Putin is one of the most fascinating and one of the most pilloried of world leaders. The late Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham, have described him as a monster, […]
Russian Diplomacy in Syria
As promised, here is a sequel to my Blog Post of 20 October in which I foresaw several possible conflicts arising amongst Turkey, the Syrian government and Turkey, the major players. But […]
Syria, The 21st Century Great Game
The Great Game once described the battle between the British and Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia in the 1800s. Today’s Syrian Great Game has multiple players who could develop the cold […]
An Endless Cycle of Violence
We seem to be locked into an endless cycle of ‘tit for tat’ violence – Israelis and Palestinians, Muslim extremists and the West. Every act by one engenders a violent response by […]
Ideological Wars and How to Lose Friends
Wars have generally been waged by countries against countries, or levied against a country’s leader, but much like Huntington’s thesis in his book, Clash of Civilisations, the current wars in the Middle […]
Canada, the US and Schadenfreude
The reaction by Obama and Harper to the recent shooting in Canada struck me as Schadenfreude. For both, the shooting served to justify their intervention in the Middle East and Obama can […]
American Paranoia and the March to War
US foreign policy is frequently driven by both its citizen’s irrational paranoia, and their belief that American lives are somehow sacrosanct, inviolable. That belief, in turn, is promoted by equally irrational press […]
Humpty Dumpty Iraq
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again Much like the rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”, […]
China: Pivot to Syria
China is justifiably concerned about the US, its China bashing by the US congress and threats by a prospective US President, Romney to brand China a “currency manipulator“. More worrying and threatening […]
Muddle East Policy
Commentary about the recent conference in Tehran by the West interpreted the disagreement amongst the participants, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Turkey as Iran being out of step with all others and […]
Global Policy Index 