OPINION

GIANCARLO ELIA VALORI  If we want to study Israel’s political and military positions, we must at first analyse Syria.  For Israel the problem in Syria is Russia, although it is apparently Iran.  In fact, one of the de-escalation areas is in the Golan Heights  and certainly the Jewish …

Giancarlo Elia Valori Syria is the great rotating platform of the Middle East. Paraphrasing the statement by Mackinder, the well-known British geopolitician of the early twentieth century, “who  rules Syria commands the Middle East, who rules the Middle East controls Europe and Africa”. This is the profound meaning …

The refusal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to receive visiting US National Security Advisor John Bolton — who left for home with his head bowed in humiliation — raises many questions about the unexpected crisis that has erupted in American-Turkish relations. How serious is it? What steps …

More than half of the global population is represented at the annual G20 summit. Some 64% of the world’s population – 4.7 billion people – lives in one of the 43 countries represented in the G20. This is due in large part to the group’s inclusion of the …

Tom Clifford Making predictions, as common as they are at this time of year, are notoriously unreliable. Add China into the mix and fate will be tempted to a dangerous degree. An inconvenient anniversary But there is one thing we can say about China in 2019 that is …

Michael Heisi 2018 was not a good year for investors. Not only did the global equity markets end the year with losses, there was also little money to be made from investments in commodities, gold or high-yield government and corporate bonds. One main lesson that ought to be …

Andy Duncan Are we beginning to witness more of a sea-change in the world? We see President Donald Trump in the United States attempting to roll back some of the American state. We see Chancellor Sebastian Kurz attempting to roll back some of the Austrian state. And now …

Paul Buchheit The distorted belief that wealthy individuals and corporations are job creators has led to sizeable business subsidies and tax breaks. The biggest giveaway is often overlooked: corporations use our nation’s plentiful resources, largely at no cost, to build their profits. There are several factual and well-established …

Imran Hosein Eschatology makes a distinction between the end of history and the end of the World. There are two separate events. The World will end when the mountains are going to become pieces of cotton. The World will end when the present material Universe will be transformed into …