High oil prices are a victory for Saudi Arabia, but a blow to the United States and China. Oil prices reached their highest point since 2014 today. The price of Brent crude opened above $87 a barrel. Brent crude is widely considered the benchmark for global oil prices. Oil prices …

In retaliation for a mysterious explosion along the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey hit several Kurdish positions in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in an attack that the Kurds call a “war rehearsal” aiming to test the water. Turkey appears to be aiming to maintain high tensions in northeast Syria through …

On 26 August last year a former engineering student named Abdul Rahman al-Logari, wearing a vest containing 25lb of explosives, was about to be searched by American soldiers guarding Kabul airport. At the last moment, this Isis suicide bomber detonated his device, killing 13 American soldiers and between 170 and …

On January 11, 2022, the United Nations (UN) Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths appealed to the international community to help raise $4.4 billion for Afghanistan in humanitarian aid, calling this effort, “the largest ever appeal for a single country for humanitarian assistance.” This amount is required “in the hope of …

The militarization of American foreign policy has evolved over the past thirty years. Ironically, this took place in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which should have led to reassessing U.S. national security policy and defense spending. Democratic presidents have played a major role in this militarization …

At the heart of the current crisis between Washington and Moscow is this: Vladimir Putin has massed troops on Russia’s border with Ukraine and implied that he may invade unless he receives a guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO. The Biden administration rejects that demand out of hand. Powerful …

This is a big year for the BBC as it marks the 100th anniversary of the first radio broadcast. That fact alone might be thought enough to focus Corporation minds on the anachronistic way in which it is funded, much as in 1922. Despite developments in communication since then, there …

China will not use its strength to “bully” its smaller neighbours including the Philippines, its foreign minister said on Monday, as he highlighted the importance of settling disputes in the South China Sea peacefully. “Stressing only one side’s claims and imposing one’s own will on the other is not a …

Russia’s focus on Ukraine is certainly intense. The Kremlin has massed troops and equipment along their common border; launched major cyberattacks against Kyiv’s government computer systems; planted operatives in the eastern Donbas region who could stage false-flag operations as pretexts for Russian invasion; and escalated a long-standing insistence that Ukraine …

The American Trap – My Battle to Expose America’s Secret Economic War Against the Rest of the World. Frédéric Pierucci (with Mathieu Aron). HOdder & Stoughton, London, 2020. It becomes more clear with more and more readings that the “American trap” is the U.S. dollar, and that for some it …