This was no “deeply philosophical address”. And hardly a show of “principled realism” – as spun by the White House. President Trump at the UN was “American carnage,” to borrow a phrase previously deployed by his nativist speechwriter Stephen Miller. One should allow the enormity of what just happened to sink in, slowly. The president of…
Sixteen years after 9/11, and the subsequent US bombing that toppled the Taliban, where do we stand? Osama bin Laden is no more. Al-Qaeda is not in Afghanistan but swarming Idlib province in Syria, metastasized into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Jabhat al-Nusra; 30,000 jihadis with combat experience who absorbed brigades from other “moderate…
As the 9th Annual BRICS summit commences in Xiamen, it is becoming increasingly clear that four major organisations which help to unite the countries of Asia and Eurasia, and also increasingly those beyond, have unique purposes to achieve the mutual goals of more meaningful economic, monetary, logistical and security cooperation throughout the world. These organisations…
According to China, India is “slapping its own face” with its provocative actions along the Chinese border. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying has held a press conference where she discussed recent events while taking questions from journalists. The overall weight of her remarks speak to the fact that China is getting increasingly fed up with…
There are more parallels between an unfinished 1950s war in Northeast Asia and an ongoing 16-year-old war in the crossroads between Central and South Asia than meet the eye. Let’s start with North Korea. Once again the US/South Korea Hunger Games plow on. It didn’t have to be this way. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov…
The trade ministers of the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met this week in Shanghai, ahead of the annual summit of heads of state in Xiamen next month. Trouble looms across the board. China and India are immersed in a silly, almost Monty Pythonesque face-off in the Tibet/Sikkim/Bhutan tri-junction, with…
