This weekend has seen bloodshed in both Palestine and Kashmir, two of the longest running geopolitical conflicts on earth, alongside the civil war(s) in Myanmar. But where there exists at least some international impetus to reduce the scale of violence in Myanmar through various peace plans, most notably the Chinese authored peace process for Rakhine…
French President Emmanuel Macron entertained a Syrian Kurdish delegation last Thursday. He praised the Kurdish-dominated SDF militias for their role in fighting ISIS and promised continued support. After the meeting Kurdish and French media outlets reported Macron had also promised to move French troops to Kurdish-held Manbij in northern Syria, and block the advance of…
Talk surrounding US President Donald Trump’s move to appoint John Bolton as his new National Security Advisor has focused on Bolton’s role in promoting the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the profound contrast his appointment signifies in light of President Trump’s 2016 campaign promises to “drain the swamp.” However, Bolton’s appointment carries with it…
In Libya, NATO bombed a path to Tripoli to help its proxy forces on the ground oust Gaddafi. Tens of thousands lost their lives and that country’s social fabric and infrastructure now lies in ruins. Gaddafi was murdered and his plans to assert African independence and undermine Western (not least French) hegemony on that continent…
Here we are a little more than a year into the Trump presidency and his administration’s body count is already, as The Donald might put it, “unbelievable, perhaps record-setting.” Among the casualties are Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; my former boss at Goldman Sachs, economic policy chief Gary Cohn; National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; FBI…
Ghana recently ratified a military agreement with the US. The deal essentially turns the West African country into an American military garrison because it allows the Pentagon full transit and basing rights for its troops and contractors, protects them with immunity from local prosecution for any suspected crimes that they commit on Ghanaian soil, and…
