Gwynne Dyer

8 January 2012 Defence Budgets and Cavemen By Gwynne Dyer If you’re not allowed to enslave people any more, or even loot their resources, then what is the point of being a traditional great power? The United States kept an army of over 100,000 soldiers in Iraq for eight years, at a cost that will [...]

5 January 2012 The African National Congress at 100 By Gwynne Dyer “It’s a bittersweet victory,” said William Gumede, a distinguished South African academic, about the hundredth anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC), which opens with a enormous party in Bloemfontein on Sunday. “This is our tipping point. From here things will go downhill. [...]

1 January 2012 Agony Aunt Passes Judgement By Gwynne Dyer It’s getting harder for freelance journalists to make a decent living, so recently I’ve had to branch out into the advice column business. The people who write in seem pretty flakey, on the whole, but sometimes their letters cast a useful light on larger issues. [...]

28 December 2011 2011 Year-Ender By Gwynne Dyer Every year brings changes, but some years really are turning points: 1492, 1789, 1914, and 1989, for example. Does 2011 belong in the august company of such Really Important Years? Probably not, but it definitely qualifies for membership in the second tier of Quite Important Years. Three [...]