We Syrians Are Not Surprised by This Betrayal
January 30, 2022
Category: PSIR
American power ($)
October 24, 2021
The global order that America helped to establish in the second half of the 20th century is changing fast. In this collection of commentaries, global thinkers examine the sources of America’s power and the forces changing it. They offer predictions and prescriptions for the future. The series looks broadly at America’s power, from its chaotic abandonment of Afghanistan to the rise of China. It also considers the internal forces at work in the United States.
HOW THE U.S. DERAILED AN EFFORT TO PROSECUTE ITS CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN
October 7, 2021
“This just proves one more time to Afghans that international mechanisms do not value their life when foreigners are involved and international forces are involved,” Shaharzad Akbar, who chaired Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission until the Taliban took control of the country in August, told The Intercept. “This decision reinforces the perception that these institutions set up in the West and by the West are just instruments for the West’s political agenda.”
https://theintercept.com/2021/10/05/afghanistan-icc-war-crimes/
U.S. Airstrikes Killed at Least 22,000 Civilians Since 9/11
September 12, 2021
“How to Hide an Empire”: Daniel Immerwahr on the History of the Greater United States
September 9, 2021
“How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.” That’s the title of a new book examining a part of the U.S. that is often overlooked: the nation’s overseas territories from Puerto Rico to Guam, former territories like the Philippines, and its hundreds of military bases scattered across the globe. We speak with the book’s author, Daniel Immerwahr, who writes, “At various times, the inhabitants of the U.S. Empire have been shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured and experimented on. What they haven’t been, by and large, is seen.” Immerwahr is an associate professor of history at Northwestern University.
The EU Must Terminate Hungary’s Membership
September 9, 2021
The West’s meltdown in Afghanistan shows that democratic institutions cannot be established by force and foreign aid. The lesson for the European Union should be clear: if it does not lead by example and expel its own authoritarians, its stated commitment to democracy will mean nothing.
Monetary Order and International Security
September 9, 2021
Historically, there have long been close parallels between the collapse of monetary systems and the fall of global security orders. Hegemony requires a sound financial basis and global credibility – assets that can evaporate much faster than anyone in power cares to admit.
The nineteenth-century global order had been built around British imperial power, with the gold standard serving as its financial foundation. The gold standard was sustained by the expectation that even if it was suspended in times of war, the end of hostilities would allow the currency to return to its pre-war gold value. That promise of a constant gold value provided an element of credibility that made it easier for a wartime government to borrow, and thus to bear the cost of the conflict.
How Beijing Is Redefining What It Means to Be Chinese, from Xinjiang to Inner Mongolia
September 9, 2021
Although Article 4 of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China theoretically guarantees equality for all its 56 ethnic groups, in reality the Chinese Communist Party rules according to a Han Chinese orthodoxy, which claims a direct lineage from the early Yellow River basin tribes and alone defines the national vision. It is this ideology that drives not just the assault on religion in Xinjiang but also the erosion of freedoms in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, curbs on local language in Inner Mongolia and the corralling of 2.8 million Tibetans into urban work groups under the guise of “poverty alleviation.”
The goal, according to an official ordinance on the government website for the Xinjiang city of Kashgar, is to “break lineage, break roots, break connections and break origins.”
Why is China smashing its tech industry?
September 8, 2021
Maybe because what countries think of as a “tech industry” isn’t always the same
In other words, the crackdown on China’s internet industry seems to be part of the country’s emerging national industrial policy. Instead of simply letting local governments throw resources at whatever they think will produce rapid growth (the strategy in the 90s and early 00s), China’s top leaders are now trying to direct the country’s industrial mix toward what they think will serve the nation as a whole.
https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/why-is-china-smashing-its-tech-industry
Indicator Podcasts on Water Scarcity
September 8, 2021
Here is a series of four 9 minute podcasts exploring different aspects of water security, scarcity, access, and other related issues. This topic provides great connections to HLX concepts like Health, Environment, Borders, and Security along with issues related to economic development.
Here are some other articles under the category of “water”
Water In The West: Bankrupt?
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032609785/water-in-the-west-bankrupt
Liquid Markets
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1032979418/liquid-markets
Water’s Cheap… Should It Be?
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033338725/waters-cheap-should-it-be
Should The Lawns In Vegas, Stay In Vegas?
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1033748480/should-the-lawns-in-vegas-stay-in-vegas
An IB Global Politics Site 