Iranian crisis — Rouhani’s thoughtful analysis on January 20, 2018The recent crisis in Iran, which was highlighted by the authorities using excessive force to suppress angry protestors, reveals that people have grown disillusioned and disenchanted with the country’s clerical regime. While the revolution in 1979 was successful in overthrowing the Shah’s regime, it couldn’t deliver much more. The revolution has faded, if it hasn’t […]
Korean flashpoint: Trump versus Kim on January 10, 2018If it weren’t for the dangerous consequences of their rhetoric, the schoolyard-type bullying of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un would be quite amusing. And when it is considered that the President of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, is indulging in it, it is simply beyond comprehension. North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had […]
Australia, US and China complexities on December 30, 2017Australia’s recent white paper on foreign policy has highlighted the shifting balance of power in the Indo Pacific/Asia Pacific region away from the United States. The US ruled the waves and still does in some ways with its large and powerful navy. But now China increasingly insists that much of South China Sea and the […]
Saudi Arabia creating political waves on December 1, 2017Saudi Arabia’s young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has created political waves, both at home and abroad. These can easily get out of control and further destabilise and inflame the region. It is a power grab by a single-family line in the country where ‘power is shared and alternated among seven major families and decisions […]
Trump and Xi — the new bromance? on November 18, 2017Now that Trump’s world wind Asia tour is over, many are asking the same question: where was the grand strategy? The sad truth is that there didn’t seem to be one; not as the US president moved from country to country over the scheduled 12-day period. North Korea has taken up much of Trump’s time […]
Xi Jinping’s China on November 7, 2017The party is over — that is, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It was done with fanfare, though it was widely expected to deliver a thumping endorsement of Xi Jinping, who is now in the same league as Mao Zedong. It was sad to see his predecessors, Hu Jintao and […]
Trump and Iran nuclear deal? on October 24, 2017As if the crisis around North Korea’s nuclear program weren’t enough to keep people worried about the state of the world, Trump has raised the stakes even further by refusing to certify the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers that include five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and Germany. Broadly […]
Its a chaotic world after all on October 13, 2017Western democracies are in a bit of a muddle these days. To the extent that, at times, they border on the verge of panic. It seems that they are still reeling from the knock-on effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that seemingly came out of nowhere. Almost inevitably, the US response was as chaotic as […]
Trump versus Kim on October 4, 2017Short of a preventive strike on North Korea to destroy its nuclear sites and weapons and kill its leadership with all its horrible consequences, there is now a dangerous eye-for-an-eye stalemate of sorts on the Korean peninsula The situation on the Korean peninsula is becoming scarier by the day. If it were not that serious, […]
China the Asia-Pacific power house? on September 22, 2017As far as China is concerned, the South China Sea is its own virtual waterway. For Beijing has, after all, already made territorial and maritime claims over it, which have been reinforced by the building of military structures on old and newly dredged islands. To be sure, the US challenges all this with occasional naval […]