In a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, which took place just hours before his sit-down with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, on February 27, US President Donald Trump invited his Vietnamese counterpart to visit his country this year, and the latter accepted the invitation. Though they did not say when the...Read More

Despite many hiccups along the road and differing conceptions of what form it would take, throughout the post-Cold War period both Russia and the European Union remained committed to the aim of creating a single European space from Lisbon to Vladivostok. That is, until 2014: Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the onset of the Ukraine...Read More

The Trump Administration’s furore over its trade standoff with an unyielding government in Beijing is rapidly evolving into an orchestrated series of targeted assaults on China’s corporate interests on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Washington’s most recent salvo involved calling in a favour from its close northern neighbour to assist in detaining Chinese telecoms...Read More

There are three major concerns with regard to Brexit for the UK: the internal UK economic and political damage caused by Brexit; the geo-political damage done to and by the UK in leaving the EU at a time of intensifying militant nationalism across not only Europe, but the world; the unconstitutional and undemocratic manner in...Read More

It is increasingly clear that for powerful elements of the Trump administration backed by the Israel lobby, the demand for a renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal is only a thin cover for a strategy of regime change in Iran. This has been explicitly stated by some of them. Mike Pompeo’s twelve demands to Iran...Read More

In his recent visit to the US, China’s President Hu Jintao was treated to an extravagant state banquet at the White House, an honour usually reserved for America’s closest friends and strategic partners and something denied to him in 2006. And the overall tone adopted by the leaders of the world’s two preeminent economic powers...Read More

About 25 countries have promised to send more troops to Afghanistan in response to President Obama’s call for extra support from Nato members. But France and Germany, the two European powers who could make a real difference, remain as hesitant as ever. French and German leaders now face a painful choice. Should they finally embrace...Read More

The title for this essay comes from the fact that contrary to the general Western perception, Pakistan does actually work as a country, not as well as many, but better than some; and that it is in no immediate danger of collapse, except as a result of misguided and reckless US policies. Pakistan is in...Read More