Posted on January 24, 2021. Tags: coups, DC riots, Hitler, Mussolini, Napoleon, Nazis, putsch, Trump
Image by Tyler Merber There are many terms being thrown around to describe the events in Washington DC on 6 January: sedition, insurrection, protest, riot, mob, even coup. The most historically accurate term is a putsch, with any number of examples of angry mobs being channelled to overthrow civilian authority. It may have started as […]
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Posted in Europe, France, Germany, Political Security, Security Issues, Terrorism, US, World
Posted on November 3, 2020. Tags: Constitutionalism, courts, Democrats, Donald Trump, Germany, Joe Biden, Law, Mitch McConnell, Republicans, Supreme Court, Voting rights
In the tribute he wrote in 1954 for Robert Jackson, his friend and Supreme Court colleague, Justice Felix Frankfurter explained the profound effect that the experience of prosecuting the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg had on Jackson’s endeavour to understand the human condition. “An essentially good-natured, an even innocently unsophisticated temperament, was there made to realise […]
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Posted in US, World
Posted on December 23, 2020. Tags: Africa, Algeria, cooperation, ECOWAS, Guerguerat, Jerusalem, Maghreb, Maroc, Mauritania, morocco, NATO, normalisation, Peace, Polisario, Politics, Sahara dispute, UN Security Council, United States, Western Sahara
American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over its Sahara and the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel could have lasting benefits for the cause of peace in North Africa and the Middle East. For North Africa, the Sahara dispute between Morocco and the Algerian backed Polisario has dragged on for 45 years, making it one […]
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Posted in Africa, Conflict, Culture, Economic Security, Economics, Global Economy, Israel, Israeli Palestinian Conflict, Middle East, NATO, Political Security, Refugees, Religion, Security Issues, UN, US, World
Posted on October 9, 2020. Tags: Immigration, Joe Biden, Latin America, Mexico, Migration, Trump, Trump administration
How a new administration in Washington could spell change for Latin America, and why it probably won’t. Image by author: Children play in the sprawling refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, on the border with Brownsville, Texas. To say that COVID-19 has become the defining issue of the 2020 US presidential election, and elections around the […]
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Posted in Latin America, US, World
Posted on April 20, 2020. Tags: Asia, Carl Schmitt, Chernobyl, China, coronavirus, COVID-19, Czech Republic, Donald Trump, European Union, Germany, Globalization, Hubei, Hungary, Liberalism, state of emergency, Trump, U.S., United States, WHO
“Viruses know no borders and they don’t care about your ethnicity, the colour of your skin or how much money you have in the bank.” The words of WHO official Dr Mike Ryan about Coronavirus (COVID-19) would seem to many of us common sense. What appears ‘common sense’ does not, however, always manifest in the […]
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Posted in Australia, China, Europe, European Union, Germany, Refugees, Security Issues, UN, US, World
Posted on June 21, 2020. Tags: coronavirus, COVID-19, EU, Iran, Middle East, nuclear deal, Sanctions, Trump, UN, US foreign policy
The deadly impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Iran has given a new focus to the ongoing debate about the purpose, effectiveness and relevance of US sanctions imposed on the country. Many leaders, political figures, and organisations have questioned the continuance of these sanctions. These include the UN Secretary General, the UN Special Rapporteurs on […]
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Posted in Iran, Middle East, US, World
Posted on April 28, 2019. Tags: Belt and Road Initiative, China, South China Sea, The Quad, Vietnam
Rapid economic growth and the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has allowed China to expand its regional influence. Within the South China Sea, China’s expansion has materialized in the form of a coercive maritime strategy. Aside from straddling the key sea lanes of communication used for trade, the South China Sea also contains […]
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Posted in Asia, Australia, China, Conflict, India, Security Issues, US, World
Posted on January 11, 2018. Tags: EU, Military, military support, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, ukraine conflict, United States, US
University of Nottingham (Ningbo Campus) Assistant Professor Nicholas Ross Smith argues that while arming Ukraine may be the right thing to do, it naively underestimates the geopolitical reality of Eastern Europe and could result in a far worse outcome for both Ukraine and Europe. Donald Trump’s recent decision to approve the sale of more lethal arms […]
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Posted in Europe, European Union, NATO, Russia, Ukraine Conflict, US, World
Posted on July 9, 2018.
The United States has recently taken an aggressive approach to evening-out what US President Donald Trump sees as a major trade imbalance. At the risk of a possible trade war, the President has implemented tariffs against the EU and China on major goods such as steel and automobiles. But retaliatory tariffs are planned in response. […]
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Posted in Asia, China, Economics, Global Economy, Global Politics Videos, US
Posted on August 14, 2010. Tags: China, David Cameron, disarmament, Eisenhower, Hiroshima, Japan, Nuclear Weapons, Obama, Trident, World War Two
The futility and danger of nuclear weapons in the post-9/11 world is indisputable The 2003 Oscar-Winning documentary The Fog of War, containing Robert McNamara’s post-Vietnam mea culpa, also highlighted one of the former US Defence Secretary’s greatest concerns – nuclear weapons. “The indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations,” McNamara maintained. […]
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Posted in Russia, Security Issues, US, World
Posted on July 3, 2018.
Over 10,000 people have died in the war in Yemen, which has entered its fourth year, and about 80 percent of the population is in need of humanitarian aid. Despite the gravity of the situation, Yemen’s conflict, which has been described as the “forgotten war” by Amnesty International, receives very little media coverage. Western news […]
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Posted in Global Politics Videos, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, UK News, US, World, Yemen
Posted on May 23, 2018. Tags: Economics, EU, Iran, Middle East, nuclear deal, Politics, Trump, U.S., United States
The withdrawal of the Trump Administration from the Iran nuclear deal was a long time coming. Concluded in 2015 after months of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries (United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany), the agreement seemingly provided a win-win outcome both in terms of the international community’s desire to rein […]
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Posted in Economics, Global Economy, Iran, Middle East, US, World
Posted on April 1, 2016.
The Atlantic explores President Obama’s decision not to bomb Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s army killed more than 1,400 people with sarin gas. It offers a new and insightful evaluation of Obama and his legacy.
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Posted in Global Politics Videos, Russia, Syria, US, World
Posted on January 6, 2017. Tags: CIA, President Trump, Russia, Trump
Donald Trump is correct: The American intelligence community misled us about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction. So that means it’s also mistaken about Russian cyberattacks on the United States. Right? Wrong. On New Year’s Eve, Trump called the Central Intelligence Agency’s claims about WMD a “disaster”—his signature slur—and implied that the agency was fibbing […]
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Posted in Russia, US, World
Posted on November 4, 2017. Tags: Chile, Latin America, South America, State Terrorism, Terrorism
Mass media and politicians often describe terrorism as one of the greatest security threats to international society. These bold claims have contributed towards an unquestioned belief that terrorism has become a grave threat to our everyday lives. The sporadic and murderous nature of terrorism has been a powerful influence on public threat perception. However, the […]
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Posted in Conflict, Europe, Latin America, Security Issues, Terrorism, US, World
Posted on July 9, 2017. Tags: climate change, environment, Governance, Macron, Paris accord, Paris Agreement, U.S. Foreign Policy, United States
US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the country out of the Paris climate agreement may eventually end in a U-turn. After all, unpredictability has by far been Trump’s favourite foreign policy strategy. Yet should this one promise be kept its implications for global cooperation on climate change would be catastrophic. In the long term, […]
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Posted in Global Economy, US, World
Posted on April 17, 2017. Tags: Asia, CETA, EU, Globalization, International Political Economy, TPP, Trade, United States
With an overwhelming majority of 408 votes against 254, the European Parliament recently approved the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. This came only three weeks after Donald Trump’s formal withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a deal involving 12 nations around the Pacific Ocean. As trade is silently shaking world politics […]
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Posted in Europe, Global Economy, US, World
Posted on February 16, 2016. Tags: Asia, Asia Economics, China, Cold War, Great Power Politics, India, Non-alignment policy, Post- Cold War, United States
Introduction At the time of India’s independence in 1947 the world had just witnessed the end of the Second World War and was slowly being engulfed in a new power struggle with the Cold War. The brewing trend of the time was that of alliance forming with either of the blocs led by the United States (US) […]
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Posted in China, Conflict, India, Political Security, Security Issues, US, World
Posted on March 4, 2016. Tags: Arms Control, Autonomous Weapons, China, Israel, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Warfare
War will never again be the same. Autonomous weapons have nearly arrived, and so far nothing has been able to stop them. At the 2015 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, an open letter—signed by over three thousand of the world’s most relevant robotics experts, and endorsed by luminaries including Stephen Hawking, Nobel Laureate […]
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Posted in China, Israel, Russia, US, World
Posted on March 10, 2016. Tags: Barry Goldwater, Republicans, Video
QZ reports that “Confessions of a Republican” has been making a comeback online. Watching this, one can possibly feel sympathy for the memory of Senator Barry Goldwater, who was an intellectual titan compared to Trump. Nevertheless, this Johnson campaign video will doubtless hit home with many Republicans today in the same way. A great piece of American political […]
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Posted in Global Politics Videos, US, World