Kurdish Oil Pipelines to Turkey: New Agreement with Iraq Central Government
Interview on John Batchelor Show, WABC-AM 770 (New York City), 23 December 2014. … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Situation Reports
Why the Iraqi-Kurdish energy deal matters
Islamic State has made Iraqi-Kurdish energy cooperation more likely, helping to guarantee lower world oil prices for the medium-term future. Under threat of their common enemy, the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in the north … Continue reading →
Glenn Greenwald is wrong to blame Canada
Greenwald condescends to terrorists and dehumanizes them by denying them their human agency. He seems under the sway of the Enlightenment myth of the “noble savage” corrupted by Western civilization. This approach denies terrorists the individual responsibility that they in fact claim.
Continue reading →Why Edward Snowden will stay in Moscow
NSA leaker Edward Snowden has applied to the Russian government for the extension of his temporary asylum, which expires July 31. There is public debate among the Western (but not the Russian) commentariat about whether his application will be granted. … Continue reading →
Fast-Moving Developments in Ukraine
Interview on Tommy Schnurmacher Show, Radio CJAD-AM 800, Montreal. … Continue reading →
Putin Is Playing Cat-and-Mouse with Ukraine
Now that Putin has successfully devoured Crimea, it is only the West that has indigestion. Pausing only politely after that appetizer, he has now begun to digest Ukraine proper. Perhaps it would be more exact that he has begun to … Continue reading →
When Putin Called Obama
The U.S. version of the call did not mention that Putin talked about Transdnistria, a landlocked breakaway region of Moldova on the eastern bank of the Dnistr River and bordering on southwest central Ukraine.
Continue reading →The American alliance reversal against Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel: Washington’s “Fashoda” moment
It is rare that a great power in world politics, after decades of hostility with another country, turns around and suddenly seeks to embrace that country as a friend, if not an ally, yet this is what the recent American … Continue reading →
Canada and China Deepen Cooperation but Potential Roadblocks Loom
High-level meetings between Asian partners for Canada’s energy resources have continued with the reception of the latter’s Governor General David Johnston by the formers Premier Li Keqiang. Johnston has a ceremonial role in the Canadian political system, so the meeting … Continue reading →
Russian Gas, Pipeline Transit, European Integration, and the Fate of Ukraine
The fate of Ukraine’s gas transportation system is a bellwether for the political fate of Ukraine in the first half of the present century and beyond.
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