Eurasia

( Tomdispatch.com ) – That was President Trump’s blunt assessment of global power politics when it came to the United States and Russia following his inconclusive “summit” meeting with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15th. Of all his comments about the meeting, that numerical assessment — made during a post-summit interview with Sean […]

Asia

While Trump Fiddles, China declares Eurasia Open for Business at At Shanghai Cooperation Org. Summit

Neil Thompson

Beijing raised its profile at the annual Shanghai Cooperation Council summit of non-Western countries just by providing a forum. London (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – China hosted the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO) last week at its port of Tianjin, drawing a crowd of world leaders from 20 non-Western countries. The […]

China

The Shanghai Cooperation Org. Summit and the Middle East in a Multipolar World

Middle East Monitor

By ‏Peiman Salehi | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Beijing was accompanied by a striking military parade and a series of ambitious economic proposals. Much of the global commentary presented the event as further evidence of a transition from US dominance to a new Chinese […]

Archaeology

Ancient Nomadic Scythians Found to be Ethnically Diverse

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The more genetic history that is done, the more it is clear that ancient ethnonyms, the names given supposed ethnicities, put a variety of peoples under a single rubric. I talked recently about how the Phoenicians, long thought to be what we would now call Lebanese, were actually a multi-ethnic […]

Eurasia

Can the Caspian Sea be Saved from turning into an environmental Disaster?

Global Voices

Written byNurbek Bekmurzaev ( Global Voices ) – The Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water in the world, faces a grim future in the form of significant desiccation, loss of flora and fauna, and large-scale pollution. All these processes have already started and their further deterioration poses immense risks for the economies and […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Why Russia fears the Emergence of Tajik Terrorists

Richard Foltz

(The Conversation) – It has emerged that the four gunmen charged in the murder of at least 139 concert-goers at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall theatre were all citizens of the small post-Soviet nation of Tajikistan in Central Asia. Does their nationality have anything to do with their alleged terrorism? Many Russians probably think so. Tajikistan, […]

Armenia

Jerusalem: Jewish Settler Movement makes bid for Large Expanse of Christian Armenian Quarter

The Conversation

By Svante Lundgren, Lund University | – The Armenian quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City is facing its biggest crisis in a long time. A Jewish businessman with connections to the radical settler movement is poised to develop a quarter of the neighbourhood’s territory, with plans to build a luxury hotel. If this goes ahead, it […]

Armenia

In the Caucasus, the US Priority is Fossil Fuels, not Armenians

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Edward Hunt | – ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Officials in Washington are doubling down on their efforts to create a new energy corridor that runs through the Caucasus, a major transit route for trade and energy that connects Europe and Asia. Focusing on Armenia and Azerbaijan, two countries at odds over […]

Armenia

From Armenia to Gaza: War, Crimes, Truth and Denial

Tomdispatch

By Arnold Isaacs ( Tomdispatch.com) – This month’s catastrophic violence in Israel and Gaza — specifically, the contradictory statements from each side on the other’s war crimes — has taken me back to a revealing personal moment almost exactly 18 years ago, recalling a different war in a different part of the world. That day […]