10 Nov. 2018:  Tomorrow will mark the passing of 100 years since the end of World War I. In 1918, on “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” on a train (of which the above-pictured one with Macron and Merkle is a replica) in a forest near the French city of Compiègne the armistice was signed. I did do extensive research on the days that followed the armistice and will place that on a later date. My presentation of the following research, however, refers to some of the less known aspects of another centennial. The Kristallnacht of 9/10 November 1938: Hitler's Bolshevism and the myth of the Jewish Conspiracy.

12 Nov. 2018: World War I became known as the war to end all wars due to how deadly it was to those who went into combat. The advent of mustard gas and chlorine gas along with trench warfare, made the casualties rate much higher than previous conflicts. A complete timeline of what happened.

15 Nov. 2018: While the previous graphic about the First World War shows that most lives were lost on the battlefields throughout East and Western Europe, the role of the war in shaping and creating the state-system of the modern Middle East merits much more than an afterthought. The Ottoman Empire and the Allied Powers signed an armistice on October 30, 1918, which was supposed to end hostilities, even before the armistice in Europe was signed. But the wars in the Middle East didn’t stop with the armistice. Why World War I was pivotal to the creation of the modern Middle East.

17 Nov. 2018: In a 23 August interview with CNN famous Watergate reporter Dan Rader said that if you think the Michael Cohen guilty plea and Manafort's conviction was a shock then "stay tuned." The former news anchor said other things Mueller is working on will make yesterday "pale by comparison." All indications are that after a long period of silence during the close of the midterm campaign, Mueller is about to do something big, or a series of somethings. What Robert Mueller Knows.

19 Nov. 2018: While it has been suggested that Robert Mueller is looking at multi-state collusion, not just a bipolar collusion involving Russia, and why the Khashoggi case might receive even more traction going forward. Robert Mueller and Saudi Arabia.

21 Nov. 2018: Air pollution reduces average life expectancy by 2 years:

28 Nov. 2018: Two days ago marked a decade since Pakistan-based terrorists killed over 160 people in India’s financial capital of Mumbai. The city remained under siege for days, and security forces disjointedly struggled to improvise a response. The 10th anniversary of an assault that raised fears of war with Pakistan and why in the end it was about Kashmir.

8 Dec. 2018: This was an explosive week for the Russia probe as the special counsel signals interest in wrapping up at least some of his most high-profile efforts with a sentencing memo's involving Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort.  Includes update 20 April 2019:  Why the Robert Mueller endgame is starting now.

10 Dec. 2018: Belgium’s Africa Museum, once seen as Europe’s last unreconstructed museum of the colonial era has just reopened. One of the present day Congolese contributors Mpane says he initially had doubts about taking part, despite reassurances that proper context would be provided for the colonial statues. "But when I started to dig a bit deeper into it, I realized we're really talking about our history and we must try to make sense of it. If we don't take part in it, who is going to do it?" Belgium’s Africa Museum Had a Racist Image. Can It Change That?

12 Dec. 2018: Tree cover map of the world. This helps to answer a few geographic questions: Why do Australians live on the eastern seaboard, why do we divide Africa into "North" and "Sub-Saharan", why isn't Brazil's interior settled?

14. Dec. 2018: As someone who works with information a lot, I am aware that there are many tendencies in both the context and how we think that can lead us astray and distort our view of the world. But is there something we can do about it? I’ve started with points more related to how we think as individuals, moving through to more society-wide actions: Here are eight ways how we can form more accurate views of the world.

16. Dec. 2018: Arrived in Shanghai this morning:

20. Dec. 2018: Crossing into N. China today:

26. Dec. 2018: While there are many good things about China, and while there are also some concerns, the one issue that has remained under-researched is: China's ticking time-bomb. Updated 4 Jan. 2019

30 Dec. 2019: Encompassing 65 countries with a combined gross domestic product of US$23 trillion and a total population of 4.4 billion, the belt and road strategy was introduced as a way to advance China’s political interests abroad, but is it viable? Many projects also have drawn criticism for being overvalued or disconnected to the development needs of the host countries, thus China’s grand ambition furthermore may not necessarily be a road to riches for its partners. Thus has China's new Silk Belt and Road failed? Updated 15 Feb. 2019

3 Jan. 2019: A New Year’s Day editorial in China’s official military newspaper told its readers that “war preparations” should be a top priority for the year. The following day, President Xi Jinping offered a forceful reminder that Beijing considers Taiwan its most likely focus on conflict. Is China planning to take Taiwan by force?

12 Jan. 2019: In an investment, spree reminiscent of the golden years of 'big science' in post-war America, and venturing into relatively new fields some in the West now feel threatened by China’s advances in science. Unveiling China's big science.

27 Jan. 2019: Currently at the Sundance Festival  for 9 days, yesterday I was able to see the full current version of the Cold Case Hammarskjöld production, whereby it is remarkable (tipped off at the time by the Hammarskjöld Foundation) how much the  basic scenario still is like the one I commented on in August 2016  and as it appears to me only the filming of certain scenes were not done yet at the time. Why the mystery of Hammarskjöld murder might soon be solved.

2 June 2018: Revisiting India's Harappan civilization including new answers as to where the Indo-European languages came from, enter:

5 June 2018: When history was first taking shape as a university discipline in the nineteenth century, elite young men were fed a diet of Greek and Roman history. Thus there was the misuse of antiquity and the Holy Roman Empire, Nationalism, and today Presentism. Towards a future of historical approach, enter:

10 June 2018:  About Hard health data, waste, and how a proper google search might help you.

Major Case Study 17 June 2018: Analyses of what is currently happening in the world, including economically, going forward the next few months: North and South Korea, China, Russia, the US, Iran, Mexico, India, Central and South America, Turkey, and so on.

20 June 2018: British Imperial Agents invade Russia P.1: July 16-17 will mark the centennial of the death of Nicholas II and his family. Placing this in its larger context of British intelligence and its intend to control Russia economically, here the lesser known aspects surrounding the events of 1918.

23 June 2018: British Imperial Agents invade Russia P.2:  The British Banking scheme to control Russia's economy and the Allied intervention.

1 July 2018: Artificial intelligence: The question about current medical efficiency and that of digital authoritarianism versus liberal democracies.

18 July 2018: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: Because today I will be leaving for on a lecture and seminar tour in China, I will not be able to post much on this website for a while. But considering that a recent two-part article detailing a plan to save the Tsar and his family plus the British Banking scheme to control Russia's economy and the Allied intervention, has drawn such a large readership I will add a third part expanding on the previous two including: From Rasputin to little known aspects of Nicholas's II abdication and the situation in Russia.

2 Aug. 2018: Today arrived in Guangzhou China, (pictured below), tomorrow flight for transit in Beijing which will end my current visit to China. And in two days will post an article about Shantung the Versailles Treaty and the Manchurian episode (one of my topics here in China) which in a way broke the League of Nations.

4 Aug. 2018: As I pointed out on 20 Jan. 2017, the League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles of which I detailed what exactly it entailed. Today, nearing the centennial of the Versailles Peace Conference, now some lesser known details. Shantung the Versailles Treaty and the Manchurian episode.

13 Aug. 2018: Having previously taken occasional note as this matter unfolded, following a meeting with a number of experts, I am now putting all the dots together. The Trump/Russia investigation what can be said today.

24 Dec. 2017: The last few days have been awash with a media avalanche about the fact that the Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multimillion-dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects, UFOs. Why the initiative might rather be reeking of desperation.

27 Dec. 2017:  Conflicting scholarship on the issue of the Rohingya in Myanmar, revisiting the Four Cuts Strategy, and China. What next with Myanmar and its Chinese influence. Plus update 2 February.

30 Dec. 2017: With the conflict in Syria slowing down the conflict in Yemen seems anything but over.

2 Jan. 2018: It would be somewhat ironic if Iran, in its most strategically advantageous position in the Middle East since 2010, when it was expected it would press its advantage in the region in the year ahead is forced to put its ambitions aside to deal with unrest at home. What to make of the Iran protests?

5 Jan. 2017: The upcoming talks in Seoul have brought up the question if a US limited strike strategy against N.Korea is now on or off the table, whereby the question few are asking is in reference to China. From bloody nose attack to nonmilitary options? Plus update 18 January.

9 Jan. 2017: While the end of Northern Song and the beginning of Southern Song Dynasty is considered a high point of Chinese innovation in science and technology, it is also where we will discover, lay the roots of Chinese Nationalism or the idea Han cosmopolitanism. The East Asian World Order.

14 Jan. 2017: The emergence of China's population as a monocultural and monoethnic people. The concept of Han Chinese.

18 Jan. 2018: A Chinese nuclear attack submarine surfaced near Japan northwest of the disputed Senkaku Islands and hoisted the Chinese flag this while it is also reported that China builds up a new presence near the Doklam disputed border with India.To better understand it is important to know about the post-1989 Chinese patriotism and belief that a strong China reclaiming its core interests in Asia should be compatible with a China engaging in the liberal international order at the global level. China's New Nationalism.

12 May 2018: Currently still working my way through the Pacific region this is (showing the more industrialized areas versus the others) what it looks like by night:

28 Dec. 2016: Other subjects I have covered in the recent past are Russia, Europe, Brexit, South Asia, the USA, South China Sea debacle, and so on. A look at other developments going forward in 2017.

Above a map of Syrian refugee flows.

20 Jan. 2017: On 10 January 1920, the League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I with Germany. Much has been written about the treaty which concluded the First World War, its competing and sometimes conflicting goals. And as we shall see it also was the beginning of a long propaganda exercise to discredit the victors. P.1 Reparations and the famous Article 231.

1 Febr. 2017: Weimar politics and the reception of the Versailles Peace Treaty. The conspiracy theory that gave rise to Hitler:

6 Febr. 2017: Given its centennial this year no doubt we will see a lot of renewed discussions about the insurrection by Lenin and those that were willing to fight with him to overthrow the Provisional Government. But the most important event that followed no doubt where the complex situations that ensued when the Russian Empire fell apart. First, some unanswered questions about the event that brought the Civil War to the Russian heartland. Captives of the Russian Civil War P.1: Why and how the Czech Legion conquered the Siberian railway.

12 Febr. 2017: After the 1917 Bolshevist insurrection the Russian Empire also stood at Germany’s mercy. But it was signing the diktat peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk that largely determined the actual fighting in 1918. Captives of the Russian Civil War P.2: The Counterrevolution and the Anatomy of Allied Intervention.

20 Febr. 2017: One of the most serious threats to the Bolsheviks came from the would-be Russian government controlled, in Samara and Ufa provinces. And when the latter issued a formal invitation for the Allies to intervene militarily in Russia’s civil war. The United States and Japan promptly signed an agreement on proposed troop deployments to Siberia. Captives of the Russian Civil War P.3: The rise and fall of Komuch’s People’s Army.

28 Febr. 2017: Just as in February 1917, in Petrograd, nobody had got the revolution they wanted, by end 1918 nobody got the counter-revolution they wanted. Thus the emergence of Kolchak as supreme ruler. When the Allies started to pull back the Red Army stormed into Ufa pushing the Whites back to the Ural Mountains. However, Trotsky’s heightened focus on the eastern front did open up room for Denikin's Volunteer Army in the south. While by not pursuing Yudenich into Estonia, Trotsky had levered Britain into a policy of accommodation. Captives of the Russian Civil War P.4: From White resurgence to the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement.

12 March 2017: The increased risk of war in Korea. Will the U.S. accept a nuclear N.Korea or intervene P.1.

25 May 2017: Since early on 23 May, the media have been abuzz about the incendiary statements about Iran and Israel posted on Qatar’s state-run news agency (that authorities blamed on hackers) sparked a regional dispute Wednesday, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia blocking Qatari media including Al-Jazeera. The series of disputes of which this is just the latest spat, as we shall see, go back some years. Except for this time around things are set to become much worse. Case Study: Qatar's master strategy or opportunism?

6 June 2017: Gulf plunged into diplomatic crisis as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the U.A.E. and Egypt broke diplomatic relations and cut all land sea and air contacts with Qatar requesting Qatari citizens to leave. Two longtime rivals battle by proxy and why this crisis will get worse.

11 July 2017: While the current US President's visit to Poland and Nationalists speech a few days ago was largely symbolic, Polish commentators didn't miss the fact that Trump mentioned the 1919/20 armed conflict led by General Pilsudski including the fact that it was due to President Wilson that Poland received its independence. The following investigation, however, will dispell the myth that instead of being negotiated with or arbitrated by the League of Nations the new Polish border, in reality, were being determined by brute force because the provisions of the Paris Peace Conference were unenforceable. Signed the same day as the main Treaty of Versailles was signed, this article will also make mention of the Polish Minority Treaty or "Little Treaty of Versailles" as it is known. Woodrow Wilson, Versailles, and the making of Eastern Europe.

26 July 2017: In context what is an almost forgotten war, China yesterday warned India it is willing to defend territory “at all costs,” and it should not harbor any “unrealistic illusions” over a border dispute that threatens to boil over into an open conflict. Will the Standoff Lead to a Second India-China War? With Update 29 Aug. 2017

9 Aug.2017: Military officials for the first time leaked information about a specific plan for a preemptive strike on North Korea.  The USA "ready to fight tonight" claim.

12 Aug. 2017: Today I arrived per intercontinental flight in Vienna where I will do archival research at Vienna's Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv. Above, to overcome jet lag (picture taken during) a walk near the Nikolaitor in Vienna. After my visit to China 10-15 Dec., I then will fly to London where I will do my final research for this year.

2 Oct. 2017: Following Christopher Clark's bestseller, The Sleepwalkers about the origins of WWI (where Clark revived the revisionist argument of the 1930's) a new discussion has ensued about who and what started the First World War of which the consequences are very much present today. A major topic, including in Clark's book which devotes a quarter of his book to Serbia which he depicts as the real cause. Having embarked on a detailed investigation, we now present a nine-part investigation with new answers that help us understand why so many historians got it wrong. The almost First World War P.1.

6 Oct. 2017: The almost First World War P.2.

10 Oct. 2017: The almost First World War P.3.

15 Oct. 2017:  Leading up the First World War P.4.

20 Oct. 2017:  Leading up to the First World War P.5.

24 Oct. 2017: How the First World War started P.6.

27 Oct. 2017: How the First World War started P.7.

30 Oct. 2017: How the First World War started P.8.

1 Nov. 2017: How the First World War started P.9.

2 Nov. 2017: Today marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. And while many demands that the UK government apologize for it, overlooked is the fact that the statement would not have been made without prior approval from the other Allied powers including the Vatican and a jostling with the USA. A Somewhat Hidden History of the Balfour Declaration.

8 Nov. 2017: Over the weekend, Mohammad bin Salman purged his potential rivals to impose a centralized system that can confront what is perceived as the Iranian threat. Why Tehran Is Winning the War for Control of the Middle East.

15 Nov. 2017: The following came as part of a discussion with a former student when he asked me about the Bobrinskoy Orthodox Order of Saint John (OOSJ) and the alleged "The Sovereign Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta" thus opening up what for me is a new research topic. Self-styled Knights Of Today.

19 Nov. 2017: Where the previous part described the phenomenon of self-styled Knightly orders of St John or of Malta, most of these orders claim to be continuations of various alleged offshoots of what now appears to be a non-existing Russian Orthodox priory. Case Study: Malta and the Russian Usurpation.

27 Nov. 2017: In the following historical investigation it has become clear that the original SMOM Order indeed continued unabated and that the Order's continuing sovereign status was not forfeited through the loss of Malta. The appointment of a new Grand Master.

2 Dec. 2017:  Contested as some of the following developments initially where they also contain some intrigue. The foundations of the National Associations of the Order in England and Germany.

7 Dec. 2017:  Following an earlier remark about Festing at the end of the discussion here, there is in fact a historical precedent in the form of an even more severe dispute that more significantly gave rise to a vacancy in the Grand Mastership from 1951 to 1962(which Roger Peyrefitte's famous novel wrongfully attributed to a grain deal). Vatican's opposition to the Order of Malta.

23 Dec. 2016: While there is no clear resolution in sight when it comes to settling the Israeli and Palestinian dispute, including the governments that offer the Palestinian Authority political and financial support, are loath to risk their relationship with Israel by advocating the creation of a Palestinian state, another conference is about to take place. Paris Peace Conference redux 15 Jan.2017:

25 Dec. 2016: The Syrian civil war and the Middle East going forward.