TOKYO – Across Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has spurred a rethink of virtually all dimensions of security, from defense to energy. The war’s likely impact on security in East Asia, especially in Taiwan and Japan, has received far less attention. But the coming transformation may turn out to be …
Read More »Will Chemical Weapons Be Used in Ukraine?
LONDON – Russia has claimed, without evidence, that the United States is operating biowarfare laboratories in Ukraine. The US has dismissed the allegations as “preposterous,” and – along with NATO leaders – warned that the Kremlin might be seeking to manufacture a pretext for using chemical or biological weapons in its flailing military …
Read More »Putin’s War Is Damaging the Developing World
NEW DELHI – It is difficult to see any winners in the ongoing war caused by Russia’s irrational and devastating invasion of Ukraine. But the losers extend far beyond the people of Ukraine, who are being attacked, and the people of Russia, who did not choose this war but now must …
Read More »The Not So Bashful Paper
By Kencho Wangdi (Bonz) For ‘The Bhutanese’ the view is never far REPORTING the news in a small, close-knit society where everyone knows everyone by sight or by name is an enterprise laced with conflict. It’s a job riddled with personal, financial and psychological perils with booby-traps high and low …
Read More »Boris Johnson’s Last Affair?
CAMBRIDGE – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the enfant terrible of British politics, is currently embroiled in a very British scandal. As in the recent eponymous BBC television miniseries based on the infamous 1963 Argyll v. Argyll case, at stake is a high-profile divorce. But, this time, the potential split is political. And Johnson’s supposed Teflon …
Read More »Hold the Line- Opinion
I am all for holding the government of the day accountable, be it on the slip ups leading to the first, second and the third national lockdowns or other lapses like the recent death of the 34-year-old kidney patient in a hotel. We at The Bhutanese have pursued these stories …
Read More »Realism About Foreign-Policy Realism and Ukraine
CAMBRIDGE – Was the current crisis in Ukraine caused by a lack of realism in US foreign policy? According to some analysts, the liberal desire to spread democracy is what drove NATO’s expansion up to Russia’s borders, causing Russian President Vladimir Putin to feel increasingly threatened. Viewed from this perspective, …
Read More »The Fed’s Mad Scramble
NEW HAVEN – The US Federal Reserve has turned on a dime, an uncharacteristic about-face for an institution long noted for slow and deliberate shifts in monetary policy. While the Fed’s recent messaging (it hasn’t really done anything yet) is not as creative as I had hoped, at least it has recognized …
Read More »How Facebook Became the Opium of the Masses
PRAGUE – In the war on disinformation, the enemy can be hard to determine. Journalists, politicians, governments, and even grandparents have been accused of enabling the spread of online falsehoods. While none of these groups is entirely innocent, the real adversary is more mundane. As Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified late last year, …
Read More »Whatever Happened to Soft Power?
CAMBRIDGE – As 2021 drew to a close, Russia had massed troops near its border with Ukraine; China had flown military jets near Taiwan; North Korea was still pursuing its nuclear-weapons program; and Taliban fighters were patrolling the streets of Kabul. Seeing all this, friends asked me: “Whatever happened to …
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