Jonathan Power

The Russian European dreamers have included Pushkin, Lenin, Gorbachev and, until relatively recently, President Vladimir Putin. They have all seen their country’s future as part of the “European house”. But history and events have not been kind to Russia. Napoleon’s invasion, revolution, two world wars, Stalin’s communism and, most recently, the expansion of NATO, have shattered […]

As long as Jeb Bush stays in the race to be the next president of the US the issue of the Iraq war will not go away. The fact that Iraq is descending into further chaos and that he is the brother of ex-president George W Bush, whose willful invasion of Iraq catalysed Iraq’s implosion, […]

Both the west and Russia have a responsibility to make sure they do not throw the baby out with the bathwater as their quarrel over Ukraine continues. So much has been achieved since the end of the Cold War. Why throw it away because of Ukraine? Ukraine is a marginal country. The tail should never […]

According to BBC World in a broadcast yesterday morning, its considered opinion is that the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels are battling US-backed Ukrainian forces, is working. There are still too many skirmishes, too many guns and mortars being fired but the big guns are largely silent. President Vladimir Putin said the other […]

The first recorded parliamentary debate on the use of the death penalty was held in 427 BC when Diodotus, arguing that the penalty was not a deterrent, persuaded the Athenian assembly not to execute the Mitylene rebels.The debate goes on in the US in particular, a big time user of the penalty where opinion, belatedly, […]

Just for five minutes while you read this column forget the supposed intention of Iran to build a nuclear bomb. Dwell on the less reported fact that there are already 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world of which 90 percent are held by the US and Russia. During the Cold War, barely a week went […]

Rightly, the debate over a way to end the Iranian nuclear (bomb?) crisis is now the number one issue in western foreign policy. Compared with that the partial civil war in Ukraine seems to be trivial, one that could be solved in a week if only the west would make it clear that Ukrainian membership […]

Iran will find it easier to kill the nuclear bomb deal than will the Republicans in Congress. Why? Because the Republicans need some Democratic senators on their side to override a veto by President Barack Obama of a vote to bury the accord, whereas in Iran all that is needed is the decision of one […]

Last week, democracy won a handsome victory in Nigeria. An election that had everybody on edge for fear of internecine killings involving militants from the two main competing parties, against a backcloth of the war of attrition waged by the nihilist, extremist, Islamist movement Boko Haram, led pundits to fear the worst. It did not […]

US Middle East interventionists chide President Barack Obama for not doing more. Why is the US running away from Yemen? Why did the US not go into Syria and depose President Bashar al-Assad? Why did Obama pull troops out of Iraq prematurely? Why is he not putting “boots on the ground” in the fight against […]