Defying the expectations of many Western commentators, the Afghan Taliban has proven entirely sincere in its pledge to shut down the local drug trade, in spite of the fact that it was also the largest source of income for the impoverished nation.
Craig Mokhiber stepped down from his position as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, posting a letter to his boss accusing Israel of carrying out “a textbook case of genocide” in Gaza and the West Bank.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has publicly rejected the notion that the continuing Israeli military attacks on Gaza represent a legitimate response to the threat of the Islamist Palestinian militant group Hamas.
A popular video game set in a fantasy world triggered an online debate among Japanese, highlighting ideas and social attitudes regarding anti-black racism.
Thousands gathered in Berlin late last month to demand Germany pursue peace talks with Russia over Ukraine. Reaction to the “Revolt for Peace” rally, organized by outspoken leftwing politician Sahra Wagenknecht, has exposed deep divisions within the German left on diplomatic policies.
US economic sanctions on Russia and Iran have pushed the two countries closer by supplying them with a common need for security policy cooperation as well as trading opportunities outside of Western markets. The two nations are looking for new opportunities to work together, and one result is an Iranian military drone factory being built inside Russia.
Ivan Parker Hall, author of landmark book Cartels of the Mind: Japan’s Intellectual Closed Shop, died in Berlin on February 1, 2023, at age 90.
For years the internationally-recognized government of Somalia, based in Mogadishu, has been in a running battle with the Al-Shabab insurgency, but recent advances by the Somali Armed Forces, backed by the US military, as well as division within the Islamist movement itself, appears to have put Al-Shabab on the back foot.
Western experts and military officials continue to issue dates for a prospective China invasion of Taiwan. The latest such example is a prediction by US Air Force General Mike Minihan that a war will occur between the United States and China over Taiwan in 2025. This was written in a memo which was obtained by the news media.
Pushing Japan to remilitarize was never, and still is not, a good idea. This is not just because an arms race in Asia is the last thing the region needs. But also because Japan, consistently unable to face up to its own history, is simply not the country to represent the world’s liberal democracies in Asia, especially as a military power.
