

Ing. Salih CAVKIC
Editor in Chief
by ORBUS.BE
info@orbus.be
www.orbus.be

No more
Paris nor Brussels!
Stop
terrorism!
We want to live in peace with all
our neighbors.
regardless of their religion, color and origin.
Therefore, we condemn any
kind of terrorism!
*****
Ne više Pariz ni Brisel!
Stop terorizam!
Mi želimo živjeti u miru sa svim našim
komšijama,
bez obzira koje su vjere, boje kože i porijekla.
Zato mi osuđujemo svaku vrstu terorizma!


Prof. dr. Murray Hunter
University Malaysia Perlis


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


Rattana Lao
Rattana Lao holds a doctorate in Comparative and International
Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and is
currently teaching in Bangkok.


Bakhtyar Aljaf
Director of Middle-East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES) in Ljubljana,
Slovenia


Rakesh Krishnan Simha Géométrie variable of a love triangle – India, Russia and the US


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.


Eirini Patsea
Eirini Patsea is a Guest Editor in Modern Diplomacy, and
specialist in Cultural Diplomacy and Faith-based Mediation.


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?


Dubravko Lovrenović
Univ. prof. Dubravko Lovrenović is one of the leading
European Medievalist specialized in the Balkans, pre-modern and
modern political history.


Manal Saadi
Postgraduate researcher in International Relations and Diplomacy at
the Geneva-based UMEF University


doc.dr.Jasna Cosabic
professor of IT law
and EU law at Banja Luka College,
Bosnia and Herzegovina


Aleksandra Krstic
, studied in Belgrade (Political Science) and in Moscow
(Plekhanov’s IBS). Currently, a post-doctoral researcher at the Kent
University in Brussels (Intl. Relations). Specialist for the
MENA-Balkans frozen and controlled conflicts.
Contact: alex-alex@gmail.com


Dr.Swaleha Sindhi is
Assistant Professor in the Department
of Educational Administration, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of
Baroda, India. Decorated educational practitioner Dr. Sindhi is a
frequent columnist on related topics, too. She is the Vice President
of Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES). Contact:
swalehasindhi@gmail.com


Barçın Yinanç
It is an Ankara-based
journalist and notable author.
She is engaged with the leading Turkish dailies and weeklies for
nearly three decades as a columnist, intervieweer and editor.
Her words are prolifically published and quoted in Turkish,
French an English.


By İLNUR ÇEVIK
Modified from the original: They killed 1
Saddam and created 1,000 others (Daily Sabah)


Aine O’Mahony
Aine O'Mahony has a bachelor in Law and Political Science at
the Catholic Institute of Paris and is currently a master's student
of Leiden University in the International Studies programme.Contact:
aine-claire.nini@hotmail.fr


Elodie Pichon
Elodie Pichon has a
bachelor in Law and Political Science at the Catholic Institute of
Paris and is currently doing a MA in Geopolitics, territory and
Security at King's College London. Contact :
elodie.pichon@gmail.com

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The (Trans-Siberian train of) Heartland or (Mare
Liberum of) Rimland?
Mega structures for the next century
By Filippo Romeo
This
year marks the centenary of the creation of the legendary
Trans-Siberian railway of Russia. By an ironic twist of fate, this
falls right in the middle of an epochal change in geopolitical and
geo-economical scenarios, whose main powers involved are also
responding by creating and planning great infrastructure works.
There is actually no doubt that in the profiled context the
continental infrastructures constitute an essential moment for
recovery, able to affect both technological modernisation processes
and foreign affairs stability. This is true if one considers a
nation's economic development, and by effect its geopolitical clout
on a global scale, depends heavily on 'voluntary geography'
improvement via implementing a modern, technologically advanced
transport infrastructure system able to face and overcome the
'distance' factor.
As well as works broadening the Suez Canal and Panama, which surely
highlighted the role maritime connections are playing, one must in
no way ignore the importance of the land ones, which see the Asian
continent as one of the main players. Asia is actually the continent
most concerned and involved in these projects foreseeing the
creation of Roads, tunnels and railways that should pass it from one
line to another. And for some years now China - playing a main role
in this process - has got down to creating some.
The economic power developed in the latest periods by the Chinese
colossus is actually supported a series of strategic infrastructural
projects that are useful in accompanying, protecting and raising the
Country's spread ability. These surely include the great land and
sea 'New Silk Road' project, devised by Peking and with the main
objective of bringing China closer to the rest of the Euro-Asian
continental mass, as well as developing the inland zones that are
still behind the coast band. There is no doubt that full realisation
of such an ambitious project will have weighty geopolitical
repercussions if one just considers it aims to link Europe and Asia
in infrastructure and economy and at the same time contrast US
replacement on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
These routes are split through the middle by the Trans-Siberian,
which is weekly passed by tens of freight trains, leaving Moscow to
reach the Chinese city of Manzohuli and vice versa, and generating a
700% increase in container traffic coming from China and heading for
Europe, according to data provided by the Russian State.
As well as China, the Indian government is also seeing to setting up
new transport infrastructures, useful in propelling the Country to
an industrial economy. It was recently reported that New Deli is
working on developing a vast infrastructure network able to link
India to Central-Southern Europe, passing through Iran, Central Asia
and Russia, so circumventing Pakistan, a historically rival State,
whose geographical position constitutes a heavy obstacle for the
Ganges Country. This project would let one save various days'
travel, allowing Indian freights to reach European markets swiftly.
Russia is doing no less: it is still busy creating the Razvite
megaproject, which recovers the tradition of Great Plans to promote
Russia's industrialisation in the last century and also aims to
recompose the European-Asian continent as the foremost active
subject on the worldwide scene.
More in detail, this is the project for a multi-infrastructural
corridor, to be created over 20 years, aiming to link via a
completely new system the Pacific Coast with the Baltic Sea and
Atlantic, involving countries like China and Japan in the East and
numerous European states in the West.
This corridor will cross the
European-Asian continent and will be made up of a mix of rail, road
and motorway links, electric lines, cable lines, petrol and gas
conducts, and water channels; moreover, the path will be accompanied
by the foundation of technological parks and (at least 10) new
cities. This project faces ambitious challenges and aims for
environmental sustainability. These ambitions will be supported by a
technological platform with its terminals in the East, in China and
Japan, with lengthenings in South East Asia, aiming to express real
change prospects, relating to development and exchange dynamics,
like in fact those expressed in its time with the Trans-Siberian and
Suez Canal creation. In 2013, Moscow also placed 17 billion dollars
to modernise the Baikal-Amur tract of the Trans-Siberian itself,
aiming to raise and increase the business exchange volume.
Beyond the lasting mega dilema pinned down by prof. Anis
Bajrektarevic as “the (Trans-Siberian/Maglev train of)
Heartland or (Mare Liberum of) Rimland?”, this
current development should be seen as an opener not a dividing line.
No doubt, these projects could be a good opportunity for Europe too,
and in particular more so for the enterprise system, including those
operating in the technological sector, which could work for modern
infrastructure creation, smart cities and technological poles the
project foresees.
For Europe, especially the Mediterranean, it could also turn out to
be a valuable chance to finalise its infrastructural projects,
including the TEN T corridors. This completion would make the
European transport network more organic and would especially help
develop outskirts areas, including the Balkans, via interconnection.
Improving transborder connections with this area could indeed favour
both its concrete, real stabilisation and integration with Europe's
Eastern part, and work as a bridge to the effervescent
European-Asian area and the Pacific which, as is known, are living a
period of unstoppable growth and expansion.

Filippo Romeo: Director of the “Infrastructure and
Territorial Development” Programme, IsAG Rome.
October 10, 2016
The most dangerous Wizard in the EU
Gerald Knaus

Viktor Orban (in this week's Economist) and the Wizard of Oz
One year ago ESI described Viktor Orban as the
"most dangerous man in the EU." Since then, Viktor Orban has
exploited the confusion and insecurities around the European refugee
crisis, and the weakness of mainstream political leaders, to further
expand his influence in EU capitals and in Brussel
This week we talked to
the Economist, explaining what made Orban so dangerous for the EU:
"Mr Orban presents a unique danger, argues Gerald Knaus of the
European Stability Initiative, a think-tank, because he injects a
far-right virus into the bloodstream of Europe's political centre.
Fidesz's membership of the European People's Party, a centre-right
pan-EU political group, gives Mr Orban the ear of Angela Merkel,
Germany's chancellor, and other mainstream conservatives. Yet while he
may spurn hard-right outfits like France's National Front or the
Austrian Freedom Party, he borrows from their playbook. He lays charges
of treason against those who seek to import "hundreds of thousands of
people" from "groups outside European culture". Migrants have turned
parts of cities like Berlin and Stockholm into "no-go zones", his
government argues."
Viktor Orban likes to
present himself as a Hungarian hero, a rebel in the mould of the
leaders of the revolutions of 1848 and 1956 – a man single-handedly
opposing treacherous elites in Brussels and Berlin who seek to destroy
Europe. We believe that Orban is more reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz:
"Mr Orban's rabble-rousing offers little to policymakers
grappling with mass migration. True, he saw earlier than others that
borders had to be controlled before grand resettlement schemes could be
countenanced. His scepticism about the EU's relocation plan has been
borne out by its failure to move more than a few thousand migrants, even
to willing countries. But his acolytes have no answer to the problem of
refugees already in Europe. His ideas on African migrants (build a giant
camp in Libya) or Europe's demographic problems (encourage natives to
have babies) expose a fundamental unseriousness. Pull aside the screen,
argues Mr Knaus, and the scary Mr Orban will be revealed as a shrivelled
demagogue with nothing to say."
As the pivotal scene in that wonderful book describes, once the
lion roars and Toto tips over a screen, everything changes. Suddenly:
"all of them were filled with wonder. For they saw, standing in
just the spot the screen had hidden, a little old man, with a bald head
and a wrinkled face, who seemed to be as much surprised as they were …
"I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," said the little man, in a trembling
voice. "But don't strike me – please don't – and I'll do anything you
want me to."
And then Oz admits quickly that he was all into making believe
and humbug, a former circus artist turned ventriloquist. And that
the Emerald City (Hungary) appears green (under threat of being overrun
by Muslim hordes) because the wizard made everyone put on green
spectacles:
• "… but when you wear green spectacles, why of course everything
you see looks green to you."

It is time for the EPP to act
It is high time for the EPP to respond to this challenge and show Orban
where he and his ideas really belong: to the far-right, the European
fringe. How else could the EPP remain credible given that
Orban told Hungarians on their national day this year:
"Today's enemies of freedom are cut from a different cloth than
the royal and imperial rulers of old, or those who ran the Soviet system;
they use a different set of tools to force us into submission. Today
they do not imprison us, they do not transport us to camps, and they do
not send in tanks to occupy countries loyal to freedom. Today the
international media's artillery bombardments, denunciations, threats and
blackmail are enough – or rather have been enough so far … The peoples
of Europe, who have been slumbering in abundance and prosperity, have
finally understood that the principles of life upon which we built
Europe are in mortal danger."
These enemies, according to Orban, are already in power in Brussels:
"If we want to stop this mass migration, we must first of all
curb Brussels. The main danger to Europe's future does not come from
those who want to come here, but from Brussels' fanatics of
internationalism."
These powerful villains, so Orban, are determined to destroy
nation states:
"It is forbidden to say that in Brussels they are constructing
schemes to transport foreigners here as quickly as possible and to
settle them here among us. It is forbidden to say that the purpose of
settling these people here is to redraw the religious and cultural map
of Europe and to reconfigure its ethnic foundations, thereby eliminating
nation states."
All of this leads to the question: who are these traitors
in Brussels, exactly?
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Commission,
whom Orban recently called a dangerous "nihilist"? Donald Tusk,
chair of the Council? Manfred Weber, leader of the largest faction in
the European Parliament? Or the leader of the most influential
government in the EU, Angela Merkel?

Jean-Claude Juncker – Donald Tusk – Manfred Weber – Angela Merkel
All four of them are, of course, among the most influential
members of the EPP, which also constitutes the largest single faction in
the European Parliament, and is the most powerful party when it comes to
running European institutions today. Orban implies that they are also
enemies of the people of Europe. And his rhetoric indicates
that the Platform of the EPP is not to be taken seriously, a
platform which states proudly:
"Our political family is the driving force of European
integration. The European Christian Democrats founded in 1976 - as the
first European party – the European People's Party. It has become the
party of the centre and the centre right. After the end of the Cold War
two decades ago, we helped to lay the foundations for a Europe truly
whole and free."
"While democratic ideas are spreading in some parts of the world,
disguised authoritarian rule and fundamentalist, anti-Western thinking
have become more acute elsewhere."
"Together in a political family which is now broader than ever,
we reaffirm our commitment, therefore, to the common core values of the
EPP. 006. These values are: the dignity of human life in every stage of
its existence, freedom and responsibility, equality and justice, truth,
solidarity and subsidiarity. The Christian image of Man is their point
of departure. Achieving the Common Good is their final objective. For
their implementation, a b civil society is indispensable. In its
pursuit we are guided by the use of reason and historical experience."

Marine Le Pen – Geert Wilders – Hans-Christian Strache – Lech
Kaczynski
The question today is how much longer the rest of the EPP
believes that it can afford to let a man who attacks them in the
language of Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Hans-Christian Strache and
Lech Kaczynski, do so from within the family tent?

Lech Kaczynski and Viktor Orban plotting a cultural revolution
Perhaps the failure of the recent referendum in Hungary, and the
ever shriller rhetoric against the EU and its elites coming from
Budapest, provide the right moment to invoke article 9 of the EPP
statutes: according to these statutes a member party can be excluded by
the Political Assembly of the EPP. The proposal for the exclusion of a
member may be submitted by the Presidency, or seven ordinary or
associated member parties from five different countries.
This should be done now, in the interest not only of the EPP but
of all Europeans who cherish the core values set out in the 2012 EPP
Platform.
Gerald Knaus
October 10, 2016
Europe –
Hell
is other people
(Europe after
the Brexit, NATO summit in Warsaw and Turkish geopolitical vertigo)
Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
A
freshly released IMF’s World Economic Outlook brings no comforting
picture to anyone within the G-7, especially in the US and EU. The
Brexit after-shock is still to reverberate around.
In one other EXIT,
Sartre’s Garcin famously says: ‘Hell is other people’. Business of
othering remains lucrative. The NATO summit in Warsaw desperately
looked for enemies. Escalation is the best way to preserve eroded
unity, requires the
confrontational
nostalgia
dictatum. Will the passionately US-pushed cross-Atlantic Free
Trade Area save the day? Or, would that Pact-push drag the things
over the edge of reinvigorating nationalisms, 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 post-Brexit Union? Finally, does more Ukrainian
(Eastern Europe’s or MENA) 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? Southeast flank already enormously suffer. Hasty castling of
foes and friends caused colossal geopolitical vertigo in Turkey,
whose accelerated spin produces more and more victims.
For whose sake Eastern
Europe has been barred of all important debates such as that of
Slavism, identity, social cohesion (disintegrated 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?

Image Copyright
– Stevo Sinik, Croatia
Before answering that, let
us examine what is (the meaning and size of) our Europe? Where, how
and – very importantly – when is our Europe?
Is the EU an authentic
post-Westphalian conglomerate and the only logical post-Metternich
concert of different Europes, the world’s last cosmopolitan enjoying
its postmodern holiday from history? Is that possibly the lost
Atlántida or mythical Arcadia– a Hegelian end of history world?
Thus, should this OZ be a mix of the endemically domesticated
Marx-Engels grand utopia and Kennedy’s dream-world “where the weak
are safe and the b are just”?
Or, is it maybe as Charles
Kupchan calls it a ‘postmodern imperium’? Something that 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 – a kind of ‘new Byzantium’, or is that more of a Richard
Young’s declining, unreformed and rigid Rome? Hence, is this a post-Hobbesian
(yet, not quite a Kantian) world, in which the letzte Mensch
expelled Übermensch?
Could it be as one old
graffiti in Prague implies: EU=SU˛? Does the EU-ization of Europe
equals to a restoration of the universalistic world of Rome’s
Papacy, to a restaging of the Roman-Catholic Caliphate? Is this
Union a Leonard’s runner of the 21st century, or is it perhaps
Kagan’s ‘Venus’– gloomy and opaque world, warmer but equally distant
and unforeseen like ‘Mars’?
Is this a supersized
Switzerland (ruled by the cacophony of many languages and enveloped
in economic egotism of its self-centered people), with the cantons
(MS, Council of EU) still far more powerful than the central
government (the EU Parliament, Brussels’ Commission, ECJ), while
Swiss themselves –although in the geographic heart of that Union –
stubbornly continue to defy any membership. Does it really matter
(and if so, to what extent) that Niall Ferguson wonders: “…the EU
lacks a common language, a common postal system, a common soccer
team (Britain as well, rem. A.B.) even a standard electric socket…“?
Kissinger himself was
allegedly looking for a phone number of Europe, too. Baron Ridley
portrayed the Union as a Fourth Reich, not only dominated by
Germany, but also institutionally Germanized. Another conservative
Briton, Larry Siedentop, remarked in his Democracy in Europe that it
is actually France who is running the EU ‘show’, in the typical
French way – less than accountable bureaucracy that prevents any
evolution of the European into an American-style United States.
Thus, Siedentop’s EU is more of a Third Bonapartistic Empire than
possibly a Fourth German Reich. The Heartland or Rimland?
Despite different names
and categorizations attached, historical analogies and descriptions
used, most scholars would agree upon the very geopolitical
definition of the EU: Grand re-approachment of France and Germany
after WWII, culminating in the Elysée accords of 1961. An
interpretation of this instrument is rather simple: a bilateral
peace treaty through achieved consensus by which Germany accepted a
predominant French say in political affairs of EU/Europe, and France
– in return – accepted a more dominant German say in economic
matters of EU/Europe. All that tacitly blessed by a perfect
balancer– Britain, attempting to conveniently return to its splendid
isolation from the Continent in the post-WWII years. Hence, living
its Brexit distance from the continental Europe for most of its
history.
Consequently, nearly all
scholars would agree that the Franco-German alliance actually
represents a geopolitical axis, a backbone of the Union.
However, the inner
unionistic equilibrium will be maintained only if the
Atlantic-Central Europe skillfully calibrates and balances its own
equidistance from both assertive Russia and the omnipresent US. Any
alternative to the current Union is a grand accommodation of either
France or Germany with Russia. This means a return to Europe of the
18th, 19th and early 20th centuries – namely, direct confrontations
over the Continent’s core sectors, perpetual animosities wars and
destructions. Both Russia and the US has demonstrated ability for a
skillful and persistent conduct of international affairs, passions
and visions to fight for their agendas. Despite of any Grexit or
Brexit, it is a high time for Brussels to live up to its very idea,
and to show the same. Biology and geopolitics share one basic rule:
comply or die.

Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
Vienna, 16 JUL 2016
anis@corpsdiplomatique.cd
Author is chairperson
and professor in international law and global political studies,
Vienna, Austria. He authored three books:
FB – Geopolitics of
Technology
(published by the New York’s Addleton Academic Publishers);
Geopolitics
–
Europe 100 years later
(DB, Europe), and the
just released
Geopolitics – Energy –
Technology
by the German publisher LAP.
No Asian century
is his forthcoming
book, scheduled for later this year.
October 4, 2016
EU Reloaded?
by Dr. Peter Jankowitsch
Revisiting and rethinking Europe recently on these very pages, prof.
Anis Bajrektarevic asked: “… is the EU the world’s last cosmopolitan
enjoying its postmodern holiday from history?
Is that possibly the lost Atlántida or mythical Arcadia– a Hegelian
end of history world? ... a post-Hobbesian (yet, not quite a
Kantian) world, in which the letzte Mensch expelled
Übermensch?”
Yet another take on the most critical EU debate comes from Austria,
this time from the long time insider into the rocky European
policy-making.
The narrow result of the UK referendum to leave the European Union
was not the catalyst for the increasingly pressing question of
whether the concept and practice of European integration, which has
defined the course of European history since the end of the Second
World War as well as enabled prosperity, security and the
advancement of the continent, are now exhausted and should be
replaced by other models.
Ever since France and the Netherlands voted against a European
constitution, there have been more and more signs of Europe becoming
less appealing in its current form. This is also evident in the
growing number of election victories of ‘Eurosceptics’ to
‘anti-European’ parties within the founding states of the Union.
Some of these factions have already managed to gain seats in the
European Parliament. Public support of the EU, regularly recorded by
the Eurobarometer, is falling in nearly all 28 Member States (MS).
It has only remained high in a few candidate countries such as those
of the Western Balkans.
Read more on the next
page:.........
September 26, 2016
DMCA Abuse: How corporations
are using US copyright law to harass and silence individuals
Murray Hunter
The
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was unanimously passed by
the United States Senate on 12th October 1998, and signed
into law by President Clinton on 28th October the same
year. The Act was put into law to interpret and enact two 1996 World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties which dealt with
copyright circumvention and providing Internet service providers
(ISP) and online service providers (OSP) safe harbour against
copyright liability, provided they meet specific requirements.
The DMCA criminalizes the production and
dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to
circumvent measures (commonly called digital rights management) that
control access to copyrighted works. Further, the DMCA also
criminalizes the act of circumventing any access control, even if
there is no actual infringement of the copyrighted material itself,
i.e., providing a mere link to a third site where suspected
copyright material exists is criminal.
The Act has extended the reach of US law beyond its
traditional geographical jurisdiction. Moreover, the Act has given
copyright right holders a “lethal weapon” to utilize
against parties who allegedly breach their claimed copyright. That
is, the ability to claim copyright breach directly against any
individual. Further, the Act enables copyright holders to force ISPs
and OSPs to take down any identified alleged infringing material
immediately from any internet site.
However the Act doesn’t give respondents any recourse
against a DMCA takedown notice before any material is taken down by
the ISPs and OSPs.
Read more on the next
page:.........
September 24, 2016
Italy and Egypt: from Regeni
to Libya, the difficult path towards normalization
Daniele Scalea
The
last, recent joint note of Italian and Egyptian attorneys on Giulio
Regeni's murder shows that a good degree of cooperation in the
investigation has been finally reached. Unfortunately that has
required various months during which Egyptian transparency wasn't so
high. Moreover, as the Italian attorney Pignatone has reminded, that
underway is not a joint but a mere Egyptian investigation, to whom
Italian investigators are only collaborating. So, the chances that
we will know one day who and why really killed Regeni are in the
hands of destiny and of Egyptian judiciary. For now, it appears
fallen at least the trail to the alleged gang of kidnappers killed
by the Egyptian police last March.
It is quite obvious that someone among the Egyptian apparatus has
tried to sabotage the investigation – too many false trails,
omissions and so on. That doesn't mean, however, that Regeni was
killed by Egyptian authorities, not to mention a direct involvement
of President al-Sisi, which is really unlikely (even if speculations
about that appeared on the Italian newspapers “La Repubblica”,
citing a mysterious Egyptian source). The admission that police
investigated on Regeni isn't an admission of guilt. Egyptian
authorities said that the denunciation came from an independent
trade union and that the investigation lasted only three days. Could
that support the hypothesis of a murder committed by union
officials? Whether or not, we are probably still far from any truth,
both real or official.
Read more on the next
page:.........
September 23, 2016
BiH 2016 local election:
Dodik's referendum –opening Pandora's box in the Balkans?”
Bakhtyar Aljaf
Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold
local election on 2 October 2016. There are 3,345,486 registered voters in the
country. The number of voters who will vote by post at the forthcoming election
has significantly increased to 65,111. About 30,000 candidates are competing for
the positions in the future local government. Altogether 2,835 councillors will
be elected, of which 1,687 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH),
1,117 in Republika srpska (Rs) and 31 in the Brčko District, as well as 301 city
council members of which 117 in FBiH and 184 in RS, 131 mayors of municipalities
and 12 mayors of cities. Election will be held in all local government units with the exception of the
city of Mostar where no election has been held since 2008. The greatest
responsibility for the situation in Mostar lies with two leading parties: the
Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and Croatian Democratic Union of BiH (HDZBiH).
Despite their optimistic announcements regarding the agreement to be concluded
on local elections in Mostar, the current political leadership has not reached
any solution yet. The current election campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been marked
by traditional political rivalries. As usually there are two political blocks in Republika Srpska: one coalition
comprises Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), Democratic People's
Union (DNS) and the Socialist Party (SP), while the other one (Union for Change)
is a coalition between the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), the Party of Democratic
Progress (PDP) and Democratic People's Alliance (NDP).
Director: Bakhtyar Aljaf
Read more on the next
page:.........
September 17, 2016
Geopolitics of Climate
Change:
Future of Tao and
Quantum Buddhism[1]
Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
From
Rio to Rio with Kyoto, Copenhagen and Durban in between Paris right
after and the recent China’s G-20, the conclusion remains the same:
There is fundamental disagreement on the realities of this planet
and the ways we can address them. A decisive breakthrough would necessitate both wider
contexts and a larger participatory base to identify problems, to
formulate policies, to broaden and to synchronize our actions.
Luminaries from the world of science, philosophy, religion, culture
and sports have been invited to each of these major gatherings. But,
they – as usual – have served as side-events panelists, while only
the politicians make decisions. Who in politics is sincerely
motivated for the long-range and far reaching policies? This does
not pay off politically as such policies are often too complex and
too time-consuming to survive the frequency and span of national
elections as well as the taste or comprehension of the median voter.
Our global crisis is not environmental, financial or
politico-economic. Deep and structural, this is a crisis of thought,
a recession of courage, of our ideas, all which leads us into a
deep, moral abyss. Small wonder, there was very little headway made
at the Rio+20, Paris Summit and beyond.
Between the fear that the inevitable will happen
and the lame hope that it still wouldn’t, we have lived… That what
can be and doesn’t have to be, at the end, surrenders to something
that was meant to be…[2]
Read more on the next
page:.........
September 11, 2016
Gong or Song from China’s Hong Kong?
Aine O’Mahony, Elodie Pichon
Aine O'Mahony has a bachelor in Law and Political Science
at the Catholic Institute of Paris and is currently a master's
student of Leiden University in the International Studies
programme.Contact:
aine-claire.nini@hotmail.fr
Elodie Pichon has a bachelor in Law and Political Science at
the Catholic Institute of Paris and is currently doing a MA in
Geopolitics, territory and Security at King's College London.
Contact : elodie.pichon@gmail.com
Following the recent abduction of five Hong Kong publishers, alleged
to have edited books disclosing “inconvenient truths” about the
Chinese government, thousands of people took to the streets of Hong
Kong to protest and fight for their right to have Freedom of
Expression, which had already been enshrined in the Fundamental Law
of Hong Kong. The post 80 generation wants to defend civil liberties
and young people are concerned by the fact that the Chinese grip on
the media could be the potential starting point for the end of the
“1 country, 2 system” policy, agreed on between China and Great
Britain for the transfer of sovereignty over this territory. Is it
reasonable to believe that this territory could become a simple
reproduction of China, as feared by the younger generation?
Read more on the next
page:.........
Augustus 2, 2016
Europe – Hell
is other people
(Europe after the Brexit, NATO summit in
Warsaw and Turkish geopolitical vertigo)
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
A
freshly released IMF’s World Economic Outlook brings no comforting
picture to anyone within the G-7, especially in the US and EU. The
Brexit after-shock is still to reverberate around.
In one other EXIT, Sartre’s Garcin famously says: ‘Hell is other
people’. Business of othering remains lucrative. The NATO summit in
Warsaw desperately looked for enemies. Escalation is the best way to
preserve eroded unity, requires the confrontational nostalgia
dictatum. Will the passionately US-pushed cross-Atlantic Free Trade
Area save the day? Or, would that Pact-push drag the things over the
edge of reinvigorating nationalisms, 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 post-Brexit Union? Finally, does more
Ukrainian (Eastern Europe’s or MENA) 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? Southeast flank already enormously suffer. Hasty castling of
foes and friends caused colossal geopolitical vertigo in Turkey,
whose accelerated spin produces more and more victims.
Read more on the next
page:.........
July 19, 2016
Blair + NATO + ISIL =
Genocide:
Immaculate Conception of the Iraqi mess
By İLNUR ÇEVIK
Britain
is receiving blow after blow these days. First, the British people
decided to pull their country out of the European Union. This was
then followed by threats from the Scots and the Northern Irish to
pull out of the United Kingdom. Just as the dust started to settle
down, England bade farewell to Euro 2016 in France when they lost to
tiny Iceland, a result that was seen as a disaster equal to pulling
out of the EU... But that is not all.
Now a report prepared by Sir John Chilcot, an official inquiry, has
shattered British confidence and has shown that the invasion of Iraq
by the United States and Britain 13 years ago was a great mistake
based on lies and deception and has served to ruin Iraq, divide it
into pieces, push the Shiites into the laps of the Iranians, create
DAESH and eliminate Saddam Hussein. But for the one Saddam Hussein
that was removed, another 1,000 Saddam's have emerged. It has also
led to the groundwork that has pushed neighboring Syria into utter
chaos...
Then-U.S. President George W. Bush and then-British Prime Minister
Tony Blair today are trying to justify what they have done. Up to
now, nearly a million Iraqis have died because of the mess these two
created and nearly 5 million people have been displaced. The two
have being justifying themselves by saying Saddam was a tyrant and
had to be deposed of. But what they have created and the mess they
have left behind is unforgivable.
Read more on the next
page:.........
July 18, 2016
Turkey’s Strategic Reset: engagement instead of contention
By
Barçın Yinanç
'The
EU loves to portray itself as a pan-European project. However,
it stubbornly rejects and systematically demonises the only two
European countries that have steady economic growth, Russia and
Turkey. Is the EU on its way to end up as the League of Nations
– pretending to be universalistic project, but by excluding
major powers, derogating itself to the margins of history?’ –
asked prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, well before the Brexit vote,
in his enlightening piece ‘Geopolitics of Technology’. What is
the new dynamics in this triangular equitation? Let’s examine
the Turkish take on this fundamental question.
Ever since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to
power, members of the Foreign Ministry have had ample
opportunity to witness the deeply-rooted relations established
between political Islamic movements all over the world and the
ruling party. One of the best one is with the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt. That’s why, it is not surprising to hear President R.T. Erdogan
put Egypt in a different category from Israel and Russia.
Read more on the next
page:.........
July 13, 2016
Summary of
INTERESTS & INFLUENCES OF
MAJOR EXTERNAL ACTORS IN CENTRAL ASIA
Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic & Samantha Brletich
|
H. Bajrektarevic
Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a
Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and
Global Political studies, Vienna, Austria. He is editor
of the NY-based Addlton’s GHIR Journal (Geopolitics,
History and Intl. Relations), as well as the Senior
Editorial member of many specialized international
magazines, including the Canadian Energy Institute’s
Journal Geopolitics of Energy.
|
SAMANTHA BRLETICH
Samantha Brletich, specializing
peace operations policy at George Mason University,
Arlington, VA, with a focus on Russia and Central Asia.
She is the prominent member of the Modern Diplomacy’s
Tomorrow’s People platform. Ms. Brletich is an employee
of the US Department of Defense.
|
|
Read more on the next
page:.........
JULY 4, 2016
IT law - a challenge of
dispute resolution
doc. dr Jasna Čošabić
IT
law or cyber law or internet law, is evolving in giant steps. On its
way, it has many challenges to meet and a lot of burdens to cope
with. Being a part of international law, it is though specific in
its nature, mode of implementation and protection. While the classic
international law deals with classic state territories, state
jurisdictions, with a clear distinction between national laws, the
IT law is uncertain about the state jurisdiction, earthbound
borders, rules and proceedings regarding any dispute arising on
internet.
However, with a fast development of information technology, the
number of legal contracts and businesses on internet rises,
requiring the fast response by legal order in terms of regulating
and protecting it.
From the time internet emerged, each entity operating on internet
provided for its own rules. With the IT becoming more complex and
demanding so were the rules. We therefore say that internet is
self-regulated, with no visible interference by state, apart from
criminal activities control.
Some authors even call the internet private legal order where
stateless justice1 apply. Justice usually needs a state, which is a
supreme authority, having the monopoly of violence, or the
legitimate use of physical force. But speaking in internet terms,
self-regulation has evolved, with the state interference being
mainly excluded.
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 08, 2016
Pakistan in the US, the
US in Pakistan: Self-denial is the biggest threat to world peace
By Rakesh Krishnan SIMHA
One
of the ironies of being a Pakistani living abroad, especially in the
West, is having to pose as Indian. According to Asghar Choudhri, the
chairman of Brooklyn’s Pakistani American Merchant Association, a
lot of Pakistanis can’t get jobs after 9/11 and after the botched
Times Square bombing of 2010, it’s even worse. “They are now
pretending they are Indian so they can get a job,” he told a US wire
service.
That is because while Indians are highly integrated immigrants –
besides being the highest educated and best paid of all ethnic
groups in the US – Pakistanis have taken part in terrorist
activities in the very lands that gave them shelter. (Even the
frequent Gallup surveys conducted in the US, found out repeatedly
that the biggest threat to the international security and peace are:
nr. 3 Saudis; nr. 2 Pakistanis, and nr.1 – surprise, surprise – the
US itself.)
From Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 (8
years before Bin Laden) and is now serving a 240-year prison
sentence to Mir Aimal Kansi, who shot dead CIA agents and was later
executed by lethal injection, to Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square
“Idiot Bomber”, there is a long line of Pakistanis who have left a
trail of terror.
The San Bernardino, California, attack of December 2015 by a
Pakistani American couple was the most spectacular in recent times.
The husband was American-born raised and yet he chose to launch a
terror act against the people of the United States.
But while Pakistanis wear an Indian mask for Western consumption,
back home it’s business as usual.
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 01, 2016
MUSEUM 'INVISIBLE' GENERATION
Writes: Dzalila Osmanovic-Muharemagic
Many
still remember a sign at the door of National Museum of Bosnia and
Herzegovina stating „THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED“, which for years only
bothered few of the conscientious. Recently the museum has been
reopened in silence and without much fanfare, as if still someone
wants the public to be unaware of the times when Bosnia was not
prostrated, when it taught the others of tolerance, while its men
and women lived and died for its every corner. Right after the
reopening an unexpected route led me to the Museum, where a
prophetic recollection from my childhood made me realize I belong to
an „invisible“ generation.
Long time ago, at the beginning of high school, some good teacher
considered it would be useful for high school students, the future
intellectuals (today mostly well-educated, unemployed young people
or doing a menial job in a foreign country) to visit the Museum,
that basic cultural institution. It was an interesting fieldtrip,
without too much work, a lot of photos and mingling. Great for us –
the high school rookies!
There we watched some old rocks, beautiful
exponents of folk garments and much more. We watched, yet we saw
nothing... We did not see, since we did not know what there was to
see, since the entire primary school we learned about great
adventures of Marco Polo, Columbus, French Revolution and Hitler.
Read more on the next
page:.........
May 18, 2016
Suicidal Nuclear Gambit on
Caucasus
(Game of Poker at
best, Game of Chess at worst, and neither option should be
celebrated)
By Petra Posega
Nuclear
security is seemingly in the vanguard of global attention, but the
large framework of international provisions is increasingly
perceived as a toothless tiger. In the contemporary age where
asymmetric threats to security are one of the most dangerous ones,
the time is high to mitigate the risk of rouge actors having
potential access to materials, necessary to develop nuclear weapons.
Nowhere is this urgency more pivotal than in already turbulent
areas, such as the South Caucasus. With many turmoil instabilities,
lasting for decades with no completely bulletproof conflict
resolution process installed, adding a threat of nuclear weapons
potential means creating a house of cards that can cause complete
collapse of regional peace and stability. That is precisely why
recently uncovered and reoccurring actions of Armenia towards the
goal of building its own nuclear capacity must be addressed more
seriously. They should also attract bolder response to ensure safety
of the region is sustained.
According to the report by Vienna-based nuclear watch-dog,
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Armenia has established
quite a record of illegal trafficking of nuclear and other
radioactive materials. There have been a couple of serious incidents
spanning from 1999 onward. A large number of reported incidents has
occurred on the country`s border with Georgia, tempting the IAEA to
conclude there is high probability that the so called Armenian route
does in fact exist. There is a further evidence to support this
assertion. There were an unusually high number of Armenians caught
in nuclear trafficking activities. Additionally, some of the
reported incidents that made their way to the official reports
suggested that the main focus of trafficking activities is in fact
smuggling of nuclear material that could be used for nuclear weapons
capabilities. There were also reports suggesting the trafficking of
other radioactive material that could be utilized for alternate
purposes, such as the building of a so called dirty bomb. Since the
stakes with nuclear weaponry are always high to the extreme, the
recognition of this threat must not be underrated and dismissed
easily.
Read more on the next
page:.........
May 18, 2016
I FREE myself from Facebook
By Rattana Lao
BANGKOK – It was sometimes ago that the New Yorker
featured a cartoon that went something like this: “With the
internet, you can be a dog behind a computer and nobody knows.”
That's
my thought on the internet in general and social media in
particular. Behind the masks of perfectly manicured life or perfect
make up, there are multiple truth, reality, flaws and imperfection.
I joined Facebook when I was doing my Masters of Science in
Development Studies at the London School of Economics and Political
Science – far away from my hometown glory of Bangkok, Thailand.
Although I have known about Facebook from my highschool roommate
when it was only accessible for IVY League students, I was not quite
excited about it. I thought to myself “who in their right mind
published their lives to the public?”
During the same time, the One Laptop Per Child policy was popular. I
remember attending several public forums whereby tech savvy
professionals tried to convince low-tech Development experts that
the internet is powerful and through it we can end world poverty.
Something like that.
Being an outgoing and outspoken introvert, if that makes sense, I
signed up for FB with an ambivalent feeling. On the one hand, I
wanted to keep in touch with my friends and family from afar – to
let them know how I was, what I ate, where I travelled to. On the
other hand, I was scared and anxious of the unintended consequences.
Well, given that my BFF called me “the most intense meaning making
machine,” I was not sure I could cope with the outflow of comments
from strangers about my life.
Read more on the next
page:.........
May 15, 2016
India’s Education – one view on Optimisation and
Outreach
Dr.Swaleha Sindhi
Introduction
In
the present era of globalization, organizations are expected to work
with a creative rather than a reactive perspective and grow to be
flexible, responsive and capable organizations in order to survive.
In the existing scenario people are exposed to diverse knowledge
through internet, there is much to learn and more to assimilate.
Senge’s (1990) model of the five disciplines of a learning
organization emphasizes on the concept of systems thinking, personal
mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning.
This points on continuous learning for individuals and
organizations, with a great stress on the idea of bringing change
with innovation and creativity. If the future organizations are
driven by individual and collaborative learning, it is advisable to
transform schools also into learning organizations, instead of
school education being restricted merely to the process of acquiring
facts and loads of numerical information to reproduce in examination
using rote learning methodologies (current scenario in Indian
schools).
In line with the needs of education system in India, schools should
become more effective learning organizations that ultimately
increase the leadership capacity and support the personal
development of every individual at the institution. In chalking out
the aims of education in India, Kothari commission report (1964-66)
stressed that ‘education has to be used as powerful instrument of
social economic and political change.
Read more on the next
page:.........
May 12, 2016
Hungry of Hungary – One (senti)mental journey
By Julia Suryakusuma
Some
days ago, I achieved historical continuity between Hungary and
Indonesia — well, at least in connection to my father and me.
How so?In the early 1960s, my father was assigned to set up the
Indonesian Embassy in Budapest. Indonesia had already established
diplomatic relations with Hungary in 1955, but did not actually have
a physical embassy.
During my father’s time there as chargé
d’affaires, he met with many high-ranking officials. Among the old
photos from those times, there is one of him shaking hands with
János Kádár, Hungary’s prime minister at the time. Kádár was PM from
1956 to 1988. Thirty-two years, just like Indonesia’s Soeharto.
As dad’s daughter, I was invited to a luncheon at the State Palace
on Feb. 1 — hosted by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo naturally — in
honor of Victor Orban, the current Hungarian prime minister who was
here for an official visit. I had my photo taken with him.
Cut-to-cut: in 1962 my dad with the then Hungarian PM, in 2016, me
with the current Hungarian PM.
While 54 years have lapsed,
my fond memories of Hungary have not. My father passed away in 2006,
so unfortunately he could not witness the historical continuity his
daughter created, albeit only as a snapshot (pun unintended!).
Read more on the next page:.........
April 26, 2016
450 Years of Jewish Life in Sarajevo
By
Mads Jacobsen
In this week's long
read, Mads Jacobsen explores the Jewish experience in
Bosnia-Herzegovina through the eyes of Sarajevo-born Rabbi Eliezer Papo.
The Ashkenazi Synagogue in Sarajevo (Foto: Mads H. Jacobsen)
“If you imagine Bosnia to be a piece of somun,
that piece of bread you eat during Ramadan, you
cannot say that Jews are the water of that
somun, nor can you say that they are the flour,
but you can certainly say that they are the
black seeds on the top of it. Now, could a somun
survive without it? Yes. Would it still be the
same somun? Certainly not. Jews are currently a
small percentage of the Bosnian population, but
they are an important part of the urban
population, and they have contributed a great
deal to the country. So, could Bosnia do it
without Jews? Yes. Would it still be the same
Bosnia? Certainly not”, explained Rabbi Eliezer
Papo in an interview with the Post-Conflict
Research Center.
This year, the Jewish community in Sarajevo
celebrated its 450th anniversary by hosting an
international conference in the Ashkenazi
Synagogue dedicated to folklore, linguistics,
history and the relationship between the Jewish
community and other communities. Following this
anniversary, Mads Hoeygaard Jacobsen – an intern
at the Post-Conflict Research Center – had the
chance to interview Sarajevo-born Rabbi Eliezer
Papo to talk about the Jewish experience in
Bosnia-Herzegovina during the different epochs
of the country’s history.
These mixed marriages proved important in
Sarajevo during the Bosnian War from 1992 to
1995, since the Jewish community of around 2,000
people8 was the only one equally
related to the three combating groups.
Read more on the next
page:.........
Mads Jacobsen Mads is an intern at PCRC. Mads Jacobsen is from Denmark and is currently
pursuing his Master's degree in 'Development and International Relations' at
Aalborg University...
April 24, 2016
Is Caucasus the next Syria - Don’t forget OSCE
By Aleksandra Krstic
The
recent all-shoot out in Azerbaijan between the ethnic Armenians and
Azerbaijani forces brought yet another round of casualties,
psychological traumas and property destructions. Sudden and severe
as it was, the event sent its shock waves all over Caucasus and well
beyond. Is Caucasus receiving the ‘residual heat’ from the boiling
MENA? Is this a next Syria? Is a grand accommodation pacific
scenario possible? Or will it be more realistic that the South
Caucasus ends up violently torn apart by the grand compensation that
affects all from Afghanistan up to the EU-Turkey deal?
Most observes would fully agree that for such
(frozen) conflicts like this between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
mediation and dialogue across the conflict cycle have no
alternative. Further on, most would agree that the OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) with its Minsk
Group remains both the best suited FORA as well as the only
international body mandated for the resolution of the conflict.
However, one cannot escape the feeling that despite
more than 20 years of negotiations, this conflict remains
unresolved. What is the extent of the OSCE failure to effectively
utilize existing conflict resolution and post-conflict
rehabilitation tools?
The very mandate of the Co-Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk
Group is based on CSCE Budapest Summit document of 1994, which tasks
them to conduct speedy negotiations for the conclusion of a
political agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict, the
implementation of which will eliminate major consequences of the
conflict and permit the convening of the Minsk Conference. In
Budapest, the participating States have reconfirmed their commitment
to the relevant Resolutions of the United Nations Security Council
and underlined that the co-Chairmen should be guided in all their
negotiating efforts by the OSCE principles and agreed mandate, and
should be accountable to its Chairmanship and the Permanent Council
(PC).
Read more on the next
page:.........
Aleksandra Krstic
, studied in
Belgrade (Political Science) and in Moscow (Plekhanov’s IBS).
Currently, a post-doctoral researcher at the Kent University in
Brussels (Intl. Relations). Specialist for the MENA-Balkans frozen
and controlled conflicts.
Contact: alex-alex@gmail.com
April
20, 2016
PRIVACY I(N)T CONTEXT
doc. dr. Jasna Cosabic
The
right to privacy, or the right to respect for private life, as the
European Convention on Human Rights guarantees it, has been affected
by the IT growth era. Privacy has long been protected, but will face
a new dimension of protection for the generations to come. The right
to respect for private life is not an absolute one, and may have a
different feature in different context.
By Niemitz v. Germany judgment (1992) the European Court on Human
Rights ('the ECtHR') included the right to connect with other
individuals into the notion of private life, saying that it would be
too restrictive to limit the notion of an 'inner circle' to personal
life and exclude therefrom entirely the outside world not
encompassed within that circle. The right to communicate was thus
inscerted into the the privacy context.
But the extent of communication and technologies which enable it
signifficantly changed since.
Few decades ago, it mainly consisted of personal communication,
communication by conventional letters and phone communication. At
the time the Convention was adopted in the mid last century, there
was no internet, not even mobile/cell phones, nor personal
computers. The feature of privacy protection was much more simple
then today.
Now, when we approach the rule of IoT (internet of things)
communication, not only do people communicate, but 'things' as well.
The subject of that 'non-human' communication may also be private
data of individuals. At the same time, the individual, human
communication became more simple, available at any time, and
versatile by its means.
Read more on the next
page:.........
doc. dr. Jasna Čošabić professor of IT law and EU law at Banja Luka College, Bosnia and Herzegovina
jasnacosabic@live.com
April 18, 2016
Saudi – Iranian future: 3 games – 3 scenarios
By Manal Saadi
There
is no need to argue on Saudi Arabia and Iran as the two biggest
regional powers in the Gulf, the rising tension between the two
countries who are engaged in proxy wars in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and
somehow Bahrein had installed a climate of Cold War.2.
How did we get there?
Saudi Arabia existed since 1932 as a Sunni country and the
birthplace of Islam. Its history of creation is so unique,
mesmerizing and fascinating. Iran, has a glorious past, with various empires that conquered the
Arab-Islamic world at certain pe-riod of time. While the Shah was in power, Iran’s relations with the Arab Gulf
States were normalized, Iran’s navy used to act as the policeman of
the gulf. The situation has changed when the Iranian Islamic
revolution occurred in 1979, with consequences on both countries and
on their relationships. Iran’s Ayatollah wanted to export their
respective model and undermine Saudi Arabia that Iranian officials
see as corrupt and unworthy due to its relation with the United
States and the West. The Shia country is also supporting Shia
communities in the Gulf which is seen as a direct threat to Saudi
Arabia.
Read more on the next
page:.........
Manal Saadi, of Saudi-Moroccan origins, is a postgraduate
researcher in International Relations and Diplomacy at the
Geneva-based UMEF University. She was attached to the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UNoG and
other Geneva-based IOs, as well as to the Permanent Mission of the
GCC to the UN in Geneva.
April 4, 2016
Near East and the
Nearer Brussles Euro(h)ope possible ?
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 – in a
grand metanarrative of dogmatic universalism – their
appearance as of the coherent Union, as if they themselves lived a
long, cordial and credible history of multicul-turalism. Hence, this
claim and its resonating debate is of course false. It is also
cynical because it is purposely deceiving. 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. This was repeatedly followed by
the selective and contra-productive foreign policy actions of the
Union over the last two decades.
Twin Paris shootings and this fresh Brussels horror,
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. Terrorism,
terror, terrorism!! – But, terror is a tactics, not an ideology.
How can one conduct and win war on tactics? – it is an oxymoron. (In
that case, only to win are larger budgets for the homeland security
apparatus on expenses of our freedoms and liberties, like so many
times before.)
Read more on the next
page:.........
Anis H. Bajrektarevic,
contact:
anis@bajrektarevic.eu
Author is chairperson and professor in
international law and global political studies, Vienna, Austria. He
authored three books: FB – Geopolitics of Technology
(published by the New York’s Addleton
Academic Publishers); Geopolitics –
Europe 100 years later
(DB, Europe), and the just released Geopolitics – Energy – Technology
by the German publisher LAP. No
Asian century is his forthcoming book, scheduled for later this year.
24 MAR 2016
Poles Saving Jews in
Bangkok: History Lesson for Humanity
by Rattana Lao
BANGKOK –
Polish,
Israeli and Thai diplomats, academics and students gathered together
to listen and learn about the courage of Polish people saving the
Jews during the Second World War.
Chulalongkorn
University hosted “The Good Samaritans of Markowa” exhibition to
honor the innocent and brave Polish families in Markowa who risked
their lives saving the Jews from Nazi extermination. The event took
place in Bangkok to celebrate the 40th year of lasting
friendship between Poland and Thailand.
During the course of World War II, more than 50,000 Jews were saved
by Polish people. Each Jewish survivor needed to change their
shelter at least 7 times and required as many as 10 people to be
involved in the process.
Irena Sandler, a Polish nurse, was one of the brave Poles who saved
at least 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto. At the end of the
War, 6,600 Polish people were awarded with the Israeli Righteous
Amongst the Nation. However, not every brave Pole survived
Nazi capture. Approximately, 1,000 to 2,000 Poles were executed as
punishment to save the Jews.
The brutality of War took away more than 6 millions Jewish lives and
has inflicted deep wounds to those who have survived. The Ulma
Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II in Markowa is one
of the Museums established to offer a place of solace and for those
who are left behind to come to term with this atrocity.
Understanding the complexity of the Holocaust has far reaching
ramification not only to those directly affected, but also to
students and public who live world apart and far removed from it.

Why?
Read more on the next
page:.........
The first step for Thai students is to get the facts right.
Hitler is not a Hero and the Nazi is not a symbol of democracy.
24.03.2016
Bosnia and the first
circle of hell
Gerald Knaus
In the first half of the 1990s, Bosnians found themselves in the
deepest circles of hell, in a world of war, genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Following the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995 Bosnians were able to escape war,
but have since remained trapped in a different European underworld: isolated,
looked down upon, seen as hopeless and treated as such.
In Inferno, the first book of his Divine Comedy, Dante describes his journey
through nine circles of hell. The Bosnian predicament brings to mind the first
circle of Dante's inferno, Limbo, which hosts "virtuous pagans struck with grief
from a lack of God's presence." Pagans had the misfortune to be born at the
wrong time and in the wrong place. They might be good people but, unbaptized,
they could not enter purgatory. Paradise is forever closed, not because of their
deeds, but because of who they are. It is time for Bosnia to be allowed to
escape from Limbo. A new ESI report sets out how:
ESCAPING THE FIRST CIRCLE OF HELL
or
The secret behind Bosnian reforms
One popular idea about Bosnia and Herzegovina among European
observers is that Newton's first law of motion applies to its politics: this law
says that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside
force. For Bosnian politics, that outside force has to be the international
community.
Read more on the next
page:.........
24.03.2016
PUBLICATIONS: 2016
The
(Trans-Siberian train of) Heartland or (Mare Liberum of)
Rimland? - Mega structures for the next century - By Filippo
Romeo
The
most dangerous Wizard in the EU - Gerald Knaus
Europe
– Hell is other people - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
EU
Reloaded? - by Dr. Peter Jankowitsch
DMCA Abuse: How corporations are using US copyright law to harass and
silence individuals - Murray Hunter
Italy
and Egypt: from Regeni to Libya, the difficult path towards
normalization - Daniele Scalea
BiH
2016 local election: Dodik's referendum –opening Pandora's box
in the Balkans?”
Geopolitics of Climate Change: Future of Tao and Quantum
Buddhism - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Gong
or Song from China’s Hong Kong? - Aine O’Mahony, Elodie Pichon
Europe – Hell is other people - (Europe after the Brexit, NATO
summit in Warsaw and Turkish geopolitical vertigo) - Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
Blair
+ NATO + ISIL = Genocide: Immaculate Conception of the Iraqi
mess - By İLNUR ÇEVIK
Turkey’s Strategic Reset: engagement instead of contention - By
Barçın Yinanç
Summary of INTERESTS & INFLUENCES OF MAJOR EXTERNAL ACTORS IN
CENTRAL ASIA - Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic & Samantha Brletich
IT
law - a challenge of dispute resolution - doc. dr Jasna Čošabić
Pakistan in the US, the US in
Pakistan: Self-denial is the biggest threat to world peace - By
Rakesh Krishnan SIMHA
MUSEUM 'INVISIBLE' GENERATION - Writes: Dzalila
Osmanovic-Muharemagic
Suicidal Nuclear Gambit on Caucasus - Petra Posega
I
FREE myself from Facebook - By Rattana Lao
India’s Education – one view on Optimisation and Outreach -
Dr.Swaleha Sindhi
Hungry of Hungary – One (senti)mental journey - By Julia
Suryakusuma
450
Years of Jewish Life in Sarajevo - By Mads Jacobsen
PRIVACY I(N)T CONTEXT - doc. dr. Jasna Cosabic
Saudi
– Iranian future: 3 games – 3 scenarios - By Manal Saadi
Near East and the Nearer Brussles Euro(h)ope possible? - Anis H.
Bajrektarevic
Poles
Saving Jews in Bangkok: History Lesson for Humanity - by Rattana
Lao
Bosnia and the first circle of hell - Gerald Knaus
Mongolia and the New Russian Oil Diplomacy - By Samantha
Brletich
Noah, Peter Pan and the Sleeping Beauty (Europe – Identity
Imagined) - Anis H. Bajrektarevic
Key to Stop Refugee Flows: Unique higher education programme for
Conflict zones - Prof. Dr. DJAWED SANGDEL
Quantum Islam: Towards a new worldview - Murray Hunter and Azly
Rahman
Currency dictatorship – the struggle to end it - by Rakesh
Krishan Simha
Creative Economy and the bases of UNCTAD’s Creative Economy
Programme as instrument for growth and development - by
Giuliano_Luongo_200
info@orbus.be
www.orbus.be

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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
Săo 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.

Interview on HRT-Radio
Prof. dr. Anis Bajrektarević


Dr Filippo ROMEO,


Julia Suryakusuma
is the outspoken Indonesian thinker,
social-cause fighter and trendsetter. She is the author of Julia’s Jihad.
Contact:
jsuryakusuma@gmail.com




Mads Jacobsen
Mads is an intern at PCRC. Mads Jacobsen is from Denmark and is currently
pursuing his Master's degree in 'Development and International Relations' at
Aalborg University...


Dzalila Osmanovic-Muharemagic
University of Bihac, Faculty of Education,
Department of English Language and Literature - undergraduate
University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Philology, Department of English Language
and Literature - graduate study


Rakesh Krishnan Simha
New Zealand-based journalist and foreign affairs analyst. According to him, he
writes on stuff the media distorts, misses or ignores.
Rakesh started his career in 1995 with New Delhi-based Business World magazine,
and later worked in a string of positions at other leading media houses such as
India Today, Hindustan Times, Business Standard and the Financial Express, where
he was the news editor.
He is the Senior Advisory Board member of one of the fastest growing Europe’s
foreign policy platforms: Modern Diplomacy.


Damiel Scalea
Daniele Scalea, geopolitical
analyst, is Director-general of IsAG (Rome Institute of Geopolitics) and Ph.D.
Candidate in Political studies at the Sapienza University, Rome. Author of three
books, is frequent contributor and columnist to various Tv-channels and
newspapers. E-mail:
daniele.scalea@gmail.com

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