Israel attacked Iran to stop the salami tactics. Now Tehran and Moscow will choose to raise the stakes or to bargain. The uncertainty about China. Israel attacked Tehran’s Ayatollahs to stop the salami tactics of an unwinnable proxy war with Hamas in Gaza, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and the Yemenite Houthis, while Iran was completing its nuclear […]
The lesson from the US crackdown on protests could be different in Beijing—suppressing uprisings without suppressing opposition would be a theological turn, akin to that with the Vatican. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that: “Chinese state media have sought to portray the escalating Los Angeles protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies […]
Trump and Xi talked about trade, but a Chinese malaise haunts America and stalls bilateral ties. To break the stalemate, Beijing should perhaps address the issue of democracy. It’s not ideal, and it’s not a deal, but at least after scores of tweets, statements, and public wailings, a call broke the months-long standoff. US President […]
The situation is explosive, but Trump has a way out—do nothing, wu wei. It’s easier than pushing for something that grows harder by the day. An unstable mix of long- and short-term pulls is stoking tensions and bringing everyone closer to an unpredictable blast. Short-term US hesitation and zig-zags put many countries close to the […]
Hegseth’s speech in Singapore about China may not have reassured but worried allies and adversaries in the region. Is something that is not quite right in America today? Washington should deeply rethink its steps. In his recent speech in Singapore, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pledged to defend the region against Chinese aggression and […]
AI requires more, not less, human intervention, more natural intelligence, not less, more soul and life, as history has proved since the inception of the Industrial Revolution. Do AIs dream of electric sheep? The flicker of light at the end of the screen, the erratic behavior of a program, and the odd mistakes in an […]
Democracy is not perfect. It has flaws that were apparent to the ancient Greeks and that modernity has attempted to rectify. Present challenges may require those fixes again. Democracy was born with an existential flaw, as the Hellenist Luciano Canfora warns. The rabble (perhaps a more accurate translation of the ancient Greek demos than “the people”) elects its leader. […]
