It is when it amounts to overtly leveraging power for economic advantage. That's not to say it's irrational but it's the action of a bully rather than someone who accepts the concept of a rules-based… (View Post)

Trump has pretty much zero sense of the US's national interest as an independent thing from his own interest. To the extent that he does, it's about screwing trade deals for US advantage and using US… (View Post)

On the subject of people with idiosyncratic views, there's an independent running for Mayor of North Yorkshire called Keith Tordoff MBE (and boy, is he proud of that gong), worth keeping an eye on. H… (View Post)

True. Although as an example, it does work. In reality, political culture matters much more than systems. A monarchy can be useful in creating or maintaining a working political culture but it's neit… (View Post)

Yes and no. Hamas won the last Palestinian election (including in Gaza), in the sense of topping the poll but that election resulted in a power-sharing agreement - though granted that you could still… (View Post)