Gwynne Dyer
Follow Gwynne Dyer on:
World View: Might Russia use its 'tactical' nukes?
Putin started hinting heavily that he might use nuclear weapons if other countries intervened to prevent his conquest of Ukraine on the very first day of the war.
By Gwynne Dyer
Sep. 2, 2022
Italy: The hard right nears power
Giorgia Meloni, the hard-right populist politician who is likely to win that election, rejects any comparison with that ugly past.
By Gwynne Dyer
Sep. 23, 2022
World View: Is Putin bluffing about nukes?
Maybe he is just trading on that reputation now, and he really is bluffing this time, but there is no point in following him down that rabbit hole.
By Gwynne Dyer
Sep. 30, 2022
World View: Where is everybody? The human speed limit
As the warming proceeds and the world’s remaining ice melts, sea level rise is going to become a grave problem for every country with a coastline.
By Gwynne Dyer
Oct. 7, 2022
Tigray, Ethiopia and other African wars
His thesis would be more convincing if most Yemenis and Afghans and almost all Syrians were not white.
By Gwynne Dyer
Oct. 21, 2022
Iran: All options are bad
He may even believe that (he doesn’t get out much), but either way the die is cast. In order to overthrow the regime that the younger generation now reject, they will have to fight it.
By Gwynne Dyer
Oct. 28, 2022
World View: Musk: The benign sociopath
Musk sort of realised that buying Twitter was a mistake after his initial enthusiasm died down
By Gwynne Dyer
Nov. 4, 2022
World View: War: We are not children
The Pope means well, but he is barking up the wrong tree.
By Gwynne Dyer
Nov. 11, 2022
China: The 30-year rule
However, this period lasts, on average, for about three decades and then growth falls back to the familiar old 2%-3% annually.
By Gwynne Dyer
Nov. 18, 2022
COP27: A glass half full
So much for the philosophy. What actually happened at Sharm-al-Sheikh?
By Gwynne Dyer
Nov. 25, 2022
World View: Russo-Ukraine winter war
Kyiv should settle for the best deal it can get while it still has the advantage militarily.
By Gwynne Dyer
Dec. 9, 2022
World View: Peru to Germany — Two coups and some random speculation
The country is going through a bad patch, but its people have concluded that respect for the constitution is good, while coups and dictators are bad.
By Gwynne Dyer
Dec. 16, 2022
SA: The overstuffed couch
The point he was making was that the future South Africa that would have delighted him in 1984, but appalled him in 1994, was exactly the same country.
By Gwynne Dyer
Dec. 23, 2022
The next Ukrainian offensive
Do not be distracted by the Russian missiles and drones bombarding Ukrainian cities.
By Gwynne Dyer
Jan. 6, 2023
Military kills: A shocking disclosure
That was Prince Harry fulfilling his contractual obligation to spill his guts in his new book Spare.
By Gwynne Dyer
Jan. 13, 2023
Return of the alliances
But they often also ended up fighting people they had no quarrel with.
By Gwynne Dyer
Jan. 20, 2023
World View: Ukraine: Will Western tanks bring victory?
The Doomsday Clock was thought up in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to dramatise the threat of nuclear war.
By Gwynne Dyer
Jan. 27, 2023
On the persistence of politicians
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s soon-to-be ex-prime minister, has created her own “happy juncture”.
By Gwynne Dyer
Jan. 27, 2023
World View: How to avoid a war with China
This is fostering a fatalistic belief that a war between China and America is inevitable not only in the US, but to a lesser extent also in China.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 3, 2023
A bad case of cultural lag
Babiš denied any involvement in that deceit, but his campaign tried to drum up fear of war between Nato and Russia and stressed that he was not aligned with the “reckless” West.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 3, 2023
World View: Two failed populist coups: Compare and contrast
Bolsonaro wasn’t even in Brazil. He was in Orlando, Florida, United States when things kicked off in Brasilia. He too had failed to get the military’s support.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 10, 2023
‘Geo-engineering’ scam
The “hurricane” was the explosion of the Mount Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines in 1991, which boosted 17 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide (SO2 ) into the stratosphere.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 10, 2023
Israel in 2024: Some predictions
Pfeffer doesn’t mean that there will be no more elections or that the Knesset (parliament) will be shut down.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 17, 2023
Earthquakes and the blame
Strong concrete floors and vertical columns separating them, both steel-reinforced, cost a bit more, of course, but they keep your people alive. If you live in an earthquake zone, that’s what you do.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 17, 2023
World View: Ukraine war and international law
Macron is seen as “soft” on Russia by many observers
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 24, 2023
Has the floaty-bag problem been solved?
The Chinese balloon had propellers and a rudder, so it was steerable within limits.
By Gwynne Dyer
Feb. 24, 2023
Making lethal molecules
It took Porton Down almost a decade to develop it from the German nerve gases that the British discovered at the end of the Second World War.
By Gwynne Dyer
Mar. 3, 2023
Israeli pogrom in Palestine
Huwara is in the northern West Bank. Nobody there under the age of 60 can recall a time when they didn’t live under Israeli military rule
By Gwynne Dyer
Mar. 10, 2023
World View: Cyclone Freddy and the ice: Messages from the future
Cyclone Freddy started in the usual place, off northwestern Australia
By Gwynne Dyer
Mar. 17, 2023
ICC arrest warrant on Putin
The two invasions are linked. Bush’s wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq broke the key law on which we built the post-1945 “rule of law” in international affairs.
By Gwynne Dyer
Mar. 24, 2023
Premium
Zanu PF affiliates split over 2030 plot
News
By Nqobani Ndlovu and Tinashe Kairiza
Dec. 1, 2024
Premium
Weaponising hunger: Politicisation of food aid in rural Zimbabwe persists amidst drought
News
Dec. 1, 2024