The international discourse on the way ahead as regards Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, its threatening spread west- and southwards and its real and potential strategic links to America’s (and Israel’s) war with Iran has now, after a series…
Kategoriarkiv: Omvärldsläget
After UNGA , Now what….? War or compromise over Iran?
The UN General Assembly has come…and gone, leaving the world not much wiser as regards outcomes and ways ahead on today´s large and globally painful conflicts, be they Ukraine, or Middle East and Israel’s US-supported wars with Hamas in Gaza, Palestini…
Ett tragiskt tjugofemårsminne
I dagarna mindes vi den förskräckliga händelsen när Al Qaida för 25 år sedan angrep World Trade Center i New York och Pentagon i Washington. Och för fem år sedan skedde en annan förskräcklig händelse, den dramatiska, USA-ledda evakueringen ur Afghanist…
Afghanistan 5 years after the US surrender to the Taliban: Some reflections – And some weeks before the 9/11 25 years anniversary
“Washington /needs/ to apply stricter standards when deciding to get involved in conflicts abroad. The choice to intervene should be determined not by sweeping ideological commitments nor by blind reliance upon American power but by a careful calculati…
Trumps mardröm och den stora oredan i Mellanöstern
För Donald Trump – om han vore en normal politiker – måste det allmänna läget i Mellanöstern, särskilt om man lägger detta tema bredvid det rysk-ukrainska dramat, te sig som något av en mardröm av ständiga förvecklingar, motigheter, bakslag, snarare än…
The Air War That Is Teaching Itself
Impressed by the complexities of current trends in the domain of air warfare, this author thought it useful to seek AI answers to a series of specific prompted questions both as regards developments drones in different domains, ground, water, air (and …
Turkey one week after the NATO Summit, 10 years after the attempted coup
Only a week after the high-prestige NATO summit in Ankara – with important (if mixed) consequences for the Alliance as well as for Turkey’s strong-man leader since decades, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – it was time for yet another event in Ankara an…
US Rule of law contested: Weaponization vs Anti-Weaponization – A battle of narratives, and definition of truth
Once upon a time, when all security policy eyes were on Afghanistan, there was an international conference (one of many) on the theme of “Rule of law in Afghanistan” in which legal experts pondered upon what it would take to introduce RoL in Afghanista…
Gaza locked in a Catch 22 Stranglehold
Entering the end of May, the Middle East dramaturgy keeps boiling, with very real risks of boiling over. At the moment of writing, focus of the dramaturgy is, obviously, on the Iran war (or peace) war of nerves: escalation versus de-escalation, althoug…
Fragile ceasefires in the Middle East – Pending escalation or de-escalation over Iran
At the time of writing the world is holding its breath in anticipation of the next step in the ongoing action-reaction process between the US and Iran – and Israel, not to forget. Acutely, the issue at stake is what will be Iran’s answer to the latest …
Trump’s US and today’s “Forever wars”. What about Iran?
At the point of writing, the whole world is asking, not without great anxiety, how long the current US-Israel-Iran war will last, anxiety because of the immense global effects this war has already proved to entail, and the longer the duration the more …
Svansen som viftar på hunden”: USA, Israel och Iran mellan krig och… vapenvila
När detta skrivs, torsdag kväll 9/4, ett par dagar efter natten då parterna i Trumps och Netanyahus självvalda och alltmer bisarra krig mot arvfienden Iran stirrade ner i avgrunden men i sista stund valde att backa tillbaka och låtsas en överenskommels…
In the shadow of Gaza, Iran, Ukraine et al: Disasters remain in Sudan and South Sudan (et al)
It is – again – time to take a deep breath and remind that as much as there are superbly strong reasons to be concerned and alarmed by the seemingly never-ending crises elsewhere, indeed expanding crises as in the new case of Iran there remain the trag…
Trump vs Iran after one month of war: To escalate or de-escalate, that is the question
The Trump/Netanyahu war of choice against Iran and its contested regime has arrived, after a full month of large-scale but inconclusive warfare, at a point of no return, literally a dead end with apparently only bad options offered to the uniquely bell…
Quo Vadis US, On War (Iran) and Peace (Ukraine), et al – Anticipating Donald J Trump’s “most consequential” State of the Union speech
“It is going to be a long speech, for I have a lot to say”, said Donald Trump hours before this year’s tensely anticipated State of the Union speech, expected to be much of a protracted, more or less scripted, and triumphant account of the state of aff…
Strategic Stability at the Abyss: The Post–New START Nuclear Landscape – (“85 seconds before midnight”)
On 5 February 2026, the New START treaty expired. For the first time since SALT I negotiations began in 1969, no binding agreement constrains the strategic nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia—states that together hold roughly 90 per cent o…
Palestinian and Kurdish Dreams of Nation – and Statehood – a Nightmare? (“Hypocrisy is the homage paid by vice to virtue”)
At the time of writing, two important events occurred in the troubled Middle East, the two referring to one important historical feature in the region, the notoriously unfulfilled dreams of nation- and statehood by the two major peoples that remained p…
Venezuela och Trumps vidare ambitioner
Lagom inför årets Folk och Försvar i Sälen – och dagens (när detta skrivs Trettondagen) västliga toppmöte i Paris, om Ukraina – bjuder Trump-administrationen, d v s Trump själv och det fåtal handplockade lojalister som numera styr amerikansk politik, i…
The Cyprus issue in (mild) winds of change?
”Tomorrow I shall see Denktas, the day after I shall see Klerides, and the day after that I shall see a psychiatrist”. Do you remember that famous statement by Richard Holbrooke, the famous US diplomat-cum-peace negotiator connected with the Dayton acc…
Silence fell over Gaza – International attention moved on
Not much mention in mainstream international media of the fate of Gaza and its more than two million-size suffering population these days, some months or so after Donald Trump’s triumphant declaration of his 20-point, phased peace plan, linked to a wid…