Opinion

Good countries can sometimes go bad. Donald Trump’s supporters implicitly make this argument when they proclaim “Make America Great Again.” And so do those who loathe Trump and see in him a dangerous populist response to the anger of frustrated middle-class voters. The rise of Trump, love him or hate him, conveys an inescapable message: America’s political institutions are in ...

Agreeing on political transition in Syria remains an uphill task as the huge government-opposition divide will likely complicate a settlement. The fate of President Bashar al-Assad, presidential elections and the type of new government are main obstacles that need to be addressed for peace to prevail across Syria. Syria’s conflict, which began on March 15, 2011 with a peaceful protest ...

Jack Hands SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS It was Libya in 2011 – the uprising against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent shocking scenes of a bloodied dictator reduced to waiting on his fate in a dusty street just west of Sirte – that reinforced North Korea’s long-held belief that the only way to truly deter an outside attack would be ...

The Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week will be closely watched, particularly after the stimulative measures taken by the European Central Bank last week. Here are some steps that U.S. central bankers will and won’t take, and particularly those of greatest interest to financial markets: n Fed officials will note the continued recovery of the U.S. economy, led by strong ...

Ronald Dworkin, the legal philosopher who died in 2013, famously used a metaphor once to explain the core of his thinking on the philosophy of law. In the context of American common law and constitutional interpretation, Dworkin analogized the role of judges as the writers of a “chain novel.” The law, per Dworkin, was a collective novel, composed by a ...

The anti-Donald Trump brigade is banking on defeating him this week in Ohio, and possibly Florida, paving the way for an “open” convention that would deny him the Republican presidential nomination and avoid what it believes would be a general election debacle. This is an uphill climb under any scenario and probably impossible if Trump wins both states on Tuesday. ...

The head of the Syrian opposition said he’s going to Geneva for the next round of U.S.-Russian-sponsored peace talks (being held today), even though the opposition rejects any future role for President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime will be the other party in the talks. The Syria diplomacy might be described as “the art of the impossible,” borrowing the title of ...

The corruption probe that former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is facing, seems more politically-motivated. Though, he has to come clean. He was detained briefly for questioning over a massive embezzlement and bribery conspiracy revolving around state oil giant Petrobras. It is not yet clear whether reports that Lula has hinted the possibility of running for the presidency ...

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal, northwest of the pivotal maritime choke point at the Strait of Malacca, are an immensely valuable geopolitical asset for India, particularly as it looks to ‘Act East’ and play an increasingly more visible role in the eastern Indian Ocean and beyond. The islands host an Indian tri-service command, the ...

China has offered to expand its military aid to Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reports, following a visit to the country by a top Chinese general. Outlook Afghanistan put the total value of the proffered military aid at 480 renminibi ($73 million). The offer came during a visit to Afghanistan by General Fang Fenghui, chief of China’s joint staff department, ...