AltWeeklies Wire
Where Are the Egyptians When Libya Needs Them?new
The collapse of the democratic revolution in Libya will gravely damage the prospects of the “Arab spring” elsewhere. Rulers in other Arab countries where the army is also largely made up of foreign mercenaries, will conclude that they can safely kill enough of their own protesters to “restore order”.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
03-14-2011 |
International
Gwynne Dyer on Benjamin Netanyahu's Optionsnew
By the time Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington on Wednesday night (March 24), after postponing his departure twice, there was general agreement in the American media that his visit had been disastrous.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
03-29-2010 |
Religion
The Aftermath of Copenhagennew
"The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport”, said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, on Friday night (December 18). "There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty.”
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
12-22-2009 |
Environment
Israel Must Make Peace with Neighborsnew
The war against Hamas in Gaza looks more and more like the three-week Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, which could hardly be called a success. It will last about as long. It will kill about as many Arabs, probably a thousand or so. And it will end with Hamas, like Hezbollah, still able to fire rockets at Israel.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
01-13-2009 |
International
Ukraine Politicians Are Split on Russian Tiesnew
In the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution of 2004, the more extreme Ukrainian nationalists fantasised that the country could break all links with Russia and become an entirely Western state, but realism is starting to prevail.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
11-18-2008 |
International
Obama Could Thwart Canadian Exports from Alberta Tar Sandsnew
Barack Obama has signaled that addressing a "planet in peril" will be a top priority for his administration. Alberta's huge tar sands could soon feel the pain of America's solutions to climate change.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
11-11-2008 |
Environment
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tells the Truth Too Latenew
Olmert recently said something that no previous Israeli prime minister has said. He declared that if Israel wants peace, it must withdraw from almost all the lands it occupied in 1967. Unfortunately, it's probably too late.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
10-06-2008 |
International
Workers Will be Forced to Pay for Wall Street's Failuresnew
The Masters of the Universe have been revealed as naive speculators who believed that property values could only go up. The journalists who preached the blessings of unregulated free markets have been unveiled as blind ideologues at best, and at worst paid propagandists. The response of American politicians at all levels has been pathetic.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
09-30-2008 |
Economy
Thabo Mbeki's Spectacular Fall from Gracenew
It was widely believed of South Africa's outgoing president, Thabo Mbeki, that the only time he wasn't plotting was when he was asleep. More than his bizarre views on AIDS or even his failure to do much for South Africa's poor, it was that reputation as an inveterate plotter that finally brought him down.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
09-24-2008 |
International
Comrade Bush Nationalizes the Banksnew
The panicky flight from free-market orthodoxy in the United States is bound to fuel a revival of government intervention and welfare-state policies in the rest of the world. In the United States itself, however, they are likely to hang the wrong culprit in the end.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
09-24-2008 |
Economy
Political Bickering Could Start a New Cold Warnew
There is still no good reason to have a new Cold War, and I still think it won't happen. But as the politicians posture and the stupidities accumulate, I'm less sure than I was that it won't happen.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
08-29-2008 |
International
The Georgian Debacle Could Break NATOnew
If the U.S. pursues its goal of bringing Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, there are only three options. If "old Europe" digs in its heels and refuses, then either the U.S. drops its demand, or NATO breaks up. The third alternative is that "old Europe" agrees to let the two former Soviet republics join -- but with the unspoken reservation that they will never actually go to war with Russia to protect them.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
08-20-2008 |
International
South Ossetia Was a Monumental Miscalculation by Georgianew
This was Georgia's second attempt in 18 years to conquer the breakaway territory by force, and now that option is gone for good. So are the country's hopes of joining NATO. Yet sections of the Western media are carrying on as if the Russians started it, and are now threatening to invade Georgia itself.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
08-11-2008 |
International
Beijing's Defenses Can't Stop Terrorismnew
The deployment of 100,000 troops around Beijing and the surface-to-air missile batteries that protect the main stadiums couldn't stop two equally determined Uighur militants from killing 16 Chinese police and injuring another 16 in an attack on a border post near Kashgar.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
08-06-2008 |
International
Goldman Sachs Paints Picture of Changing World Ordernew
You have to hand it to the economics team at Goldman Sachs. It came up with the concept of the "BRICs": the four big economies, in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which were going to catch up with and then overtake the big economies of the developed world. More recently, they added the "Next Eleven": middle-sized developing countries like Turkey, Indonesia, and Mexico that will also grow fast enough to overtake their old-rich counterparts in the next generation.
The Georgia Straight |
Gwynne Dyer |
07-31-2008 |
Economy
