The rise of a more politically and militarily assertive Russia and an economically and institutionally ascendant China may be characterised as the two principal forces challenging the United States in global policymaking. Read Here – The Diplomat
A Trump victory could be followed by a rapprochement with Russia. This could mean lifting of Treasury sanctions on the Kremlin and a boost to investment in Russian energy assets. Does any of that sound bullish to the oil price? More investment in Russian infrastructure surely means more oil capacity from the world’s largest producer, […]
Brexit was the warm-up. With the election of Donald Trump, the populist tide sweeping developed economies has now overtaken the world’s most powerful democracy. What exactly that means for the rest of the world depends upon just how serious the real estate developer and reality TV star was about his campaign pledges. Those ranged from […]
Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. The billionaire businessman who never before held elected office shocked America and the world, defeating Hillary Clinton in an extraordinary rebuke to the nation’s political class after an ugly and divisive race that will go down as the most stunning upset in […]
The tumultuous events that have swept the Mideast like a whirling sandstorm have hardly abated; crises and conflict are now entrenched. Thus, looking back at the results of President Barack Obama’s two-term legacy, it’s clear we are facing a Mideast meltdown with dangerous and far-reaching consequences for the region and the world at large. Read […]
Near the beginning of President Barack Obama’s final speech to the United Nations General Assembly, he pointed out something really important about the world today: We are living through the best time in human history, but it feels to a lot of us like anything but. Read Here – Vox
India’s SCO membership could now play a bigger role in ensuring greater energy cooperation between energy producers and consumers by linking Central Asia and South Asia, wherein Iran can be instrumental in facilitating the SCO Energy Club by becoming a major energy trading hub through the opening up of its Chabahar port. Read Here – […]
Cyber operations are also an essentially asymmetric tool, in that they level the playing field between nations that may have wide disparities in terms of the effectiveness of their conventional forces. However, this cuts both ways, as the United States also conducts a considerable number of cyber operations in support of intelligence collection. This leads […]
Russia’s recent use of an Iranian air base to bomb targets across Syria marks a striking new development in the history of Russian-Iranian relations. Throughout the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, Iran had unsuccessfully resisted Russian designs to control its land and influence its politics. Iran’s 1979 revolution was meant, among other things, […]
Détente 2.0 would entail the renunciation, in writing, of NATO’s plans to invite Ukraine and Georgia, coupled with Moscow’s recognition that both countries retain the right to join whatever economic or political union they desire; a draw-down of Russian and NATO forces in the Baltics region; the cancellation of Western sanctions on Russia, and vice […]
