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Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Supplying Russia and Iran, Armenia emerges as a new sanctions black hole
For the past two years, Armenia has been attempting to demonstrate its shift towards the West, all the while maintaining its geopolitical role as...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
A Source of Growth?
The most overused word at the moment has to be “growth.” From the politically naïve (or stupid) and thankfully short UK premiership of Liz...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Europe’s climate policy isn’t working. It’s time for a new approach
The EU faces two inescapable truths: it’s falling behind on growth and angering the European public and farmers with some of its climate policies....
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The role of open talent in raising European competitiveness
The American poet Claudia Rankine once said that the past is a life sentence: a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow. This is particularly true...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The European Legion’s Activities in Libya
NATO seems to be seeking to intervene in Libya’s internal affairs and impose its control over the Libyan people’s oil and gas capabilities using...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Kazakhstan: The Middle Kingdom Gains from Neutrality and Oil
Kazakhstan is established as the premier investment location in the Eurasia region for multinational corporations and strategic investors. The country’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
EU must strengthen financial protections for Hong Kong activists
Imagine leaving your homeland to escape tyranny, only to find the oppressive regime you fled can still reach you, manipulating your financial lifelines. This...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Living on the Fulcrum Point
In the summer of 2024, we are on a fulcrum point, namely, the key balancing point of a vital situation, and if we were...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Time for Mandatory Climate Change Disclosures by GCC States?
From wildfires in New Mexico, to droughts in Vietnam, and extreme temperatures and historic flooding in China, it is clear that urgent action must...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Policies on Deforestation Show Europe’s Internal Splits
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once famously asked the question “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” to highlight...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Jeffrey Sachs: three times a traitor
An economist with an international reputation, Professor Jeffrey Sachs has increasingly raised his profile in the world media. A U.S. citizen, he accuses his...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Uzbekistan: A Key Player in the (Central Asian) Great Game
Uzbekistan has had considerable success in attracting billions of dollars of aid, concessional debt, and co-investment, which has helped transform the economy since 2017....
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The UK Economy – Another Twist in The Tale
Around the world most nations have been trying to recover their financial strength and where possible find some growth. Above all, they have been...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Genocide Rears its Ugly Head in Sudan’s Brutal War
The UN Security Council has called for a halt to the siege of the city of el-Fasher in the Darfur region, where 1.5 million...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan open path for integrating energy systems with the EU
On May 1, during the Tashkent International Investment Forum in Tashkent, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of cooperation on merging the energy...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Good news – the UK is not in recession; Bad news – it doesn’t feel like it
One of the greatest problems that both economists and politicians face is the key element of communication. Yes, they may indeed be trying to...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
A Green 5+1, regional water issues in Central Asia and previewing next year’s Astana International Forum
Kazakhstan’s Astana International Forum (AIF) has been postponed to 2025, as Astana is diverting financial resources to assist the relief efforts after massive flooding hit several regions....
Environment
Navigating the climate challenges for COP29
The impacts of climate change have become more evident as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from human activities cause increased heat, drought, floods etc. Changes...
Democracy & Human Rights
The empty seat in Strasbourg
When the newly elected European Parliament convenes this year on July 16 there will be an empty seat in the plenary hall within the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
COP 29: Azerbaijan takes the spotlight
The next global climate conference, COP 29, will occur in November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The gathering is essential to continue discussing and developing strategies...
Labor and Human Workforce Futures
Platform work: getting the right approach for consumers and workers
With an agreement finally reached by the European institutions on the Platform Worker Rights Directive after two years of fractious discussions, attention turns to...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
EU-Armenia-U.S. High-level Meeting: A Critical Moment for the South Caucasus
On April 5, an EU-Armenia-U.S. trilateral meeting was held between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and U.S....
Democracy & Human Rights
Western corporations must be held accountable for their role in China’s Uyghur genocide
In recent testimony before the Senate, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that “the Biden Administration should be sanctioning human rights violations” there and...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Can Innovation Diplomacy End the Climate Gamble?
With today’s global challenges urging equally global responses, an overlooked subset of diplomacy emerges as potentially pivotal: innovation diplomacy, a discipline related to the...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Moldova’s 2024 elections: Why it matters
Since the war in Ukraine commenced, the neighboring Republic of Moldova, led by President Maia Sandu, has strongly supported Kyiv. As the tiny, landlocked...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Clear Direction or Misleading Headlines
In a world full of stories all noisily striving for attention, the individual importance of some of them will be exaggerated through scary headlines...
Invasion of Ukraine
Canada and aiding the democratic cause in Ukraine
Though the funding of Ukraine’s war against Russia remains the main topic of the American Congress, Ukraine’s relationship with its other key Western partners,...
Labor and Human Workforce Futures
A chance to embrace the Future of Work
The Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles stated that without labor, nothing prospers. In the rapidly evolving landscape of the modern workforce, a seismic shift is...
IT & Telecom
The Internet of Everything and smart cities
The 10th International Symposium on Networks, Computers, and Communications was the site of many vibrant debates concerning contemporary Information Systems, Communication Networks, and Computing...
Myanmar
Myanmar’s instability deepens as the world watches silently
Myanmar’s stability has eroded significantly since the 2021 military coup. But the coordinated attacks by multiple separatist and pro-democracy groups in late 2023 has...
Democracy & Human Rights
For Turkey, the Kurds are always considered terrorists
“Hamas is a reality for Palestine. It is a political party … it entered the elections as a political party and won,” said Turkey’s...
Africa
Why Africa must be concerned about nuclear threats in Europe
Russia's threat to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, a close ally of the Kremlin, in response to Finland's membership in NATO has,...
Environment
Spare a thought for the environment this Christmas
In the run up to the festive season many people will be travelling by plane to visit family and friends. Spending time with loved...
Defense & Security
First Ukraine, now Gaza: the impact of war has set us back on climate change
Discussions of man-made global warming are usually based on a 1-degree Celsius rise since 1880 due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal,...
International Organizations
Stability in the Middle East must involve the whole of the international community
The pacifist Jeannette Rankin once famously claimed that “you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”. As the latest...
Democracy & Human Rights
Kafka in Kyiv — Why artists count in a time of war when the world has gone to hell one more time….
It was three o'clock in the morning and I was on a train heading to a war zone.I asked myself "why" I was going...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Playing politics with EU veto power – a very old game
In late November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, standing alongside visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told the media that he was against the “bilateralization”...
Africa
Africa will watch the DRC’s elections with bated interest
2023 and 2024 are going to be busy years as far as elections in Africa are concerned. About two dozen elections will occur in...
Armenia
Russia’s powerful economic levers over Armenia
Armenia's relations with its strategic partner Russia are getting worse and worse and its leaders seem to desire a shift in geopolitical orientation towards the West....
Economy & Business
Rebuilding Ukraine: Opportunities and concerns for foreign businesses
Such is the scale of the effort required to rebuild Ukraine that the World Bank in March 2023 estimated it at $411 billion. That...
ASEAN
Why China’s new map has stirred regional tensions
In the waning days of summer, closely following a BRICS summit and mere days ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Group...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
The EU Green Deal is a barrier to trade and global partnerships
There is an English saying that if you can’t see the wood for the trees, then you should step back and then you will...
Democracy & Human Rights
Young Iranians fight for a better future
Providing an opportunity for young people around the world to listen to each other and to share their understanding of the fundamental concept of...
Asia & Pacific
Ethnic violence in India explained
The ethnoreligious violence in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur between Meiteis and Kukis has been ongoing since May, but it was only in July 2023 when a...
Analysis
Freedom is just another word for ‘nothin left to lose’
President Joe Biden described the events taking place in Israel as “sheer evil, abhorrent, and terrorism.” It sure is. Husbands and wives slaughtered, children...
Labor and Human Workforce Futures
Digitalization and the future of work
The American philosopher Buckminster Fuller once stated that it is possible to study a caterpillar forever without being able to predict that it will...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Breaking Europe’s hold on football
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar brought together nations from around the world, and 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the final. But...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
How countries prepare for population growth and decline
Early this year, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world, with the latter having 850,000 fewer people by the end...
Invasion of Ukraine
Moldova’s Maia Sandu is the ‘Iron Lady’ of Eastern Europe
As the war in Ukraine passes the year-and-a-half milestone, a critical ally for Kyiv and Washington is the tiny nation of the Republic of...
Analysis
What’s the end game for the military men seizing power in West Africa?
As socio-economic problems and the inefficiency of civilian governments in the region have made recent coups popular, coup makers are eventually going to become...
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