Korea’s Historic Peace Move Puts Onus on Washington to End Conflict

Korea’s Historic Peace Move Puts Onus on Washington to End Conflict

It can’t get more symbolic than that. The leaders of the two Koreas this week clasped hands atop the highest mountain on the peninsula, vowing to unite in peace. The ball is now in Washington’s court to help deliver that peace. This year has seen several diplomatic milestones already in the rapprochement between North and…

Greater Eurasia Coming Together in the Russian Far East

Greater Eurasia Coming Together in the Russian Far East

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin were involved in a joint cooking venture. Pancakes with caviar (blin, in Russian), chased down with a shot of vodka. It just happened at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Talk about a graphic (and edible) metaphor sealing the ever-evolving ‘Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership’. For a few years now the Vladivostok…

The Trump Administration’s Spoiler Foreign Policy

The Trump Administration’s Spoiler Foreign Policy

It is not possible to speak of “Donald Trump’s foreign policy” for the simple reason one can never tell whether the president or his minders are running it. Contradictions, reversals, and turns-on-a-dime have abounded since Trump took office. But this administration’s strategy abroad has assumed a discernible shape in recent weeks, whoever may be managing…

South Africa’s Boers Are Putting Russia on the Horns of a Dilemma

South Africa’s Boers Are Putting Russia on the Horns of a Dilemma

The planned migration of 15,000 South African Boers to Russia is forcing the host country to choose between welcoming these new arrivals for humanitarian reasons or complicating their efforts to flee for geopolitical ones. Racist Misperceptions RT just published an article quoting a Rossiya 1TV report about a delegation of 30 South African farming families…

How the Iran Sanctions Drama Intersects with OPEC-Plus

How the Iran Sanctions Drama Intersects with OPEC-Plus

History may have registered stranger geoeconomic bedfellows. But in the current OPEC-plus world, the rules of the game are now de facto controlled by OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia in concert with non-OPEC Russia. Russia may even join OPEC as an associate member. There’s a key clause in the bilateral Riyadh-Moscow agreement stipulating that joint interventions…

Suspending US-South Korean Wargames Isn’t “Surrendering” to North Korea

Suspending US-South Korean Wargames Isn’t “Surrendering” to North Korea

Trump wrote on Twitter that suspending US-South Korean wargames was entirely his own initiative because of how expensive and provocative the drills are during a time of such sensitive denuclearization and peace negotiations, rebuffing critics who claimed that he was selling out to North Korea while getting nothing of tangible significance in return. This move…