JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs April 23, 2016 Until quite recently, while Queen Elizabeth and her family were celebrating her birthday every April 21, a group of elderly men in south-west Africa were nursing the effects of the birthday toasts they
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To simply report on news about Israel is to enter a minefield. To comment is to invite extreme reactions of a sort experienced in few other issues. This week F&O columnists Chris Wood and Jonathan Manthorpe enter the fray with thoughtful, informed
“Few parts of the world have avoided the destructive influence of social dislocation – if not always of violence — inspired by religious extremism, based often on racial ultra-nationalism,” writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column. Excerpt: It is not just fanatical
The FIFA World Cup in Brazil brought back odd memories for International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe — not about football, not about the host country Brazil, a former Portugese colony … but about food. “Of all the restaurants I have patronized around the world, three
The fracturing of Iraq will mean the birth of Kurdistan, and another revision of borders around the ancient land of the Kurds, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. An excerpt of his new column: The question is not whether there will be an independent
Thailand’s ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra “is a symptom of Thailand’s problems, not the source of them,” writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. “Erasing him and his cohorts from the political agenda will not alter the reality that Thaksin represents an upwardly mobile and provincial
David Cameron’s campaign to prevent the election of Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission was a piece of sound and fury, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. His defeat would seem, on the surface, conclusive — except when considered as a work
“A Canadian is a Canadian and deserving of diplomatic protection, whatever one thinks of his or her affiliations,” writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. Today’s column deals with an Egyptian court’s sentences of three journalists this week. Two complications plague the controversial case: the
In accusing “local political networks” and an “opportunist network of other criminal gangs,” Kenya’s president has tried obliquely to blame his political opposition for recent bloodshed, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column. It’s a dangerous tactic, which focuses attention on a history
From five words flow the events we see today in Iraq, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe in today’s column. As the United States grappled with a response to 9/11 Donald Rumsfield, then Secretary of Defense, said, “What if Iraq is involved?” What has
When all is said and done following the European Union elections, the person who really counts is the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. Is Merkel correct in believing that surging support for rightwing parties stems from economic insecurity —