Any article on what has just happened in Jordan is now censored by order of the Royal Palace. It will therefore be impossible to find explanations about the coup d’état that Prince Hamza, half-brother of King Abdullah, was preparing. The most we know is that on April 3, 2021, the Chief of Staff, General Youssef Huneiti, came to politely inform Prince Hamz...
The US has been fighting two wars: with Ukraine against Russia, and with Russia against Climate. Both are very costly, both bring no profit to Americans, both are entirely unnecessary, but both are essential for the Biden regime at this time, as the Covid pandemic runs out of steam. How will matters proceed? The Ukrainian war may have been postponed. Rus...
The Ukrainian population is divided between a part of European culture and another of Russian culture. This singularity offers Washington a playground against Moscow. For several weeks now, the drums have been beating, sounding war. But none of the allies want to die for Kiev or sacrifice themselves to Russia.
1] The Anglo-Saxons have a hereditary enemy: th...
The question of what constitutes ‘thinking’ overlaps the issues of MIND/BRAIN. Defining, delineating and explicating self-awareness, rationality and logic has been a perplexing challenge since time immemorial. ‘‘Discovery’ of the subconscious has enormously complicated these tasks. Advances in neurology add a new dimension to the discourse. A finitude of tim...
Back in the days when the New York Review of Books took seriously its reputation as the stellar journal of English-reading intellectuals, the editors upon occasion published long, prolix essays on the recondite topic of the Mind-Brain relationship. I recall John Searle of Berkeley as one of the protagonists. Through dint of supreme effort and disciplined con...
The press agencies have widely circulated images of the EU/Turkey summit in Ankara on April 6, 2021. It shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan receiving European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. There are only two chairs for three. Mrs. von der Leyen, after standing for a while, sits down on a sof...
For the last 4 years, Democrat leaders have blamed Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 elections. Now the Democrats - who control all three branches of government - have the power to reset US foreign policy and take a more hostile approach to Moscow. But will they? At present, there are roughly 40,000 US-NATO troops massed along the Russian border...
The 11th Corps Commander-level meeting between India and China was held on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo border point in Ladakh on April 9, 2021. The meeting was said to have lasted for 13 hours. Unlike the 19th round meeting held in February, no joint statement was issued at the end of the meeting. The statements issued separately by the two countrie...
Sports governance worldwide has had the legs knocked out from under it. Yet, national and international sports administrators are slow in realizing the magnitude of what has hit them. Tectonic plates underlying sports’ guiding principle that sports and politics are unrelated have shifted, driven by a struggle against racism and a quest for human rights and s...
In an unfortunate incident in Kashmir on April 9, 2021 terrorists shot dead a Territorial Army (TA) soldier, Havaldar Mohammad Saleem Akhoon, near his home in Goriwan, Bijbehara, Anantnag. Akhoon belonged to 162 Infantry Battalion (TA) and had been granted leave from March 22 for 40 days. The brutal murder of the innocent soldier was in line with a well-cr...
It is common knowledge that Russia for a long time now has been a proponent of the idea of Eurasian integration, and the project that is being implemented the most energetically on the continent is the Chinese transportation infrastructure and economic initiative dubbed One Belt, One Road (OBOR). OBOR is supposed to unite as many states as possible into a...
With China and Iran signing a multi-billion dollar deal for the next 25 years, there remains little gainsaying that the former is going to increase its footprint in West Asia/Middle East in a way that once was thought to be unimaginable for reasons that included China’s own economic policies and West Asia’s too close ties with the West to allow for any playe...
For an entire week, the giant container ship Ever Given blocked one of the most important waterways in world trade between the East and West: the Suez Canal. This incident not only caused a serious disruption along the transport route, where about 400 ships backed up due to the accident, but also caused serious financial losses to many, which could amount to...
The change of the ruling elite in the White House has prompted many countries in the East, including Egypt and Turkey, to revise their foreign policies to better adapt to this new reality. After seven years of tensions, Ankara and Egypt are now sending signals that they are prepared to seek rapprochement. This is largely the result of a growing consensus tha...
Genocide is the most heinous of crimes as recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The term has specific reference to the Nazi extermination policies. With that atrocity in mind, one might think that its use would be restricted to the most extraordinary circumstances. The opposite has happened. It...
Alexis de Tocqueville observed in his classic Democracy In America that the country’s citizens did not ‘discuss, they ‘debated.’ Self-affirmation took precedence over the exchange of thoughts. Prevailing in a contest of persons and ideas was more important than reaching a better understanding of the subject at issue. Those traits are more pronounced today th...
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...