The whole world is appalled by the recent Chinese aggression against Taiwan, a small island that believes in democracy and self-governance and one on which China has cast an evil eye for decades. Sadly, China has been pursuing such belligerent policies against its neighbourhood and beyond for decades and the world has remained a mute spectator. If the int...
The Iran survey’s results as well as observations by analysts and journalists like Pelham stroke with responses to various polls of Arab public opinion in recent years and fit a global pattern of reduced religiosity. A 2019 Pew Research Center study concluded that adherence to Christianity in the United States was declining at a rapid pace. The Arab Youth S...
Among the Middle Eastern rivals for religious soft power, the United Arab Emirates, populated in majority by non-nationals, may be the only one to emerge with a cleaner slate. The UAE is the only contender to have started acknowledging changing attitudes and demographic realities. Authorities in November 2020 lifted the ban on consumption of alcohol and coha...
Trouble is brewing in the backyard of Muslim-majority states competing for religious soft power and leadership of the Muslim world in what amounts to a battle for the soul of Islam. Shifting youth attitudes towards religion and religiosity threaten to undermine the rival efforts of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and, to a lesser degree, the United Arab Emirates,...
Science is by definition universal: it observes and develops hypotheses to explain phenomena. However, it is expressed in different languages and cultures, which are a source of misunderstanding when we do not know their specificities. For example, viruses are living beings according to the European definition of life, but mere mechanisms according to the...
Former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein has papered over a rare public dispute in the ruling Jordanian family in a move that is unlikely to resolve long-standing fissures in society and among the country’s elite that echo multiple Middle Eastern fault lines. Differences over socio-economic policies, governance, and last year’s normalization of relations...
In a panel discussion recorded some days ago by Brighter Kashmir (a Kashmir-based daily newspaper), this columnist while speaking about the recent initiative on “resolution of issues” between India and Pakistan, observed that there have been many earlier occasions when tall leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dr. Manmohan Singh, LK Advani and others have take...
Although the US is considered a “country of immigrants,” xenophobia and racism are historically inherent in American society. One clear indication of this is that, until recently, only white Anglo-Saxon and Protestant residents, who were the majority of the US population, considered themselves “100 percent Americans”. Therefore, it is not surprising that ra...
As expected, the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted the resolution titled “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” (A/HRC/46/L.1Rec.1) with 22 countries voting for it while 11 against (for Sri Lanka) on March 23. Eleven countries including India abstained. Sri Lanka Foreign Affairs Minister Dinesh Guna...
Two initiatives send the clearest signal, yet, that China may be gearing up to play a greater political role in the Middle East. Touring the region this week, Foreign Minister Wang Yi laid out five principles Middle Eastern nations would need to adopt to achieve a measure of regional stability. He called on the region’s rivals “to respect each other, uphold ...
Once again the British Royal Family is in the news. As always, there is a chorus of, “Why are they so important? Who cares about them?”… and then followed by a frenzy of eagerly devoured media reports about these uninteresting, unwelcomed people. This process demonstrates exactly why the royals are important. They are supposed to represent everything that is...
India’s regional strategy aims to strengthen its status not only as a regional leader in South Asia, but also as an important pan-Asian player. However, despite its leading position in the region, India, for a number of objective reasons, faces difficulties in promoting South Asian regional cooperation projects. These reasons include, in particular, Indo-Pak...
Prevailing financial sector “wisdom” holds that while the bond and stock markets of the US and EU are dangerously inflated following huge COVID borrowings and unprecedented central bank measures, that China is the one example of a market suitable for investment as it has managed to get beyond COVID and restart its economy. A closer look at recent official me...
Saudi Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, a popular but controversial religious scholar who has been mostly in solitary confinement since 2017, appeared in court this week only to hear that his case had been again adjourned for four months. Charged with more than 30 counts of terrorism, a term that is broadly defined in Saudi Arabia to include adherence to atheism and p...
President Biden spent the first month of his term advancing his goal of societal reform and the second month laying the groundwork for his foreign policy. It is not yet clear what the third part of the “100 days” will be, which should focus on economic issues. It is expected to involve a massive upgrade of the country’s crumbling infrastructure, financed by ...
With the coronavirus pandemic derailing economic growth everywhere, there is growing concern worldwide about hunger and malnutrition and the catastrophic impoverishment of populations. The World Bank predicts that there will be 150 million more people living in extreme poverty by 2022. The proportion of the world’s population living on less than $1.9 a day i...
While you were watching him clown around, Boris Johnson oversaw the overthrow of President Morales in Bolivia, occupied the island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen, and organised Turkey’s victory over Armenia. You haven’t heard any discussion of this. Remember the overthrow of Bolivian President Evo Morales in late 2019. At the time, the mainstream press ...
Addressing the virtual summit meeting of leaders of QUAD – the Quadrilateral strategic grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia – on March 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “We will work together closer than ever before for advancing our shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.” He added: “Today’s meeting shows tha...
In a sign of the times, Turkish schoolbooks have replaced Saudi texts as the bull’s eye of criticism of supremacist and intolerant curricula in the Muslim world. Once a model of secularism with an education system that taught evolution, cultural openness, and tolerance towards minorities that included Kurdish as a minority language, Turkish curricula have in...
The top-down reorganization of the world economy by a cabal of technocratic corporativists, led by the group around the Davos World Economic Forum – the so-called Great Reset or UN Agenda 2030 – is no future proposal. It is well into actualization as the world remains in insane lockdown for a virus. The hottest investment area since onset of the coronavirus ...