Russian President Vladimir Putin has inspired civilisationalist leaders to emerge from the woodwork and publicly define their states as civilisational rather than national entities. These leaders speak of civilisational or ethnic worlds with borders that transcend national frontiers, not nation-states. How far they may wish to push claims that challenge …

The Wisdom of Rummy Almost 20 years ago, in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I had the opportunity to meet the late Donald Rumsfeld. Say about him what you will, but he was great with the troops and, despite being the US Secretary of Defense, spoke to us …

As the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) marks the 46th anniversary of the death of its late leader Mao Zedong, concerns are being raised in some quarters that current leader Xi Jinping is hoping to emulate the “Great Helmsman’s” supreme status in the party hierarchy. At the CCP’s 20th National …