By Gordon M. Hahn January 30, 2020 The apparent overreaction by the U.S. to Iranian provocations represented by the assassination of Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Qassem Soleiman is one of the stronger blows to hit one of the most important nails in the coffin of U.S.-Russian relations: the revival of Russian-Western geopolitical competition outside Russia’s […]
By Jonathan Power Januar 7, 2020 In the Chinese government’s eyes it has three rebellious parts of China on its plate – Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Tibet, protestors from time to time have clashed with police and soldiers. In Hong Kong, the reform and freedom demonstrations are now in their eighth month. In […]
By Jonathan Power Januar 2, 2020 In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, Sherlock Holmes lectures Watson on the unlikely subject of free trade. Holmes: “Capital article this on free trade. Permit me to read you an extract from The Times: ‘You may be cajoled into imagining that your own special trade […]
October 25, 2019 Christine Tan from CNBC sits down with Huawei’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, to discuss the company’s attitude and response in the wake of being placed on the U.S. Entity List. How did the company’s leaders feel? Has the ban seriously affected international business? How is the company restructuring in order to […]
Photo: Jan Oberg 2018 Asia specialist and distinguished columnist David P Goldman is convinced the US and Europe stand a chance against the Red Dragon – but the clock is ticking By Urs Gehriger, New York He was a phantom among journalists, using the mysterious nom de plume, “Spengler.” Like his German philosopher namesake, the […]
By Sabena Siddiqui September 20, 2019 Facing an economic crisis in large part due to US sanctions, Iran soon may be aligning its policies toward China’s. Having recently updated the terms of a 25-year strategic partnership signed with Beijing in 2016, it looks like Tehran is indeed returning to its Look East foreign policy. Originally posted on […]
By Jonathan Power September 17, 2019 The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has long been controversial. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, Moscow protected communist and ultra-socialist dictators around the world from any attack on their human rights abuses. At the same time routine attacks on Israel, even the extravagant ones, were given […]
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment September 9, 2019 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is one of the world players who pushed Trump to breach the 2015 treaty with Iran. Trump then slapped the severest economic sanctions on Iran ever imposed on any country in the absence of war. Trump […]
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on August 26, 2019. Photo by IRNA. By Juan Cole September 9, 2019 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Beijing recently for what turns out to […]
Riot police fire tear gas at protesters as they head towards the central government’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun on Sunday. Photo: Sam Tsang in SCMS By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Directors of Popular Resistance August 20, 2019 Hong Kong is one of the most extreme examples of big finance, neoliberal capitalism in […]