S P Seth

Russian President Vladimir Putin once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. It seemed rather sudden because the US intelligence had no clue that the rot in the Soviet Union had reached such an advanced stage. Therefore, when in the 1990s the last rites were read, […]

The image of a five-year old child sitting on a giant-sized chair after being pulled out from a bombed site in the Syrian city of Aleppo is a defining moment of the madness that has gripped Syria during the last five years of rebellion/civil war in that country. With his dazed face and stunned emotions, he […]

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to Russia is an important development. First of all, it breaks the logjam in their relationship, which nosedived after a Russian plane was shot down last November for breaching Turkish air space for bombing raids on Syrian rebels. Moscow denied any violation of Turkish air space and demanded […]

The recent Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia was electrified when the visibly aggrieved father of a son, who was killed in line of duty in 2004 during Iraq operations from a suicide bomb, berated Donald Trump for his ignorance and churlishness in smearing and attacking minorities and their sacrifices. Khizr Khan, with his wife standing […]

The tumultuous events in Turkey are a harbinger of worst to come. The failed military coup has catapulted the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan into turning the country upside down to re-engineer its make-up by going after a whole range of institutions suspected of subverting/sabotaging and seeking to overthrow the country’s elected government. A […]

By now it is generally accepted that the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on a big lie. An exhaustive report of Britain’s role in the whole affair, when Tony Blair was the country’s prime minister, more or less, nails it down. The seven-year investigation, led by Sir John Chilcot, has produced a […]

Australia has gone through, what one might call, an inconclusive election. The ruling conservative coalition has scraped through, but it will have a difficult time of governing during what looks like an interim period before new elections might have to be called. Uncharacteristically for Australia, it has been going through a period of political instability, […]

The 27-member EU (without Britain) is making it clear that Britain is not going to have any special deal with the EU after it has exited. There would be no concessional access to the EU’s large single market without the accepted four freedoms: that its members abide by the free movement of labour, goods, capital […]

The British referendum to leave the European Union (EU) will not only affect the United Kingdom but is likely to have wider repercussions. Some of its supporters were jubilant calling it Britain’s independence day by freeing the country from EU’s institutional and bureaucratic stranglehold. For 17 million Brits voting to quit EU —though about 16 […]

The massacre of 49 people, with 53 wounded, at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, by a self-proclaimed supporter of the IS highlighted multiple issues that plague the United States. The first and foremost, of course, is the reality and fear of terrorist violence since the 9/11 tragedy, which changed the psyche and politics of […]