Showing 1 - 10 of 502
Countering the fallacy of the buffer zone
Oped, Daoud Kuttab, Published on 10/04/2026
» Territorial buffers rarely, if ever, deliver the peace and security their advocates promise. After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine was seen as a neutral cordon between Russia and Nato. Instead, it became a zone of increasingly fierce geopolitical contention, followed by open war.
Russia is winning the Iran War
Oped, Chris Patten, Published on 02/04/2026
» While the rationale for US President Donald Trump's Iran war is difficult to decipher, its main beneficiary is far easier to identify: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Fuel reform now
Oped, Postbag, Published on 01/04/2026
» Re: "PM apology a good start," (Editorial, March 30).
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.)
Netanyahu's war, Trump's big gamble
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/03/2026
» Donald Trump is not just Benjamin Netanyahu's glove puppet, but it is remarkable how much influence the Israeli prime minister has over the American president. If you are seeking a reason why Mr Trump felt the need to attack Iran again, only nine months after he declared that he had eliminated any nuclear threat from that country, you need look no further.
Killing the goose that lays the Olympic gold medal
Oped, Nancy Qian, Published on 24/02/2026
» The Olympic Games have always been about more than sports, with the medal count serving as a measure of national vitality. The 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina are no different. The Americans, like everyone else, want confirmation of their preeminence. So important is that outcome that even US Vice President JD Vance briefly acknowledged the value of non-white immigration to the United States when he complained that Eileen Gu, the US-born medal-winning skier for China, should be competing under the American flag.
Minilateralism's necessary rise
Oped, Prabhat Upadhyaya & Saliem Fakir, Published on 23/02/2026
» If there was any doubt remaining about the return of great-power politics, it has been dispelled by US President Donald Trump's attack on Venezuela, threats to annex Greenland, and refusal to extend the New Start treaty limiting the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia. Such geopolitical upheavals are driven by "the will to power", as Adam Tooze has pointed out -- including "power over resources, purchasing power, the ability to resist the influence of others."
Japan's Takaichi wins strong new mandate
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 19/02/2026
» A political Tsunami swept across Japan as recent national elections delivered a resounding victory for the incumbent party and its maverick leader, Sanae Takaichi. Though the outcome was assumed, her stunning triumph in the Feb 8 election was unexpected.
Could a Brics currency rival the dollar?
Oped, Jim O'Neill, Published on 18/02/2026
» Could the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) ever launch a shared currency to challenge the US dollar's dominant position in the world economy? Like many conventional international economists, I have generally dismissed the idea, despite my own role in coining the Brics acronym, which led to the creation of a formal Brics club (since expanded into the Brics+, with the addition of five new members).
How world's super-rich are rewriting the rules
Oped, Joseph E Stiglitz & Jayati Ghosh, Published on 13/02/2026
» Ongoing efforts to derail multilateral tax cooperation lie at the heart of a global programme to replace democratic governance with coercive rule by the extremely wealthy -- or what we call 21st-century Caesarism. Any strategy to counter this programme, therefore, must recognise that taxing extreme wealth is essential to saving democracy.