If the world is indeed entering a new Cold War, it bears little resemblance to the final years of that global conflict with its frequent summits between smiling leaders and its arms agreements aimed at de-escalating nuclear tensions. Instead, the world today seems more like the perilous first decade of that old Cold War, marked by bloody regional conflicts, threats[Read More…]
From his first days in office, Joe Biden and his national security advisers seemed determined to revive America’s fading global leadership via the strategy they knew best — challenging the “revisionist powers” Russia and China with a Cold War-style aggressiveness. When it came to Beijing, the president combined the policy initiatives of his predecessors, pursuing Barack Obama’s “strategic pivot” from[Read More…]
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in the Struggle over Eurasia Just as the relentless grinding of the earth’s tectonic plates produces earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, so the endless superpower struggle for dominance over Eurasia is fraught with tensions and armed conflict. Beneath the visible outbreak of war in Ukraine and the U.S.-Chinese naval standoff in the South China Sea, there[Read More…]
Consider us at the edge of the sort of epochal change not seen for centuries, even millennia. By the middle of this century, we will be living under such radically altered circumstances that the present decade, the 2020s, will undoubtedly seem like another era entirely, akin perhaps to the Middle Ages. And I’m not talking about the future development of[Read More…]
Throughout 2021, Americans were absorbed in arguments over mask mandates, school closings, and the meaning of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot spots were erupting across Eurasia, forming a veritable ring of fire around that vast land mass. Let’s circle that continent to visit just a few of those flashpoints, each one suffused with significance for[Read More…]
When midnight strikes on New Year’s Day of 2050, there will be little cause for celebration. There will, of course, be the usual toasts with fine wines in the climate-controlled compounds of the wealthy few. But for most of humanity, it’ll just be another day of adversity bordering on misery — a desperate struggle to find food, water, shelter, and safety. In[Read More…]
When the leaders of more than 100 nations gathered in Glasgow for the U.N. climate conference last week, there was much discussion about the disastrous effect of climate change on the global environment. There was, however, little awareness of its likely political impact on the current world order that made such an international gathering possible. World orders are deeply rooted global systems[Read More…]
As an eyewitness, I can recall the events of January 6th in Washington as if they were yesterday. The crowds of angry loyalists storming the building while overwhelmed security guards gave way. The slavishly loyal vice-president who would, the president hoped, restore him to power. The crush of media that seemed confused, almost overwhelmed, by the crowd’s fury. The waiter[Read More…]
A Debacle Marks the Decline of Washington’s World Leadership The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp. “Remember, this is not Saigon,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a television audience on August 15th, the[Read More…]
Fifty years ago, on June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon stood before the White House press corps, staffers at his side, to announce “a new, all-out offensive” against drug abuse, which he denounced as “America’s public enemy number one.” He called on Congress to contribute $350 million for a worldwide attack on “the sources of supply.” The first battle in this new[Read More…]
Many of us have had a recurring nightmare. You know the one. In a fog between sleeping and waking, you’re trying desperately to escape from something awful, some looming threat, but you feel paralyzed. Then, with great relief, you suddenly wake up, covered in sweat. The next night, or the next week, though, that same dream returns. For politicians of[Read More…]
Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today. By 1956, Britain had exploited its global empire shamelessly[Read More…]
After four years of Donald Trump’s fitful tenure, America is awakening from a long, troubled sleep to discover, like the fictional character Rip Van Winkle, that the world it once knew has changed beyond all recognition. In that classic American tale by Washington Irving published in 1819, an amiable but shiftless farmer strolls out of his colonial village to go[Read More…]
Calculating the Damage from a Century of Drug Prohibition We live in a time of change, when people are questioning old assumptions and seeking new directions. In the ongoing debate over health care, social justice, and border security, there is, however, one overlooked issue that should be at the top of everyone’s agenda, from Democratic Socialists to libertarian Republicans: America’s[Read More…]
Once upon a time in America, we could all argue about whether or not U.S. global power was declining. Now, most observers have little doubt that the end is just a matter of timing and circumstance. Ten years ago, I predictedthat, by 2025, it would be all over for American power, a then-controversial comment that’s commonplace today. Under President Donald Trump,[Read More…]
Crisis Prolongs In Peru, State Of Emergency Extended 
Why did Tulsidas ask his God Rama to punish Shudras and women not Mughal rulers? 
Rain and Heat, Fire and Snow – Life in a Destabilized California 
Ukrainian refugees are becoming a burden to the Baltic states 
Budget is a golden age for corporates but a mirage for farmers, Dalit, tribals 
Why Government Clarification on NREGA Budget Cut is Not Convincing 
The incredible story of how East African culture shaped the music of a state in India 
Why is Telangana blocking the entry of poor children into private schools? 
The Indian Republic and its unproductive 49% 
Melbourne University Adopts Anti-Semitic & Holocaust-Ignoring IHRA Definition Of Anti-Semitism 
LA VIE EN ROSE 
Working With Generation Alpha 
The Hope Lies With The Generation Z 
Ihan Omar Removed from Foreign Affairs Committee 
80th anniversary of Battle of Stalingrad 
Fraternity @ Frontiers 
Forever Chemicals, Everywhere 
Grossly Inadequate Budget Allocation for NREGA in FY 2023-24 
White Revolution of India—Myths and Reality 
Has SEBI investigated overseas companies reported to be related to the Adani Group? 
Ukrainian Army Injured Ukrainian Civilians With Illegal Mines: Human Rights Watch 
A War Where Even Victory May Come in the Form of An Unprecedented Calamity 
Ennu Swantham Sreedharan – A Moving Tale of Examples that Go Over Precepts 
US and China cooperation In building and linking super-grids 
Diplomatic Cables Prove Top U.S. Officials Knew They Were Crossing Russia’s Red Lines on NATO Expansion 
The Votes That Weren’t Cast 
50th death anniversary of Amilcar Cabral 
Hindenburg Affair: More to It Than Meets The Eye Unanswered Questions 
Aerial Bombings in Chhattisgarh: CDRO Fact Finding Team Stopped 
Palestine: Platitudes Don’t Bring Peace Union Budget 2023-24: Betrayal to the people of India 
Toughest Reaction To Any Military Attempt Of U.S., Warns North Korea 
Kashmir Imbroglio: Creating Binary between Nehru and Patel! 
Remembering Shanti Bhushan 
The Black Gold(s) 
The Schadenfreude of Brexit 
Palestine is My Cause: Arabs Reaffirm Support for Palestinians, Rejection of the Occupation 
NPC Calls for Release of Journalist Austin Tice 
Anger, Yes Fascism NO!! 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
