“An enemy of my enemy is a friend.” –An Arab Saying “There are no eternal friends, nor permanent enemies, only eternal and permanent interests.” –Lord Palmerston Last September 2017, two heads of states — President of the United States Donald Trump and President of North Korea Kim Jong-un hurled invectives at each other and issued statements threatening to launch an…
During the past two weeks, events on the international scene particularly within the Asia-Pacific arena, provided an uncanny (but welcome) reprise of FVR’s younger days, which led this columnist to ask, “Does history really repeat itself?” In answer, allow us to share with our readers some personal landmarks along life’s journey. Indeed, history does in this particular episode, but hopefully,…
Part I: MILITARY DANGERS AND ECONOMIC RISKS “War is the worst option. Peace is the common goal of all mankind…” — Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” Taiwan’s major newspaper, China Post’s headline on 06 April augured bad news for all of mankind because it announced a huge rise in military spending by countries around the world, thus: “Global military spending…