Even prior to last week’s doubling of steel and aluminium tariffs on Ankara and Washington’s sanctioning of two major Turkish ministers of state, Turkey’s President Erdogan made it clear that he felt a western hand was behind the recent downward trend in the value of the Lira vis-a-vis the US […]
A new era for the Caspian states The collapse of the Soviet Union shifted the balance of power in the Caspian Sea as the body of water that had previously been surrounded by two nations was now surrounded by five. Today, after decades of often tense negotiations, The Russian Federation, […]
When he was elected to the Philippine Presidency in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte promised clean government not only in terms of how he would conduct the daily business of the state but in terms of bringing to justice officials across the board who engage in corrupt activities to the detriment of […]
Autarky is typically defined as an extreme variety of economic self-sufficiency while it is otherwise defined as operating on the basis of a closed economy. While the modern era has never seen a fully autarkic economy, the 20th century examples most readily singled out as examples of pseudo-autarky are Albania […]
There are many counter-intuitive advantages to a nation with an educated and vibrant workforce modernising its industry later than many other nations of a similar size. By the late 19th and early 20th century, German industry was in many respects far more advanced than its British, French or Belgian counterparts […]
Capital punishment (the death penalty) may well be making a comeback as both ordinary people and political leaders grow tired of the excesses inherent in prioritising the “rights” of criminals over those of law abiding members of society. For developing countries in particular, the issue is becoming a major sticking […]
In geopolitical relations, partnerships are formed as much on the basis of having shared goals as they are on the basis of facing shared challenges. While the modern histories of Iran and Turkey are highly divergent and while prior to the 20th century the Ottoman and Persian empires were great […]
A nation cannot survive if it sacrifices its national characteristics to universalist trends. When a nation acts against its own inherent collective nature due to a lust for some alleged higher ideal, one often finds that discontent rather than social harmony is the typical endgame in such experiments. While it […]
With Donald Trump doubling existing steel and aluminium tariffs against Turkey while decrying the present state of relations between Washington and Ankara, it is clear that Washington’s economic war against Turkey which had raged prior to the 10th of August is now official and being conducted openly. While global markets […]
While the United States has had a history of military unilateralism that long predates the election of Donald Trump, global markets tended to rely on the US as not only a strong but a predictable and stable economic partner. While the US under Trump is domestically strong as indicated by […]
