ISDP Voices

Intelligence gathering is key in today’s global affairs, and nobody does it better than the United States. The precision drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the most wanted terrorist on July 31 more than a decade after Bin Laden’s assassination. He was known as ‘the man behind Bin Laden’ and the […]

The basic premise of discourse theory is that humans use communication whether verbal or written to construct knowledge and truth. Michel Foucault argues that the knowledge and truth that shape our lives is created through discourse by people in power. The western discourse of power in the 20th century was so powerful that the marginalized […]

On June 9, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, announced the creation of an Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee entrusted with overseeing Ottawa’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy. The committee is comprised of a wide range of Canadians, including representatives of the private sector, civil society, and government. Both the new committee and overall strategy embody Canada’s attempt to […]

Due to a record warm fall season, supressed gas demand, and booming U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe, average gas storage levels reached the EU-mandated 80 percent target ahead of time. Gas futures at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) were trading at around €100/MWh in early November – less than a third […]

The 2022 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, was marked by several notable actions indicating further organizational expansion. Egypt and Qatar were granted a dialogue partner status in SCO, Iran has signed a memorandum on joining the SCO and most remarkably, the process for granting Belarus full membership in the SCO was announced. […]

In August, as floods wreaked havoc throughout Pakistan, the country’s finance minister hinted at the possibility of importing food items from its neighbor India. For many observers, it seemed like a good opportunity for the neighbors to bury the hatchet and revive diplomatic ties downgraded in 2019. But, in what has now become a familiar […]

Since the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has successfully managed to protect its alliance system in Northeast Asia, consisting of Japan and South Korea, against external threats from adversaries by offering extended nuclear deterrence to these countries. However, the new geopolitical landscape that has emerged over […]

When Benjamin Netanyahu left the office of prime minister in June 2021, after being the longest-serving head of government in Israel, not many had anticipated his swift return to power. If not the end of his long political career, starting as leader of the opposition (LoP) in 1993 and two stints as prime minister in […]

Normally a communist national party congress is a dull and boring event. The proceedings follow an agenda set in advance, all important appointments have effectively been decided ahead of the congress, speeches and reports are all stereotyped and contain nothing new. Reactions and comments from official sources after the congress are predictable claiming that it […]

Since 2016 the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has run the administration in Taiwan and cross-strait relations have deteriorated due to the DPP’s political and cultural stances—distancing Taiwan from China. The visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August saw cross-strait relations fall to freezing point. China believed the U.S. violated the ‘One […]