Jonathan Power

The big immigration debate is often the big obscurantism debate. The wool is pulled over our eyes and even for the best informed, obtaining clarity is not so easily done. The vested interests in continued immigration are enormous — first and foremost the migrants themselves who are seeking an escape from poverty and lack of […]

It was the Americans, back in the time of the deposed Shah, who encouraged Iran to develop nuclear bomb-making capacity. Now, it is the Americans, along with the Europeans, who are desperately trying to undo their folly. They are nearer the goal than they think, or, rather, let on. Perhaps they are playing their cards […]

Thank heavens for the Sochi Olympics. Russian President Vladimir Putin was committed to ensuring they showed Russia in its best light — and they did. Who would have wanted to take the world’s eyes off that to back a president in Ukraine who, to Putin’s annoyance, had made too many bad moves? This must be […]

The drumbeats are already sounding for the soon-to-be-held general elections in the world’s largest democracy, India – the country that shows China how it should be done. There is a sense in the country that the ruling Congress Party and the influential Gandhi/Nehru core of it is on its way out after 10 years of […]

US aviation authorities banned the carrying of toothpaste on planes heading to the Sochi Winter Olympics for fear they might contain a deadly explosive. Apparently, such is the creativity of the modern terrorist. Other departments of the US government rather more seriously worry about the transfer of nuclear materials to a terrorist group fit for […]

On Saturday, Libya beat Ghana to win the African Nations Football Championship. A return to normalcy? To win, a team must have a first class pitch and a non-stressed out team. Does this indicate that Libya, two and a half years after the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is getting back on its feet? Alas, […]

The western press does not understand Ukraine. That is clear after weeks of reporting the demonstrations. We are given the absolutely minimum background on the history and culture of Ukraine. This is like when writing about the sea to only write about the waves and not the fish and rocks beneath. Until relatively recently, the […]

The west, the US especially, has gotten itself into a fretful mood over the rise of China. Quite unnecessarily so. The Chinese growth rate is slowing. As a BBC commentator said recently, reviewing this week’s government-issued statistics, China never will hit double-digit growth again. Glitzy Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and their like, where growth is still […]

The Middle East has been living a nightmare, partly because of a man of Russian origin who became Israel’s greatest general and, later, prime minister of Israel: Ariel Sharon. What were the inner thoughts of this man? This is what Amos Oz, an acclaimed Israeli journalist, writer and novelist, with a worldwide reputation, helped us […]

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, who lived from 460 to 357 BC, concluded that diseases were naturally caused and were cured by natural remedies. Opium, he wrote, was one of the latter. However, he was also of the opinion that it should be used sparingly and under control. If only our governments today could […]