Month: September 2021

BBiden Haitian deportations

Trumpism With A Biden Face: US Haitian Policy

With that orange haired brute of a president supposedly ushered out of the White House with moralising delight, the Biden administration was all keen to turn over a new leaf. There would be more diplomacy, and still more diplomacy. There would be a more humanitarian approach to refugees and asylum […]

BELGIUM-NATO-SUMMIT

How Much Will It Cost To Enlarge NATO?

On 8 September, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of America’s leading security and foreign policy think tanks, published a study on NATO enlargement. Its main emphasis was on the requirements of NATO’s armed forces and the costs involved. The very publication of the study is fairly symptomatic. […]

Javad Zarif with Taliban

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XX)

20. Iran takes good look at Taliban rulers Some strongly worded statements from Iran deploring the clashes in Panjshir Valley created a perception that Tehran might be distancing itself from the Taliban government. Of course, Tehran is vociferously urging the formation of an ‘inclusive government’ in Kabul. On the other […]

Family photo of the 20th summit SCO

Reflections On Events In Afghanistan (XIX)

19. SCO won’t be subaltern to QUAD As expected, the situation in Afghanistan was the focal point of the discussions at the 20th summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe on Friday. Yet, the SCO’s Dushanbe Declaration is scanty on the topic. The 8300-word document devoted hardly […]

Australia’s Submarine

AUKUS Is A Serious Threat To The Region

AUKUS is a new challenge. NATO and Quad were not strong enough to fulfill the American dreams. So that they created a new Alliance with Australia, and the UK, known as “AUKUS”. Furthermore, US president Joe Biden has indicated to equip Australia with Nuclear Submarines. Was there any need to […]

Jakarta

The Right To Clean Air In Jakarta

It seems utterly beyond debate but acknowledging legal rights to clean air has assumed the makings of a slow march over the years. The 1956 Clean Air Act in Britain arose from the lethal effects of London’s 1952 killer smog, which is said to have taken some 12,000 lives. The […]

HMAS Waller

Up Perescope!

Australia has been a very close US ally – one could even say protectorate – since the beginning of World War II. A US Marine formation is based there. The US Navy makes routine port and maintenance calls in Australia, which lies right on the dividing line between the Indian […]

AUKUS

The Anglo Unilateralists Strike

When President Joe Biden won the White House, he promised, with a facility of unceasing boredom, that diplomacy was back. “Diplomacy is back at the centre of our foreign policy,” he stated on February 4. “As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with […]

Noetic life

A Noetic Life

The Native Peoples of Alaska and the far north really do have over 50 words for snow. In total, there are around 180 words for snow and ice. There is “aqilokoq” for “softly falling snow” and “piegnartoq” for “the snow [that is] good for driving a sled.” There is also “utuqaq,” […]