“China did this,” “the Chinese did that.” There is an essentialization of China and Chinese actors that hinders our understanding of China-Africa relations – whether to praise or demonize them – as it lumps a multiplicity of approaches, as well as actors, into a fantasized strategy. Hence, the need to use the plural to talk about these Chinese presences in Africa.
The ongoing protests in many Iranian cities indicate a structural imbalance in the relationship between the ruling regime and a broad segment of the people. This includes some supporters of the revolution, who believe that the method of managing the crisis and interfering in people’s personal lives will lead to further social unrest, especially with the high rates of inflation and unemployment and the spiraling cost of living.
It is no longer possible, in the case of America, to continue with the Monroe Doctrine nor with the slogan ‘America for the Americans.’” — Andrés Manuel López Obrador
December 3, 2023 marked the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine. It also marks its obsolescence in the face of popular resistance and the Pink Tide of progressive governments in Latin America that have been elected over the past two and a half decades. The prevailing ideology of these left and left of center movements rejects the “Washington Consensus” and opts for a new consensus based on the decolonization of the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. This consensus is accompanied by encounters and conferences that advance liberatory traditions developed since the 1960’s as well as those deeply rooted in indigenous cultures. It is Washington’s failure to respect and adjust to this political and ideological process of transformation that precludes, at this time, a constructive and cooperative U.S. foreign policy towards the region.
Space stations are the harbinger of a deepening bipolarity in the international relations of space. The United States leads the International Space Station (ISS), and will lead whatever comes after it, but it is no longer seen as the uncontested unipolar power in space. China now also has a national space station, named Tiangong, which represents a momentous achievement for the country’s space program.
Thousands of migrants are trapped in Slovakia as the Czechs prevent them from crossing into their territory, while Hungary refuses to take back those that crossed from there into Slovakia. The government is struggling to come up with a solution.
On the balcony of one of several blocks of flats in the Slovak town of Kúty, a major transport hub near the Czech border, a lady waters her potted plants. A calm day, yet what worries her and other residents are their new neighbours – unsettled migrants, mostly from Syria.
Secular countries in the developing world are using religion to knit their constituent peoples into a nation. Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are recent examples. Why is this so?
While developed countries in the West have knit their diverse peoples into a nation on the basis of “citizenship” and not ethnicity or religion, in many parts of the developing world, countries are increasingly using religion and/or ethnicity to knit their constituent peoples into a nation.
Reports last month that Ramzan Kadyrov was organizing a military force based on the Batal-Haji wird of a Sufi order for use in Ukraine were disturbing enough given that the Chechen leader was doing so on under the terms of Putin’s mobilization order (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/russian-officials-accuse-influential.html).
Witnesses told the Hague Tribunal that the notorious Scorpions unit was controlled by the Serbian Interior Ministry during the Yugoslav wars. Can an in-depth analysis of the court’s archives establish the truth?
Material in the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY indicates that the Scorpions unit, whose members committed war crimes during the 1990s wars, were part of the Serbian Interior Ministry.
On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) spokesman Abu ‘Umar Al-Muhajir announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi in battle and the appointment of a new leader, fourth since the inception of the organization, known as Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi.[1]
Why Ukraine Should Not Rush to Retake the Peninsula
Ukraine’s liberation of the city of Kherson at the beginning of November was more than just a dramatic military victory. In its battlefield win, Ukraine called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bluff. Just two months earlier, Putin had publicly declared Kherson and other Ukrainian territories to be a part of Russia, implicitly placing them under Russia’s nuclear protection. Putin had hoped that the fear of nuclear attack would compel Ukraine to tread lightly and make its supporters back off. His plan did not work.