Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
A review of “The Long Game” by Rush Doshi (2021)
August 21st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Important and informative though “The Long Game” is, it is not an easy read. There are 400 pages of small and dense text with a good deal of repetition and almost 1,500 notes. But Rush Doshi knows what he is writing about and what he is writing about is of huge geopolitical significance. Doshi is […]
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On the 75th anniversary of independence for India, how much is there to celebrate?
August 16th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Politics in India is much rougher and much more corrupt that in the democracies of Europe and North America. Assassination is not uncommon: the revered Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, and the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 were all murdered, although it has to be noted that these […]
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Aircraft carriers: how many of them are there and who has them?
August 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Currently I’m reading a book by American researcher Rush Doshi entitled “The Long Game” and subtitled “China’s grand strategy to displace American order”. Recently I read the section on China’s development of aircraft carriers which led me to wonder: how many aircraft carriers are there in the world and which nations have them? As usual, […]
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How strong is China’s claim to Taiwan? And what about Mongolia?
August 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Taiwan has been settled for at least 25,000 years. Ancestors of Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island around 6,000 years ago. In the 17th century, large-scale Han Chinese immigration to western Taiwan began under a Dutch colony and continued under the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of […]
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Another match is lit in the tinder-dry Balkans
August 2nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It is something of a joke among my family and friends that, when I visit a country, shortly afterwards there is some sort of catastrophe or crisis. You can see what I mean from this blog posting. Now, it’s only a couple of months ago that […]
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A review of “The Age Of The Strongman” by Gideon Rachman (2022)
July 20th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Rachman is the chief foreign affairs columnist for the British newspaper the “Financial Times”. He has written a well-researched, immensely informative, very readable and – at least for my liberal sensibilities – insightful and balanced review of the rise over the past two decades of a series of political figures whom he calls the strongmen […]
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The tragedy of Sri Lanka
July 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
For months now, Sri Lanka has been in the grip of an economic crisis that has devastated the country and utterly impoverished most of its citizens. The latest news is that the Presidential Palace has been stormed and the Prime Minister’s home has been burned down. It is something of a joke among my family […]
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Ever heard of the Suwalki Gap?
April 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I doubt that you have – but many people in the Baltic States and in the Russian military are well aware that this is a short stretch of land, a mere 50 miles (100 kms), which is the only connection between the Baltic States and the rest of the European Union. On one side is […]
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The latest suffering by the people of Sri Lanka
April 7th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Over the past few months, Sri Lanka has been facing a dire financial crisis on multiple fronts, triggered partially by the impact of Covid-19, which battered the economy, as well as mounting foreign debts, rising inflation and economic mismanagement by the government, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The country barely has any foreign currency reserves […]
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Is Ukraine an artificial state, as President Putin suggests, or a true state, as President Zelensky argues? What constitutes a nation state anyway?
March 26th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
At present, I am reading a fascinating history of Ukraine: “Borderland” by Anna Reid. What is clear is that the reality of Ukraine as a nation state is a very recent one. For many centuries, most of what we now call Ukraine was ruled by Lithuania or Poland or a combination of the two. For […]
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