The Myth of the Global

Why Regional Ties Win the Day

Aconstant and largely unquestioned refrain in foreign policy is that the world has globalized. Closets are full of clothes stitched in other countries; electronics and cars are often assembled far from where consumers live. U.S. investment flows into Asian markets, and Indians decamp to the United States for graduate school. The numbers show the magnitude of international exchange. Trade among all countries hovers around $20 trillion, a nearly tenfold increase from 1980. International capital flows also grew exponentially during that period, from $500 billion a year to well over $4 trillion. And nearly five times as many people are traveling across borders compared with four decades ago.

The long, ongoing debate over ‘All men are created equal’

Kevin Jennings is CEO of the Lambda Legal organization, a prominent advocate for LGBTQ rights. He sees his mission in part as fulfilling that hallowed American principle: “All men are created equal.”

“Those words say to me, ‘Do better, America.’ And what I mean by that is we have never been a country where people were truly equal,” Jennings says. “It’s an aspiration to continue to work towards, and we’re not there yet.”

NATO chief expects speedy approval of Swedish and Finnish membership bids

NATO’s top official said Tuesday that he wants swift approval of Sweden’s and Finland’s application for alliance membership, as allies launched a ratification process that demands the backing of all 30 members.

Historically, entry into NATO is a lengthy endeavor, taking years in some cases. But for Finland and Sweden, “we speak about months,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

French renewable energy giant expands presence in Finland

French company Neoen, one of the world’s leading independent producers of renewable energy and Finsilva, one of the largest private forest owners in Europe, signed a cooperation agreement to survey the large-scale utilisation of solar power in Finland on Monday.

Korpus potrzebuje rąk

NATO, idąc do przodu z rozeznaniem zagrożeń, zawsze stawia o dwa kroki za mało. Nie z braku odwagi, ale z wewnętrznej różnicy interesów.

Nie przyłączę się do chóru entuzjastów ustaleń madryckiego szczytu NATO. Owszem, nie zapiszę się też do klubu tych, którzy całkowicie lekceważą postanowienia, jakie tam zapadły. Ale mimo wszystko „najpotężniejszy sojusz wojskowy w historii” stać na jeszcze więcej.

The Woke Inquisitors Have Come for the Freethinking Heretics

Once governments normalize censorship and the punishment of points of view, free expression is firmly stamped with an expiration date.

Whenever censorship slithers back into polite society, it is always draped in the mantle of “good intentions.” Fifteenth-century Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola’s “bonfire of the vanities” destroyed anything that could be seen to invite or reflect sin. The notorious 1933 Nazi book burning… in Berlin torched some 20,000 books deemed subversive or “un-German”. During Communist China’s decade-long Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ’70s, the vast majority of China’s traditional scrolls, literature and religious antiquities went up in smoke.

Noua ordine mondială: Călăreții Apocalipsei – ciclul pandemie, război, foamete, moarte – distrug complet hegemonia occidentală!

Puternica imagine din Vechiul Testament a celor patru călăreți ai Apocalipsei a fost readusă în discuție în mod repetat atunci când omenirea s-a confruntat cu pericole și război. Profeții Ezechiel și Zaharia au descris cei patru călăreți ai apocalipsei ca fiind: ciuma, războiul, foametea și în cele din urmă moartea.

Conflict Trends Update

MIGRATION

Authorities found 51 migrants dead of heat exhaustion, dehydration and related causes in the back of an airless lorry abandoned on an interstate highway near San Antonio, Texas, on Monday. Most of the migrants – men, women and children – were from Mexico and Central America. It is the deadliest single human smuggling incident in U.S. history, coming amid a surge of attempted border crossings. Crisis Group expert Tiziano Breda says the horrific incident illustrates the impossibility of suppressing northward migration in the Americas when Mexicans, Central Americans and others are willing to take such risks to escape increasing privation and violent crime in their home countries.