrontation. This credo underlies China's decision not to push back against the Iran-backed Houthis as they carry out drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.
Why the oil market refuses to catastrophise
News, John Kemp, Published on 20/01/2024
» Psychologists sometimes warn anxious and depressed clients about the danger of catastrophising -- fixating on the worst possible outcome, exaggerating serious but unlikely risks rather than evaluating all outcomes rationally.
How to break Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports
Bloomberg, Published on 29/05/2022
» (Bloomberg Opinion) - When I was operations officer on an Aegis guided-missile destroyer in the late 1980s, we were given a mission in the Arabian Gulf. The Iranians, amid the so-called Tanker War with Iraq, were trying to close off the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Biden's Asia policy and the Iranian conundrum
Oped, Nehginpao Kipgen and Vikas Nagal, Published on 19/03/2021
» The Barack Obama administration's "Pivot to Asia" grand strategy was designed to pull the US out of the Middle East quagmire and to realign its military, diplomatic and economic power towards the Asia-Pacific region. Even the Trump administration -- which pulled out of many of Obama's initiatives such as the Iran nuclear deal, Paris Climate Accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- largely followed this approach.
Asean must aim higher at November summit
News, Kobsak Chutikul, Published on 10/08/2019
» 'Like red ants on a log floating downstream each certain it is controlling the direction of the flow." That was the acute observation of a coarse-skinned farmer staring at the TV screen at a small coffee shop in a 100-year-old market in Suphan Buri province in central Thailand when images of the grand Asean meeting in the capital Bangkok were being beamed across the world.
Happy ending if US strikes Iran? Not a chance
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/05/2019
» US President Donald Trump is well known for his desire to cut American military commitments overseas. Indeed, it is one of his most attractive characteristics. But his attention span is short, he plays a lot of golf, and he does not have the knack of choosing good advisers.