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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

We would probably think it is, if we relied on CNN and other such sources, but in good old reality land, that’s a hard story to tell. Anyhow, as some of us tried to explain, inflation is a worldwide phenomenon associated with reopening from after a worldwide pandemic, which is …

We’ll never agree with the Russian leader on principles, but we might be able to negotiate a better security structure for Europe. The talks on European security that are now underway between the U.S. and Russia will be difficult because the two countries don’t trust one another, not even a …