Category Archives: Politics

Promotional image for a geopolitical thriller book: 'The Dollar Compass' by Hans Peter Bech, with US and Soviet flags on the cover. Free for Kindle.
The Dollar Compass is free for Kindle until 26 June

The first 5-star reviews from the United Kingdom are very encouraging. One reader calls The [...]

22
Jun
Six officials sit around a formal conference table in a government briefing room, with the Department of State seal and an American flag on the wall; they appear to be in a serious discussion, with notebooks and cups in front of them.
When the money points north, where does the compass take you?

The Dollar Compass may be a Cold War thriller. But it is also a business [...]

20
Jun
Man in a gray coat reads The New York Times on a busy sidewalk; headline: Reagan and Gorbachev to meet in Geneva.
A Geopolitical Opportunity: Selling Supercomputers Behind the Iron Curtain

Without guardrails, systems become corrupt. It is a rule almost as predictable as the law [...]

18
Jun
Man in a suit sits at a dark wooden desk counting cash, in a retro hotel-like lobby; a receptionist looms in the background and a man passes in a doorway.
The KGB’s Methods: Blackmail, Sex, Money and Future Leverage

 The most dangerous trap in The Dollar Compass is not physical violence in some filthy basement, a [...]

12
May
Man in a suit presents a poster labeled 'SUPERCOMPUTER' showing a tall computer tower and monitor to a suited audience in a wood-paneled room on an easel.
Did the West Misread Gorbachev?

 When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, the West faced a strategic puzzle [...]

05
May
Two men in suits converse at a candlelit dinner in an upscale restaurant.
When Small Compromises Become Catastrophes

 Most corruption does not begin with a suitcase full of cash. It begins much [...]

28
Apr
Chernobyl – When Technology and Judgment Failed

 On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the [...]

26
Apr
The Dollar Compass

Supercomputers, Power Politics, and Moral Deception in the Autumn of the Cold War  On [...]

13
Mar
Silicon Valley’s Rule Number One: Fake It Till You Make It

 I do not think that “Fake It Till You Make It” is recommended. There [...]

17
Feb
Apple in China

As a die-hard Apple user, reading Patrick McGee's ‘Apple in China: The Capture of the [...]

17
Jun