Global Geopolitics

Russia Hoping Cuba Can Help Spur Trade with Latin America

By Peter J. Marzalik
Amid deteriorating relations with the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking to diversify a Russian economy that is tightly linked to European markets. Fittingly, an old Soviet-era satellite state seems eager to lend a helping hand.

North’s Policies Affecting South’s Economies

By Yilmaz Akyüz
Since the onset of the crisis, the South Centre has argued that policy responses to the crisis by the European Union and the United States has suffered from serious shortcomings that would delay recovery and entail unnecessary losses of income and jobs, and also endanger future growth and stability. 

Big Business Opportunities Seduce BRICS Entrepreneurs

By Mario Osava
The growing vitality of the group of countries made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), which is beginning to formalise its institutions even as it tries to bridge very disparate realities, seems to be partly cemented by increasing links between its companies.

U.S., Obama’s Image Remains Positive Worldwide

By Jim Lobe
While Republicans and other right-wingers claim that President Barack Obama has inflicted unprecedented damage on Washington’s global reputation, a major new global survey suggests that the image of the U.S. remains generally positive.

Proposed Arms Embargo on Syria a Political Mockery

By Thalif Deen
When the 15-member Security Council, the most powerful body at the United Nations, fails to resolve a military conflict, it invariably exercises one of its tried, and mostly failed, options: punish the warring parties by imposing punitive sanctions.

OPINION: Japan Remains Committed to ‘Advancing Vibrant Diplomacy’

By Isamu Ueda
In recent years, Japan has found itself it in a rapidly changing security environment. The global balance of power has shifted and various new threats have emerged within the region, including the development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile systems that may soon be capable of delivering them.

Europe and the United States, Allies in Crisis

By Joaquín Roy
A few decades ago, even before the end of the Cold War and before and after Ronald Reagan’s election to the White House, analyses regularly referred to U.S. decadence. At other times, it was Europe’s turn for pessimistic descriptions, especially when it could not overcome its ambivalence over deepening integration, and above all because of the failure of its constitutional project. 

Khamenei Remarks Show Both Sides Maneuvre on Enrichment

By Gareth Porter
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s comments on the nuclear talks Monday provided an unusual glimpse of diplomatic maneuvering by the U.S.-led coalition of five nuclear powers and Germany on the issue of enrichment capability to be allowed in a comprehensive agreement.

Ever Wondered Why the World is a Mess?

By Roberto Savio
While the Third World War has not been formally declared, conflicts throughout the world are reaching levels unseen since 1944.

Syria’s Chemicals Haunt the Mediterranean

By Apostolis Fotiadis
Scientists and local communities are expressing serious concern about the ongoing destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal on board a vessel in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.

Bahrain’s Expulsion of U.S. Official Sets Back Ties, Reform Hopes

By Jim Lobe
Monday’s expulsion order by Bahrain against a visiting senior U.S. official has set back tentative hopes for internal reforms that could reconcile the kingdom’s Sunni-led government with its majority Shia community and drawn a sharp protest from Washington.

Is Japan’s Peace Constitution Dead?

By John Feffer
Japan has functioned under its “peace constitution” for nearly 70 years. The distinctive Article 9, which prevents the country from conducting war as a means of resolving international conflict, is showing its age.

Cuba-United States – Something Is Moving

By Ignacio Ramonet
In ‘Hard Choices’, her new book about her experiences as Secretary of State during U.S. President Barack Obama’s first term (2008-2012), Hillary Clinton writes something of prime importance about Cuba – she says that late in her term in office she urged Obama to reconsider the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Lebanon’s Closed Doors for Palestinian Refugees

By Mutawalli Abou Nasser
Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in Syria have been uprooted since the violent government crackdown on the uprising and the ensuing battles that ensnared their communities. For around 50,000 of them, Lebanon was their only safe route out but now it seems this door is being closed on them.

Balkans Still Overshadowed by World War I

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
The 100-year anniversary of World War I (1914-18) may have come and gone, but the role of Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip – the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – remains controversial in the turbulent history of the Balkans. For some he was a terrorist, for others a hero.

Gun Lobbyists, Minus Weapons, Gather at World Body

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations hosted its biennial review meeting on the illicit trade in small arms last month, the conference room was overflowing both with pro-gun and anti-gun lobbyists.

U.S. Demand for Deep Centrifuge Cut Is a Diplomatic Ploy

By Gareth Porter
With only a few weeks remaining before the Jul. 20 deadline, the Barack Obama administration issued a warning to Iran that it must accept deep cuts in the number of its centrifuges in order to demonstrate that its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Syrian Kurds Have Their Own TV Against All Odds

By Karlos Zurutuza
Rudi Mohamed Amid gives his script one quick, last glance before he goes live. "Roj bas, Kurdistan (Good morning, Kurdistan)," he greets his audience, with the assuredness of a veteran journalist. However, hardly anyone at Ronahi, Syrian Kurds' first and only television channel, had any media experience before the war.

OPINION: U.S. Blames Victims of its own Failed Foreign Policies

By H.L.D. Mahindapala
The events unraveling in the Middle East have proved that the vaunted “Arab Spring” has turned into a searing summer of wildfires exploding unpredictably in diverse Islamic fronts without competent firemen to hose down the unmanageable conflagration.

U.S.: What Is the Greatest Threat of Them All?

By Jim Lobe
This month’s stunning campaign by Sunni insurgents led by the radical Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL) against the mainly Shi’a government of Iraqi President Nouri Al-Maliki is stoking a growing debate here about the hierarchy of threats facing the United States in the Middle East and beyond.

EU Aims to Scuttle Treaty on Human Rights Abuses

By Thalif Deen
When the United Nations began negotiating a Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations (TNCs) back in the 1970s, the proposal never got off the ground because of vigourous opposition both from the powerful business community and its Western allies.
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