Iraqs continuing nightmare on June 28, 2016The recently launched military offensive to retake Fallujah from IS has reportedly made considerable progress, though it is not clear if IS has made a tactical retreat to rethink their entire strategy. If it is the latter, they might concentrate more on guerilla operations to include suicide bombings and an array of “lone wolf” and […]
Troubled times ahead for Turkey on June 21, 2016It is a sign of troubled times ahead when the leader of a country starts seeing his country in his own image. And that is where Turkey is now with its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a course to subvert the country’s system and institutions. And that is because he believes that they are somehow […]
Obamas Vietnam and Japan visits on June 14, 2016The recent visit to Vietnam of the US President Barack Obama was epochal both for its imagery and substance. One just has to hark back to 1975 to the hurried evacuation of the US embassy personnel, when the North Vietnamese forces marched victoriously into Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City. It was a humiliating […]
US and Saudi Arabia: a souring ties on June 7, 2016If President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia was an exercise in fence mending, it didn’t look like it achieved much. It is so because for some time now — indeed under Obama — the US has been looking to broaden its policy in the Middle East. And Obama has been impressing on its […]
At least 22 killed as clash erupts between police and squatters in India on June 3, 2016NEW DELHI: At least 22 people were killed when police clashed with squatters in north India, officials said on Friday, the violence erupting after protesters killed two police officers during an operation to clear thousands of people from a public park. Police began the operation to clear the park in Mathura, 140 km (85 miles) […]
Climate change: are we up to it? on May 31, 2016A three-part documentary series on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef by the British naturalist, David Attenborough, (recently shown on Australian television) highlighted not only the damage already done to Australia’s great international wonder, but, in the process, brought home vividly the tremendous destructive power of climate change. As if to supplement/reinforce the powerful message from the […]
Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton on May 24, 2016There are jokes galore about Donald Trump as ‘president’ of the US, precisely because it has been considered unlikely until now. The joke could easily be on those making fun of the US electoral drama, with Trump being centrestage as the ‘pretend’ president. This is captured well in a Sydney Morning Herald cartoon, which shows […]
North Korea and the nuclear question on May 17, 2016North Korea’s recent missile test to put a satellite into the orbit as well as other demonstrations of success in weapons and missile testing, further heated up things in the Asia Pacific region. Its leader, Kim Jong-un, was endorsed as the country’s supremo during the ruling Workers Party congress, which met after 36 years. Not […]
US power has its limits on May 10, 2016A series of books on US foreign policy, reviewed in a recent issue of The New York Review of Books, seek to grapple with the issue of limits on US power. It is a difficult issue for any country but when that country is a superpower, though not at its old heights, it is all […]
Middle East conundrum on May 3, 2016The Middle East remains a complex amalgam of civil wars, sectarian strife, and a battlefield for regional and global rivalry overlaid by the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Often all these factors fuel each other. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, the British and the French divided much of the Middle East […]