Ing. Salih CAVKIC
orbus editor in chief
Murray Hunter
University Malaysia Perlis
Perpetual Self conflict: Self
awareness as a key to our ethical drive, personal mastery, and perception of
entrepreneurial opportunities.
Murray Hunter
The Continuum of Psychotic Organisational Typologies
Murray Hunter
There is no such person as an entrepreneur, just a person who acts
entrepreneurially
Murray Hunter
Groupthink may still be a hazard to your organization - Murray Hunter
Generational Attitudes and Behaviour - Murray Hunter
The environment as a multi-dimensional system: Taking off your rose
coloured glasses
- Murray Hunter
Imagination may be more important than knowledge: The eight types of
imagination we use - Murray Hunter
Do we have a creative intelligence? - Murray Hunter
Not all opportunities are the same: A look at the four types of
entrepreneurial opportunity -
Murray Hunter
The Evolution of Business Strategy
- Murray Hunter
How motivation really works - Murray Hunter
Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities: What’s wrong with SWOT? -
Murray Hunter
The
five types of thinking we use - Murray Hunter
Where do entrepreneurial opportunities come from? - Murray Hunter
How
we create new ideas - Murray Hunter
How emotions influence, how we see the world? - Murray Hunter
People tend to start businesses for the wrong reasons - Murray Hunter
One Man, Multiple Inventions: The lessons and legacies of Thomas Edison
- Murray Hunte
Does Intrapreneurship exist in Asia?
- Murray Hunter
What’s
with all the hype – a look at aspirational marketing - Murray Hunter
Integrating
the philosophy of Tawhid – an Islamic approach to organization - Murray Hunter
Samsara and the Organization - Murray Hunter
Do Confucian Principled Businesses Exist in Asia? - Murray Hunter
Knowledge,
Understanding and the God Paradigm - Murray Hunter
On Some of the Misconceptions about
Entrepreneurship - Murray Hunter
How feudalism hinders community transformation and economic evolution: Isn’t
equal opportunity a basic human right? - Murray Hunter
The Dominance of “Western” Management Theories in South-East Asian Business
Schools: The occidental colonization of the mind. - Murray Hunter
Ethics, Sustainability and the New Realities - Murray Hunter
The Arrival of Petroleum, Rockefeller, and the Lessons He taught Us - Murray
Hunter - University Malaysia Perlis
Elite
educators idolize the “ high flying entrepreneurs” while deluded about the
realities of entrepreneurship for the masses: - Murray Hunter
Lessons from the Invention of the airplane and the Beginning of the Aviation
Era - Murray Hunter
Missed Opportunities for ASEAN if the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) fails
to start up in 2015 - Murray Hunter
From Europe, to the US, Japan, and onto China: The evolution of the
automobile - Murray Hunter
ASEAN Nations need indigenous innovation
to transform their economies but are doing little about it.
- Murray Hunter
Do Asian Management Paradigms Exist? A look at four theoretical frames -
Murray Hunter
Surprise, surprise: An Islam economy can be innovative - Murray Hunter
Australia in the "Asian Century" or is it Lost in Asia? - Murray Hunter
Australia "Do as I say, not as I do" - The ongoing RBA
bribery scandal - Murray Hunter
Entrepreneurship and economic growth? South-East Asian
governments are developing policy on the misconception that entrepreneurship
creates economic growth. - Murray Hunter
Hillary to Julia "You take India and I'll take Pakistan", while an ex-Aussie
PM says "Enough is enough with the US" -
Murray Hunter
|
Lima 2014: Climate
Change – Humans Remain the Same
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Ultima ratio, ratio prima
– but not from Lima… Thus, let me report, Of Nearly
Everything: From Copenhagen, Durban, Rio+20 to Lima 2014, the
conclusion remains the same: We need principles and accorded actions
as this is the only way to tackle the grave problems of this planet.
We are lacking the elementary consensus in the Bretton Woods
institutions, on Eastern Europe and Ukraine, on the WTO Doha
Development round, on a nuclear non-proliferation (and NPT), in the
IPCC, on the post-Kyoto negotiations, and finally on the alarming
state of environment. Ergo, on a global scale we fundamentally
disagree on realities of this planet and the ways we can address
them.[1]
I am neither moralizing & idealizing nor agonizing.
The world based on agreed principles and commonly willing actions is
not a better place. It is the only way for the human race to
survive.
Already some years ago, I noted in my writings (and
in my lectures) that the confrontational nostalgia and academic
inertia keeps recycling the Cold-War rhetoric, although the Soviet
Union has disappeared from the geopolitical map over two decades
ago. Hence, if these practitioners and thinkers are so fascinated
with the simplified either with us, or against us
logics – let’s keep it then! Adjusted to reflect our
today’s realities (or as the grand Wiz of the EU, Jean Monnet used
to say: if you have an unsolvable dilemma – enlarge the context),
it would state as follows: either your socio-economic and
politico-military policies and practices are for this planet and the
very survival of human race or you are against the planet and every
form of life inhabiting it.[2]
What we have recently witnessed in MENA (including the unmentioned
and unmentionable) and elsewhere, is highly disturbing and rather
discouraging: as if the confrontational nostalgia, perpetuated by
the intense competition over finite resources, in lieu of a real,
far-reaching policy-making has prevailed again.[3]
We falsely believed, throughout the 20th
century, that the nuclear holocaust will put an end
to the entire human race. No! It will be a slow, nearly-unnoticed,
gradual but steady construction of the global gas chamber (filled by
the green-house gas emissions). And, this is not an environmental
alarmism as the environmental nihilists, or to say lobbyists would
like to water it down. The way we extract, produce, transport,
distribute and consume, the way we keep all this running on a blind
obedience to hydrocarbons, and finally the way how we
do reflect, contemplate and study on all that (and live in
denial of it), inevitably takes us right into the environmental
holocaust.[4]
What we euphemistically call Climate Change
is actually a brutal war against nature. It is a
covert armed conflict since we are predominantly using the so-called
monetizing-potent ‘technologies’ instead of firearms in our hands.
(For this purpose hereby, the army units are replaced by the
demolition-man of other name;
‘transnational corporations’.) This armed insurgency is waged
against most of what is beautiful and unique on Earth – on the
planet that gave us time and space enough to survive as species and
to evolve as cognitive life. Thus, the known sustainability matrix
of 3 maximums (of good, of species, and of time) becomes the
maximum species, minimum
time, and the maximum
harm.[5]
Intentionally or not, it is a synchronized attack: We
are steadily and passionately polluting our public sphere with the
diverting banalities manufactured by the so-call social networks,
reality shows, ‘celebrities’ and the like – trivializing the
contents of our lives. At the same time, we are massively
contaminating our biosphere (waters, lands, air and near outer
space) with non-degradable and/or toxic, solid or aerosol, particles
radiation and noise – irreversibly harming our habitat. We pollute
the time as well, turning it into cross-generation warfare’s
battlefield: Our dangerous patterns might seal off the fate for
untold number of generations and sorts of species to come. No
wonder, our corrosive assertiveness has (time-space) parallels:
acidifying of oceans and brutalization of our human interactions, as
well as over-noising both are just two sides of a same coin. What is
the social sphere for society that is the biosphere for the very
life on earth: the (space/time – content/form) frame we live in all.
Therefore, our crisis cannot be environmental, as it
was never a financial – our crisis must be a moral one. This is a
cognitive deficit crisis, which we would love to eagerly spend
in a limbo of denial!
Are we intentional in persistently spreading
climate-change denial? Has the human race already passed the
point of no return of its survival? Frankly, we do not know!
Very sincerely, we do not care!
In every OECD country, an ordinary plumber (with just
a few years of formal education and of no expectation pressure) is
of a considerably better income then the university professor or the
hospital doctor with a higher medical specialization (both of the
huge societal responsibilities and both with over two decades of
studies through the rigorous selections). Per average, the bank
clerk (with under- or Matura level) of any banking entity in the EU
states earns 14 to 16 salaries annually (basically, creating no new
value for the society), but is nearly – per definition – protected
by a life-long employment contract. At the same time, the majority
of the EU double-PhD top researchers (per definition, creating a new
value for the society) have comparably lower total annual pay, and
many of them are just happy to win a 2 to 5 years research contract
with the murky hope that the funding might be extended.[6]
Nearly all football players in the European
Premier League, as well as the Formula I drivers (essentially
the modern age gladiators, usually with a little to no formal
education whatsoever) have individually higher yearly income than
many key research institutes in the OECD states can afford to spend
annually. Besides the superficial entertainment (enveloped in the
ovations of masses on a brink of collective orgasm à la
Mussolini parades), it is actually a triumph of brutal competition
or competing brutality (football) and a massive exhaustion of
hydrocarbons (Formula I) – what added value do they create to be so
disproportionately overpaid?[7]
Some may contra-argue by stating that the present-day
football celebrates the sports and a healthy life though the triumph
of the physical strength of a sportsman. The Antique Greece has
celebrated its athletes, and nearly worshiped the contesters and
winners of the Games paying a tribute to the all-mighty Olympus.
Equally, the old Greeks largely encouraged and celebrated, promoted
and (financially) supported its philosophers and scientists. It was
the age when the consciousness blossomed, wisdom flourished and
knowledge triumphed – the theoretical basis of all essential
technological breakthroughs, that occurred in the course of
subsequent centuries up to nowadays, are in fact originating from
the Ancient Eagan world. Ergo, the Classic times knew about the
important equilibrium between an intellect and human body.[8]
Modern Age has forgotten, disregarded, abandoned, betrayed and
tacitly ridiculed this evolutionary wisdom.
Irrespective of our wrongly placed priorities (and
passionately sustained craving to re-channel and discourage, to
derail and denounce any serious debate, far too often by hiding
behind a superficial entertainment), of our obscure and encouraged
greed and incompetence, of our silencing, of all our residual or
imposed ignorance and arrogance, and of our paramount and loud
anti-intellectualism, the real facts are immitigable
and are inexorably defeating:
-
There is not a single peer-reviewed international journal that has
published even one scientific article in last 30 years, which
reports on factual evidences that any organic (marine and conti-
nental biota) or inorganic (soil, glaciers, water, polar caps, etc)
system is doing better on this planet.
- There has not been a single RE or UN report
in last 30 years that credibly denies a worrying increase in
severity and frequency of “natural” catastrophes worldwide.
- Finally, there is not a single
internationally recognized medical journal that has not been
constantly reporting on an alarming increase in skin-cancers,
respiratory and allergy related diseases for the past 30 years.
We are drifting, dissolving and retreating on all
levels and within each and every organic or inorganic system. For
the grave, burning planetary problems, our human race needs an
urgent and lasting consensus which presupposes bravery, virtue,
vision and creativity. All this will not result from fear of
coercion, or from further military (nuclear) confrontations, but
from the universally shared willingness to accord our common
planetary cause. Cognitive mind can do it all.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
First published by
www.moderndiplomacy.eu
References:
1. The UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN FCCC/1992/84, GE.05-62220
(E) 200705 and the Kyoto Protocol to the UN FCCC of 1998, UN Office
of Legal Affairs;
2. Final Document: Durban Climate Summit 2011, The Climate
Institute;
3. IEA (2014),
World Energy Outlook 2014,
OECD – IEA Publications
4. Sagan, C. (1980),
Cosmos
Random House, NY /Carl Sagan Productions Inc. (page: 109)
5. Global Humanitarian Forum (2009),
Human Impact Report – Climate
Change: The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis,
GHF, Geneva
6. Dresner, S. (2002),
The Principle of Sustainability,
EarthScan London
7. Smith, L.C. (2010),
The World in 2050 – Four Forces
Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future,
Dutton (by Penguin group)
8. Bajrektarevic, A. (2004),
Environmental Ethics,
Lectures/Students Reader, Vienna
(IMC University Krems), Austria
[1]
Additionally, we
fundamentally disagree on a role to be played by technology, even on
a very definition on what should be considered as technology.
Technology is not a state-of-art of science;
technology is a state of mind!
It is not a linear progression in
mastering the natural science disciplines, but a cognitive, emphatic
cluster–mastering of the critical insight.
[2]
As H. G. Wells once
said in a different context:
It is clearly the universe or
nothing!
[3]
Sagan, the great
Cosmic Fugue’s
storyteller, claims:
“Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception
awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the
Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic, religious or national
chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our
planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous
point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars”.
[4]
It is not only that our
energy appetite is increasing. In a peak-time of what we call the
‘technological age’, our inability to achieve any global energy
efficiency is widening as well. According to the Paris-based
International Energy Agency (IEA), the total Primary Energy Supply (PES)
in 1973 totalled at 6.107 Mtoe while the global Final Energy
Consumption (FEC) for the same year totalled at 4.672 Mtoe.
Still over 90% based on
fossil hydrocarbons but already doubled in less than 40 years, the
PES in 2010 was at 12.717 Mtoe while our FEC scored only 8.677 Mtoe.
Ergo, we greedily demand more to burn but also to waste.
[5]
The Geneva-based Global
Humanitarian Forum (GHF) headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi
has stated in its Report the following: „Climate change is
responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and affects 300 million people
annually. By 2030, the annual death toll related to climate change
is expected to rise to 500,000 people, and economic cost rocketing
to $ 600 billion.” Usually the confidential reports of the
reinsurance industry leaders such as Swiss RE or Munich RE are less
optimistic and more realistic than this one of the GHF.
[6]
However, ignorance is
bliss: In 2010, the GHF that authored such an indispensable report:
Human
Impact Report – Climate Change: The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis,
has shut down for lack of funds. The organization was unable to
raise enough cash to stay afloat “because of the global economic
crisis. On 31 March 2010 the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs announced that the Forum was over-indebted and obliged to
cease its activity. “
[7]
Finalists of different
TV primetime tirades (so-called Reality shows) that mushroomed in
the last decade are receiving generous paychecks and enormous media
coverage. This is the way how these anonymous nobodies are overnight
becoming prominent celebrities, societal roll-models with the wide
influence, unquestionable authority and respect in the blink of an
eye. In this constellation a subtle, yet message is clear: the
education and to it related creativity, innovations, patents, and
discoveries – notably a regular career path based on a diligent
creation of new value for the entire society appears as a choice for
the misfortunate youth, as the last resort for the failed segments
of society.
[8]
As Plato claims, the
famous philosopher from Miletus Thales' saying Νοῦς
ὑγιὴς
ἐν
σώματι
ὑγιεῖ
- Healthy Soul in a
Healthy Body (or in Latin:
Mens sana in corpore sano).
THE ASIAN SQUARE DANCE – PART IV
By Michael Akerib
Japan
Japan’s population of 127 million, of which nearly a
quarter is over 65, is on a long-term downward trend, and is
expected to lose one third of its inhabitants by 2050 and by two
thirds in 2100. It has the world’s longest life expectancy and the
lowest child mortality rate. The aging population translates into a
population that is rapidly both aging and shrinking. Labor
availability is already an issue particularly considering the
historical reluctance of integrating immigrants – foreigners account
for only 2% of the population. An aging population is also
synonymous with lower prices for land and a lowering of real wages
thus creating a strong deflationary pressure.
Facilitating entry into the employment market for
women is an unpopular measure and will most probably result in an
even lower birth rate than the present 1.47. Possibly Japanese
industry will increase its reliance on robots.
The country suffers from other woes: natural
disasters, deflation, and an increasingly uneasy relationship with
China.
Japanese corporations have made major investments in
Asia, to be present in these markets as they expand, but also to
take advantage of lower labor costs. This has reduced the dependence
of Japanese corporations on the yen, a traditionally strong
currency.
Japan, together with the US, is the largest
shareholder of the Asian Development Bank in which there is a Japan
Special Fund. Under Prime Minister Abe, and in contradiction with
the cultural concept of sakoku or isolationism from the rest
of the world, the country has been eager to create an arc of freedom
and prosperity extending from Japan through South East and South
Asia to the Middle East. This is viewed with alarm by both China and
Russia that sees it as a means of containing them. In Asia,
generally, Japan is a partner co-opted reluctantly as memories of
World War II are still vivid and Japan, no longer wanting to be
apologetic about that part of history, is reviving these painful
memories.
Japan wants to have friendly relations with other
countries in the area so as to counterbalance the rise of China.
Thus, it has recently agreed to a security alliance with Australia,
and is working at improving its relations with India, Russia and
South Korea, the latter being a country in which Japanese are simply
hated.
The limitation is essentially budgetary as Japan’s
economy will face large challenges in the coming years and may no
longer be able to sustain its place as the world’s second largest
economy. Its ranking by GDP per capita has already decreased from
the 4th to
the 20th rank
in fifteen years and its share of world GDP is only 10% as against
18% in the mid-1990s. The country has a large sovereign debt. Over a
quarter of GDP is spent on health and nursery care and family
benefits.
Prime Minister Abe wants to delete Article 9 of the
constitution which prohibits war as a foreign policy instrument and
does not allow the country to have an army and thus gain a larger
independence from the US. It raises the issue of a possible
nuclearization of the country’s military.
Indeed, Japan has undoubtedly the technological
capabilities of building a nuclear weapon. It sees itself threated
by the rise of China, the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, and is
uneasy about its dependency on the US, wondering if the US public
opinion would still, after the Iraqi fiasco, and the
non-intervention in Georgia and the Ukraine, let its forces engage
in foreign combat activities.
The government, however, is well aware that if it
does not develop nuclear weapons, it would instill even greater
distrust among its Asian partners and may well start a race to the
bomb in South Korea and Taiwan.
Japan spends a larger budget on the military than
China does, and its naval power is considerable. Investments are
made in high-technology weaponry and in particular satellite
observation and submarine detection. It is expected to spend USD 240
billion on items including aircraft and amphibious landing ships.
Japan is integrated in the US-led Theater Missile
Defense System, is considered to have the world’s third best army,
thus considerably reducing the possible threats that China could
exercise in the region. It has also announced the development of
satellite capabilities in liaison with the US.
It has recently created a Ministry of Defense. In
December 2007, its Navy successfully tested n American anti-missile
system. Four such interception systems are included in the defense
setup. While officially their purpose is to protect Japan from North
Korean missiles, they play an important part in the defense of
Taiwan should China attempt an invasion. Japan, as well as the US,
have repeatedly stated that they would not stand still should China
decide to invade the island state.
Michael Akerib, Vice-Rector, SWISS UMEF UNIVERSITY
17.12.2014
NEW AGE DIPLOMACY
Samantha Brletich
 High-profile political events and issues have many
scholars, practitioners, and observers wondering how diplomatic
approaches can be better crafted for today’s world which is full of
new threats and problems. Track II and Track III approaches to
diplomacy have been the most successful when traditional diplomacy
has failed. There have been new and numerous attempts to develop new
approaches to combat the long-last problems such as ethnic tension,
extremism, promoting economic growth, and raising awareness on
global crises. Developing new diplomatic approaches for global
development has been the hardest. Some of the emerging diplomatic
trends have potential to solve problems, but can they really
guarantee results or are they diplomatic fads that will go out of
style as the diplomatic community is faced with more complex
challenges?
Track II and Track III approaches to conducting negotiations and
reaching peace have become increasingly popular as many view
regional and global institutions such as the European Union (EU) and
the United Nations (UN) ineffective as the organizations are too big
and do not represent those struggling with most of the world’s
issues—Africa and the Middle East. Elements of Track II can be seen
in many conflicts as governments have begun to negotiate with
opposition groups to reach a decision instead of the internationally
recognized governments. An example of this would be the Syrian
National Council which has provided to be a better alternative and
avenue for peace than the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.
Read more on the next page:
December 11, 2014
THE ASIAN SQUARE
DANCE – THIRD PART
By Michael Akerib
Vice-Rector SWISS UMEF UNIVERSITY
India
 India is the world’s largest democracy, and one of
the few legitimate democracies in Asia showing that, contrary to
statements of certain pundits, that democratic concepts can be
successfully applied outside the West.
Contrary to what is happening in China, its population of 1.2
billion, according to the latest census, continues to grow in spite
of the fact that it has the world’s highest infant mortality rates.
Its working age population is expected to add another 125 million in
the next 10 years. This translates in large capital needs for
additional infrastructure, making it dependent on foreign
investments to a much larger extent than China. Unless it invests
massively in infrastructure, its development will be very much
hindered.
There is a large imbalance between the genders with a ratio at birth
of 914 girls for 100 boys. Life expectancy at birth is of 65 years.
Half the population is younger than 18, a quarter is rural and a
third lives in extreme poverty.
A large proportion of the population is poor, with 50% having no
access to electricity. Poverty is not evenly distriuted
geographically, with some states considerably poorer than others – a
gap widening ever more thus creating the threat of social
movements. A Maoist insurgency has already taken hold.
Read more on the next page:
First published by Modern Diplomacy
03.12.2014
Vietnamese
Australians’ Community: Realities and Prospect
By Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan,
Assoc. Prof.[1]
Abstract
 The Vietnamese arrival and integration into
Australia represents a quintessential case of cultures in collision.
In 1975 there were only about 1,000
people born in Vietnam living in Australia. Over nearly the next
forty years the community grew to over two hundred and fifty
thousand members. Before 1975 Vietnam and Australia barely knew each
other – except through the prism of the American War. By 2012 the
Second and even the Third Generations were a significant part of
Australian political, economic and cultural life. The Vietnamese
were used as the trigger for the end of the bi-partisanship on
multiculturalism at the end of the 1970s, were implicated in the
rising paranoia about unsafe cities in the 1980s, and centrally
embroiled in the emergence of a politics of race in the 1990s. The
article will analyze the Vietnamese Australians’ contribution to
Commonwealth of Australia and Vietnam
in terms of economic development, multiracial and
multicultural society as well as contribution to promotion of the
comprehensive partnership relationship between Vietnam and Australia
at present. The article will analyze current problems of the
Vietnamese Australian Community and suggest measures to overcome
these problems. The article will also forecast the prospect of
Vietnamese Australian Community in Australia in the future and
propose some suggestions to improve the role as well as status of
Vietnamese Australians in Australia and Vietnam.
Read more on the next page:
18.11.2014
ZIVKO BUDIMIR'S SPEECH
IN BERLIN: EUROPE WITHOUT WALLS
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the
fall of the Berlin Wall
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Živko Budimir
In Berlin, November 8, 2014
Ladies and gentlemen,
 I come from a country that is disintegrated - which got to be one of
the reasons that it is not and cannot be integrated into the
European Union. That is discouraging not only for me, but it should
also be discouraging for Europe, where we belong as a civilization -
not merely as its south-eastern part. I hope that European Union
urgently makes sincere and efficient gestures to help me and many
people who share my vision of a non-divided and prosperous Bosnia
and Herzegovina, achieve our goals. Under our present circumstances
- dictated by the unjust Dayton constitution, by the fraudulent
Election process and by other severe travesties of justice - we are
badly damaged, divided, discouraged... all things considered, we are
forcefully, cynically denied the "European promise" given us as the
Berlin Wall crumbled.
As the fall of the Berlin Wall wiped out the borders between "East"
and "West", most states in "the East" expected freedom, security,
prosperity, improved quality of life. Twenty-five years later, it
is reasonable to ask, whether these expectations were met?
Yes, for the most, they were, but not for my country - Bosnia
and Herzegovina. While Germany got peacefully united,
Bosnia and Herzegovina got forcefully divided, contrary to the
International Law and contrary to the template of modern
European civilization. So now it is not a just,
functional, safe, democratic, prosperous state.
Read more on the next page:
09.11.2014
25 years after 9/11 – How
many Germanies should Europe have?
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektareviæ
 Ever since the Peace of Westphalia,
Europe maintained the inner balance of powers by keeping its core
section soft. Peripheral powers like England, France, Denmark,
(Sweden and Poland being later replaced by) Prussia, the Ottomans,
Habsburgs and Russia have pressed and preserved the center of
continental Europe as their own playground. At the same time, they
kept extending their possessions overseas or, like Russia and the
Ottomans, over the land corridors deeper into Asian and MENA proper.
Once Royal Italy and Imperial Germany had appeared, the geographic
core ‘hardened’ and for the first time started to
politico-militarily press onto peripheries, including the two
European mega destructions, known as the two World Wars. Therefore,
this new geopolitical reality caused a big security dilemma lasting
from the 1814 Vienna congress up to Potsdam conference of 1945,
being re-actualized again with the Berlin Wall destruction: How many
Germanies and Italies should Europe have to preserve its inner
balance and peace?
At the time of Vienna Congress, there were nearly a dozen of
Italophone states and over three dozens of Germanophone entities –
34 western German states + 4 free cities ( Kleinstaaterei
), Austria and Prussia. The post-WWII Potsdam
conference concludes with only three Germanophone (+ Lichtenstein +
Switzerland) and two Italophone states (+ Vatican). Than, 25 years
ago, we concluded that one of Germanies was far too much to care to
the future. Thus, it disappeared from the map overnight, and joined
the NATO and EU – without any accession talks – instantly.
West of Berlin, the
usual line of narrative claims that the European 9/11 was an event
of the bad socio-economic model being taken over by the superior one
– just an epilogue of pure ideological reckoning. Consequently – the
narrative goes on – the west (German) taxpayers have taken the
burden. East of Berlin, people will remind you clearly that the
German reunification was actually a unilateral takeover, an Anschluss, which has been paid by the bloody dissolutions
affecting in several waves two of the three demolished multinational
Slavic state communities. A process of brutal erosions that still
goes on, as we see it in Ukraine today.
Read more on the next page:
Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektareviæ
Vienna, 09 NOV
2014
anis@corpsdiplomatique.cd
Author is professor
in international law and global political studies, based in Vienna,
Austria. His recent book Geopolitics of Technology – Is
There Life after Facebook? is published by the New York’s
Addleton Academic Publishers.
07.11.2014
Why is (the Korean peninsula and East) Asia
unable to capitalize (on) its successes
Asia needs ASEAN-ization not
Pakistanization of its continent
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
 Speculations over the alleged bipolar world of tomorrow (the
so-called G-2, China vs. the US), should not be an Asian dilemma. It
is primarily a concern of the West that, after all, overheated China
in the first place with its (outsourced business) investments.
Hence, despite a distortive noise about the possible future G-2
world, the central security problem of Asia remains the same: an
absence of any pan-continental multilateral setting on the world’s
largest continent. The Korean peninsula like no other Asian theater
pays a huge prize because of it.
Why is it so?
How
to draw the line between the recent and still unsettled EU/EURO
crisis and Asia’s success story? Well, it might be easier than it
seems: Neither Europe nor Asia has any alternative. The difference
is that Europe well knows there is no alternative – and therefore is
multilateral. Asia thinks it has an alternative – and therefore is
strikingly bilateral, while stubbornly residing enveloped in
economic egoisms. No wonder that Europe is/will be able to manage
its decline, while Asia is (still) unable to capitalize its
successes. Asia – and particularly its economically most (but not
yet politico-militarily) advanced region, East Asiy its most advnced
: ' teater remains a very hostige of ita – clearly does not accept
any more the lead of the post-industrial and post-Christian Europe,
but is not ready for the post-West world.
Read more on the next page:
03.11.2014
The AsianSquare Dance - 1st part
By Michael Akerib, Vice-Rector, SWISS
UMEF UNIVERSITY
Goldman Sachs first coined the expression BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India and
China - to identify the economic giants of the future that will
reshape the world economic order. While Russia's economy is linked
to the prices of commodities, energy in particular, Brazil has not
lived up to expectations. Of the four countries, China and India
have shown the most impressive growth in recent years with,
respectively, 10% and 8%. Excluding Brazil, the population of the
BRIC represents 40% of the world's inhabitants.
With Asia, reckoned to be today the most dynamic continent,
accounting for 65% of the world's population, and China and India
together accounting for 40%, these two countries can potentially
alter the fragile equilibrium of the world's economy. It is forecast
that by 2030 the East Asian economies will be the world's largest
economic bloc.
Due to diverging political ideologies and concerns, however, this
bloc does not, in fact, exist other than in prose. Even worse, all
the countries in the area have made significant investments in
military equipment over the recent past thus sharply increasing the
risk of conflict particularly as fears grow over China's intentions.
The US' dream, during the cold war, of creating an Asian equivalent
to NATO was short lived. Today, Asia has five nuclear powers:
Pakistan, India, China, North Korea and Russia. On the other hand,
the US is constrained by budgetary problems.
Read more on the next page:
26.10.2014
Jamil Maidan Flores: Why ASEM Is Vital to Indonesian Interest
It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of ASEM,
which bridges East Asia and Europe
By Jakarta
Globe on
08:40 pm Oct 19, 2014
Category Columns, Opinion
- Tags: el
indio
(Image courtesy of ASEM)
 Late last week,
the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held its 10th summit in Milan, Italy.
The event involved 51 nations from the two continents plus two
regional organizations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
and the European Union.
As
European Council president Herman Van Rompuy pointed out, these 51
nations account for 60 percent of humankind, 50 percent of global
gross domestic product, and 60 percent of global trade. Remove their
contributions, and the global economy ceases to be viable.
Once
again Indonesia wasn’t represented by its head of state and
government at the ASEM summit. This time the world understood and
excused Indonesia. After all, the summit coincided with the very eve
of the turnover of the presidency from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who
had just completed his second term, to his successor, Joko Widodo.
It was
different in 2010 when President Yudhoyono failed to attend the
ninth ASEM summit in Brussels. Although days after that summit, he
visited the Netherlands. Earlier, Yudhoyono did not make it to the
US-Asean summit either. As a result, speculation was rife that the
Indonesian government, in deference to China, was distancing itself
from the US and the West. It was around that time that the US
announced its “pivot” or “rebalancing” toward East Asia after years
of apparent neglect of the region by the administration of George W.
Bush.
Read more on the next page:
23.10.2014
The political character
of Social Media:
How do Greek Internet users perceive and use social
networks?
by Dimitra Karantzeni
dimikar87@yahoo.gr
 Abstract
This study investigates the political potential of social networks as
popular platforms of mediated communication. The findings of the survey
reveal the level of engagement of Greek internet users with different
social media, the particular ways in which they prefer to use them as
well as their future expectations as regards the development of these
platforms and their deeper penetration into Greek society.
Keywords
Social media, Greece, politics, communication, citizen participation
Mass
media, due to their symbolic character as well as their level of
penetration into every aspect of social life, play a significant role in
the formation of identity. According to Mezek (2011, p. 7), they have a
triple role: “an information broker, arena for ideas and a community
sustainer”, or in other words, they act as a forum for “public
influence, identity and solidarity” (Alexander and Jacobs, 1998, p. 26).
Thompson underlines the importance of media, as means of “acculturalisation”,
that partly formulate our perceptions of belonging in groups and
communities, creating a so-called, “mediated sociality” (Thompson, 1995,
p. 35).
Read more on the next page:
17.10.2014
Were the
Crusades Justified? A Revisiting
Dr. Emanuel L.
Paparella
 If one surveys a
magazine of opinion, such as Ovi, among others, it will not take long
before one encounters a tirade or a rebuke against religion in general
or Christianity and the Catholic Church in particular. The five
phenomena which allegedly inspire the attack, coming usually from
secularists and positivists are: 1) The suppression of knowledge and
obscurantism, 2) the required celibacy of its priests resulting in
pedophilia and homosexuality, 3) the Inquisition, 4) Witch hunting and
burning, 5) the Crusades. These are phenomena which go back to medieval
times which in themselves are usually declared as dark times (confusing
the dark ages with medieval times in general) and therefore undesirable
in our modern, scientifically advanced, “enlightened” times. Often
enough a recommendation is freely and egregiously offered: the Church
should simply disband itself after asking for forgiveness for its crimes
and hanging its head in shame, and everybody will be much better off
afterward. Enlightenment and peace, transparency and liberty and
integrity will then arrive on the scene and will reign supreme: a sort
of Utopian Garden of Eden. If any quarter is granted to any form of
Christianity in this highly Utopian world free of corruption and sin, it
will be for a reformed Church, that is to say, the Protestant Churches.
I have already dealt at some length with the first three historical
phenomena. At times it has given rise to reactionary spirited
counter-positions on the matter, sometimes those positions have
degenerated into a diatribe. That is of course undesirable. At the risk
of renewing such a diatribe, and in the more positive interests of free
speech and truth, I’d like for the moment to tackle here the fifth of
the above mentioned phenomena, the one on the Crusades and some of their
assumptions and implications.
Read more on the next page:
15.10.2014
Europe – the
letzte Mensch
or
Übermensch,
the new Byzantium or declining Rome
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
A
freshly released IMF’s World Economic Outlook brings (yet again, for the
sixth year in a row, and for the third time this year only) no
comforting picture to anyone within the G-7, especially in the US and
EU. Will the passionately US-pushed cross-Atlantic Free Trade Area save
the day? Or, would that Pact-push drag the things over the edge and mark
an end of the unionistic Europe? Is the extended EU conflict with
Russia actually a beginning of
the Atlantic-Central Europe’s conflict over
Russia, an internalization of
mega geopolitical and geo-economic dilemma – who accommodates with whom,
in and out of the Union? Finally, does more Ukrainian (and Eastern
Europe) calamities pave the road for a new cross-continental grand
accommodation, of either austerity-tired France or über-performing
Germany with Russia, therefore the end of the EU? For whose sake Eastern
Europe has been barred of all important debates such as that of Slavism,
identity, secularism and antifascism? Why do we suddenly wonder that all
around Germany-led Central Europe, the neo-Nazism gains ground while
only Russia insists on antifascism and (pan-)Slavism?
Before answering that, let us examine what is (the meaning and size of)
our Europe? Where, how and – very importantly – when is our Europe? For
example, is the non-EU Europe the existent but invisible world, sort of
the dark side of the moon? Or, is that more? Beyond the ancient
Maastricht and Schengen: the Roman Hadrian Wall and Limes Line there was
no world at all. There was only (an instrument of) the Silk Road – that
antique WTO, isn’t it? Hence, is this unionistic condominium the best of
Europe, or Europe itself?
Read more on the next page:
08.10.2014
Brazil – New Age
Patricia Galves
Derolle
 Brazil
is the largest country in size and population in comparison to other
Latin American countries, and it is the seventh largest economy in the
world by nominal GDP. Since the mid 2000’s, Brazil has become a more
attractive global player: it has diversified its economy and its
partnerships, and launched the Growth Acceleration Plan (2007) in order
to increase investment in infrastructure and provide tax incentives for
economic growth. Brazil has also decreased domestic poverty through
development plans: according to the World Bank, poverty (people living
with USD 2 per day) has fallen from 21% of the population in 2003 to 11%
in 2009. An overall view of Brazilian economy shows that the level of
foreign direct investment is increasing, the wages are rising, the
middle class in growing, and the unemployment rate is low, which offers
a wide range of opportunities in different areas. Despite the positive
scenario, Brazil is an emerging economy and faces issues and challenges
to be surpassed.
Commercial and
Economic Partnerships
Brazil has strong commercial and economic ties with both the developed
and the developing world. To diversify partnership so that its economy
is not entirely dependent on the West is not a recent action plan for
Brazil. Since the 1960’s, with the Independent Foreign Policy, Brazil
has searched for different markets to export primary goods. In the 90’s,
Brazil focused its economy on the developed world, being the United
States its primary partner. During Lula da Silva’s government, Brazil
started searching for alternatives to boost economic growth and increase
exports, although keeping traditional partners.
After
the Goldman Sachs report on emerging economies, released in 2001, Brazil
started again to diversify its partnership with other countries that
were similar to it. In this context, Brazil, Russia, India and China
decided to strengthen their relationships and to create a non-structured
grouping called BRIC. Only in 2011 South Africa joined the grouping,
turning the acronym BRIC into BRICS. Recently, the BRICS created a
Developing Bank, which offers its members credit to infrastructure
needs. With the traditional western partners, Brazil intensifies
commercial and economic relations, mainly bilaterally or through
regional groupings. In a simple analysis, Brazil exports primary and
imports manufactured goods. In a multilateral level, Brazil disagrees
with the West on issues that concern the International Monetary Fund
(quotas) and the World Trade Organization (agricultural subsidies).
Read more on the next page:
Patricia Galves Derolle
Founder of
Internacionalista
São Paulo, Brazil
25.09.2014
“War as Usual” in
Palestine.
Can Kosovo’s Independence Serve as Role Model for a Way Out?
by Corinna Metz
 Israel and Hamas are leading their “war as usual” like a cynical biennially
routine at the expense of the civilian population of Gaza. However, when
taking a look at the map of the Middle East one sees that time is running
out for the Palestinian hope for a state since the territory it could be
built on increasingly gets absorbed by Israel.
Kosovo Style Independence – A Purported Way Out of the
Crisis
So what’s the solution? Palestinians desperately search for a way out of the
stalemate in the conflict with Israel and thereby clutch at every straw.
Without questioning the purpose and limits of analogy, several Palestinian
officials perceived the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo in
2008 as universal remedy to conflicts about statehood. This was expressed in
the statement “Kosovo is not better than us. We deserve independence even
before Kosovo, and we ask for the backing of the United States and the
European Union for our independence.”
ii made by the high ranking member of the Palestine National
Authority and advisor to the Palestinian President, Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Despite its popularity, this approach was rejected by most members of the
Palestinian leadership including President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian
Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, who clearly commented the discussion with the
assertion “We are not Kosovo”.iii
Notwithstanding, political commentators and scholars seized the opportunity
for a broader debate about the relevance of a comparison of Kosovo and
Palestine.
Read more on the next page:
August 9, 2014 by Corinna Metz
Global Climate Negotiations and
Politics
Alisa Fazleeva
 Alisa Fazleeva earned an MA in International Relations from
the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom in 2013. Her
research interests include foreign policy decision-making, realism and
constructivism, and social psychology and constructivism.
Once climate and ecological problems are put in the
agenda of international organizations, they immediately become a tool
for wider political controversies.
The first observation is that climate negotiations are
becoming one more way for the governments to pursue their interests. The
brightest example happened last year, at the UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Conference for Climate Change) held in Bonn, Germany, which
caused utter dissatisfaction among the delegates. The reason for that
was an agenda dispute concerning a proposal by the Russian Federation,
Belarus and Ukraine to introduce a new item on legal and procedural
issues related to decision-making under the Conference of the Parties
(COP) and Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the
Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). (Earth Negotiations Bulletin, 2013)
This is particularly interesting because, given the
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the Russian Federation in 2004
(the protocol at which many developed countries agreed to legally
binding reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases), it seems
there was a shift in the Russian attitude towards the negotiation that
needed to be addressed. Was the amendment to the Kyoto protocol
desirable because the protesting countries intended to influence the
environmental negotiations decision-makers? Or did it happen because the
Russian economy is alive mainly because of oil extraction and chemical
industry and pending the UNFCCC conclusions was beneficial for Russia?
Read more on the next page:
02.08.2014
On 28th
July exactly 100 years ago, Central Europe declared a war to Eastern
Europe, an event that marked the official outbreak of World War I. This
was a turning point which finally fractured a fragile equilibrium of La Belle Èpoque, and set the Old Continent and the whole world with
it into the series of motions that lasted for almost a century, before
docking us to our post-modern societies. From WWI to www. Too smooth and
too good to be true? Let us use this occasion and briefly examine our
post-modernity and some fallacies surrounding it.
From
WWI
to
www.
– PUTIN
NEXT DR
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
In the (Brave New) world of
www.
where, irrespectively from your current location on the planet, at least
20 intelligence agencies are notifying the incoming call before your
phone even rings up, how is it possible to lose jumbo-jet for good? The
two huge aviation tragedies affecting same country – Malaysia, are yet
another powerful reminders that we are obsessed with a control via
confrontation, not at all with the prosperity through human safety.
Proof? Look at the WWI-like blame-game over the downing of the plane – a
perfect way to derail our most important debate: Which kind of future do
we want? Who seats in our cockpit and why do we stubbornly insist on
inadequate civilizational navigation?! Consequently, Ukraine today is a
far bigger crash site, which is – regrettably enough – well beyond an
ill-fated MH 17.
Why in the
www.
world our media still bears the WWI-like rethorics? The ongoing
demonization of President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin in the
so-called mainstream media actually serves as a confrontational nostalgia
call on the side of West. Hence, this main-scream
seems aiming not to alienate, but to invite the current Russian
leadership to finally accept confrontation as a modus operandi after a 25 years of pause.
Read more on the next page:
Vienna, 28 JUL 2014
A Modest “Australian”
Proposal to Resolve our Geo-Political Problems
The Continent and Nation of
Australia
Dr. Emanuel L. Paparella
There is little doubt that our geo-political problems are
becoming more and more intricate and intractable. We presently have on
our hands the middle East crisis, the Ukrainian crisis, the Iraq and
Syria crisis, the economic crisis of the West, the border crisis between
the US and Mexico (with thousands of unaccompanied children from Central
America crossing the border), the territory disputes between Japan and
China, North and South Korea, the EU-Africa crisis with refugees
arriving almost daily in Lampedusa, Italy attempting to get a foot-hold
in Europe, and the list goes on and on. The world is indeed a sorry
mess.
It has not dawned yet on our myopic politicians, our so
called leaders and statesmen, that, as the Pope has repeatedly declared,
the problem is one of inequality and distributive justice; that as long
as there are desperate people in desperate circumstances there will be
refugees crossing the borders in search of a better life. Usually those
crisis lead to wars and socio-political global turmoil benefiting none,
not even the affluent countries.
I have a modest solution which some may find laughable,
even absurd, but it is practically historically inevitable within our
ongoing process of globalization. Before I suggest the solution let us
consider some present geo-political realities. There is a polity in
place which can be termed a Continental nation in the true sense of that
word. It is Australia. It is completely surrounded by the Pacific Ocean
which functions as its borders. It is a nation with a common language
and a multicultural background, including the aboriginal culture which
is now respected if not exactly promoted.
Read more on the next page:
27 July 2014
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2014
AND INDONESIAN FOREIGN POLICY
Igor Dirgantara
 Abstracts:
Indonesian foreign politics are closely related to the issue of its
national pride, position, and role in the international affairs. The
fact that a peaceful election in Indonesia should be a major capital and
stimulus to improve the active role in regional and global arena, as
mandated by opening of the Constitution 1945 paragraph 4 to participate
in creating a world order, as well as to resolve issues and security
challenges. The question that a distinguish prof. Anis Bajrektarevic has
recently asked in his luminary work “Europe of Sarajevo 100 years
later”, ‘Was history ever on holiday?’ – is nearly answered, at least
this time in Indonesia – the 3rd largest
democracy in the world.
Keywords :
Indonesia Presidential Elections 2014, Foreign Policy Performance,
Security Challenges, Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa, Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla
By: Igor Dirgantara (Researcher and
Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Politics, University of Jayabaya)
Indonesian Presidential general election has been underway on July 9th.
There were 2 pairs of strong candidates for Presidential and
Vice-Presidential position: Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa
(Prabowo-Hatta) and Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla (Jokowi-JK). There will
be numerous challenges for the elected pair, and one of the more
important challenge will be regarding Indonesia's future foreign
politics policy. This article will try to foresee the type of leadership
of each couple and also their foreign politics performance.
Read more on the next page:
16.07.2014
Is the ‘crisis of secularism’ in Western Europe the result of
multiculturalism?
by Peny Sotiropoulou
Introduction
 Prof.
Anis Bajrektarevic famously claimed that “…the conglomerate of
nation-states/EU has silently handed over one of its most important
debates – that of European identity – to the wing-parties, recently
followed by the several selective and contra-productive foreign policy
actions.” Elaborating on these actions he went further as to claim that:
“…sort of Islam Europe supported in the Middle East yesterday, is the
sort of Islam that Europe hosts today. (…) and “…that Islam in Turkey
(or in Kirgizstan and in Indonesia) is broad, liberal and tolerant while
the one in Northern Europe is a brutally dismissive and assertive.”
******
Western Europe is phasing the outcomes of the development of two
different trajectories. On one side, the immigrant presence from the
former colonies, growing since the 1960’s, has turned Western Europe
into a multicultural and, by extension, multi-faith mosaic. On the
other, the permanent decline of religious performance has brought up a
wider consensus concerning the privatization of religion as well as its
status of invisibility in the public sphere. These two trajectories can
be perceived as oppositional if one bears in mind the significant
numbers of non- white immigrants residing in Western European states and
the paramount importance most of them place on religion for
identification, organization and political representation. Several
prominent academics refer to the emergence of the aforementioned
phenomenon as a ‘crisis of secularism’.
Read more on the next page:
July 5, 2014
Geo–cultural strategy for
Eurasia
A Paradigm for the New Silk Road
Emre Kovacs and Murray Hunter
 In September 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed that China and
Central Asia collaborate to build a Silk Road Economic Belt,
which would comprise all countries within the Eurasian region. According
to Eurasian expert and China Daily columnist Liang Qiang, such a
corridor would be the
World’s longest economic belt, with the most potential for development,
and a strategic base of energy resources in the 21st century.
Liang Qiang further noted: “The Chinese government can strive for the
vision of establishing the Silk Road Economic Belt by making further
efforts to build mutual trust and overcome doubts, such as making clear
the difference between China’s vision and those of Russia and the US,
and stressing development and cooperation without economic integration,
and by taking into consideration the different concerns of different
countries and actively seeking converging economic interests with
regional countries.”
Read more on the next page:
22.06.2014
EU = SU² - An ahistorical
enterprise?
(Of Europe’s 9/11 and 11/9, 100 years later)
Europe of June 1914 and of
June 2014. Hundred years in between, two hot and one cold war. The
League of Nations, Cristal Night, Eurosong and Helsinki Decalogue Coco
Chanel, VW, Marshall Aid, Tito, Yuri Gagarin, Tolkien’s troll, Berlin
wall and Euro-toll Ideologies, purges, repeated genocides, the latest
one coinciding with the Maastricht birth of the Union… a televised
slaughterhouse and the Olympic city besieged for 1,000 days, just one
hour flight from Brussels.
 E
non so più pregare
E nell'amore non so più sperare
E quell'amore non so più aspettare[1]
Key words in 1914: Jingoism, booming trade and lack of trust,
assassination, imminent collision, grand war. 100 years later; Europe
absorbed by the EU project, demographic and economic decline, chauvinism
reloaded … Twisting between the world of (Gavrilo) PRINCIP and global
village of (instant) MONETISATION (of every-thing and everyone)… Are our
past hundred years an indication of what to expect throughout this
century?! What is our roadmap?! Is it of any help to reflect on the
Sarajevo event of June 28th,
1914 which has finally fractured a fragile equilibrium of La Belle Èpoque,
and set the Old Continent (and its world) into the series of motions
that lasted for almost a century, before ending with the unique
unionistic form of today’s Europe?
Four men leading one
man bound
One man whom the four men hound
One man counted bound and led
One man whom the four men dread[2]
The following lines are not a comprehensive account on all of the
events. Rather interpretative by its nature, this is a modest reminder
of what Europe used and still tends to be, despite all our passions and
hopes, visions and targets, institutions and instruments.* * * * *
Read more on the next page:
Anis Bajrektarevic, Professor and Chairperson
International Law and Global Political Studies
Vienna (Austria), EUROPE
Cell: +43 (0) 676 739 71 75
email:
anis@bajrektarevic.eu
www.bajrektarevic.eu
21.06.2014
Towards A Europe Without Political Prisoners
Prema Evropi bez političkih zatvorenika
Gerald Knaus
Kosovo essay – Of Patriarchs and Rebels
/
Berlin event – Political prisoner dilemmas
Helping families and lawyers /
Godot in
Macedonia
ESI capacity building – from Lake Ohrid to the Bosporus
Read more on the next page:
06.06.2014
Sea Shepherd: Eco terrorists or the front line to protect social
justice?
Murray Hunter
If
you travelled to a small pier at the bottom of Ann Street in
Williamstown, a bayside suburb of Melbourne, Australia, you would come
across a small letterbox with the words "Sea Shepherd" painted over it.
Next to the letterbox is an old shed that has seen much better times
with an open gate leading to two ships, the Steve Irwin and Bob Barker moored and being outfitted for a future yet unknown
maritime mission.
For a highly controversial direct action marine
conservation society, best known for the direct action it has been
taking against Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean near
Antarctica, security is extremely lax on the pier. In fact tours are
offered of the MV Bob Barker every week while it is having a major
fit-out.
One thing that will strike anybody making the effort to
take the tour is how well organized Sea Shepherd really is. Although the
crew has attracted many people of different nations serving on one of
the four Sea Shepherd ships, the members appear to be very highly
motivated, coordinated, and ready to get into harm's way for the causes
they believe in.
Read more on the next page:
06.05.2014
Ukraine needs Codes of Tolerance to cool down
 World
Security Network reporting from Berlin in Germany, April 17, 2014
Dear Friends of the World Security Network,
Ukraine is in severe danger of losing its eastern territory. The
escalation level is rising to military confrontation with the
separatists and Russian special forces and a possible open intervention
by the Russian Federation.
The approach of the Europeans and U.S. to
this crisis in Ukraine is still mainly reactionary, after a committed
start by the German, Polish and French foreign ministers during the
Maidan Square occupation.
The U.S., the EU and especially influential Germany, with its strong
relations to Moscow, should now pursue a more active double strategy of
power and diplomacy, including hard and soft factors of peace keeping. I
call this fresh approach
World 3.0.
President and Founder
World Security Network Foundation
Read more on the next page:
April 17, 2014
The Caspian 5 and Arctic 5 –
Critical Similarities
Between Inner Lake and Open Sea
While the world’s attention
remains focused on Ukraine, Crimea is portrayed as its hotbed. No wonder
as this peninsula is an absolutely pivotal portion of the Black Sea
theatre for the very survival of the Black Sea fleet to both Russia and
Ukraine. In the larger context, it revels the old chapters of history
books full of overt and covert struggles between Atlantic–Central Europe
and Russophone Europe for influence and strategic depth extension over
the playground called Eastern Europe.
However, there are two other vital theatres for these same protagonists,
both remaining underreported and less elaborated.
Author brings an interesting account on Caspian and Artic, by
contrasting and comparing them. He claims that both water plateaus are
of utmost geopolitical as well as of geo-economic (biota, energy,
transport) importance, and that Caspian and Arctic will considerably
influence passions and imperatives of any future mega geopolitical
strategies – far more than Black Sea could have ever had.
Read more on the next page:
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Vienna, 14 APR 14
anis@corpsdiplomatique.cd
14.04.2014
 
●
Aviation General Blagoje Grahovac
- Member of the Advisory Board of the IFIMES
International Institute
Malaysian Boeing 777 accident
On the basis of the information gathered and
published it is possible to establish some important parameters for the
reconstruction of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 accident.
Those parameters are:
- the signals coming to the base station showed
that the engines were working for about seven hours after the plane
formally disappeared;
- although the satellite and radar images of the
plane in the air are insufficiently reliable they nevertheless indicate
that the plane was physically in the air for about seven hours after the
moment it formally went missing;
- the fact that several passengers had their cell
phones turned on is a considerable indicator that they were physically
present in the plane while it was flying in the air although none of
them answered the calls.
Read more on the next page:
30.03.2014
Geopolitics and
the
dramatic confrontation over Crimea
 Dear friends,
In recent months large numbers of Ukrainians braved first the cold, and then
snipers, protesting and waving the blue star-spangled flag of Europe. This has
angered leaders in the Kremlin, leading to the dramatic confrontation over
Crimea. It also left many in the EU confused how to respond.
Should the EU, or future Ukrainian governments, withdraw the promise of deeper
integration in order to placate a grim and threatening Russia, as some in the EU
are arguing behind closed doors? Is Ukraine's still undefined "European
perspective" worth the risk of offending Russia?
Or have Ukrainians, by defending their right to ratify an Association Agreement
with the EU – and to pursue deeper integration in the future – in fact kept open
the single most promising path for their country to transform itself for the
benefit of its ordinary citizens?
Read more on the next page:
21.03.2014
INDONESIA ELECTION 2014
By Igor Dirgantara
Abstract
 One
of the fastest growing economies (over 6%) and the forthcoming power
house in the impressive world’s top 10 club, as well as the largest
Muslim (but secular, republican and non-Arab) country is heading towards
its presidential elections. Mood, wisdom and passions of the strongly
emerging Indonesian middle class will be decisive this time. Or by words
of distinguish colleague of mine, professor Anis Bajrektarevic: “The
middle class is like a dual-use technology, it can be deployed
peacefully, but it also might be destructively weaponized, for at home
or abroad.”
Keywords: Indonesia Election, Presidential
Candidates, Political Programs, Prabowo Subianto, Jokowi
From November 2013 to January 2014, Faculty of Social
and Politics, University of Jayabaya (UJ), periodically conducted
surveys related to the electability of the political parties and the
presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2014 elections.
The results show that the electability of the Democratic Party and the
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) have been decreasing following corruption
cases. The survey was conducted in 33 provinces by taking a sample of
1225 people which have the right to vote (aged 17 years and over. or not
yet 17 years old but already married). The margin of error is + / - 2.8%
and the confidence level is 95%. Population Data were collected through
interviews withrespondents using techniques based on the questionnaire.
Read more on the next page:
28.02.2014
Climate Change and Re-Insurance: The Human Security Issue
SC – SEA
Prof. Anis Bajrektarevic & Carla Baumer
 1
Introduction
Climate change, its existence, causes and
effects, has been disputed by researchers, academics and policy makers.
The given degree of international consensus varies greatly between those
most affected by changes to climatic conditions in contrast to those who
are estimated to only experience a limited effect.
Controversially, it
can also be claimed that some regions are set to gain from climate
change such as the polar region nations currently disputing resource
claims and logistic networks. In analysis of available data, research
suggests the increased intensity of storms, hurricanes, cyclones,
flooding, droughts, bushfires, mudslides and hailstorms along with
increased temperatures, rising sea levels, and changing to pressure
systems.
With climate change as a global phenomenon, not isolated to a
certain region, the interest of stakeholders remains strongest in those
with the ‘smallest’ voice such as the coastal areas, islands, commonly
catastrophe prone and ‘future’ catastrophe prone regions in South East
Asia.
Read more on the next page:
30.01.2014
Call for Action in Syria
World Security
Network reporting from Berlin in Germany, January 23, 2014
Dear
Friends of the World Security Network,
 as the Syrian peace
conference is currently held in Montreux, Switzerland, the independent
World Security Network Foundation would like to share with you its proposals
for the future of Syria, that we have come up with two years ago and still find
them valid today.
1.
A new Syrian Constitution should be discussed and
adopted by the Syrian National Council as soon as possible.
We should not wait for the fall of the Assad regime in the hope that a
democratic constitution can be agreed in the extreme chaos that will inevitably
follow.
This mistake was made in Iraq as well as in Libya and Egypt where the
West did not connect its support with a crystal-clear democratic constitution
first and naively believed democrats would later win in the power struggle with
radicals.
Read more
on the next page:
23.01.2014
PUBLICATIONS:
COLOR REVOLUTIONS: TECHNIQUES IN BREAKING DOWN MODERN POLITICAL
REGIMES - ANDREI MANOILO[1], OLEG KARPOVICH[2]
Lima
2014: Climate Change – Humans Remain the Same - Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
THE ASIAN
SQUARE DANCE – PART IV - By Michael Akerib
NEW AGE
DIPLOMACY - Samantha Brletich
Nuclear Commerce –
essentials - Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic and Petra Posega
THE ASIAN
SQUARE DANCE – THIRD PART - By Michael Akerib
Vietnamese Australians’ Community: Realities and Prospect - By Prof.
Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the
fall of the Berlin Wall
25 years
after 9/11 – How many Germanies should Europe have? - Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektareviæ
Why is
(the Korean peninsula and East) Asia unable to capitalize (on) its
successes - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
The AsianSquare Dance - 1st part - By Michael Akerib, Vice-Rector,
SWISS UMEF UNIVERSITY
Jamil Maidan Flores: Why ASEM Is Vital to Indonesian Interest
The political character
of Social Media: How do Greek Internet users perceive and use social
networks? - by Dimitra Karantzeni
Were the Crusades Justified? A
Revisiting - Dr. Emanuel L. Paparella
Europe – the letzte Mensch or Übermensch, the new Byzantium or
declining Rome - Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Brazil – New Age - Patricia Galves Derolle
“War
as Usual” in Palestine. Can Kosovo’s Independence Serve as Role
Model for a Way Out? - by Corinna Metz
Global Climate Negotiations and Politics - Alisa Fazleeva
A
Modest “Australian” Proposal to Resolve our Geo-Political
Problems - Dr. Emanuel L. Paparella
From
WWI
to
www.
– PUTIN
NEXT DR - prof.
dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Palestine has right to resist occupier: Expert
Is
the ‘crisis of secularism’ in Western Europe the result of
multiculturalism? - by Peny Sotiropoulou
EU = SU² - An ahistorical
enterprise?
Towards A Europe Without Political Prisoners
Sea
Shepherd: Eco terrorists or the front line to protect social
justice? - Murray Hunter
Ukraine needs Codes of Tolerance to cool down
The
Caspian 5 and Arctic 5 – Critical Similarities - Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
Malaysian
Boeing 777 accident - Aviation General Blagoje Grahovac
Geopolitics
and
the
dramatic confrontation over Crimea
INDONESIA
ELECTION 2014 - By Igor Dirgantara
Climate_Change_and_Re_Insurance:_The_Human_Security_Issue_SC-SEA_Prof.Anis_Bajrektarevic_&_Carla_Baumer
Call_for_Action_in_Syria_-_World_Security_Network_reporting_from_Berlin_in_Germany,_January_23,_2014
HE ONGOING PUBLIC DEBT CRISIS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: IMPACTS ON
AND LESSONS FOR VIETNAM - Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Assos. Prof.[1]
Nguyen Linh[2]
The
emergence of the Bhikkhuni Sangha (monkhood for women) in
Thailand -
Murray Hunter
North
Korean Leadership Upheaval: Voices from the South
20
Years to Trade Economic Independence for Political Sovereignty -
Eva MAURINA
Is Singapore Western
Intelligence's 6th Eye in Asia?- Murray Hunter
In
Defense of Cross-Fertilization: Europe and Its Identity
Contradictions - Aleš Debeljak
Malaysia: Why the Pakatan Rakyat does not deserve to be the
Federal Government - Murray Hunter
The Germans to the Front?
-
Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann
The Australian security state
is collecting intelligence on an Orwellian scale never seen
before
- Murray Hunter
Has an 'out of
control' intelligence community compromised 'Australia in
the Asian Century'?-Murray
Hunter
The European Court of
Justice
of Human Rights and Bosnia
The Australian Government's new stance on human rights?
- Murray Hunter
NATO rejects Bosnia and
Herzegovina due to Russia's influence -
Bakhtyar
Aljaf
The immorality of Australia's prostitution laws
- Murray Hunter
Australian Election: Abbott as PM may surprise everyone
- Murray Hunter
Malaysia: Desperately needing a new national narrative - Murray
Hunter
One Man's view of the world and a thousand faceless men:
Singapore's cadre system - Murray Hunter
How important is the Australian Election? - Murray Hunter
El Indio: Seeking Symmetry - By Jamil Maidan Flores
Australian Immigration - the Snowden link? - Murray Hunter
Sarawak Reenacts Independence from Britain 50 years Ago -Murray
Hunter
The return of Kevin Rudd as Australian PM: For how long? - Murray Hunter
Reinvigorating
Rural Malaysia - New Paradigms Needed - Murray Hunter
Can there be a National Unity Government in Malaysia? - Murray Hunter
Will Australian Labor Remain Principled and fall on its own Sword? - Murray
Hunter
Finding a long term solution in the 'Deep South' of Thailand - Murray Hunter
Islamic Freedom in ASEAN - Murray Hunter
Multiculturalism is dead in Europe – MENA oil and the (hidden) political
price Europe pays for it - Author: Anis Bajrektarevic
Malaysia: It was Never About the Election It was always about what would
happen afterwards - Murray Hunter
Enriching the Sustainability Paradigm - Murray Hunter
Does Australia's 2013 Defence White Paper Signal a Strategic Withdraw? -
Murray Hunter
Where is Saudi Arabian Society Heading? - Abdullah Abdul Elah
Ali Sallam & Murray Hunter University Malaysia Perlis
Critical Similarities and Differences in SS of Asia and Europe - Prof. Anis
H. Bajrektarevic
Searching for an end game in the Korean Crisis - Murray Hunter
Turks suspicious
towards German Government - Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann
The high Australian Dollar: Whose
interests is the Reserve Bank of Australia looking after? - Murray Hunter
Is Secretary Kerry's trip to
China a "face saving" measure? - Murray Hunter
Asia-Pacific at
the Crossroads - The Implications for Australian Strategic Defense Policy -
Murray Hunter
Obama's Korean
Peninsula "Game" Strategy seeks to achieve a wide range of objectives in his
"Asian Pivot" - Murray Hunter
Institute for the research of genocide - IGC Letter Regarding Vuk Jeremic Agenda in UN
Who rules Singapore? - The only true mercantile state in the world - Murray
Hunter
The Thai Deep South: Both Malaysia and
Thailand Desperately Seeking Success - Murray Hunter
The desperate plight of Islamic education in Southern Thailand - Murray Hunte
Who makes public policy in Malaysia? - Murray Hunter
MENA Saga and Lady Gaga - (Same dilemma from the MENA) - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Australia's National Security Paper: Did it
amount to lost opportunities? The policy you have when you don't have a policy -
Murray Hunter
Are "B" Schools in Developing Countries
infatuated with 'Western' Management ideas? - Murray Hunter
The Stages of Economic Development from
an Opportunity Perspective: Rostow Extended - Murray Hunter
Who Really Rules Australia?: A tragic tale of the Australian People - Murray
Hunter
Europe: Something Old, Something
New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue - Murray Hunter
Back to the future: Australia's "Pacific
Solution" reprise - Murray Hunter
Hillary to Julia "You take India and I'll take Pakistan", while an ex-Aussie
PM says "Enough is enough with the US" - Murray Hunter
Entrepreneurship and economic growth? South-East Asian
governments are developing policy on the misconception that entrepreneurship
creates economic growth. - Murray Hunter
FOCUSING ON MENACING MIDDLE EAST GEOPOLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS,
ENDANGERING SECURITY AND STABILITY OF WESTERN BALKAN* - Brig Gen (Rtd) Dr. Muhammad Aslam Khan, Pakistan
Australia "Do as I say, not as I do" -
The ongoing RBA
bribery scandal - Murray Hunter
Australia in the "Asian Century" or is it Lost in Asia? - Murray Hunter
Surprise, surprise: An Islam economy can be innovative - Murray Hunter
Do Asian Management Paradigms Exist? A look at four theoretical frames - Murray
Hunter
What China wants in Asia: 1975 or 1908 ? – addendum - prof. dr. Anis
Bajraktarević
ASEAN Nations need indigenous innovation
to transform their economies but are doing little about it. - Murray Hunter
From Europe, to the US, Japan, and onto China: The evolution of the automobile -
Murray Hunter
Missed Opportunities for ASEAN if the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) fails to
start up in 2015 - Murray Hunter
Lessons from the Invention of the airplane and the Beginning of the Aviation Era
- Murray Hunter
Elite educators idolize the “ high flying entrepreneurs” while
deluded about the realities of entrepreneurship for the masses: -
Murray Hunter
The
Arrival of Petroleum, Rockefeller, and the Lessons He taught Us - Murray Hunter
- University Malaysia Perlis
Ethics, Sustainability and the New Realities - Murray Hunter
The Dominance of “Western” Management Theories in South-East Asian Business
Schools: The occidental colonization of the mind. - Murray Hunter
How feudalism
hinders community transformation and economic evolution: Isn’t equal opportunity
a basic human right? - Murray Hunter
On Some of the Misconceptions about Entrepreneurship - Murray Hunter
Knowledge, Understanding and the God Paradigm - Murray Hunter
Do Confucian Principled Businesses Exist in Asia? - Murray Hunter
Samsara and the
Organization - Murray Hunter
Integrating the philosophy of Tawhid – an Islamic approach to organization. -
Murray Hunter
What’s
with all the hype – a look at aspirational marketing - Murray Hunter
Does Intrapreneurship exist in Asia? - Murray Hunter
One Man, Multiple Inventions: The lessons and legacies of Thomas Edison -
Murray Hunter
People tend to start businesses for the wrong reasons - Murray Hunter
How
emotions influence, how we see the world? - Murray Hunter
How we create new ideas - Murray Hunter
Where do entrepreneurial opportunities come from? - Murray Hunter
The
five types of thinking we use - Murray Hunter
Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities: What’s wrong with SWOT? - Murray
Hunter
How
motivation really works - Murray Hunter
The
Evolution of Business Strategy - Murray Hunter
Not all opportunities are the same: A look at the four types of
entrepreneurial opportunity -
Murray Hunter
Do we have a creative intelligence? - Murray Hunter
Imagination may be more important than knowledge: The eight types of imagination
we use - Murray Hunter
The environment as a multi-dimensional system:
Taking off your rose coloured
glasses
- Murray Hunter
Generational Attitudes and Behaviour -
Murray Hunter
Groupthink may still be a hazard to your organization - Murray Hunter
Perpetual Self conflict: Self awareness as a key to our ethical drive, personal mastery, and perception of
entrepreneurial opportunities - Murray Hunter
The Continuum of Psychotic Organisational Typologies - Murray Hunter
There is no such person as an entrepreneur, just a person who acts
entrepreneurially - Murray Hunter
Go Home, Occupy Movement!!-(The McFB– Was Ist Das?) - prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Diplomatie préventive - Aucun siècle Asiatique sans l’institution pan-Asiatique - prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Democide Mass-Murder
and the New World Order - Paul Adams
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Viktiga nyheter
BALKAN AREA
prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
MENA Saga and Lady Gaga - (Same dilemma from the MENA) - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Go Home, Occupy Movement!!
-
(The McFB – Was Ist Das?)
-
prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Diplomatie préventive - Aucun sičcle Asiatique sans l’institution pan-Asiatique
- prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic\/span|
ADDENDUM – GREEN/POLICY PAPER: TOWARDS THE CREATION OF THE OSCE TASK FORCE ON (THE FUTURE OF) HUMAN CAPITAL
prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Gunboat Diplomacy in the South China Sea – Chinese
strategic mistake
-
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Geopolitics of Quantum Buddhism: Our Pre-Hydrocarbon Tao Future
prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
The Mexico-held G–20 voices its concerns over the situation in the EURO zone
- Anis H. Bajrektarevic
What China wants in Asia: 1975 or 1908 ? – addendum - prof. dr. Anis
Bajraktarević
Maasmechelen Village
‘The exhaustion of Greek political system and a society in flames’ - by Dimitra
Karantzen
Maasmechelen Village
FOCUSING ON MENACING MIDDLE EAST GEOPOLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS,
ENDANGERING SECURITY AND STABILITY OF WESTERN BALKAN* -
Brig Gen (Rtd) Dr. Muhammad Aslam Khan, Pakistan
Institute for the research of genocide - IGC Letter Regarding Vuk Jeremic Agenda in UN
Critical Similarities and Differences in SS of Asia and Europe - Prof.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
MENA Saga and Lady Gaga - (Same dilemma from the MENA) - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Le
MENA Saga et Lady Gaga
-
(Même dilemme de
la région MOAN)
- Anis Bajrektarevic
Eva MAURINA
20
Years to Trade Economic Independence for Political Sovereignty -
Eva MAURINA
Aleš Debeljak
In
Defense of Cross-Fertilization: Europe and Its Identity
Contradictions - Aleš Debeljak
ALEŠ
DEBELJAK - ABECEDA DJETINJSTVA
ALEŠ DEBEJAK
- INTERVJU; PROSVJEDI, POEZIJA, DRŽAVA
HE ONGOING PUBLIC DEBT CRISIS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: IMPACTS ON AND
LESSONS FOR VIETNAM - Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Assos. Prof.[1]
Nguyen Linh[2]
Carla BAUMER
Climate
Change and Re Insurance: The Human Security Issue SC-SEA Prof. Anis
Bajrektarevic & Carla Baumer
Igor Dirgantara
(Researcher and Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Politics,
University of Jayabaya)
Peny Sotiropoulou
Is the ‘crisis of secularism’ in Western Europe the result of
multiculturalism?
Dr. Emanuel L. Paparella
A Modest “Australian”
Proposal to Resolve our Geo-Political Problems
Were the Crusades Justified? A Revisiting - Dr. Emanuel L. Paparella
Alisa Fazleeva earned an MA in International Relations from
the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom in 2013. Her
research interests include foreign policy decision-making, realism and
constructivism, and social psychology and constructivism.
Corinna Metz
is an independent researcher specialized in International Politics and Peace
& Conflict Studies with a regional focus on the Balkans and the Middle East.
Patricia
Galves Derolle
Founder of Internacionalista
São Paulo, Brazil
Brazil – New Age
Dimitra Karantzeni
The political character of Social Media: How do Greek Internet users perceive
and use social networks?
Michael Akerib
Vice-Rector
SWISS UMEF UNIVERSITY
Petra Posega
is a master`s
degree student on the University for Criminal justice and
Security in Ljubljana. She obtained her bachelor`s degree in
Political Science- Defense studies.
Contact:
posegap@live.com
Samantha Brletich, George Mason University School of Policy,
Government, and Intl. Relations She focuses on Russia and Central
Asia. Ms. Brletich is an employee of the US Department of Defense.
|
