Saudi Arabia is in active talks with China to price some of its oil in yuan
The United States owes a significant part of its eminence as the sole superpower to the dominance of its dollar in the global economy. This dominance is aided by the fact that the dollar is the currency of the global oil trade. Every country in the world needs U.S. dollars to buy oil. Even without…
Manipulative fantasy crises and villains fail to gain traction when met with healthy public skepticism
The world has been shocked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression in neighbouring Ukraine and we all watch in horror as millions of people are made to suffer. What lessons does this situation reveal about our humanity? We’re capable of responding to people in need with empathy. The media coverage of the Ukraine crisis has…
Could be another challenging year for our farmers, and consumers
Humanity just got dealt another blow with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just thinking of the human cost is unbearable. And the agri-food sector has already been impacted by the conflict in more ways than one. Ukraine is Europe’s breadbasket, so this conflict will affect global commodity markets in a meaningful way. Wheat and corn futures…
Putin reignites the Cold War
I don’t often write about house-to-house combat, so I’ll seize this opportunity as Russians attempt to seize cities in Ukraine. A primary consideration in war is how to get from one spot to another while supplying your troops. In the U S. Civil War there was a good road from the south winding up to…
Russia terrorizing Ukraine because America isn't demonstrating the resolve Trump did four years ago
ORLANDO, Fla. – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the world is a more dangerous place under President Joe Biden than it was under Donald Trump. Speaking Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando (CPAC), Pompeo recited a laundry list of what he said are Trump’s accomplishments, including building a border wall,…
Geopolitics has been behind the surging markets
Oil and politics go hand in hand. They’re virtually inseparable. Recent events once again highlight the energy world’s dynamics. Fundamental factors have played a significant role in getting crude oil prices to the current levels. Yet, none can deny that, to a great extent, geopolitics has been behind the surging markets. Recent events underline this.…
Democracies, even Canada, are beginning to wake up to the threats posed by China
In an end-of-year message to Canadians, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Beijing was playing democracies off against each other, suggesting the country might begin a much needed policy change to respond to China’s “coercive diplomacy.” Soon after, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, let it be known that the Trudeau government is developing…
China is making strong strategic moves to secure its future oil needs
China – the world’s largest crude oil importer, second-largest oil consumer after the United States and the world's number 1 polluter – is increasingly leveraging its position of influence on the global energy chessboard. In a bid to tame rising oil prices last November, the United States spearheaded a co-ordinated release by major oil-consuming nations…
I feel like I know you, but the bombing of flight PS752 has robbed us of the chance of real friendship
I truly wish I had never met you, not this way. It has been rough. You can’t know this, but the first mental image I have of you is this: your two hands, clenched in fists – out of fear perhaps? Your hands, Elnaz, your wedding ring. You were not there when your husband, Javad,…
Western societies need to develop a common and comprehensive understanding of its implications
Hybrid warfare has become a familiar phenomenon. But at a time of climate catastrophes and pandemics, booming technological innovation, geopolitical rivalry and a global reorganization of supply chains, hybrid scenarios below the threshold of war have gained enormous importance. While hybrid threats used to be the weapon of the weak, new technologies and their disruptive potential…