Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Simon Jenkins

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Simon Jenkins

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“The result of American and British grandstanding at the UN this week – seeing who can be ruder about Assad – is that Vladimir Putin has gathered ever more cards to his pack.”

Why the West should listen to Putin on Syria

As everyone knows, the only way to stop the slaughter in Syria is for the US to work with Assad – and to stop worrying about what looks good.

Grexit is now only way out for Greece

The reality is that the eurozone’s managers care more about their loans and their beloved currency than they do about Greece.

Time and again

Who is in control of law and order in Baltimore?

Policing cities will always be tough, but that merely increases the need for clear political control.

Solidarity at all costs: Iraqi Shiite tribesmen show willingness to join Iraqi forces.

A disaster of strange allies

The UK cosying up to Iran points to a creeping hypocrisy at play in Western military intervention.

Brinkmanship bedevils Crimea

The West’s insensitive handling of issues in the Ukraine created Russian President Vladimir Putin’s version of the Cuban missile crisis.

A man holds a Ukrainian flag in Kiev’s Maidan Square on the day the country’s interim leaders unveiled their new Cabinet.

Egypt’s lesson for Ukraine

Defiant crowds may destroy an old regime, but seldom do they build a new one that endures.

Britian’s decision to topple President Bashar al-Assad could see its troops fighting alongside al-Qaeda in Syria. Photo: Andoni Lubaki/AP

Britain chooses the worst reason to wage war

There could be no more dreadful idea than to pour more armaments into the sectarian war that is consuming Syria.

Europe’s digital euro has got off to a late start in terms of geopolitical leverage in the digital era. Photo: File

Bankers happy to play Nero as Europe burns

While Rome burned, Nero put on fancy dress, stood on a tower and played his lyre, writes Simon Jenkins.

Plugged into the digital revolution through cellphones

Connection is not conversation

Cellphones may at last be falling victim to etiquette, but this is largely because even talk is considered too intimate a contact.

Norway doesn’t need patronising

The Norwegian tragedy is just that, a tragedy. It does not signify anything and should not be forced to do so.

Unionism means Germany has to pay up for Greece

What would you do this morning if you were a Greek? Would you agree to your government cutting public-sector jobs, pay and pensions?

Media can’t make blemishes vanish

Media can’t make blemishes vanish

It’s for governments, not journalists, to guard public secrets and there’s no national jeopardy in WikiLeaks’ revelations, argues <b>Simon Jenkins</b>

Iraq war: A $1-trillion catastrophe

Iraq war: A $1-trillion catastrophe

Mission accomplished? The Iraq war did more than anything to alienate the Atlantic powers from the rest of the world.

Cheney and the apologists of torture distrust democracy

Our way of life is threatened not by an al-Qaeda nutcase, but politicians like former US vice-president Dick Cheney in thrall to a fantasy war.

Parallels with Nam

The reason for invading Afghanistan seemed like a good idea at the time. Simon Jenkins reports.

America is not the country I once knew

America seems much in need of Roosevelt’s maxim to stop fearing fear itself. Virtually all comment on the Mumbai massacre has mentioned 9/11.

West’s impotence laid bare

Moscow has to take some of the blame. But it is the West’s policy of liberal interventionism that has fuelled war in Georgia.

Sanctions against Zimbabwe are an empty gesture

Economic sanctions are a coward’s war. They do not work but are a way in which rich elites feel they are "committed" to some distant struggle.

Playing the dictators’ game

Two dictators face two disasters, one is in China, the other in Burma. One is an earthquake, the other a flood. Tens of thousands are dead and millions at risk. Being…

As Burma dies, world’s invaders sit on their hands

You don’t have to be cynical to do foreign policy, but it helps. A sigh of relief rose over the West’s chancelleries on Monday as it became clear that the Chinese earthquake was…