Gwynne Dyer - The Japan Times

November 26, 2024

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Gwynne Dyer

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Gwynne Dyer

Gwynne Dyer has worked as a journalist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years; his articles are published in 45 countries. His book, "Climate Wars," deals with the geopolitical implications of climate change and has been translated into Japanese, French, Russian, Chinese and a number of other languages.

COMMENTARY

Nov 27, 2008

Time to get tough with Somali pirates

On one side are the eight navies, the world's largest shipping companies, the rich Gulf states that need to get their oil to market, and the great powers, whose commerce depends heavily on the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa. On the other side are a few thousand Somali pirates in small boats...

COMMENTARY

Nov 18, 2008

Enlightened realism in Ukraine

LONDON — The brawl in the Ukrainian Parliament on Nov. 11 was an undignified ending to the country's two-month political crisis, but something important has changed. In the immediate aftermath of the Orange Revolution of 2004, the more extreme Ukrainian nationalists fantasized that the country could...

COMMENTARY

Nov 6, 2008

Obama and the limits of power

My favorite rumor about U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet is that he will create the post of Secretary of the Environment and offer it to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course, it's unlikely that Schwarzenegger would take the offer, because being governor of California is a much more satisfying...

COMMENTARY

Oct 30, 2008

Perfidious Albion and the Chagos Islanders

For arrogance, hypocrisy and nastiness, few organizations in the world rival the British Foreign Office. Exhibit A in the case against it, for the past decade, has been its marathon legal struggle to deny the former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands their rights. Last week, it cheated them again.

COMMENTARY

Oct 23, 2008

Africa and the unstoppable rise of English

Just over half of Africa's 52 countries speak French, but the number is dropping. This month Rwanda defected, announcing that henceforward only English will be taught in the schools. It would not be overstating the case to say that this caused alarm and despondency in France.

COMMENTARY

Oct 13, 2008

Afghan war is unwinnable

The main purpose of British generals, it sometimes seems, is to say aloud the things that American generals (and British diplomats) think privately but dare not say in public. Things like: "We're not going to win this war."

COMMENTARY

Oct 8, 2008

The truth comes too late

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was well aware that he resembled the generals who join a peace movement as soon as they retire. "I have not come here to justify my actions over the past 35 years," he said. "For a large portion of that period, I was unwilling to look reality in the eye."

COMMENTARY

Oct 6, 2008

Farewell to Thabo Mbeki

It was widely believed of South Africa's outgoing president, Thabo Mbeki, that the only time when he wasn't plotting was when he was asleep. More than his bizarre views on AIDS or even his failure to do much for South Africa's poor, it was that reputation as an inveterate plotter that finally brought...

COMMENTARY

Oct 1, 2008

Time for geoengineering?

Scientists have their own way of putting things. This is how Dr. Oerjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University announced the approach of a climate apocalypse in an e-mail sent recently from the Russian research ship "Jakob Smirnitskyi" in the Arctic Ocean.

COMMENTARY

Sep 24, 2008

Comrade Bush and the banks

LONDON — After Comrade George W. Bush nationalized the two giants of the U.S. mortgage market, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, earlier this month, Anatole Kaletsky wrote in The Times of London that "the most capitalist administration ever, in the world's most capitalist country, (has) decided to wipe out...

COMMENTARY

Sep 22, 2008

Brace for Bush's last hurrah

The good news is that U.S. President George W. Bush is not going to invade Iran before he leaves office. The bad news is that he is attacking Pakistan instead.

COMMENTARY

Sep 14, 2008

Oily moves to compensate

LONDON — Libya was the diplomatic crossroads of the planet last weekend: Condoleezza Rice made the first visit by a U.S. secretary of State in 55 years (to discuss a murky deal involving payments to American victims of terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by Libya); radical Bolivian President Evo...

COMMENTARY

Sep 10, 2008

Thailand: populism vs. privilege

Thaksin Shinawatra is shaping up to be the Juan Peron of Thailand, with the significant difference that he is a rich Peron. The billions he earned in his telecom businesses enabled him to rise to the top of Thai politics — and he used his power to shift wealth and power systematically from the rich...

COMMENTARY

Aug 31, 2008

Biden brings a liberal interventionist slant

LONDON — Barack Obama, we are told, chose Joe Biden to be his running mate because he needed an older man, more experienced in foreign policy, to fill the gaps in his resume and reassure American voters that the United States would be safe under an Obama presidency.

COMMENTARY

Aug 26, 2008

Missile defense scam scores points for all

LONDON — Cynicism and hypocrisy are always part of international politics, but in the case of Poland and the antiballistic missiles (ABM) everybody is over-fulfilling their norm.

COMMENTARY

Aug 13, 2008

Georgia's giant miscalculation

The war in South Ossetia is essentially over, and the Georgians have lost. There may be some more shooting yet, but it is now clear that Georgia will never regain control of the rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that President Mikhail Saakashvili has handed Russia a major victory, and...

COMMENTARY

Aug 10, 2008

Too many Israelis want to cling to a paradox

LONDON — "I am proud to be a citizen of a country where the prime minister can be investigated like an ordinary citizen," said Ehud Olmert on July 30, announcing that he would resign as prime minister in September to defend himself against corruption allegations. He should be even prouder: Three of...

COMMENTARY

Aug 7, 2008

Terrorism and the Games

"Safety is our top concern," said China's Vice President Xi Jinping in late July, pointing to the deployment of 100,000 troops around Beijing and the surface-to-air missile batteries that protect the main stadiums as proof of the regime's determination to ensure that no terrorist attack would disrupt...

COMMENTARY

Aug 4, 2008

Decider of nations' futures

LONDON — You have to hand it to the economics team at Goldman Sachs. It was they who came up with the concept of the "BRICs": the four big economies, in Brazil, Russia, India and China, that were going to catch up with and then overtake the big economies of the developed world.

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 2008

Radovan Karadzic falls victim to soft power

Radovan Karadzic's disguise was elaborate, but he didn't spend the past 13 years hiding from the Serbian authorities. They knew where he was all along. Only 10 days after the government changed, the police plucked him off the bus that he rode to work every day and started the process of extraditing him...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

The celebrated artist ‘updating’ the kimono

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