By Andy Tyborg The ground invasion was held up overnight but recommenced on Thursday morning. Can international pressure and the U.S. Congress prevent a massacre? What began with bluster at 10:37 Wednesday night following the Turkish defense ministry’s announcement of a ground incursion into Syria quickly failed to …
Read More »Scheer says ‘corporate welfare’ would be a Conservative target in first 100 days of government
By Andy Blatchford Andrew Scheer began on Saturday to lay out what he would do in the first 100 days of a Conservative government — and he pledged to pin an early bull’s-eye on what he called “frivolous spending.” With a little over a week until election day, …
Read More »The evolution of Justin Trudeau
By Tonda MacCharles After a stinging 2011 defeat, the Liberal Party licked its wounds and began to cast about for a new leader. And Justin Trudeau decided to quit. Although he had just been re-elected, Trudeau told anyone who asked that he would not be in the running …
Read More »On immigration, Liberals and Conservatives agree on targets but not on how to get there
By Alex Boutilier Bruce Campion-Smith In the months leading up to the federal election, many political observers in Ottawa thought immigration issues would figure prominently in the campaign. The Conservative opposition had spent months between 2017 and 2019 hammering the Liberal government on their handling of a spike …
Read More »Trump’s China Deal Yields Plenty of Questions, and Critics
Shawn Donnan Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. With the partial agreement with China that he announced Friday, President Donald Trump is back in dealmaker mode after months of escalation. That doesn’t mean, though, that the new …
Read More »War of shadows: The psychological and media dimension of future clashes
Giancarlo Elia Valori The Soviets called it “the shadow theatre”, i.e. the set of psychological warfare techniques of the time, in the Cold War world. Maskirovka, in particular, e.g. everything is camouflage, deception, real psychological warfare, disinformation. In fact, if we analyze the psywar techniques currently used, …
Read More »Donald Trump’s Syria Withdrawal: Are We Asking the Right Questions?
Paul R. Pillar Critics of the decision to withdraw seldom address the long-term question of how their recommended course of action ends. The vision seems to be a permanent U.S. protectorate of a Kurdish-controlled part of a still-divided Syria, with a never-ending American troop presence that doesn’t really …
Read More »State Department Snafu: Turkey Was Never Given a Green Light to Invade Syria
Matthew Petti The Trump administration will neither support the Turkish operation in northern Syria nor opposite it with military force. It will simply sit back and watch the chaos unfold from afar. The Trump administration is working behind-the-scenes to mediate a ceasefire between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds, …
Read More »China’s new military technologies
Giancarlo Elia Valori According to some international press and media sources, China is investing significant sums of money in some dual-use technologies – i.e. both civilian and military at the same time – which would have powerful innovative effects, both in the commercial and in the defence sectors. …
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