OPINION

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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, …

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 …

NEW YORK – My book, A World in Disarray, was published five years ago this month. The book’s thesis was that the Cold War’s end did not usher in an era of greater stability, security, and peace, as many expected. Instead, what emerged was a world in which conflict was much more …

With a first snowfall in Bhutan behind us, winter is clearly here and weeks of wintry weather might well lie ahead. Yet, so too arrives the lunar new year this February and Losar this March, and the Year of the (Water) Tiger.  As we now welcome in 2022, who was …