August 2019

“In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.” This must be one of the best opening lines ever penned by a novelist. It’s the work of the Nigerian novelist, Ben Okri, who won English literature’s premier annual award, the Booker prize, for his book, The Famished Road. It’s an exceptional novel. The words are often thrown up in the air and then, catching the sun’s rays, light up like emeralds, rubies, diamonds, gold and silver as they tumble down onto the page. When I met Ben Okri on saturday at Denmark’s annual literary festival at the Louisiana Museum for Modern Art I wanted to ask him how is it that Nigeria has become a veritable factory of good novelists. Besides the Nobel Prize winner for...

By Martin Jacques, Cambridge University August 28, 2019 A delightful conversation about the essential difference between the West and China and why they have vitally different ways of relating to other countries and cultures. If you do business in China, travel as a tourist – which far too few Westerners do – teach international relations and the future of the world, this half an hour is about the best investment you can make to understand better what China is about – and to see the West from outside. Be sure to also visit Jacques’ homepage – and see other videos on his YouTube Channel. Jan Oberg, editor

Iran Collage # 1 On August 21, 2019, Iran’s foreign minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, gave a speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI. Zarif spoke at length without a manuscript, in details and with references to facts and history of the region and the conflict’s history – based on a cohesive framework of theories, concepts and interpretation – which, taken together, places him in a category of his own among the world’s foreign ministers. The UN Security Council Resolution – 598 of 1987 – that Zarif refers to can be read here. One should indeed be grateful to SIPRI for having invited him. • Politically correct, tired routine coverage by the leading Swedish media Generally speaking, leading Swedish mainstream media have been promoting a negative view of Iran as well as Javad Zarif himself. The largest coverage has been about human rights in Iran, Iran as a threat...

Or – The US, A Shameless Warrior Yesterday, the US Ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, tweeted the following: As will be seen below, there were four photos from an event in Copenhagen. The first shows all the people present, including former Danish Prime minister Fogh Rasmussen (also on the 4th photo with the ambassador), the present Danish defence minister, Trine Bramsen (also on the 2nd photo to the right), and veterans. The third photo is indeed very touching if you note the veteran sitting to the Ambassador’s right side – his right arm and hand as well as his two legs. The Ambassador’s text is revealing for how a representative of the US Empire performs these days. The day is called Wounded Warrior – and of course it would be more difficult to make a barbeque for Dead Warriors – and the ambassador emphases (only) that it reminds us of...

Dr. Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, yesterday spoke at SIPRI – the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. (At the moment of writing nothing comes up on its homepage when searching his name but you may see his speech and the discussion that followed here). I was asked by Iran’s PressTV to comment on a couple of selected points made by Zarif – which I gladly did:

“Hmm, you are saying that I – Donald Trump – can’t buy Greenland?Photo collage This morning the Danes could wake up to a Twitter message from US President Trump that he was anyhow not going to Denmark on September 2-3 – in spite of the fact that it had been confirmed and that, formally at least, he had been invited by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II herself. Here is his tweet The background Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, a few days ago visited Greenland and let it be known that the Arctic region was a very important security issue: “We can already say that to get the Americans even more closely involved in what happens in our part of the Arctic – the Unity of the Realm – is essential. And an even stronger strategic cooperation between our countries is important for both Greenland and Denmark.” (My translation of her...

Media comment On August 19, 2019, Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of Iran, visited Finland to persuade it – and the rest of Europe – to stand up more firmly for the nuclear deal, JCPOA, from July. But the prospect is bleak…

Riot police fire tear gas at protesters as they head towards the central government’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun on Sunday. Photo: Sam Tsang in SCMS By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Directors of Popular Resistance August 20, 2019 Hong Kong is one of the most extreme examples of big finance, neoliberal capitalism in the world. As a result, many people in Hong Kong are suffering from great economic insecurity in a city with 93 billionaires, second-most of any city. Hong Kong is suffering the effects of being colonized by Britain for more than 150 years following the Opium Wars. The British put in place a capitalist economic system and Hong Kong has had no history of self-rule. When Britain left, it negotiated an agreement that prevents China from changing Hong Kong’s political and economic systems for 50 years by making Hong Kong a Special Administrative Region (SAR). China cannot solve...

In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was famous for the taste of the tea it poured. Unbeknown to her, its quality derived from the residue that had accumulated on the inside of the pot. In her eagerness to prepare the pot for sale she cleaned and polished it. When the purchaser came to try using the pot the tea was dreadful and he demanded his money back. In this way Li Ruthuan made his point that the majority of the Chinese leadership didn’t have a proper understanding of what were the important factors that enabled Hong Kong to be such a successful commercial centre. It also should remind...

I would like to announce the publication of a book describing the lives of some of the people who have contributed importantly to economic thought. Their lives can help us today, as the world faces a crisis that has profound economic dimensions. Here is the table of content of this large book: The book can be freely downloaded as PDF here. The climate crisis Appendix A outlines the present climate emergency, made vivid by the October 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the words of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, “According to the IPCC, we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place, including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%…” Although the worst consequences of out-of-control catastrophic climate change lie...

A map of the Korean Peninsula showing the 38th Parallel where the DMZ was established in 1953. (Wikipedia) “Do not demonise North Korea. Demons do not negotiate. If there are no negotiations, there will be war.” The words of Chung-in Moon to journalists who gathered for the Korea Press Foundation journalism conference in Seoul, last October, as diplomatic efforts were being stepped up for a second summit meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. Moon is a sage old hand of arms control talks. A current member of the South Korean government’s advisory committee on diplomatic strategy, he previously served as Ambassador for International Security, combining these posts with his career in universities. His advice was timely, given the findings of new research on Australian media and how they refer to the Democratic People’s Republic [i]. In coverage from two major newspapers and the public broadcaster, the ABC,...

The essay below is a modified version of the 2018 Annual Lecture of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) of Queen Mary’s University London, given on March 22 of that year. Its original title was “Geopolitical Crimes: A Preliminary Jurisprudential Proposal.” The text of the lecture has been further revised since publication in the Spring 2019 issue of the Journal of State Crime.  Its major premise is that international criminal law has developed a framework for judging the criminal conduct of states with respect to armed conflict and in the relations of state/society relations, but is silent about even the most severe crimes of diplomacy. It is these ‘geopolitical crimes’ that are more responsible for inflicting mass suffering on civilian populations than are most of the forms of international behavior currently criminalized. I am aware that criminalizing acts of diplomacy is a revolutionary idea, but no less for that, deserving of commentary and debate....