Saudi Arabia became the world’s largest arms importer from 2014 to 2018, accounting for 12 percent of the imports, an increase of 192 percent over 2009-2013, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). According to data for 2018, the United States continued to supply the bulk of arms to Saudi Arabia, accounting for […]
The United States has a long history of provoking, instigating, or launching wars based on dubious, flimsy, or manufactured threats….Today, the question in Washington—and surely in Tehran, too—is whether President Trump is making moves that will provoke, instigate, or inadvertently drag the United States into a war with Iran. Read Here – The New Yorker
The wide differences and deep distrust between the two powers has been highlighted again with the latest abrupt turn in the bilateral trade negotiations. With or without a trade deal, the turbulence in economic ties, widely viewed as the ballast of China-US relations, heralds more choppy waters ahead. Read Here – South China Morning Post
Globally, the past decade has been marked by the twin advances of authoritarianism and populism. The two are not always linked, but in situations ranging from the Philippines and Cambodia to Hungary and Poland, politicians have leveraged populist movements to seize power. Read Here – World Politics Review
Global warming is increasingly disrupting weather patterns and precipitation across the planet. In the Hindukush and Himalayan region, however, this will initially result in greater river flows by 2050-60 due to rapidly melting glaciers. Increase in water volumes will mean a higher risk of frequent floods, landslides, bursting of dams, soil erosion and crop failure. […]
Mr Jack Dorsey might have his political views and Mr Donald Trump might have many twigs to pick with Twitter, but there should not be any argument over who’s the best ambassador and brand builder for the social media platform. Read Here – ThisDayAndThat
Port City Colombo, an ambitious Chinese-funded project to build a new metropolis on a 665-acre island reclaimed from the sea, is set to rise just off the popular spot in a couple of decades. Rising in tandem, however, are concerns about the amount Beijing is lending Colombo, and the circumstances of those loans – with the controversial […]
In a world of troubles, the battle against climate change must take priority. That is the clear message of the 28 leading global think tanks that together comprise the Council of Councils (CoC). The CoC’s 2018-2019 Report Card on International Cooperation designates global warming as the top international priority for the first time in the report […]
Exactly one year after the Trump administration pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, tensions between Washington and Tehran are escalating sharply amid confusion about what, exactly, the U.S. sees as its end goal. For Iran, uncertainty about what President Donald Trump wants to achieve and what he is prepared to do to get there […]
The economic news is impressive: the lowest unemployment rate since 1969 and 3.2 percent economic growth in the first quarter. For President Trump, it raises the possibility of running an upbeat, Morning in America-style reelection campaign, like Ronald Reagan did in 1984. Except for one thing: Trump is congenitally unable to keep it sunny, or […]
looking beyond borders 