Gwynne Dyer

Gwynne Dyer received his Ph.D. in military and Middle Eastern history from the University of London. He served in the Canadian, American and British navies, and taught military history and war studies at the Canadian Forces College and at the Royal Military Academy. From there, Dyer worked as a freelance journalist, broadcaster and lecturer. His syndicated columns on international affairs appear in a dozen languages in nearly 200 newspapers published in more than 45 countries around the world. He has also made several well-known radio documentaries. In 2010, Dyer was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions as a columnist, documentary producer, broadcaster and author.

Dyer helped create a number of television series that were aired around the world, one episode being nominated for an Academy Award. His books include Ignorant Armies: Sliding into War with Iraq, Future: Tense, The Mess They Made: The Middle East After Iraq, and After Iraq: Anarchy and Renewal in the Middle East. His 2008 book, Climate Wars, was a Globe and Mail best-selling, groundbreaking investigation of how nations will behave when global warming really strikes home. His most recent book is Crawling from the Wreckage, published last October.

• 2. The New Middle East

  The good news is that the wrong revolution has lost: Osama bin Laden’s quest to replace the dictatorships and absolute monarchies that used to rule the Arab world with his own fanatical brand of revolutionary Islam had already failed years before he was killed. The even better news is that the right sort of revolutions are winning. Non-violent, secular, democratic revolutions that seek to give Arabs the same freedoms most other people already enjoy. There will be mistakes and even some local defeats and disasters, but we are witnessing a fundamental transformation in a region that has caused the rest of the world much concern over the years. Many non-Arab countries, from Israel to Iran to the United States, will have to reconsider their policies, but this is a Good Thing.
  
  

• 1. Climate Wars

  His latest book, Climate Wars, is a ground-breaking investigation of how nations will behave when global warming really strikes home. Badly, of course, but HOW badly depends on how hot, how soon -- and the game is not yet lost. There are opportunities as well as dangers, and despair is just self-indulgence.

• Your documentation of the changing face of our customers was extremely thought provoking and relevant to our consideration of strategy at CIBC. I received very positive feedback from the Directors concerning the session – which reflects very well on the quality of speakers that we chose to challenge them
  CIBC

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  March 2011

  Fighting Decline

  Gwynne Dyer's provocative argument in Fighting Decline is that, since 2001, American foreign and defence policies have been run by people whose entire approach is shaped by an idea of the United States now being the world's sole superpower. India and China are now both on the brink of rivalling American economic clout and political influence. It remains to be seen just how the United States will respond to this competition, but history, as Dyer shows, provides us with vivid lessons of how empires act when in decline. Fighting Decline brings insight, intelligence, and Dyer's trademark humour to bear on this, one of the biggest issues facing the world.

  
  
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  September 2010

  Crawling from the Wreckage

  Gwynne Dyer is cheering up. Sure, the past decade has had more than its share of stupid wars, obsessions about terrorism, denial about climate change, rapacious turbo-capitalism, and lies, lies, lies. But signs of progress actually do abound. In this illuminating collection of columns from the last five years, Gwynne Dyer ferrets out the signs of hope — without overlooking the issues that remain seemingly intractable. Mining the events of recent history, Dyer contextualizes the recent past and anticipates what the future might have in store. This journalist’s beat is global: from Africa to South America, from Europe to the Middle East, and any other region with a political pulse.

  
  
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  February 2010

  The Mess They Made: The Middle East After Iraq

  In his trademark vivid prose, and in arguments as clear as his research is thorough, Dyer brings his considerable knowledge and understanding of the region to bear on the issue of how widespread the meltdown in the Middle East will likely be. In five chapters, Dyer points the way from present policies and events to likely future developments in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and in the various other countries of the region, not least of which is nuclear-armed Israel.

  
  
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  October 2008

  With Every Mistake

  Since 1973, writer, historian and filmmaker Gwynne Dyer has written a widely syndicated newspaper column on international affairs, regularly published in 45 countries. With Every Mistake is not only a collection of the very best of Dyer's recent work, but an examination of how, time and again, the media skews fact and opinion, wielding formidable influence on how we all shape our own thoughts.

  
  
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  October 2008

  Climate Wars

  Gwynne Dyer's columns on international affairs appear in a dozen languages in nearly 200 newspapers published in 45 countries around the world. His latest book, Climate Wars, is a ground-breaking investigation of how nations will behave when global warming really strikes home. Badly, of course, but HOW badly depends on how hot, how soon -- and the game is not yet lost. There are opportunities as well as dangers, and despair is just self-indulgence.

  
  
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  February 2008

  After Iraq: Anarchy and Renewal in the Middle East

  As Gwynne Dyer argues in After Iraq, the Middle East is about to change fundamentally, and everything is now up for grabs: regimes, ethnic pecking orders within states, even national borders themselves are liable to change without notice. Five years from now there could be an Islamic Republic of Arabia, an independent Kurdistan, a Muslim cold war between Sunnis and Shias, almost anything you care to imagine.

  
  
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  April 2006

  Future: Tense: The Coming World Order

  The foundations of World War III are being laid today - this is the central message of Future: Tense. The whole world needs America to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible, lest the stand-off between Islamists and American neo-conservatives escalates into a new global conflict. The terrorist threat is a red herring, and the radical Islamists' dream of a worldwide jihad against the West is a fantasy, but Washington's attempt to revive Pax Americana - its dream of global military dominance - is real. In this lucid, compelling book, a brilliant follow-up to his bestselling "Ignorant Armies", Gwynne Dyer analyzes the history of tensions between the Arab world and the West, and shows how fringe groups of extremists on both sides now feed off each other: terrorism in Western cities provides justification for military reprisals, which in turn strengthen the cause of Islamist fanatics. Dyer argues that unless America honours its commitment to the United Nations, the rule of law and multilateralism, then the drift back into alliances and military confrontations will begin, and the world will edge toward the brink of disaster.

  
  
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  October 2005

  War: The New Edition

  A new and revised edition of Dyer’s classic book, widely regarded as one of the most compelling analyses of the history of armed conflict.

  
  
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  March 2003

  Ignorant Armies

  The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, have unleashed an avalanche of events that is sliding inexorably towards war between the U.S.A. (and possibly its allies) and Iraq. These events are clearly connected yet so hugely different in character and motive that even those who follow the news closely are bewildered by how the war on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan segued into war in the Middle East. In Ignorant Armies, Gwynne Dyer, a peerless commentator on the causes and consequences of war, explains the strategies of the major players: American, Iraqi, Israeli, and Islamist. Alarmingly, he demonstrates that despite the growing bellicosity from the White House, neither the U.S.A. nor the other protagonists in this drama have a strategy that serves their own long-term interests. Worse, they are unlikely to achieve even their short-term goals. But, Dyer argues convincingly, they are likely to smash a good deal of crockery on their way to finding that out.

  
  
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  November -0001

  The Defence of Canada: In The Arms Of The Empire 1760-1939