Global

) My friend and solidarity colleague, Biljana Vankovska, has been dismissed as director of the Center of the Global Changes Center where she is a full Professor at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia, in a chilling encroachment on academic freedom. The Center was conceived and brought to life by Biljana a year and a half ago and had already built a reputation for academic excellence mainly on the basis of a stimulating conference devoted to “the emerging cooperative multipolar system” and due to her ability to attract world-class scholars to join the Center’s Board and take part in this inaugural event. As the eloquent explanatory essay below indicates, this action by an educational administrator in her university was based on trumped-up charges. Biljana’s explanation that this punitive action in response to a development that undoubtedly enhanced the academic reputation of this Macedonian rings true—namely, that the government...

Gordon Hahn November 10, 2023 The world split is quickly evolving into something less like a split – if by ‘split’ one means a more or less evenly balanced division between two parts – and more like the isolation of one smaller part of the international community from a larger, significant or supermajority. Moreover, this isolation resembles self-solation, and the self-isolated party is the West. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Even before the NATO-Russia Ukrainian War, Washington and Brussels were touting success in isolating first Russia and then China from ‘community of democracies’ (even as Washington was itself abandoning what should properly be called not democratic government but republican government). Instead, the reverse is occurring. By means of arrogance and obstinance, the West, led by Washington, is finding itself increasingly isolated. The West’s isolation is largely an accidental self-isolation brought about by a series of radical policy choices...

J. Natasha Gooneratne* August 10, 2023 This article explores the discourse of the Ukraine crisis from the perspective of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), recalling some of the movement’s focal pillars that find their roots in the cultural and historical makeup of its member states. It looks at recent efforts of NAM members within the context of peace talks and bilateral relations and further presents a reflection on why NAM members are better equipped to create progressive conditions within that space. Lastly, it explores why such efforts are often misconstrued by Western governments and media. A few weeks ago, 7 African leaders (heads of state of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, Comoros and Egypt, alongside top officials from the Republic of Congo and Uganda) travelled to Russia and Ukraine, in what can thus far be described as the largest collective push toward brokering even a semblance of peace talks in over 16...

Photo by David Dennis/Flickr Henry Heller April 19, 2023 The focal point of the world’s economy is shifting to Asia and Eurasia China’s place on the world stage advances year by year. It is arguably already the world’s largest economy. Its Belt and Road Initiative and its other international links like the BRICS have helped to magnify its economic but also its political and cultural influence worldwide. More and more countries in the Global South are benefiting from these connections and are looking to China for leadership on the basis of mutual benefit. There is every reason to believe these trends will continue. Moreover, we can see that the focal point of the world’s economy is shifting to Asia and Eurasia. Originally published at Canadian Dimension on March 27, 2023 At the same time, geopolitically, we are headed for a multipolar world with no country able to impose itself as a hegemon. Notably, the...

Meetings of the G7 and NATO (top) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (bottom) Ben Norton March 29, 2023 A study by the elite EU-funded European Council on Foreign Relations found the West is out of touch politically with the rest of the world. Most people in China, India, and Türkiye see Russia as an important ally, and they want multipolarity, not continued “American global supremacy”. Originally published at Geopolitical Economy on February 25, 2023 A study by an elite European government-funded think tank found that, while the United States and Europe are growing closer together, the West is increasingly out of touch politically with the rest of the world. The report, from the EU member state-financed European Council on Foreign Relations, conceded that the system of “American global supremacy” is in rapid decline, and many people in the Global South want a new “multipolar world”. The series of polls concluded that NATO’s proxy...

Map Shows Countries That Support Western Govt Sanctions Against Russia vs Those Who Do Not By Krishen Mehta February 22, 2023 In October 2022, about eight months after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys that asked the inhabitants of 137 countries about their views of the West, Russia, and China. The findings in the combined study are robust enough to demand our serious attention. These findings have caused some surprise and even anger in the West. It’s difficult for Western thought leaders to comprehend that two-thirds of the world’s population is just not lining up with the West in this conflict. However, I believe there are five reasons why the Global South is not taking the West’s side. I discuss these reasons in the short essay below.  Originally published at US-Russia Accord on February 22, 2023 1. The Global South does not...

USA versus China trade war concept. Statue of Liberty and Chinese Dragon prepared for battle. National symbols show international relations. Vector illustration in comic style.  John Menadue February 22, 2023 Originally posted on John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal “Pearls and Irritations” on February 11th, 2023. h As China grows and prospers many in the US want us to believe that China will follow the same path that the US itself pursued- global military aggression, the overthrow of numerous governments around the world and persecution of minorities at home. But the record so far suggests that China is different. As former US senior diplomat Chas Freeman in Brown Political Review of 14 March 2022 put it, China does not have a Monroe Doctrine like the US and does not think and behave like the US. There’s not much evidence of China wanting to replace us. They are displacing us in some spheres because they’re big and growing and...

Dennis Argall February 13th, 2023 The US is at war, and the dollar is at risk of imminent collapse. Australia’s lobbying of the United States as a good ally should focus on these issues above all else. Originally posted on John Menadue’s journal Pearls and Irritations on January 19th, 2023 I am aware that many readers will say oh dear, you must not talk like that. But it’s sensible to discuss the distance to the ground before we jump off the cliff. And a lot has already gone over the cliff. In the narrow spectrum of security, focused on war and peace, the largest problems we cannot afford to ignore right now are as follows: War elements are increasingly out of control, In Europe and elsewhere. Clausewitz was right, war drives out policy and pursues its own ends. We are effectively in a world war, and the barrier to nuclear...

Photo Credit: The Cradle Pepe Escobar February 1, 2023 As Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative enters its 10th year, a strong Sino-Russian geostrategic partnership has revitalized the BRI across the Global South. The year 2022 ended with a Zoom call to end all Zoom calls: Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussing all aspects of the Russia-China strategic partnership in an exclusive video call. Putin told Xi how “Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade,” meaning “we will be able to reach our target of $200 billion by 2024 ahead of schedule.” On their coordination to “form a just world order based on international law,” Putin emphasized how “we share the same views on the causes, course, and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.” Originally published at The Cradle on 6 January 2023 Facing “unprecedented pressure and provocations from the west,”...

The estimated cost of the humanitarian response going into 2023 is US$ 51.5 billion, a 25% increase compared to the beginning of 2022. That is less than one-tenth of the total sales of weapons which reached 592 billion US dollars just in one year: 2021. Baher Kamal January 30, 2023 MADRID, Dec 22, 2022 (IPS) – Day after day, international humanitarian organisations launch desperate appeals for funding to continue saving some of the many lives at high risk. When they get a handful of dollars –even just one million– from a rich country, they welcome it as manna from heaven. Not only the available funding for humanitarian aid is already short, but 2023 will also set another record for humanitarian relief requirements, with 339 million people in need of assistance in 69 countries, an increase of 65 million people compared to the same time last year, the United Nations and...

Illustration: Craig Stephens Li Xing 19 January 2023 – The West likes to argue that market capitalism and political liberalism go hand in hand; in reality, the former has proved far more powerful than the latter – Having made countries around the world economically interdependent, the West should not expect them to jeopardise their global links by taking political sides US President Joe Biden has framed the Ukraine war as a battle between “democracy and autocracy”, while also claiming that “the West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been”. During a recent visit to Taiwan, former Danish leader and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that, when combined, the world’s democracies represent 60 per cent of the global economy, providing an overwhelming deterrence to Beijing’s ambitions regarding Taiwan. The irony is that, if we applied this logic to the Ukraine war, the US and Europe would have already...

Controlling the loss and waste of food is a crucial factor in reaching the goal of eradicating hunger in the world. Credit: FAO October 17, 2022 Baher Kamal MADRID, Sep 28 2022 (IPS)* – These are facts, not guesses: about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and lost … every single year, the equivalent of one ton per each of the one billion hungry people, many of them are those who produced the food. Originally published at Human Wrongs Watch on September 28, 2022 The findings have been reported by the World Bank, whose recent study: What a Waste 2.0 also informs that the number of wasted calories “could fill hunger gaps in the developing world.” On this, it reports on the breakdown of the number of calories wasted per day and per person – out of the recommended 2.000: 1.520 calories in rich North America and Oceania of which 61% are by...