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The Future of Turkey
after the Last Elections:
the Kurdish question and
the economic outlook
Diego Del Priore
The last parliamentary
elections in Turkey mark a political and an institutional turning
point in the country's history. The importance of the vote derives
from two main factors.
Firstly, Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu's Party of Justice and Development (AKP) has lost
its parliamentary majority, although it remains the largest party in
the Parliament with 258 seats and 40.9% of the votes. This is the
first time that the party has been in this position since 2002, when
the AKP swept to power and retained a majority in the Turkish
Parliament.
However, the AKP
failed to
achieve its
objective of 350 seats, as the party leader and president of the
Republic since August 2014, Recep Tayyp Erdogan, had hoped.
This 350
seats threshold would have allowed Erdogan to introduce a series of
constitutional
reforms leading to a reinforcement of the presidential system.
However, Turkish voters would appear to have baulked at this
prospect and have opted to maintain the existing balance of
institutional power. The elections were an indirect referendum on
Erdogan's constitutional intentions.
Indeed,
the electoral campaign went ahead amidst a degree of tension given
the issues at stake. Galip Dalay, a senior fellow with the Al
Jazeera Center for Studies on Turkey and Kurdish affairs, points out
that the main factor contributing to the heated atmosphere remained,
above all, the future of the political system: "The
whole struggle involves the central question of whether Turkey
should have a parliamentary or a presidential system. Unfortunately,
all other items on the agenda have taken a back seat with regard to
this central electoral question".i
Secondly, the entry of the
left-wing pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP),
into the Grand National Assembly represents a development of marked
significance. The HDP, led by Selahattin Demirtas, received 6.5
millions of votes (13%) and 80 seats in the Parliament. This
political shift opens the door of Parliament to an overtly Kurdish
party for the first time in Turkish history and constitutes a
strengthening of Kurdish political influence.
As for the other major
electoral figures, the Republican People's Party (CHP), gained 132
seats with 25% of votes and has worsened its 2011 result. By
contrast, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) increased its share
of the popular vote to 16.5% and 80 MPs. Institutionally, the new
political landscape inevitably entails a period of instability and
the country will undoubtedly be confronted with one of three
options: a
coalition
government, a minority government or early elections.
With regard to the Kurdish
question, the emergence of the HDP might provide a stimulus for
renewed dialogue. In its electoral manifesto, among other measures,
the party had pledged to back up self-rule with the introduction of
regional assemblies. Since the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres – calling for
autonomy for the Kurdish people; a call that remained unheeded –the
Kurdish question remains unresolved. After decades of failed
attempts at greater self-government, the official opening of
negotiations with regard to Turkey's accession to the European Union
represented a shift in perspective and, with it, the potential for
greater recognition of Kurdish cultural identity.
The latest
elections might possibly induce greater momentum towards a
definitive settlement as this involves the continued pursuit of
peace talks with the outlawed armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Only hours after the official announcement of the election results,
Selahattin Demirtas, HDP leader and human rights lawyer, declared:
“We, as the oppressed people of
Turkey, who want justice, peace and freedom, have achieved a
tremendous victory today. It’s the victory of workers, the
unemployed, the villagers, the farmers. It is the victory of the
left”.
The possibility of further
progress over the Kurdish question is also, it would appear,
intimately linked to a series of regional developments, with the
Kurds being directly involved in the armed struggle with the Islamic
State (IS). Kurdish resistance – alongside contacts with the United
States with a view to combating IS – have contributed directly to
the growing legitimacy and visibility of the Kurds, a factor that
has not yet been recognized by the Turkish government.
At the same time, the
fundamental question of Turkey's economic future continues to
attract a great deal of attention.
The main focus has been
the question of how best to reboot the economy, on one hand, and the
relations between the government and the central bank, on the other
hand.
After a period of
sustained growth, Turkey has emerged as something of a model in
terms of economic policies and development strategies. In a recent
report, The World Bank stated: "Turkey’s economic
success has become a source of inspiration for a number of
developing countries, particularly, but not only, in the Muslim
world. The rise of Turkey’s economy is admired, all the more so
because it seems to go hand in hand with democratic political
institutions and an expanding voice for the poor and lower middle
classes".ii
This being said, closer
examination of the figures points to a less rosy picture. Economic
growth has been slowing since 2008 and it is predicted that it will
fall to 2 percent this year. Unemployment is at its highest level in
five years and, with growth stagnating, the economy will undoubtedly
remain something of a thorn in the side of the new government.
Nevertheless Abbas Ameli-Renani – a strategist specialising in
global emerging-markets at Amundi in London – remains relatively up
beat. As he pointed out on the eve of the vote,
“if the AKP fails to win a majority and is forced into a coalition
with other parties, the markets’ reaction is unlikely to be negative
for a sustained period. After 13 years of absolute majorities for
the AKP, a weaker vote of confidence by the electorate may be
exactly what is needed to refocus the party’s attention on the
economic reform agenda that defined its earlier years in power.”
iii
Above all since the
election of Erdogan as President of the Republic in 2014, the
question of the most appropriate economic strategies to pursue has
tended to turn around the relations between the government and the
Turkish Central Bank. In principle an independent entity, the
central bank has come into conflict with the powers that be over
high interest rates. Whilst the central bank is in favour of high
interest rates, this policy has drawn some harsh criticism from
Erdogan.
Despite the apparent
deadlock and stagnation in Turkish affairs, the elections have been
greeted with satisfaction by the European Union. Europe is the
largest trading partner of Turkey, providing the greatest amount of
foreign direct investment to Ankara. Against this background, the
European Union has hailed the existing balance of power as
"a
clear sign of the strength of Turkish democracy. The fact that all
the major political parties have obtained representation in the new
parliament is particularly important".
Diego Del Priore is
Research associate at the Institute of Advanced Studies in
Geopolitics and Auxiliary Sciences (IsAG)
First published by
www.moderndiplomacy.eu
i Umut Uras, Turkey votes amid debate on
presidential system, Al-Jazeera, 7 June 2015.
ii Mustafa Kutlay, Turkish economy after the
elections: In search of a new paradigm, Turkish Weekly, 30 June
2015.
iii Onur Ant, Ali Berat Meric, Erdogan Rivals
Frame Economy Debate as Turkey Heads to Polls, Bloomberg, 13 May
2015.
July 30, 2015
The Power of Geopolitical
Discourse
By Diego Solis
Geopolitics, as a discursive
practice, should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, sometimes we are
so busy with our daily activities and work that we tend to ignore
the fact that the media can, indeed, specialize and geopoliticize a
conflict by ‘labeling’ and ‘identifying’, thus creating a sense of
‘pertinence’ amongst us, the ‘audience’; in other words, creating a
binary world between ‘us’ and ‘them, the ‘other.’ This said, in
order to understand the power of words and images in geopolitics, we
must look back and understand how geopolitical knowledge was
originally produced and thought of.
Although at first glance, while difficult to prove, the true origin
of geopolitical theory may revolve around Darwinism and the rules of
nature—I will not delineate the rules of nature according to Darwin
but rather I will keep my argument in line with that of geopolitics
and discourse. For instance, Friedrich Ratzel (a notable geographer,
ethnographer and biologist), the creator of Lebensraum (the need of
living space), theorized and compared the state to that of a living
organism, in search of augmenting its space to support the carrying
capacity of its species under its physical environment. By the same
token, Rudolf Kjellen—who was actually the first political scientist
to coin the term ‘geopolitics’—viewed the state in a similar manner
as Ratzel: as an organic living being, with its own limbs and
personality, drawing his metaphors from poetry and prose. Friedrich
Ratzel (1844-1904) and Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922), who were the
creators of the German geopolitical school of thought, had something
in common: they grew up between the transition of a pre-industrial
society (1750-1850) and the beginning of a new industrial society in
continental Europe. Eventually, the story is widely known: their
theories, alongside Mackinder’s, influenced the aggressive
expansionist policies of the Nazis, pushed by Major General Karl
Haushofer. (from Machtpolitik to Weltpolitik)
Likewise, another important player and influencer (Sir Halford
Mackinder) was born in the 19th century, and meanwhile in 1904
published the most famous geopolitical theory of all, The
Geographical Pivot of History; a theory that was taken particularly
serious by the Nazi political and military elite and diffused via
Haushofer’s understanding of the world. And a theory that, to this
day, has been explained and argued in modern-day world affairs
books, such as Robert D. Kaplan’s The Revenge of Geography and the
likes. Without further expanding into academic theoretical grounds,
we can conclude as so: Geopolitics had a common European heritage,
pioneered by Mackinder, Ratzel and Kjellen, through their
biological, geographical, and civilization interpretations of
European power-relations of their time.
In that sense, how was geopolitical thought diffused and brought
into the Western hemisphere, specifically into the United States,
the world latest superpower?
In 1890, Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, while stationed in Lima,
Peru, published one of the most influential books in the American
Naval military psyche: The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,
1660-1783. It advocated why it was imperative for the American navy
to reach total hegemony and control over the seas and oceans of the
world. Another important American geographer and advisor to Woodrow
Wilson was Isaiah Bowman, whose push for free trade policies
vis-a-vis the creation of international institutions, would also
become influential in the American neoliberalism and exceptionalism
ethos. Nevertheless, although Bowman and Rear Admiral Mahan were
important figures in the American geopolitical mindset, if there was
any truly prominent figure in the realm of American foreign policy,
it would be Yale’s Nicholas J. Spykman. His influence in shaping the
American foreign policy attitude continues to maintain a foothold in
the political and military establishments to this day. Amongst many
of Spykman’s arguments, he claimed that geography was a leading
influencer in international politics—i.e. country size and region
location, climate, topography, resources, population, frontiers, and
so forth—and that the exertion of power should be the true goal of
the American foreign policy apparatus, whose best example is his
Rimland concept of the Eurasian landmass; and needless to add,
George Kennan’s The Sources of Soviet Conduct and the impact it had
on US containment policy.
But under which geographical and political parameters and
assumptions did Spykman, Mahan, Bowman, and Kennan view geopolitics?
The answer is simple: from a European perception and understanding.
All from the continent which, by a vivid expression of the MD Board
Chairman prof. Bajrektarevic, “…exhorts its well-off status quo by
notoriously exporting its transformative powers of free trade dogma
and human rights stigma–a modified continuation of colonial legacy
when the European conquerors, with fire and sword, spread commerce,
Christianity and civilization overseas.”
Let’s connect the dots. Mahan’s ideas and analogies aroused from the
British Royal Navy’s control of maritime commerce, which catapulted
them to become one of the most powerful empires in the world;
Bowman’s American exceptionalism—egalitarianism, republicanism,
democracy, and individualism—ideals, can be traced in the form of
Franco-British (e.g. Alexis de Tocqueville and Adam Smith) political
and economic thinking; Spykman, whose origin was Dutch, based his
Rimland theory out of Sir. Halford Mackinder’s, hence, we could say
that, overall, he had a British influence on his geopolitical
thinking; and Kennan, who prior to embarking on his Soviet
adventure, was trained and educated in a pre-World War II setting,
which at the time often involved the diffusion of the German
geopolitical school of thought at the University of Berlin Oriental
Institute, perhaps influencing the ideas of Kennan concerning the
Soviet Union’s territorial expansionism. Henceforth, something is
clear: modern-day geopolitical discourse, vision, and imagination
was gradually diffused and transferred into the American foreign
policy and military elite by European-clouted scholars.
Nevertheless, the American geopolitical rationale would evolve
rather drastically as opposed to their European counterparts because
of their location and place in the world.
Let’s bring it back to the 21st century now. It was the year 2002, a
year after one of the most devastating terrorist attacks on US soil.
But also, it was the year when then-president George W. Bush, during
his famous State of the Union Address, would label and identify the
new “axis of evil” according to America’s world view; simply put,
America’s new enemies—Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Was this speech a
true act of geopolitical specialization and the creation of a more
rigid and tougher, binary world, resembling to the US—vs—Soviet
Union days? “What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far
from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning,” George
W. Bush said as he addressed the entire world. Indeed, we have
noticed that during the last decade—and the beginning of this
decade—the war against terror has been substantially expanded from
Pakistan to the Sahel and from the Sahel to Somalia. Going back to
the 2002 State of the Union address, we have observed the urge to
specialize, label, and create a ‘sense of belonging’ amongst
different civilizations in the world, which leads to the question:
How often does the media specialize an ongoing conflict, more
precisely by further polarizing and transforming the world into an
are-you-with-us-or-against-us type of discourse? Is Samuel
Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations more valid than ever before? How
often are we indirectly influenced by popular culture, regardless of
our nationalities (i.e. television series, books, images, media
channels)? Moreover, what are the foundational geographical and
political assumptions behind our elites? This the main reason why
critical geopolitics is so important in today’s multipolar world.
Leading geographers and critical geopolitics scholars, John Agnew
and Gerard Toal, in their superstar essay Practical Geopolitical
Reasoning in American Foreign Policy, suggested that the definition
of geopolitics should be ‘re-conceptualized’ as a “ discursive
practice by which intellectuals of statecraft ‘spatialize’ in such a
way as to represent it as a ‘world’ characterized by particular
types of places, peoples, and dramas.” Also, according to Agnew and
Toal’s understanding, “geopolitics is the specialization of
international politics by core powers and hegemonic states.” As a
result, when we think of the George W. Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’
classification, the definition by Agnew and Toal seems more relevant
than ever before.
Furthermore, what about the movies and television series we often
see for entertainment purposes? For instance, if we take note of the
evolution of Liam Neeson’s hit movie Taken, we can remark that he is
always fighting an enemy from the Eastern hemisphere. During the
first two films, the ex-CIA SAD (Special Activity Division) retired
operations officer, Bryan Mills, was fighting the Tropoja-native,
northern Albanian criminal organization in Paris, which is a
‘Western’ city. And, who ends up fighting some sort of rich Arab
Sheikh—an enemy from the East, moreover, the Islamic world. Also, in
the second movie, Bryan Mills, once again, ends up fighting the
patriarch’s northern Albanian criminal organization, however, the
landscape changes when he is fighting them in an Islamic city:
Istanbul. Even if there are many ways to interpret this, in my
personal view, I would interpret it as how the Albanian criminal
organizations will be the new antagonist stereotype across
mainstream Hollywood-made action movies, replacing the Italian
criminal organization, and the brave and tough ‘Western’ action hero
beating the ‘unknown’ enemies from the ‘East.’ It seems that in
accordance to Hollywood’s geographic imagination, the Italian
criminal organizations, have been replaced by tougher groups
originating in the ‘East’—in this case, more precisely from the
Balkans and of Islamic affiliation (at the beginning of Taken 2, we
notice an Islamic burial, somewhere around the Albanian alps-type of
setting).
As a last observation, what type of antagonist does Bryan Mills
battle in his latest movie, Taken 3? Again, an enemy from the
Eastern hemisphere: The Russians, though this time, battling a
domestic enemy as well (for those that have not seen the movie, I
shall stop here). Whatever our personal interpretations might be, we
all can conclude with the following statement: The media plays a
bigger role in geopolitics than we can imagine, purely by labeling,
identifying, and creating the ‘other’.
How much influence does popular culture (e.g. books, televisions
series, movies, newspapers, news channels) hold in our geographic
imagination and the creation of the ‘other’? When we think of
popular American televisions series, such as Homeland, House of
Cards, or movies depicting ‘anti-Western’ dictators like The Last
King of Scotland and The Interview, in addition to your typical war
movies (e.g. Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, American Sniper,
Lone Survivor), to what extent can these movies and series further
geopoliticize a group of people, moreover, an entire nation? For
instance, in the case of Somalia, when we see movies like Captain
Phillips, how much do we associate a whole country or diaspora as a
group of either pirates or Al-Shaabab supporters? And as a last
example, jumping to the other end of the spectrum, in the case of
Venezuela’s media networks which are supportive of government
repression like Noticias 24, Telesur and Venezolana de Television (VTV),
by constantly creating stories about the big, bad and distrustful
‘American Empire’ who is, apparently, plotting a coup d’état against
the Maduro regime. In reality, the pro-government Venezuelan media
networks are failing to inform the population about the economic
crisis and rampant insecurity common Venezuelans are experimenting
in the streets of cities like Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia,
thereby just like Hollywood creates the ‘other,’ the same can be
said about Venezuela and other authoritarian regimes. No matter what
ideological principles a pro-Western or anti-Western government
holds, each elite will abide by the same process: to label a group,
to identify with a similar group, and to create an ‘us’ and ‘them’
discourse.
As a final remark, in order to geopoliticize through words and
images, there must be a radically different entity (the ‘other’);
put precisely, the creation of an ‘enemy’; an entity, that does not
think the same way or hold the same values and ideals like ‘us.’ For
the Romans, the ‘others’ were the barbarians; For the Persians, it
was the Arabs; for the British medieval kingdoms, it was the
Vikings; For the Chinese, it was the Xiognu nomadic tribes; for the
Austro-Hungarian empire it was the Ottomans; for the European
colonial empires it was the Native Amerindians and African tribes;
for the Americans, it was the Soviets; and nowadays the new
Mongolian hordes of the 21st century are non-state actors like ISIS
and similar groups for the rest of the civilized world. The whole
point of this article was to show, how in actuality, words and
images can be powerful weapons to geopoliticize entire nations,
whilst additionally grasping how the political and geographical
assumptions, aroused from a European mindset; when, in turn,
geopolitical thinking and reasoning was nothing other than the
‘vision’ that scholars like Mackinder, Kjellen and Haushofer had in
mind for the securing vital strategic resources in accordance to
their countries’ needs at the time. Consequently, we can firmly
state that Western identity and geopolitical discourse have a
European legacy.
In his last book, World Order, one of the most influential Europeans
in the US, Henry Kissinger quotes an old excerpt of French
Travel-writer, Marquis de Custine, who describes Czarist Russia as,
“a monstrous compound of the petty refinements of Byzantium, and the
ferocity of the desert horde, a struggle between the etiquette of
the Lower Byzantine Empire, and the savage virtues of Asia, have
produced the mighty state which Europe now beholds, and the
influence of which she will probably feel hereafter, without being
able to understand its operation.” Now, dear reader, it is up to you
to be the judge of Marquis de Custine’s words. Or in popular
geopolitical terms, as rapper Eminem would say, “My words are my
weapons…”
Diego Solis
Global South Advocate, Founder and chair of Geopolitical Explorers
Consulting Group,
July 30, 2015
YOGA DIPLOMACY
By Umesh MUKHI
Recently, we must have witnessed
the hype in Press about the International Yoga Day celebrations led
by India all over the world.
The event evoked mélange of reactions, while some
highly appraised the initiative there were also some criticisms as
well. Moreover analysts didn’t fall short to offer their own
analysis by analyzing the ancient Indian scriptures and offering
their analyzing in the context of present government under Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. What is the essence of Yoga?
How is it related with Religion? Is it a way to exercise India’s
soft power? How is Yoga entering the arena of Diplomacy and
International Affairs? With an intention of offering a holistic
view, I will lay down some perspectives from different angles to
enlighten our reader’s attention.
What is Yoga?
The contemporary analysis of Yoga by journalists and
certain teachers has been limited only to the postures. Of course as
we see that the west has adopted the more physical form of yoga
which has been a billion dollar business so far. The flagship film
of Yoga Day clearly states that the object of Yoga is Samadhi, by
traditional means one has to perfect the asanas to achieve a healthy
body, mind and spirit, then he has to internalize the process by
focusing more on meditation which will lead to the state of Yoga.
Essentially, Yoga is Sanskrit word, it means the union and
connection with the divinity thereby achieving self-realization.
Thus at the out the outset it is the process of self-realization
which is an outcome of Yoga. A Yogi is a person who practices Yoga,
he has to obtain the state of Yoga, i.e. achieving the state of
Nirvikilpa Samadhi, and it means that a Yogi enters into the
dimension of thoughtless awareness which means connection of ones
soul with the divinity. This state is more or less like an ecstatic
experience of vibrations which a yogi feels after having attaining
the state of Samadhi. Therefore practicing only physical posture may
present us certain benefits but they won’t offer us the spiritual
bliss and peace which is the ultimate aim of Yoga. This is where
philosophy of Saint Kabir enlightens us, in his poetry he mentions "Pothi
Padh Padh Kar Jag Mua, Pandit Bhayo Na Koye, Dhai Akhshar Prem Ke,
Jo Padhe So Pandit Hoye." Which means "Reading books hasn't made
anyone wiser. But the One who has experienced even the first flush
of love, knows more about Life than a learned man. This leads us to
conclusion that one doesn’t becomes a Yogi by analyzing or mere
practicing, one actually becomes a Yogi by achieving the state of
Yoga.
Another confusion created by analysts is about
whether Yoga is the part of Hinduism. It is true to some extent that
the science of self-realization was first expounded in India in
prehistoric era, but the emphasis of yoga on scriptures in no way
leads to conclusion that yoga is a part of Hindu philosophy. Firstly
Hinduism was never a formalized religion, Secondly, it acknowledges
the incarnations of realized souls who descent on earth to alleviate
the human lives. Thus every soul who walked on the earth to
propagate the message of divinity is promoting Yoga in other words,
all the prophets spoke about it, For example Jesus Christ did
mention about connection with Holy Ghost and Supreme Father, Prophet
Mohammad did emphasized that the Islam is surrender to Allah and
that one has obtain divinity by completely surrendering to the
formless and omnipresent god, similarly Buddha in his quest for
liberation founded eight fold path for Nirvana. All of them are
essentially speaking of the same connection in different times of
history but the purpose is same, i.e. to uplift the consciousness of
humans and to establish the process of self-realization within
humans. Another beautiful example about unity of purpose in
religions could be found in a classic titled Majma-Ul-Bahrain or The
Mingling of the Two Oceans, written by King Dara Shikoh who was the
eldest son and the heir-apparent of the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah
Jahan. In this explores the interconnection and similarities between
Sufism and Vedanta traditions.
We may also turn our attention towards Sahaja Yoga
which is unique from other branches of Yoga, Sahaja Yoga claims to
be the Yoga promoting universal harmony by emphasizing about the
role of sacred masters hailing from different religions. Most of the
time it is assumed that Yoga Gurus are mostly male, but it is also
interesting to note that this global movement was founded by Shri
Mataji Nirmala Devi who was the wife of late Dr. Sir C.P. Srivastava,
International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Emeritus. In
fact back in 1990 she conducted a Sahaja Yoga session at United
Nations New York on the topic of Self Realization. Due to the
diplomatic career of Sir C.P. Srivastava, Shri Mataji often spent
her time out of India, travelling different countries, this further
on acted as a catalyst for her to understand the western culture and
thereby introducing them to Yoga which is simple and spontaneous.
Yoga and Diplomacy
The French case of promoting the French Culture and
Language is a very interesting example of pursing diplomacy of
preserving and promoting the heritage, art and culture. The role of
France in creating International Organization La Francophonie in
1970 shows that it is assuming its authority in preserving the
language, and through its means it would exercise its soft power in
francophone countries. According to the organizations website, the
member countries “also share the humanist values promoted by the
French language. The French language and its humanist values
represent the two cornerstones on which the International
Organisation of La Francophonie is based.” In the same way, France
is promoting French Language and culture through Alliance française.
French Language, Wine and Cheese Tasting, Art, Culture and Education
are one of the key activities promoted by Alliance française across
the world.
Throughout the course, India managed to embrace the
influx of different cultures but has still managed to retain the
essence and the crux of divinity imbibed in its pluralistic
traditions. At the times where British and French took pride in
having colonies, India was still keeping its values and traditions
alive. Being more than 5000 years old, Yoga as a science of
self-realization has still managed to survive, neither India
exercised its power to control it nor it promoted it. It played a
vital role in creating state of art kings who would seek the
guidance of yogis, moreover the fame of India and its philosophy
spread across the world which dragged the attention of mystics,
traders, monks and even philosophers and even colonizers. However
India, since its independence hasn’t exercised cultural diplomacy as
a part of its main stream diplomacy. The complexities within the
Indian Culture and the diversity in makes it more complicated for
India play a legitimate role on promoting its own heritage and
culture. At the same time India takes pride of its rich past, from
the science of Ayurveda to the secular values of Emperor Akbar and
monuments like Taj Mahal, India cherishes it all, but it fails to
endorse it. Moreover India is one of the largest contributor of UN
Peace Forces as well. So Logically, India has all right to promote
Yoga, just like France does for French Language, this is essentially
important because of two primary reasons. Firstly, why didn’t
previous governments undertook such step, were they ignorant or yoga
was not on their agenda. Secondly, the west adopted yoga much faster
than India did, that’s the reason why so many gurus settled out of
India. The Yoga also flourished as a business where various forms of
yoga were introduced which are completely opposite to the original
philosophy. It is at this time, India had to reassume its position
by sharing the true knowledge and true purpose of yoga which is to
achieve peace and harmony.
On the 21st June, a record was created where millions
of people practiced Yoga, which was even a rare fact for Indian to
cherish its own heritage. I am not sure except any victory in sports
if an Indian can recall when was the last time the world followed
India’s footsteps? When was the last time they saw a Head of State
appealing UN to adopt a Yoga day and himself practicing Yoga? Those
practicing Yoga on yoga day across the world didn’t come for
showoff, they rather came because they saw hope, because they are
seeking the peace within and because it’s worth trying. Although
analysts may accuse government’s agenda and may find out loop holes
in organization of mass event, they miss out the bigger picture of a
massive country which has been at the epicenter of spirituality for
the world and its role to lead the world by example. Of course Modi
may find it inevitable to avoid criticisms, however some of his
remarks do strike a chord with ancient wisdom. During his speech at
UN General Assembly, he said that Yoga could help to tackle climate
change and in recent International Conference of Yoga, he mentioned
that Yoga could play a vital role in developing peaceful societies,
responsible leaders so that we may leave planet in good conditions
for future generation. This adds a new dimension of Spirituality in
order to achieve Sustainability in every sector. Of course given the
state of the world so far, we can make out that neither does
industrialization nor investment helps us in tackling with emergent
issues, if the mind of the person is not ready to absorb the change.
It only through the process of sustainable transformation inside
each one of us the society by its collective effort will be able to
raise its own consciousness level, this in turn will bring mass
change across the civilization. So far we have seen a glimpse of
Modi’s vision, but how far it will lead to tangible results is still
to be seen.
Future of Yoga
“Besides the Yogacara,
…esoteric teachings of paticcasamuppada
are considered a core of Buddhism. Applying the
extensive philosophical interpretation to this teaching, it
remarkably fits to the astrophysical theory of the so-called
dependent origination, as it well supports basic laws of both
quantum mechanics and evolutionary biology – a self-organizing
system in an ever self-expanding dynamic, non-directional but
dialectic, equilibrium” – reminds us on these pages prof. Anis
Bajrektarevic about the huge (forgotten or disregarded) potentials.
Indeed, many companies across the world have recently
integrated Yoga in their HR practice, whereas there are many who
practice it on daily basis for spiritual or physical benefits.
Certain amount of research is also indicating that it can help us to
deal with stress and emotions, Thus it is clear that irrespective of
criticisms, Yoga is all set to pave its path for growing popularity.
More importantly, it can play a vital role in creating Sustainable
Leaders, who have higher level of insights into the issues of the
world and which in our definition have capacity to work at
intergenerational level and to lay the foundations for next
generation. At the Sustainable Leadership blog you can see from the
interview of change makers on how they are transforming ideas into
action. At the heart of the Sustainable Leadership, the spiritual
consciousness plays a vital role in developing a mindset of the
leader which allows him to connect the dots between international
affairs, entrepreneurship, business and civil society. Through this
mindset he is uniquely positioned to offer a novel perspective to
deal with issues compared to traditional leaders working in
disciplinary silos.
Finally, it needs to reiterate that Yoga is not a
fashion, it’s an invaluable asset which is open to humanity, it is
up to member states and people across the world to realize its worth
and how it could contribute in health care, education, sustainable
development issues. It should provoke an internal change which could
bring in positive transformation, As Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi says
"Divinity is not a fashion. It is the way of Life. It is the need of
your being. You have to become that."
About the author:
Umesh MUKHI has a diverse profile with active
interest in Business, International Relations and Youth affairs. He
is the co-founder of an international initiative titled Sustainable
Leadership Initiative; it aims at mapping new leadership models
required for resolving challenges of 21st century. He was also
awarded with the title of Honorary Cross Cultural Ambassador of
UNESCO Club, Sorbonne University, and Paris for his inter-cultural
contribution between India (spirituality and Indian culture) and
World.
First published by
www.moderndiplomacy.eu
July 22, 2015
Europe –
Syriza-ize or Syria-nize

(Key-words: Greece, Germany, ECB, Austerity,
Ukraine, crisis, Syriza, Syria, Podemos)
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. Neither is comforting the latest pre-Davos
summit released Oxfam study. It hints that 1% is fat and furious, as
some 99% of us are too many on this planet. 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, social cohesion (eroded by the plunder called
‘privatization’), 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?
Read more on the next page:.........
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Contact:
anis@bajrektarevic.eu
Author is professor in international law and
global political studies, based in Vienna, Austria. His previous
book Geopolitics of Technology – Is There Life after
Facebook? was published by the New York’s Addleton
Academic Publishers. Just released is his newest book
Geopolitics – Europe 100 years later.
July 9, 2015
The debt write-off behind Germany's 'economic miracle'
By Benjamin DODMAN
Six decades ago, an agreement to cancel half of postwar Germany's
debt helped foster a prolonged period of prosperity in the war-torn
continent. The new government in Athens says Greece – and Europe –
now need a similar deal.
When discussing Greece’s whopping $310 billion debt, the country's
new Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras likes to recall a time when Europe's great debt
offender was not
Greece,
but
Germany,
today's paragon of fiscal responsibility. The leader of
the radical-left Syriza party refers in particular to an
international conference held in London in 1953, during which West
Germany secured a write-off of more than 50% of debt, accumulated
after two world wars. Back then, with memories of Nazi atrocities
still fresh, many countries were reluctant to offer such generous
debt relief. But the US persuaded its European allies, including
Greece, to relinquish debt repayments and reparations in order to
build a stable and prosperous Western Europe that could contain the
threat from Soviet Russia.
Read more on the next page:.........
July 9, 2015
Europe
Agonistes: A Divided Continent Plays Out a Greek Drama

Jamil Maidan Flores
Prof.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic recently launched a book titled, “Europe of
Sarajevo 100 Years Later:
From WWI to www.” Only Prof. Anis, I
think, can write a book of that title, just as he’s the only
intellectual I know who argues passionately that Google is the Gulag
of our time, the prison of the free mind.
His editor tells us that in the book, Prof. Anis
makes the case that the history of Europe, perhaps of the world,
since World War I has been a history of geopolitical imperative. And
that, in the face of climate change, the crisis that grips all of us
is not really ecological, as it never was financial, but moral.
Prof. Anis is chairperson for international law and global political
studies at the University IMC-Krems, Austria. I’ve been reading some
of his recent writings. A native Sarajevan who now lives in Vienna,
he doesn’t see one seamless Europe but several.
There’s Atlantic Europe, a political powerhouse
that boasts two nuclear states. There’s Central Europe, an economic
powerhouse. Scandinavian Europe is a little of both. And Eastern
Europe that’s none of either. And beyond Eastern Europe, is a
Europe-stalking Russia.
Read more on the next page:.........
Published June 30, 2015 in the Web
Magazine "ORBUS.be"
Bosnian Myths[1]
Dubravko Lovrenović
The
continuing disasters in human history are largely conditioned by
man’s excessive capacity and his urge to identify with the tribe,
the nation, the church or a common goal, and to accept a certain
credo uncritically and enthusiastically although the postulates of
this credo are contrary to his ratio and his own interest, and may
even endanger his existence (A. Koestler, “Janus”, Erasmus 9,
Zagreb, 1994).
The Bosnia and Herzegovina war (1992-1995) was
preceded by a conflict which has been taking place on the
“battlefield” of South Slavic historiography for longer than a
century. The historiography war, along with the wider international
circumstances, led to an armed conflict transforming this country
into a Dayton assembly of ethnically homogenized entities and
corridors – the region of a blurred and relative truth, instead of
transforming it into a civil democratic country. The spirits should
have been sharpened before knives. This historiographical “grinding
wheel” for sharpening of nationalistic concepts has never stopped
revolving, indicating that, according to Ina Merdjanova, “national
ideology has remained the central part of the communism culture”, or
negating a frequently repeated opinion that the frenzy for
nationalistic movements and activities in Eastern Europe is a result
of repressed national feelings prevailing during the communist
regime.
Even a rough “reconnaissance” of Bosnian
historiography – along with its positive achievements especially
after World War II – reveals a mythomaniac consciousness and
sub-consciousness of numerous authors. The main ailment of these
pseudo-historiography projections reflects primarily in the fact
that they almost exclusively dealt with the history of their ethnos,
treading close upon the time rhythm of national integrations and
homogenization. Thus, historiographic myths sprang from a mental
base of a foreign-rules-burdened society without democratic
traditions, still not close to the horizon of modernity and entrance
to the civil society. This is the spring from which the torrent of
hegemonistic and genocidal programs, xenophobia and atavism was
unleashed. .
Read more on the next page:......... .
June 1, 2015
Bosnia and Herzegovina:
The final phase of genocide?
Director IFIMES: Bakhtyar Aljaf
Recent
events in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) have once again reminded how
fragile peace and stability remain in this country. Although the
European Union (EU) has announced it would pursue a more active
policy on Bosnia and Herzegovina after the formation of new state
government, other events may prevent the realisation of that
promise. The Ukraine conflict, the situation in the Middle East and
North Africa, an alarming increase in the number of refugees from
Africa and the fact that EU still has to devote much of its
attention to Greece as one of its Member States – all these elements
represent a real threat that the West Balkans will again be pushed
down on the list of priorities of European politics.
The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has culminated after latest
actions taken by the Ministry of the Interior of Republika
Srpska(MUP RS) to apprehend the members of marginalised Bosniak
ethnic minority living in the territory of Republika Srpska (RS), an
entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Those are the citizens who had
been expelled from their homes during the 1992-1995 war in BH. This
operation has been long prepared and represents the continuity of
activities of RS authorities led by President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik. Almost 2000 attacks have been carried out and
recorded against non-Serb returnees and their property in the
territory of RS since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement,
without the offenders having been sanctioned.
Ljubljana, 15 May 2015
Read more on the next page:
May 15, 2015
Media-clip: At the
occasion of a book launch

Geopolitics -
Europe of Sarajevo 100 years later by Anis
Bajrektarević
For his previous book Geopolitics of Technology – Is There
Life after Facebook, published by the New York’s Addleton,
former Austrian Foreign Minister Peter Jankowitsch has said: “Insightful,
compelling and original, this book is an exciting journey through
the rocky field of geopolitics. It is also a big-thinking
exploration of the least researched aspects of the discipline, which
will leave no one indifferent. This book, written by an experienced
lawyer and a former career diplomat, cleverly questions how we see
the world, and acts as an eye opener.”
Anis H. Bajrektarević, professor and
chairperson for international law and global political studies, Uni-
versity IMC-Krems, Austria. This native Sarajevan, besides this very
title, authors the book FB – Geo- politics of Technology (Addleton,
New York 2013), and the forthcoming No Asian century. He is both
teaching and research professor on subjects such as the Geopolitics;
International and EU Law; Sustainable Development (institutions and
instruments). On the subject Geopolitical Affairs alone, professor
has over 1,000 teaching hours at his university as well as in many
countries on all meridians. His writings are frequently published in
over 50 countries in all five continents, and translated in some 20
languages worldwide. He lives in Vienna, Austria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B61JRDWKmSE (play from: 0.35.44)
https://vimeo.com/112013062 (play from: 0.57.00)
Read more on the next page:
BOSANSKA VERZIJA UDARITE OVDJE
May 11, 2015
Promocija
knjige prof. dr. Anisa Bajraktarevića
13.05.2015. (utorak) u 19
sati u Umjetničkoj galeriji BiH, Zelenih beretki 8,
Sarajevo, BiH
07.05.2015.
Berlin Congress of 1878
still in force in the Balkans
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarević

Aegean theatre of the Antique Greece was the place of
astonishing revelations and intellectual excellence – a remarkable
density and proximity, not surpassed up to our age. All we know
about science, philosophy, sports, arts, culture and entertainment,
stars and earth has been postulated, explored and examined then and
there. Simply, it was a time and place of triumph of human
consciousness, pure reasoning and sparkling thought.
However,
neither Euclid, Anaximander, Heraclites, Hippocrates (both of Chios,
and of Cos), Socrates, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Democritus, Plato,
Pythagoras, Diogenes, Aristotle, Empedocles, Conon, Eratosthenes nor
any of dozens of other brilliant ancient Greek minds did ever refer
by a word, by a single sentence to something which was their
everyday life, something they saw literally on every corner along
their entire lives.
It was an immoral, unjust, notoriously brutal
and oppressive slavery system that powered the Antique state.
(Slaves have not been even attributed as humans, but rather as the
‘phonic tools/tools able to speak’.) This myopia, this absence of
critical reference on the obvious and omnipresent is a historic
message – highly disturbing, self-telling and quite a warning.
Read more on the next page:
April 26, 2015
Can we trust the government to do the
right thing?
Belmir Selimovic
Can
we trust the government to do the right thing, are they really care
about essential things such as environmental conditions and
education in our life?
First issue here is, should businesses naturally be doing good? In
the case if they have more industry agency, answer would be yes.
However, when it comes to this case, we can't trust the government
because the drilling is taking place with minimal oversight from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Of course I would like to
emphasize that fracking is process of drilling and injecting fluid
into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks
to release natural gas inside. For example, Mr. Wasner lives in
Milanville but he moved away for six weeks last year while an
exploratory well was drilled nearby.
˝The noise, muddy water pouring from his taps, and chemicals that
turned up in a neighbor's well drove him off.˝ The U.S Environmental
Protection Agency did not do anything when it comes to this problem.
But, President Barack Obama enthusiastically backs gas drilling and
these days 90 percent of it is done by fracking. According to the
dangersoffracking.com ˝Along with wind, solar, and nuclear power,
natural gas is crucial to Obama's goal of producing 80 percent of
electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.˝ Thus, each gas well
requires an average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water. ˝It takes
1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job.˝
Fracking has a serious impact on environmental, safety, and health
hazards. Also, fracking has a positive side because it is creating
thousands of jobs and reviving the economy in state such as Wyoming,
Texas, and Louisiana. According to the businessweek.com ˝In
Pennsylvania, where 2,516 wells have been drilled in the last three
years, $ 389 million in tax revenue and 44,000 jobs came from gas
drilling in 2009, according to a Penn State report.˝
Read more on the next page:
April 25, 2015
Is it time for the rise of
local currencies?
Prof. dr. Murray Hunter
It's
an almost long forgotten historical fact that most trade was
undertaken by local based currencies right into the 20th Century.
Australia had a number of colonial currencies before federation in
1901. The United States of America had a number of currencies issued
by private banks before the Federal Reserve Bank was formed in 1913,
and individual states of the European Union had their own national
currencies before the mega-currency, the Euro was launched in 1999.
However given the trend to larger and "stronger"
currencies, the hype of the Euro, the protection of the US Dollar as
the major trading currency, a very quiet trend has been going the
other way. In contrast, more than 2,000 local currencies in some
form or the other have been launched in communities around the
world.
The phenomenon of the local currency almost doesn't
exist in contemporary economic literature. Therefore the purpose of
this article is to have a look at local currencies, and try and
answer the questions; Why do communities launch them? Do local
currencies have any benefit to these communities?, and What
is the real potential of these currencies?
A local currency, sometimes referred to as a
community currency, is a means of exchange used by members of a
community that have some common bonds. Any local currency is usually
not backed by a national government, nor is officially a legal
tender within the region it is circulated. A local currency is
usually intended for trade within a limited geographical area.
Money is essentially an agreement to use something as
a means of exchange. Any local currency can be denominated by the
prevailing national currency, or measured in any commodity, or even
labor units to provide create unit value, so people know how to use
it as a medium of exchange. This redemption measure is usually a
major factor giving users confidence in its present and future
value.
A local currency is a potential tool of monetarism,
where it helps to define an economic boundary which accepts it as a
medium of exchange by certain groups within that location.
Read more on the next page:
April 14, 2015
Eastern Europe –
The World’s Last Underachiever
Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektarević

25 years ago, the Russian historical empire melted
down. Although often underreported, this also marked the end of
alternative society in Europe. Collapse of the II world, made the 3rd
way (of Yugoslavia and further, beyond Europe – globally, of the
Nonaligned Movement) obsolete.
That 9/11 was a moment when the
end of history
rested upon all of us, the day when the world became flat.
The EU entered East, but only as a ‘stalking horse’ of NATO. No
surprise that Eastern Europe –following the slaughter of its pivot,
Yugoslavia – has soon after abandoned its identity quest, and
capitulated. Its final civilizational defeat came along: the Eastern
Europe’s peoples, primarily Slavs, have silently handed over their
most important debates – that of Slavism, anti-fascism and of own
identity – solely to the recuperating Russophone Europe.
Read more on the next page:
Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektarević
Vienna, 26 MAR 2015
Contact:
anis@bajrektarevic.eu
Author is chairperson and
professor in international law and global political studies, IMC
Krems University of Austria. His previous book FB – Geopolitics
of Technology was published by the New York’s Addleton Academic
Publishers. His forthcoming book Geopolitics – Europe
100 years later is coming soon.
All displayed maps
per the author’s idea made by Anneliese Gattringer.
Vienna, March 26, 2015
Yemenisation or Confederalisation of Saudi Arabia?
By Brian Whitaker
 Click on Picture
Read more on the next page:
March 27, 2015
Bosnia as Wunderkind –
Corruption from Kosovo to Germany
Gerald Knaus
Ugly ducklings,
fairy tales and Bosnia in 2015
ESI newsletter 3/2015 - If corruption is
serious business, its assessment should be as well.
Read more on the next page:
March
19, 2015
Imperative
of an EU-Russia strategic reset
Eirini Patsea
Russia vs. the European Union. It is relationship
based and built upon a long history of protracted political
conflict. Lately, with the crisis in Ukraine and the subsequent
sanctions imposed to Russia, the diplomatic relations between the
two sides have reached a new historical low. But more importantly,
the mistrust among the peoples residing in both sides has reached a
new high. Unavoidably so. Since the Western and Russian media
started to be viciously launching campaign-like news reports, there
is nothing but confusion and loss of perspective by both the peoples
and their representatives. The big question is whether this would be
the case if the US politics were not involved in the game. Would
still Russia and the EU have so many excuses to be driven apart;
politically, culturally and ideologically?
After the warmhearted welcome by Peter Haider, UPF
Austria President, Prof. Bajrektarevic made more than a challenging
opening:
“The lonely superpower (US) vs. the bear of
the permafrost (Russia), with the world’s last cosmopolite
(EU) in between. Is the ongoing calamity at the eastern flank of
the EU a conflict, recalibration, imperialism in hurry,
exaggerated anti-Russian xenophobia or last gasp of
confrontational nostalgia?
Eirini Patsea is a
Guest Editor in ModernDiplomacy, and specialist in Cultural
Diplomacy and Faith-based Mediation.
First published by
www.moderndiplomacy.eu
Read more on the next page:
March 3, 2015
All European shades
of ISIL colour black: Neonazism of Europe and Fascism in the Arab
World
By Allan Bogle

How did Europe manage to drag Arabs to the wrong side
of history – a confusion, pride, shame and denial – all which
resurfaces again, 75 years after. How is this possible that the
‘never-again’ takes place today? Do we fake our surprise? How
expensive is our European denial, and Monarchist Arabs claim of
innocence?
Read more on the next page:
March 4, 2015
Greed is good…but
only for cancer
Amna Whiston
Amna Whiston is a London-based writer specialising in moral
philosophy. As a PhD candidate at Reading University, UK, her main
research interests are in ethics, rationality, and moral psychology.
Don’t be bad with 1%, don’t accuse them for having it all
and doing nothing to earn it. 99% firmly believes that a greed is
good… Spoiling mood, but being good for your food, as it should?
**
** ** **
Amidst the many maladies of today’s global
society, a tide of optimism brought by the latest cancer research
news reflects a defiant response to one of the biggest challenges
facing humanity. But although massive investments that involve
venture capital companies and funds may be necessary for the pursuit
of current and future large-scale scientific projects and ambitions,
it is still sensible to ask the following questions: To what extent
should capitalism be credited for rapid progress in cancer research
and treatment? Moreover, can the profit motive, being an essential
feature of capitalism, justify future investments in bioscience and
related fields?
Read more on the next page:
14.02.2015
70 years after
Auschwitz – deliberate attempts to rewrite history
MD Editorial Board
The
last week’s Auschwitz ceremony marking 70 years since the notorious
death camp’s liberation had a huge turnout. Three hundred survivors
of the camp attended. Given the age of Holocaust survivors, the
importance of passing their story on to new generations has never
been greater. Comparing politicians to Hitler or countries to nazi
Germany has become a commonplace insult. But the unspeakable horrors
unleashed by history’s most vicious regime bear no comparison.
The Holocaust marked a systematic effort to exterminate entire
ethnic groups — most prominently the Jews but also the Roma and
Sinti — alongside the slaughter of homosexuals and the disabled.
Millions of prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, Polish civilians
and political and religious opponents of the nazis including
communists, trade unionists, Freemasons and Jehovah’s Witnesses were
also exterminated.
The world anti-fascist war which defeated the nazis resulted in
efforts to ensure such atrocities would never happen again. But the
collapse of the Soviet Union — which played by far the greatest part
in defeating the fascist menace, as well as being the liberator of
Auschwitz — has seen a deliberate attempt to rewrite history.
The European Parliament sponsors a Day of Remembrance for Victims of
Stalinism and Nazism, a pernicious attempt to equate communism with
fascism. As Russian communist Il Melnikov said yesterday, virulently
anti-Russian regimes in the Baltic states openly celebrate Waffen SS
veterans.
Read more on the next page:
11.02.2015
Géométrie variable
of a love triangle – India, Russia and the US
Written by the MD’s Board Member Rakesh Krishnan Simha
The Modi-Obama romance
won’t last as India’s relationship with the US does not have the
kind of strategic dimension and weight that marks New Delhi’s ties
with Moscow.
**** *****
******
Russia
is a country with which India has had a strategic relationship for
decades. America is a place where Indians migrate to for a better
lifestyle. That is how Indians view the world’s two leading powers.
It’s as simple as that. US President Barrack Obama’s recent visit to
India will not change that reality, and those speculating about
dramatic changes in India's foreign policy are either fools or
amateurs – or both.
“Good relations with the US reflect aspiration, ties with Russia are
hard reality,” says Bharat Karnad, professor of national security
studies at the Centre for Policy Research. “No substantive shift in
policy is on the anvil, certainly nothing at the expense of India's
relations with Moscow, especially because, unlike the US, Russia has
partnered, and continues to partner, India in strategically
sensitive technology projects ranging from missiles, ship
submersibles, ballistic, nuclear submarines to the Fifth Generation
Fighter Aircraft,” he told Defense News.
Over the decades a clutch of US presidents has visited India.
Likewise, Indian prime ministers have been to America. But the
dynamics of the India-US relationship hasn’t changed much. And why
would it? The US is the leader of the western world whose prosperity
largely rests on the domination of the rest of the world. India, on
the other hand, is a member of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa) grouping that aims to end the American-led
bloc’s dominance.
Modi’s operandi
Read more on the next page:
11.02.2015
Europe of the human
face… with a little help from Greece
by Dimitra Karantzeni
Days
after the last parliamentary elections, something is eventually
moving in Greece. People are hesitant and restrained, do not want to
get too excited. However, one can see that a humble smile, between
hope and faith, is on faces of Greeks. For the first time in the
post-dictatorship period, a leftist government took over the
leadership of the country, insisting on its pre-election commitments
to overthrow the corrupt political system and reverse the economic
disaster.
During the pre-election campaign, voters were bombarded with
terrifying messages concerning the day after Syriza’s victory,
describing more or less a socio-economic chaos, with banks with no
liquidity, a paralyzed public sector and markets out of stock.
However, the overall propaganda of terror and intimidation of
citizens by the predominant political Parties not only failed to
limit the social impact of SYRIZA’s actions, but it also seems that
the will of determination of the new government somehow managed to
positively affect the rest of Europe.
The negotiation process is still ongoing but what Syriza has
achieved so far is that its well prepared anti-austerity plan today
gives the impression not of just a grand-standing utopic program but
of a specific project built on realistic bases.
What is of high importance though is that this political change in
Greece has stimulated a great wave of active support from various
European leftist political parties, helping Syriza to immediately
avoid the risk of diplomatic isolation. Furthermore, for different
reasons of geopolitical importance both the US and Russia have a
very positive attitude towards the new Greek government,
strengthening its negotiating power against EU lenders. On the one
hand, a closer cooperation between the two orthodox countries would
benefit the development of Greek energy sector, even set Greece as a
major strategic player in the international negotiations field about
energy and at the same time provide Putin with a valuable European
ally. Besides, Greek refusal to approve an EU statement aiming to
expand sanctions against Moscow is a first good step in that
direction. On the other hand, Washington couldn’t but respond to
this diplomatic game by supporting the end of austerity, recalling
US bad fiscal experiences and expressing its concerns about EU,
which is currently lacking a tangible plan for growth in Europe.
Read more on the next page:
11.02.2015
The International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies
(IFIMES) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses events in the
Middle East and the Balkans. IFIMES has analysed the current
situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in view of the delayed process
of setting up the government following the general election that
took place on 12 October 2014. The most interesting sections from
the analysis entitled “Bosnia and Herzegovina: German-British
initiative overshadowed by party political games” are published
below.
Bosnia and
Herzegovina:
German-British initiative overshadowed by
party political games
JOINT ACTION BY SNSD AND SBB
A delay in setting up the government in Bosnia and Herzegovina
following the general election that took place on 12 October 2014 is
mostly the result of obstructions caused by Milorad Dodik's Alliance
of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) from Republika Srpska (RS)
and Fahrudin Radončić's Union for a Better Future (SBB) and the
Social Democratic Party (SDP) from the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (FBiH). While SNSD is aguishly trying to enter the
government at the state level, SBB – being excluded from the
post-election coalition forming – is concocting plans to get hold of
power, even using its Avaz daily newspaper to create a negative
political atmosphere in Bosnia and Herzegovina, inciting riot among
the citizens and preparing last year's February protests scenario.
Clearly SNSD and SBB are making a joint action - their delegates
carried out a joint attempt to overthrow the President of the House
of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and
Herzegovina Šefik Džaferović (SDA). Moreover, analysts have related
the activities of the outgoing Vice President of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirsad Kebe with attempted obstructions aimed
at slowing down or preventing the formation of government by SDA-HDZ-DF-Alliance for Changes, thus promoting the formation of
another parliamentary coalition composed of SNSD, SBB and even SDP.
Read more on the next page:
January 31, 2015
On history and humility: What students need to know ?
Rattana Lao
Rattana
Lao holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education
from Teachers College, Columbia University and is currently teaching
in Bangkok.
BANGKOK – Not so long ago, some Thai university students used
Hitler image as the poster child for superhero and just recently,
the Thai state used Nazi symbol in their propaganda for education.
This short documentary intends to promote the 12 values of
education. These values include respect seniority, desire for
knowledge and understand democracy.
Democracy and Hitler?
To make things worse, the director of the film gave public interview
seeing nothing wrong with it.
Kulp Kaljaruek, the director, said to Khaosod, one of the Thai
newspapers that “ I didn't think it would be an issue. As for
Hitler's portrait, I have seen so many people using it on T-Shirts
everywhere. It's even considered a fashion. It doesn't mean I agree
with it, but I didn't expect it to be an issue at all."
Seriously?
The Ambassador of Israel to Thailand, His Excellency Simon Roded,
issued a public statement on the 10th
of December 2014. It read:
“I was surprised that throughout the screening
process this movie must have gone through to be approved for public
broadcast, none of the smart, well educated people checking it had
identified it as being problematic and offensive.”
In an interview with Thailand's renown historian, professor Thanet
Aphornsuwan, the problem that has happened reflects an endemic
problem in Thailand.
Read more on the next page:
January 24, 2015.
GLOBAL MARKETS OF MISERY
Marján Attila[1]
– Szuhai Ilona[2]
Is our
The global humanitarian system in
transition? If so, what are the key issues b – Before the 2016 World
Humanitarian Summit
"Today's needs are at unprecedented levels and without more support there simply
is no way to respond to the humanitarian situations we're seeing in region after
region and in conflict after conflict."
António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Abstract
The international community is preparing for the World
Humanitarian Summit. The United Nations will host the event in Istanbul, in
2016. Before the meeting, regional consultations are held in several parts of
the world. Expectations are high since the historical moment of changing the
twenty-five-year-old humanitarian system is approaching. Growing conflicts
demand growing funds for humanitarian action. The change in the trends of
conflicts demands more effective humanitarian solutions. 2014 was a dramatic
year in the number of people affected by conflict and of being forced to flee.
Unprecedentedly, more than 100 million people became dependent on humanitarian
aid for their survival. This rise is reflected in the inter-agency strategic
response and regional response plans as global financial requirements to cover
humanitarian needs rose to the highest amount ever requested in a single year.
The study forecasts how the EU can continue the donor activities in the future.
Read more on the next page:
January 24, 2015.
Human rights violations inside EU
What is the Ostrich Protocol?
H.E. Dr. Walter Schwimmer

How the EU member states play ostrich when it comes to
human rights violations inside EU?
H.E. Dr. Walter Schwimmer -
Vice Chair of the Modern
Diplomacy Advisory Board, Former Secretary General of the Council of
Europe -
Chairman of the International Coordinating Committee of the World
Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilizations
The
Treaty on the European Union, in its current format also known as
the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
claim to establish an area of freedom, security and justice, founded
on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy,
equality, the rule of law and the respect for human rights[1].
That sounds perfect. After centuries of inhuman treatment of people
very often by their own governments, culminating in the tyrannies of
communism and Nazism in the 20th century, EU citizens should be able
to feel safe from brutal attacks and illegal operations of a violent
state, if not ....If they are not refugees from another EU member
state and they do not try to look for protection because they were
subject in their own state to political persecution, inhuman
treatment or even torture.
The Geneva Convention about status of and asylum for
refugees, persons subject to political persecution, is one of the
great international achievements in the field of human rights. The
European Union as a successful project of peace, freedom and justice
promises in Art.18 of its Charter that "the right to asylum shall be
guaranteed with due respect for the rules of the Geneva Convention..[2]"
But why is this guarantee denied when the asylum seeker comes from
an EU country?
Read more on the next page:
January 19, 2015
FUTURE OF DAVOS IS IN
KYRGYZSTAN
Francesco Brunello
Zanitti
Francesco Brunello Zanitti,
Southern Asia Research Program’s Director, and one of the Scientific
Directors of the Italian Institute for Advanced Studies in
Geopolitics and Auxiliary Sciences (Istituto di Alti Studi in
Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliarie – IsAG, Rome). Member of Editorial
Committee of “Geopolitica” (IsAG’s journal) Rome.
Is the new Russian
approach towards China and India, vector for a multipolar world
order? Will the new Davos – gathering between vanity fair and summit
of the mightiest – in future take place in Kyrgyzstan – Central
Asian country surrounded by the most prosperous and promising
powers?
The last months of 2014
were marked by a series of significant bilateral agreements and
summits involving Russia, India and China. According to many
international analysts, the research of better relations with the
two Asian giants by Moscow represents another further step towards
global transformation from an unipolar order ruled by United States
to a multipolar one.
A key point in order to
analyze the fundamental reasons of Moscow’s approach towards China
and India is connected to difficulties emerged in the last year with
European Union and United States. Complications in Russia-West
relations are clearly exemplified by the Ukrainian imbroglio.
However, it’s also
necessary to dwell on long-term strategic interests of the countries
involved. Despite the current shaky situation of Eastern Europe and
Middle East, generally speaking Beijing and New Delhi look at Russia
as a reliable partner with whom it’s fundamental continue to
dialogue, cooperate and trade. China-Russia dialogue is growing from
mid-nineties, while Indian strategic relationship with Moscow is
heir of the one established during Cold War with Soviet Union.
Moreover, it should not to be underestimate the fact that Russia,
India and China are already actively cooperating in other
multilateral organizations, such as BRICS forum (Brazil, Russia,
India, China, South Africa), and have the opportunity to develop new
platforms for political, economic and military cooperation, for
example within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
(SCO). The strategic triangle Russia-India-China (RIC), taken into
account difficulties of relations especially considering
Indo-Chinese bond characterized at the same time by cooperation and
competition, could therefore be an interesting model of dialogue in
the new multipolar world order.
Read more on the next page:
January 14, 2015
The Paris Killings: Who
Are the Real Heroes of Press Freedom?
By
Jamil Maidan Flores
 |

By
Jamil Maidan Flores |
Placards are seen placed amongst other tributes to the satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo on the statues at the Place de la Republique
in Paris on Saturday. (Reuters Photo/Youssef Boudlal)
In the wake of the terrorist assault last week on the
offices of the French magazine “Charlie Hebdo,” in which 12 persons
were killed, many people all over the world were moved to say, in an
outpouring of anger at the perpetrators and sympathy for the
victims, “I am Charlie.”
Apart from two police officers, who were slain as
they responded to the attack, the victims were cartoonists and
editors marked for death by Muslim extremists because of their
slanderous depiction of the Prophet of Islam in past issues of the
magazine.
Read more on the next page:
January 12, 2015
Denazification – urgently
needed in Europe
Anis H. Bajrektarevic,
There
is a claim constantly circulating the EU: ‘multiculturalism is
dead in Europe’. Dead or maybe d(r)ead?... That much comes from
a cluster of European nation-states that love to romanticize their
appearance thought the solid Union, as if they themselves lived a
long, cordial and credible history of multiculturalism. Hence, this
claim is of course false. It is also cynical because it is purposely
misleading. No wonder, as the conglomerate of nation-states/EU has
silently handed over one of its most important debates – that of
European anti-fascistic identity, or otherness – to the
wing-parties, repeatedly followed by the selective and
contra-productive foreign policy actions.
The Paris shooting, terrible beyond comprehension,
will reload and overheat those debates. However, these debates are
ill conceived, resting from the start on completely wrong and
misleading premises. Assassins in the Parisian Satirical Magazine
are Islamofascists. The fact that these individuals are
allegedly of the Arab-Muslim origins does not make them less
fascists, less European, nor does it abolish Europe from the main
responsibility in this case.
Fascism and its evil twin, Nazism are 100% European
ideologies. Neo-Nazism also originates from and lately unchecked
blossoms, primarily in Europe. (Some would say, über-economy
in the center of continent, surrounded from all sides by the
recuperating neo-fascism.) The Old continent tried to amortize its
deepening economic and demographic contraction by a constant
interference on its peripheries, especially meddling on the Balkans,
Black Sea/Caucasus and MENA (Middle East–North Africa). What is now
an epilogue? A severe democratic recession. Whom to blame for
this structural, lasting civilizational retreat that Europe suffers?
Is it accurate or only convenient to blame a bench of useful idiots
for returning home with the combating behavior?
Read more on the next page:
http://moderndiplomacy.eu/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=481:den&Itemid=569
January 8, 2015
Paris Massacre and Islamic Terror
World Security Network reporting from Paris in France, January 7, 2015
Dear Friends of the World
Security Network,
What should we do, after three heavily armed and
professional gunmen killed twelve and wounded seven in the office of the French
satire magazine Chalie Hebdo today as „revenge for the Prophet“?
I. The silent majority of 1.6 billion Muslims must stand up against the tiny, but
active and dangerous minority of the radicals of maybe five percent openly and
defend the true, peaceful Islam, their Prophet and the Holy Qur’an.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi did so on New Year’s Day at the
famous Al Azhar University in Cairo, demanding „a religious revolution in
Islam“. „It is inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should
cause the entire Islamic World (umma) to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing
and destruction for the rest oft he world. Impossible!“
Without fear Jordans beautiful and wise Queen
Rania told the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2014, November 18th:
Read more on the next page:
Dr Hubertus Hoffmann President and Founder
World Security Netw
January 7, 2015
PUBLICATIONS:
The
Power of Geopolitical Discourse - By Diego Solis
YOGA
DIPLOMACY - By Umesh MUKHI
The
debt write-off behind Germany's 'economic miracle' - By Benjamin
DODMAN
Europe – Syriza-ize or Syria-nize - Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Europe Agonistes: A Divided Continent Plays Out a Greek Drama -
Jamil Maidan Flores
Bosnian Myths[1] - Dubravko Lovrenović
Bosnia and Herzegovina: The final phase of genocide? - Director
IFIMES: Bakhtyar Aljaf
Geopolitics -
Europe of Sarajevo 100 years later by Anis
Bajrektarević
Berlin Congress of 1878 still in force in the Balkans - Prof.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Can
we trust the government to do the right thing? - Belmir
Selimovic
Is it
time for the rise of local currencies? - Prof. dr. Murray Hunter
Eastern Europe – The World’s Last Underachiever - Prof. Anis H.
Bajrektarević
Yemenisation or Confederalisation of Saudi Arabia? - By Brian
Whitaker
Bosnia as Wunderkind –
Corruption from Kosovo to Germany - Gerald Knaus
Imperative of an EU-Russia strategic reset - Eirini Patsea
All
European shades of ISIL colour black: Neonazism of Europe and
Fascism in the Arab World - By Allan Bogle
Greed
is good…but only for cancer - Amna Whiston
70
years after Auschwitz – deliberate attempts to rewrite history -
MD Editorial Board
Géométrie variable of a love triangle – India, Russia and the US
- Rakesh Krishnan Simha
Europe of the human face… with a little help from Greece - by
Dimitra Karantzeni
Bosnia and Herzegovina: German-British initiative overshadowed
by party political games - Bakhtyar Aljaf
On
history and humility: What students need to know? - Rattana Lao
GLOBAL MARKETS OF MISERY - Marján Attila – Szuhai Ilona
Human rights violations inside EU - H.E. Dr. Walter Schwimmer
FUTURE OF DAVOS IS IN KYRGYZSTAN - Francesco Brunello Zanitti
The
Paris Killings: Who Are the Real Heroes of Press Freedom? - By
Jamil Maidan Flores
Denazification – urgently needed in Europe - Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
Paris Massacre and Islamic Terror
- Dr Hubertus Hoffmann
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

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Maasmechelen Village

Maasmechelen Village


Adria


BALKAN AREA


prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarevic
Editor - Geopolitics, History, International Relations (GHIR) Addleton Academic
Publishers - New YorK
Senior Advisory board member, geopolitics of energy Canadian energy research
institute - ceri, Ottawa/Calgary
Advisory Board Chairman Modern Diplomacy & the md Tomorrow's people platform
originator
Head of mission and department head - strategic studies on Asia
Professor and Chairperson Intl. law & global pol. studies

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

![Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Assos. Prof.[1] Nguyen Linh[2]](images/Prof_Dr._Nguyen_Anh_Tuan_140.jpg)
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.

Prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarević

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