Category: TRENDS IN GEOPOLITICS

After years of growing anger over austerity programs, which have hit the middle and lower classes of Ireland, voters shocked the political establishment on 8 February. In a stunning upset, the Sinn Féin party, known mostly as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, received more first-choice votes in the Irish general election than...

A military alliance between the United States and the Philippines called the “Visiting forces (Agreement) Act,” signed in 1999, and the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which called for the U.S. to use military force to defend the Philippines from external attack, may soon end. On 11 February, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted: “The...

As reported in the Trends Journal, the ongoing country-wide street protests against President Narendra Modi’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act has been growing despite thousands risking injury, arrests, and, in some cases death from aggressive police tactics. In addition to anger over the anti-Muslim amendment, the millions of citizens who have taken to the streets are...

Virtually blacked out of American and western news media is the ongoing Saudi Arabian slaughter and destruction of Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, which began in March 2015. The United States has fully supported the Saudi war effort in Yemen by supplying weapons (along with the UK and France), intelligence, and commandos...

Last Saturday, Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi al-Nujaba militia group, said they would seek revenge for President Trump’s assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and the nine others killed in the drone attack, including the deputy chairman of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. “Our response to the U.S. will not be only a...

Last October, President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the northwest section of Syria, setting the stage for the Turkish invasion of Kurdish-controlled land. However, President Trump decided to keep 500 military personnel in the region, which has led to conflict between the American forces there protecting U.S. oil interests and Russian...

Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela, was a big hit two weeks ago when he was given a seat of honor by President Trump at his State of the Union address. Given a rousing standing ovation for regime change by virtually the entire U.S. Congress, Guaidó was championed as their hero, who, with the...

Now in its fourth month, mass pubic protests in Chile against government corruption, declining living standards, low wages, and lack of basic health care continue to heat up. Last week, police assaulted bystanders and drove police cars into crowds to break up demonstrations. In retaliation, protesters in the capital city of Santiago manned barricades and...

The Syrian War, launched by the U.S. and the Arab League in 2011 to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad, escalated on a new front last week after Turkey retaliated for the killing of seven Turkish soldiers by Syrian forces. Turkey, which has illegally invaded Syria, responded by launching a major offensive led by F-16...

In the wake of the highly touted release of President Trump’s Peace Plan for Middle East, drafted in part by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, protests have escalated and several Palestinians were killed last week by Israeli security forces in the West Bank. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority stated the Palestinian people will not abide...