Can Putin consolidate some important anti-nuclear war mechanisms in order to lower the tension of war sufficiently to navigate through the stormy waters ahead or is it already too late? Are geopolitical analysts in the west seriously delusional enough to believe that Russia and China can be undermined? It was only one month ago that…
The tense relations between Seoul and Tokyo are a constant subject of the author’s attention, and his most recent piece on the topic addressed how the issue of forced labor has been added on top of that about Korean comfort women. After all – in comparison with fifteen grandmothers – they went through a lot…
‘Now we can get back to normal.’ That was the sigh of relief, tinged with at least a frisson of Schadenfreude, with which many international-relations commentators greeted the defeat of President Trump. The subsequent arrival of effective Covid-19 vaccines added to their mild delight that an extraordinary final year of a singular four-year US presidency…
Around the world there is movement to improve levels of trade and to ease formalities in order to make multilateral commerce simpler, less costly and beneficial to all participants. Naturally, individual countries want to protect their particular specialities while continuing to profit from their attraction (think French wine and Scotch whisky, for example), but negotiations…
Signed and sealed in a video conference ceremony after nearly eight years of grueling negotiations, the world’s largest free trade bloc was forged on November 15 in a show of collective defiance against protectionism that sets the stage for China to supplant the United States as the Asia-Pacific’s main trade engine. Proclaimed as a win…
On October 27 U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo spoke with Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of India’s news website The Print in an interview that descended into an anti-China diatribe by Pompeo, who was fed soft-touch questions. Pompeo refused to abide by conventionally courteous diplomatic practice in referring to “the government” of China, preferring, like Trump, to…
