The Post-War Order Is Over
(And
not because Trump wrecked it.)
By
Victor Davis Hanson
The 75-year-old post-war order crafted by the
United States after World War II is falling apart. Almost every
major foreign-policy initiative of the last 16 years seems to have
gone haywire.
Donald Trump’s presidency
was a reflection, not a catalyst, of the demise of the
foreign-policy status quo. Much of the world now already operates on
premises that have little to do with official post-war institutions,
customs, and traditions, which, however once successful, belong now
to a bygone age.
Take the idea of a Western
Turkey, “linchpin of NATO southeastern flank” — an idea about as
enduring as the “indomitable” French Army of 1939. For over a decade
Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insidiously destroyed
Turkey’s once pro-Western and largely secular traditions; he could
not have done so without at least
majority popular support.
Empirically speaking,
neo-Ottoman Turkey is a NATO ally in name only. By any standard of
behavior — Ankara just withdrew its ambassador from the U.S. —
Turkey is a de facto enemy of the United States. It supports radical
Islamic movements, is increasingly hostile to U.S. allies such as
Greece, the Kurds, and Israel, and opposes almost every
foreign-policy initiative that Washington has adopted over the last
decade. At some point, some child is going to scream that the
emperor has no clothes: Just because Turkey says it is a NATO ally
does not mean that it is, much less that it will be one in the
future.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JUNE 1, 2018
Planet Junk
Is Earth the Largest Garbage Dump in
the Universe?
Robert J. Burrowes
Is
Earth the largest garbage dump in the Universe? I don’t know. But
it’s a safe bet that Earth would be a contender were such a
competition to be held. Let me explain why.
To start, just listing the types of rubbish generated
by humans or the locations into which each of these is dumped is a
staggering task beyond the scope of one article. Nevertheless, I
will give you a reasonably comprehensive summary of the types of
garbage being generated (focusing particularly on those that are
less well known), the locations into which the garbage is being
dumped and some indication of what is being done about it and what
you can do too.
But before doing so, it is worth highlighting just
why this is such a problem, prompting the United Nations Environment
Programme to publish this recent report: ‘Towards
a pollution-free planet’.
As noted by Baher Kamal in his commentary on this
study: ‘Though some forms of pollution have been reduced as
technologies and management strategies have advanced, approximately
19 million premature deaths are estimated to occur annually as a
result of the way societies use natural resources and impact the
environment to support production and consumption.’ See ‘Desperate
Need to Halt “World’s Largest Killer” – Pollution’ and ‘Once
Upon a Time a Planet… First part. Pollution, the world’s largest
killer’.
And that is just the cost in human lives.
So what are the main types of pollution and where do
they end up?
Read more
on the next page:.........
MAY 22, 2018
Why is the
Korean Reunification not to Work anytime soon
(Denuclearisation of the Far East long
way Ahead)
How
to draw the line between the recent and still unsettled EU/EURO
crisis and Asia’s success story? Well, it might be easier than it
seems: Neither Europe nor Asia has any alternative. The difference
is that Europe well knows there is no alternative – and therefore is
multilateral. Asia thinks it has an alternative – and therefore is
strikingly bilateral, while stubbornly residing enveloped in
economic egoisms. No wonder that Europe is/will be able to manage
its decline, while Asia is (still) unable to capitalize its
successes.
Asia clearly does not accept any more the lead of the
post-industrial and post-Christian Europe, but is not ready for the
post-West world.
Following the famous saying allegedly spelled by
Kissinger: “Europe? Give me a name and a phone number!” (when – back
in early 1970s – urged by President Nixon to inform Europeans on the
particular US policy action), the author is trying to examine how
close is Asia to have its own telephone number.
Another fallacy is that the German reunification can
be just copied. 15 days at any German institute of political science
and one becomes expert of reunification. Yes, Germany is a success
story since the neighbors were extremely forgiving. And that was
enhanced by the overall pan-continental commitment to
multilateralism – by both institutions and instruments. Europe of
German re-unification was the most multilateralised region of the
world. Asia today is extremely bilateral – not far from the
constellations at the time of Hiroshima or Korean War of 1950s. No
multilateralism – no denuclearisation; no denuclearisation – no
reunification; no reunification – no overall cross-continental
tranquilization of relations; no tranquility – no Asia’s sustainable
success.
Read more
on the next page:.........
MAY 19, 2018
HOW CAN
PARITY BE MORE PROPORTIONAL?
Zlatko Hadžidedić
International
diplomats located in Bosnia-Herzegovina have recently launched an
initiative requesting the Parliament of one of Bosnia-Herzegovina's
two entities, the Federation, to reconstitute its upper chamber, the
House of Peoples, in line with „more proportional representation“.
Yet, how can representation in the House of Peoples be more
proportional, when already based on the principle of parity? Sounds
absurd, doesn't it? Representation can be based either on the
principle of proportionality or on the principle of parity. When
based on the principle of parity, it cannot possibly be more
proportional. Moreover, such an initiative encroaches on the
sovereign right of that very Parliament to constitute and
reconstitute itself, without external interference.
Indeed, what does sovereignty mean in the present-day
Bosnia-Herzegovina? In the rest of Europe it has been adopted,
almost axiomatically, in the traditions of both Locke and Rousseau,
that sovereignty is indivisible and inalienable. For,
the will of the people, as the expression of sovereignty, can not be
divided; otherwise, it ceases to be the will of the people and
becomes a collection of individual wills and then the people can
only be a collection of individuals. Also, sovereignty can not be
alienated from its bearer: power may be transferred, but not will;
it is impossible for any organ to exercise the sovereign will save
the sovereign body itself. The state, as a state, can no more
alienate its sovereignty than a man can alienate his will and remain
a man. There is but one possible bearer of sovereignty, the people.
Read more
on the next page:.........
APRIL 10, 2018
TURKEY – EU:
Waiting for Godot
By Aaron Denison
Turgut
Ozal, the 8th
President of Turkey submitted an application. But until today, the
have failed to convince the EU as well as the EU member states that
they are fit to be a part of the European community via the EU. They
are many factors that might have contributed to the failure of
Turkey’s application. One of the factors that has been heavily
debated is on the historical perspectives based on the culture and
identity. The European identity is one of the core importance in
discussing about EU membership or enlargement process. The question
that is being asked here is whether Turkey has that European
identity within their country. In addition if we look at the history
of Europe’s relation with the Ottoman Empire in the past would also
be a deciding factor too as some Europeans would remember the
shadows of conflict between both sides back in the day. The Ottoman
Empire and its Muslim identity as well as the Christian Europe might
have also shaped the minds of Europeans when Turkey applied for EU
membership (Multuler & Taskin, 2007)
Read more
on the next page:.........
APRIL 5, 2018
De-evolutioning
with Brexit and Trump: Where Marx went wrong
Ananya Bordoloi
The
Brexit and Trump vote demonstrates a drastic incongruity with Marx’s
prediction of a “proletariat revolution” that would “destroy all
previous insecurities for, and insurance of, individual property”.
However, he stands corrected in the notion that the bourgeoisie
“creates a world in its own image” through the inevitable expansion
of capitalism globally. This is essentially the argument of this
paper. Firstly, this paper discusses the points in which Marx is
proven right – creation and expansion of a world market and
periodical commercial crises that “threaten the existence of
bourgeois property [and society]”– which this paper argues as
factors that provide some explanation for the Brexit and Trump vote.
Secondly, it concentrates on the concept of “populist nationalism”
that Marx had failed to acknowledge in his conception of a
proletariat revolution. Finally, this paper concludes by shedding
light on Marx’s concept of “false consciousness” based on the model
of “social totality” to reconcile Marx’s failure.
Trump my (B)Exit
Creation and expansion of a world
market
Marx argues that capitalism is cosmopolitan in nature
due to its constant need of an expanding market for its products.
The bourgeoisie, who are the rulers of a capitalist society, achieve
this market expansion by rapidly improving all instruments of
production and facilitating means of communication that eventually
force nations and populations to “adopt bourgeois mode of
production”. This has been the exact trajectory of modern capitalist
society with rapid expansion of bourgeois ideology through
establishments such as the World Trade Organisation, International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank that promote neoliberal policies,
such as market deregulation, exchange rate management and free
trade, making what Marx calls “nations of peasants”, i.e. developing
nations dependent on “nations of bourgeois”, i.e. developed nations.
Read more
on the next page:.........
MARCH 26, 2018
The World without Colonies –
Dakhla without Potemkin Village
Emhamed Khadad
Last November marked forty two years since 350,000
Moroccans crossed into the Western Sahara as part of the staged
manipulation called “Green March.” November 6 is a dark day for the
Saharawi people, because it epitomises Morocco’s illegal military
invasion and partial occupation of Western Sahara.
In October of 1975, the International Court of
Justice had
totally rejected
Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara,
and having failed to win the legal argument, Moroccan King Hassan II
responded with force. He ordered the Green March, a manufactured
“civilian” invasion, which was (rein)forced with an deployment of
20,000 Moroccan heavily armed troops.
Legacy of Dictator Franco still alive
With Francisco Franco on his deathbed, the Spanish
colonial forces that had controlled the territory since 1884 did
nothing to resist the annexation. In fact, that time Spanish
dictatorship struck a deal to cede control of the territory to
Morocco and Mauritania. The “Madrid Accords” between Spain, Morocco
and Mauritania deliberately excluded any representatives of the
indigenous Saharawi people of Western Sahara – in the best fashion
of neo-colonialism. Mauritania later relinquished its claim –
applauded by all progressive word. However, Morocco has continued
legacy of Dictator Franco and its occupation in defiance of
international law and the world community calls ever since.
Read more
on the next page:.........
MARCH 19, 2018
Future of the Banking Industry – Not without
Blockchain
By Oliver Aziator
If
you are reading this article it means you are directly involved in
the world of internet, this wonderful innovation has made it
possible to connect everyone around the world directly. Through this
innovation, the most promising new disrupt technologies have emerged
for the future; Thus, the world of the blockchain. It is right to
ask if the blockchain technology is a disruptive innovation? why is
this novelle technology pacing slowly? This because the technology
has only reached the required level of maturity wide mainstream use.
What is a disrupting technology? It is the one that displays
established technology and revolutionizes industry or ground shaking
product that creates a completely new industry.
Today disruption,
change and competition dictate the new paradigm for the banking
industry, the financial institutions are no exception to the
dynamics of industrial advancement which is driven by a fast-growing
cost and great pressure. The implementation of the blockchain
influences a lot of stakeholders in the financial services which
include customers, employees, shareholders, investors, suppliers,
industry associates, education institutions, government and
non-governmental organizations. The banking world is involved in
quick changes of digitalization, a potential cost and labor-saving
instrument, the prospects for the global finance market are so
appealing that many major financial institutions are investing
millions of dollars to research on what will be the best way to
implement it.
Read more
on the next page:.........
MARCH 10, 2018
Climate Change: Unfit for the residual heat
By Élie Bellevrat and Kira West
Industrial heat makes up two-thirds of industrial energy demand and
almost one-fifth of global energy consumption. It also constitutes
most of the direct industrial CO2
emitted each year, as the vast majority of industrial heat
originates from fossil-fuel combustion. Yet despite these impressive
figures, industrial heat is often missing from energy analyses. That
is why this year’s
World Energy Outlook
takes a deep dive in this important segment of our energy system.
 |
 |
|
Élie
Bellevrat |
Kira West |
While industrial heat demand – at all temperature levels – grows in
the central scenario of the
World Energy Outlook 2017,
the underlying drivers are different depending on temperature
requirements. Low- and medium-temperature heat (below 400 degrees
Celsius) accounts for three-quarters of the total growth in heat
demand in industry by 2040, driven by less energy-intensive
industries.
Read more
on the next page:.........
FEBRUARY 23, 2018
The European Commission's Strategy for the Western
Balkans
Bureaucrat's Crusade
By Zlatko Hadžidedić
The European Commission set a target date of 2025 for
some of the Balkan countries to join. However, Brussels sees only
Serbia and Montenegro as actual candidates. The door formally
remains open to Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia,
but these countries have been put into a grey zone with no time
frames and road maps. They have been put on hold with no tangible
prospects for membership, left without any explanation of what makes
them less valid candidates than Serbia and Montenegro, with these
two being as poor, illiberal and undemocratic as the remaining four.
With a dose of instant cynicism, one might conclude
that Serbia and Montenegro have been rewarded for their military
aggressions on Bosnia and Kosovo, and Serbia's permanent pressures
on Macedonia, whereas the latter ones have been punished for being
the former's victims. However, a more careful look at the population
structure of the four non-rewarded countries reveals that these,
unlike Serbia and Montenegro, have a relative excess of Muslim
population. So far, there have been dilemmas whether the European
Union is to be regarded as an exclusive Christian club, bearing in
mind the prolonged discriminatory treatment of Turkey as an unwanted
candidate. After the European Commission's new strategy for the
Balkans, there can be no such dilemmas: the countries perceived by
Brussels bureaucrats as Muslim ones – regardless of the actual
percentage of their Muslim population – are not to be treated as
European.
Read more
on the next page:.........
FEBRUARY 14, 2018
ASEAN Shared - the EU twin from Asia:
New memories, old wounds
Rattana Lao
Bangkok
– Imagining peace is a noble concept but what does it take to
achieve it?
Where does peace begin?
In modern day Southeast Asia, this can trace back to the 8th
of August, 1967 where five foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand joined hands to create the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations or what became known as
ASEAN.
Diverse in nature and disperse in geography, ASEAN has achieved much
within the course of fifty years. The Association has grown in size
of its membership and expanded to reach ambitious mandates. In 2015,
ASEAN Economic Community was created to promote free movement of
people, goods and ideas.
Economic integration was just the beginning.
Coated in a long and wordy text and signed on 17th
November 2011, the Declaration on ASEAN Unity in Cultural Diversity
strived toward achieving “people centred and socially responsible
integration,” a socio-cultural integration in short.
Inspired by the European Union, creating one market was not enough
for ASEAN. The Association is driven to “forging a common identity”.
It is hoped that through such effort, peace, mutual understanding
and harmony will be fostered in Southeast Asia.
A common identity for more than 600 million people?
A little lofty. Perhaps.
Read more
on the next page:.........
FEBRUARY 1, 2018
Croatia-BiH-Serbia:
Non-acceptance of ICTY judgments and
“humanisation”of crimes and criminals
The
verdicts against Ratko Mladić (IT-09-92) and Jadranko Prlić
et al. (IT-04-74) represent the final judgments of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which will
formally cease to operate on 31 December 2017. The Mechanism for
International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) established by the UN Security
Council resolution CS/RES/1966 (2010) will continue the work of ICTY
as its legal successor at least until 2023.
MICT is formally ICTY's replacement body and as such will work with the same
capacity and mandate as ICTY. Analysts believe that all the appeals and
trial judgments before MICT1
should be concluded before a comprehensive analysis and evaluation can be
made of ICTY's 24 years of work.
Read more
on the next page:.........
DECEMBER 26, 2017
Revisiting Dictatorship: Democracy is Worst Form
of Government, Indeed
By Endy Bayuni
“Democracy is both: the procedure and the
content. It is a periodically revisited, fine-calibrated
social contract that ties all horizontal and vertical segments
of society. Although sometimes slow, tedious and consuming, this is
still a truly comprehensive, just and sustainable way to build on
its past, live the presence and pursuit the future of a nation.”
Following the known lines of professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic on ties
that bind, hereby is the fresh take from one of the largest
democracies of the world – that of Republic of Indonesia.
The late Soeharto has become something of a poster
boy for leadership as the nation searches for a president who can
effectively deliver the goods.
Photos of the smiling president, who ruled Indonesia
between 1966-1998, appear everywhere, with the caption in Javanese “piye
kabare, isih penak jamanku, tho?” (How
are you, better in my era, wasn’t it?), a reminder that for some,
life was so much better then. The Soeharto posters and memes have
been going viral since the 2014 election and are still circulating
now.
Read more
on the next page:.........
DECEMBER 12, 2017
Miscarriage of Justice at the ICTY:
Bosnians consider guilty genocide verdict for Mladić incomplete
1. Miscarriage of Justice at the ICTY: Bosnians consider guilty
genocide verdict for Mladić incomplete
1.1 The definition of the genocide is clear, simple and well
intended
1.2 Genocide is very well documented in the Mladić judgment
1.3 The court setting its own definition of the genocide
1.4 The consequences of the new definition of genocide
2. Skraćeni opis metodologije suda i konzekvence takve metodologije
kojom se praktično mijenja defincija genocida
3. Success of the book "The War in Bosnia: How to Succeed at
Genocide"
5. Veliki uspjeh knjige “The War in Bosnia: How to Succeed at
Genocide”
Read more
on the next page:.........
DECEMBER 3, 2017
OSCE SUPPLEMENTARY HUMAN DIMENSION MEETING
Access to Justice as a Key Element of the Rule
of Law
SIDE EVENT
ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR THE IDPs IN THE OSCE AREA
AND ITS
IMPACT ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Date and Time:
16 November 2017, 13:30-14:45
Venue:
Room 532, Hofburg, Vienna (5th floor)
Convenor:
Permanent Mission
Working language:
English
Snacks and refreshments
will be served in Ratsaal Foier at 13:00 before the event
Panelists:
Discussion moderated by:
Prof. Anis H. BAJREKTAREVIC
Prof. and Chair for Intl.
Law & Global Political Studies, Editor of the GHIR
(the
New York Addleton Academic Publishers’ specialized Magazine for Geopolitics,
History and Intl. Relations)
Dr. Gabriel LANSKY
Attorney at Law, Partner at
Lansky, Ganzger and Partner
Special Agent at the European Court of Human Rights
(name tbc)
Regional Expert
(name tbc)
Read more
on the next page:.........
OCTOBER 31, 2017
Long story of Kurz: ‘Austria You will
be Macronised’
Max Hess
“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 multiculturalism. 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 in the MENA, Balkans and Ukraine.” – wrote prof. Anis H.
Bajrektarevic in his luminary and farsighted essay Denazification
– urgently needed in Europe .
Last two parliamentary elections in Central Europe are indicative
enough: Europe inevitably loses its grip over the grand narrative,
fatherly eroding its place in history. Hereby a few lines about the
latest of them.
Read more
on the next page:.........
OCTOBER 19, 2017
Germany that kills itself
and Europe
Michael dr. Logies
“The
over-financialization and hyper-deregulations of the global(-ized)
markets has brought the low-waged Chinese (peasant converted into a)
worker into the spotlight of European considerations. Thus, in the
last two decades, the EU economic edifice has gradually but steadily
departed from its traditional labor-centered base, to the overseas
investment-centered construct. This mega event, as we see now with
the Euro-zone dithyramb, has multiple consequences on both the
inner–European cultural, socio-economic and political balance as
well as on China’s (overheated) growth. That sparse, rarefied and
compressed labor, which still resides in the aging Union is either
bitterly competing with or is heavily leaning on the guest workers
who are per definition underrepresented or silenced by the
‘rightist’ movements and otherwise disadvantaged and hindered in
their elementary socio-political rights. That’s how the world’s last cosmopolitan
– Europe departed from the world of
work, and that’s why the Continent today cannot orient itself (both
critically needed to identify a challenge, as well as to calibrate
and jointly redefine the EU path). To orient, one need to center
itself: Without left and right, there is no center, right?!” – prof.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic brilliantly summarized situation in Europe
already years ago. Let’s see how it reflects on just closed German
elections, and some fallacies surrounding (interpretations of) it.
Read more
on the next page:.........
OCTOBER 4, 2017
Croatia and the West Balkan
region:
Grabar-Kitarović and Vučić on a
joint mission to (de)stabilize the region
For the past few months,
President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (HDZ)
has been intensively shifting Croatia’s inner political problems
as well as her personal political conflicts and ambitions to the
foreign-political field, thus causing destabilisation of the West
Balkan region and consequently threatening the EU security and
defence system.
In Serbia, the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar
Vučić (SNS) won his inter-party war for supremacy over
Tomislav Nikolić (SNS), who was the most recent President of the
Republic of Serbia. President Grabar-Kitarović is still in constant
conflict with the key officials from Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)
and she has extended this conflict also to her relations with the
Government of the Republic of Croatia. The problems stem from the
internal political restructuring of HDZ and the preparations for the
next general election in Croatia. President Grabar-Kitarović is
sparing no effort to gain the absolute dominant position in HDZ and
to ensure her candidacy at 2019 presidential election in Croatia.
Her conflict with the incumbent Prime Minister of the Republic of
Croatia Andrej Plenković (HDZ) is only the tip of the iceberg
of political frictions and interparty tensions within HDZ.
Read more
on the next page:.........
SEPTEMBER 23, 2017
Bridge over troubled waters
– Growing meritime dispute between Croatia and Bosnia, neglected by
the EU
Dr. Enis Omerović and Adil Kulenović,
The
bilateral international agreement on the state border between Bosnia
and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia, known as the Agreement
on the Border between the two states, or more familiarly, as the
Tuđman-Izetbegović Agreement, signed in Sarajevo on 30 July 1999
between the then President of the Republic of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman,
and the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija
Izetbegović, represents in its 23 Articles, conditionally, "a valid
act since it has been applied until a new one is made" (V.Đ. Degan,
2013). This Agreement could also be perceived to contain a
transitional or provisional solution, since it has never been
ratified by any parliament and does not serve its ultimate purpose -
the permanent establishment and determination of the land and sea
border between the two neighbors. In this regard, it can even be
argued that the Republic of Croatia de facto abandoned the execution of this Agreement when its
official authorities decided to embark on the building of a
permanent construction at sea. This all supports the fact that the
issue of delimitation and demarcation at sea, especially in the area
of the Bay of Neum and the Mali Ston Bay, is still permanently
undefined and unsettled and thus requires, in our opinion, a serious
step towards opening an official dialogue with Zagreb with the
involvement of EU institutions, since the Republic of Croatia is a
member of the European Union.
The second difficulty should be addressed together
with the first. It would be especially important to define the sea
boundary, regarding the tip of the Klek Peninsula and the
uninhabited islets, Veliki and Mali Školj or, more precisely, the
rocks in the Mali Ston Bay, which are part of a unique
geomorphologic unit, together with the Klek Peninsula. If we drawthe
line of equidistance for purposes of delimitation of two states
whose shores in one bay lie or are opposite to one another (the
Peninsula of Klek and Pelješac), which is in accordance with the
international law of the sea, as well as Article 4 (3) of the
bilateral Agreement which, inter alia, prescribes that border
at the sea stretches "the median line of the sea area between the
land of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia", it
could be claimed that the disputed area would belong to Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Read more
on the next page:.........
AUGUSTUS 17, 2017
WHAT ARE WE DEALING WITH – TRUMP OR DEMOCRACY
By: Tomislav Jakić
Although
it is still not sure if Donald Trump will go down in history as
champion of bombastic, but empty threats, or as somebody who did
what he threatened with, thus starting a dangerous local war with
potentially global consequences, one thing is absolutely sure:
Donald Trump, the eccentric billionare with a turbulent business
career, a showman, proved with his entry into the White House, but
as well as with the campaign waged by the so called liberals (in the
best way of almost forgotten McChartism) to evict him from there,
that the model of western democracy, especially its American
version, is irreparable corrupted. If we look at the facts as they
are, there can be no doubt about this.
Trump was elected as president of America, a country
that was for decades, with good reason, viewed as the light-bearer
of democracy. He was elected in accordance with the rules of the
American democratic system, rules that are – basically – applied
from the very beginning of the existence of the United States. Here
we stumble upon the first “but”. Only to enter the race for the
nomination for the presidential candidate, one must have money, very
much money. In democracy, meaning the rule of the people, the people
are robbed of the possibility to elect the best and forced to elect
among the rich the one, who seems to be most capable. Or, and this
is the second “but” (which was obviously the case in the last
elections), people are left to choose and to decide who is the
lesser evil. This is why, choosing between Trump, who at that time
presented a fresh and for America even radically changed foreign
policy program and the former First lady and Secretary of State, an
undisputed political hawk with no other foreign policy program that
the continuation of toppling regimes in foreign countries and
installing those who suited the US best and – not to forget – the
continuation of the reborn Cold war, people opted for Trump, as
lesser evil. Of course, when we use the term “people” we have in
mind those who decided to use their voting right, which is usually
about 50% of those registered as potential voters. And here is the
third “but”. The President is elected by the minority of the
Americans and imposed upon the majority.
Read more
on the next page:.........
AUGUSTUS 17, 2017
Review
of the Book
Europe and Africa –
Similarities and difference in Security Structures
Written by Anis
Bajrektarevic and Giuliano Luongo
NOVA Publishers (
https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=62974
)
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 20, 2017
The Return of
Good Policies for Bad Reasons
Populism and Industrial Policy
Amanda Janoo
“Throughout the most of human evolution both progress
as well as its horizontal transmission was extremely slow,
occasional and tedious a process. Well into the classic period of
Alexander the Macedonian and his glorious Alexandrian library, the
speed of our knowledge transfers – however moderate, analogue and
conservative – was still always surpassing snaillike cycles of our
breakthroughs. When our sporadic breakthroughs finally turned to be
faster than the velocity of their infrequent transmissions – that
very event marked a point of our departure.
Simply, our civilizations started to significantly
differentiate from each other in their respective techno-agrarian,
politico-military, ethno-religious and ideological, and economic
setups. In the eve of grand discoveries, the faster cycles of
technological breakthroughs, patents and discoveries than their own
transfers, primarily occurred on the Old continent.
That occurancy, with all its reorganizational
effects, radically reconfigured societies – to the point of
polarizing world onto the two: leaders and followers” – noted prof.
Anis H. Bajrektarevic in his luminary book Europe, 100 years
later.
Will we ever close our technological and spiritual
gap, physically and psychologically? Following lines are an
interesting take on the topic.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 19, 2017
Serbia Delivered Srebrenica Refugees
to Mladic: Report
Filip Rudic - BIRN -Belgrade
The Humanitarian Law Centre NGO said it will file criminal complaints
against Serbian officials involved in handing over Bosniak refugees from
Srebrenica who fled to Serbia to Ratko Mladic’s forces.
The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre said in a report launched on
Thursday that it has identified 30 Bosniak refugees who crossed the border
seeking shelter in Yugoslavia after the July 1995 genocide in Srebrenica,
but were handed over to Bosnian Serb forces, who killed at least 15 of them.
Nine of the Bosniaks are still listed as missing and six survived.
At the launch of the Humanitarian Law Centre report in Belgrade, one of the
survivors, Muhamed Avdic, recalled how he lost his father, Azem, who remains
listed as a missing person.
“My mother, sister and I parted with father on March 30, 1993, when [Bosnian
Serb commander Ratko] Mladic’s forces were around Srebrenica,” said Avdic,
who was a teenager at the time.
His father stayed behind while the rest of the family took a UN refugee
agency humanitarian aid truck to the nearby town of Tuzla. Their only
communication with Azem was through letters sent via the Red Cross.
“When Srebrenica was declared a safe zone, we were happy and waiting for
father to return. In August 1995 we received information that he had been
captured,” Avdic said.
The HLC had found official records showing that Azem was caught on July 31,
1995, 20 days after the fall of Srebrenica, by police in the Serbian town of
Bajina Basta.
They handed him over to the border police, who in turn gave him to the
Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army; he was never seen since.
After Srebrenica was captured on July 11, 1995, Serb forces killed some
8,000 Bosniaks, which the international courts have qualified as an act of
genocide.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 19, 2017
The Truth and
Reconciliation stuggle on the Balkans
Senadin Lavić
We
live in a post-genocidal society, divided into ethnic-religious
ghetto by means of war. In such broken society are continually
inserted seductive and controversial concepts that serve the goals
that are not realized by means of war. The terms such as federalism,
unitarism and separatism come mainly as political games of political
life actors in our country, but regarding the separatism of the
entities RS, the Greater Serbian policy is absolutely focused on
this goal. The shaping of political reality and the main ideas in it
is a work of the ideology – par excellence, which then means
that these terms are mostly ideologically determined and conceived
in the minds of their constructors.
We should
remember that M. Kasapović (Zagreb) in 2005 imposed and installed
the term of consociation as territorial separation of the
people in Bosnia and as the only possible model for the organization
of the political system in Bosnia, followed by an orchestrated story
of federalization and electoral units. The vague concept about the
"impossible state" by N. Kecmanović (Banjaluka) is added to this in
2007 and till today, these two, assembled Serbian-Croatian projects
of the dissolution of Bosnia stifled us and taken to a blind track
of history. Kasapović has already come to Cyprisation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 18, 2017
Serbian fascism never
stops, it is becoming more and more dangerous every day
Bosnian Reporter Flees After Condemning Mladic Rally
BIRN | Banja Luka
Columnist Dragan Bursac has fled Banja Luka after receiving death threats from supporters of the
former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.
Journalist Dragan Bursac - who received death
threats after criticizing a planned rally in Banja
Luka in support of Ratko Mladic - told BIRN that he
had been forced to go into hiding for some time.
He had reported the death threats he has received to
the police, he added.
Burcac received the highly aggressive threats after
publishing a column expressing deep revulsion at a
planned demonstration in support of the former
Bosnian Serb commander under the slogan “Support for
General Ratko Mladic - Stop the Lies about
Srebrenica.”
It was scheduled to be held on July 11 - on the same
day as the annual commemoration of the 1995 massacre
of Bosniaks in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces
under Mladic’s control.
Courts have deemed the massacre of some 8,000
Bosniaks [Muslims] a genocidal act.
The Interior Ministry of Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated entity in Bosnia, has since delayed
the rally, citing security issues.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 14, 2017
REGIONAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURES:
COMPARING ASIA AND EUROPE
Insights from Anis Bajrektarevic
Trans-Pacific View author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts,
policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe
for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This
conversation with Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic – chairperson and
professor in international law and global political studies,
Vienna, Austria and editor of the New York-based scientific
journal Geopolitics, History, and International Relations –
is the 98th in “The Trans-Pacific View Insight Series.”
Q1:
Compare and contract regional security architectures in Asia
and Europe.
While
all other major theaters have had pan-continental settings in
place already for many decades, such as the Organization of
American States – OAS (American continent); African Union – AU
(Africa); Council of Europe and Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe – OSCE (Europe), Asia is rather different.
What becomes apparent, at first glance, is the absence of any
pan-Asian security/ multilateral structure. Prevailing security
structures are bilateral and mostly asymmetric. They range from
the clearly defined and enduring non-aggression security
treaties, through less formal arrangements, up to the Ad hoc
cooperation accords on specific issues.
The presence of the multilateral regional settings is limited to
a very few spots in the largest continent, and even then, they
are rarely mandated with security issues in their declared scope
of work.
Read more
on the next page:.........
JULY 1, 2017
JUNE 2017
“We win, they lose” –
Wonderful world of Binary categorisations
(Refeudalisation of Europe – III Part)
Anis H. Bajrektarevic
The new Cold War knocks on our doors, suddenly.
Why so? How did it previously end?
The
end of the Cold War came abruptly, overnight. Many in the West
dreamt about it, but nobody really saw it coming. The Warsaw Pact,
Red Army in DDR, Berlin Wall, DDR itself, Soviet Union – one after
the other, vanished rapidly, unexpectedly. There was no ceasefire,
no peace conference, no formal treaty and guaranties, no expression
of interests and settlement. Only the gazing face expression of that
time Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze who circles around
and unconvincingly repeats: “we now better understand each other”.
On contrary, Bush (the 41st
US President) calmly diagnosed: “We win, they lose!” His
administration immediately declared that the policies, including all
military capabilities, will remain unchanged but with a different
pretexts – to respond to the ‘technological sophistication of the
III world powers’ and to a ‘radical nationalism’ (meaning; any
indigenous emancipation). The so-called normative revolution from
Atlantic followed shortly, in which the extensive (assertive) rights
were self-prescribed to that theater. Thus, the might-makes-right
interventions were justified through the new (de facto
imperial) doctrines: humanitarian intervention, R2P (incl.
Kouchner-Lévy bombing for a noble cause), doctrine of
preemption, uninhabited access to or beyond grand area, as
well as the so-called Afroasia forward deployment, as a sort
of the enlarged Brezhnev and Monroe doctrines combined both
together, etc.
Simultaneously, that time Washington darling
Fukuyama published his famous article
The
End of History?
and the book which came soon
after. To underline how sure he was about this claim he even dropped
the question mark into the title of the book.
Was this sudden meltdown of
the Soviet colossus and the day after intrinsic or by design?
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 22, 2017
Partner NGO to the UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform
The Universal Peace
Federation Austria (UPF) in cooperation with the Association of
Bosnian Academics in Austria (GBAA)
and the International Institute
for Middle-East
and Balkan Studies (IFIMES)
is inviting you to a special lecture on the topic
Sarajevo, Jerusalem of Europe
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 20, 2017
Memorandum of Understanding
between the
International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan
Studies (IFIMES), Ljubljana, Slovenia
and the
Gesellschaft Bosnischer Akademiker in Österreich (GBAA),
Vienna, Austria
on Scientific and Socio-cultural Research and
Cooperation
Reaffirming
excellent relations between the two countries,
Recalling the need for a horizontal
cooperation on all (non-governmental) levels, and Noting that
such cooperation between institutions as well as the
people-to-people exchanges are the best way to strengthen and
further excel cordial relations, but Regretting that the
wider theater of Southeastern Europe, and its National minorities
and Diaspora in Central Europe are very little known to each other,
and therefore
Wishing to reverse this negative trend, thus
Determined to promote and enhance scientific and
socio-cultural research and cooperation of the two and their wider
regional interest, including that of the national minorities
(already established and those in making), all that
Based on the exchange of letter of intent and
statement of purpose, and Embedded in the mutually expressed
accord of wills, consequently
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 18, 2017
Paris and Pittsburgh, pesticides in
Indonesia: When none is best
Julia Suryakusuma
Jakarta
| Wed, June 14 2017 | 01:22 am - Donald Trump
famously said, “I was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not
Paris,” when he announced the withdrawal by the United States from the Paris
Climate Agreement (PCA). Pittsburgh is a city in the Rust Belt, which
suffered from economic decline due to deindustrialization. It was
purportedly the Rust Belt that paved Trump’s path to the presidency. But
what was the Pittsburgh mayor’s reaction? “We’re actually with Paris on
this.” In fact, the majority of Rust Belt states are also. It just goes to
show, climate change and global warming goes beyond politics (although
pssst! For your information, Pittsburgh did vote for Clinton!).
Well, that’s the way it should be. If there’s one thing that
people have in common, it is that we all live on this one fragile, precious
planet. Another thing we have in common is that we all eat. In the past 50
years, the number of people in the world has doubled, and so obviously, so
has food production. Modern agriculture has relied even more on pesticides
to get rid of pests and vermin which damage crops, but like anything, too
much of a “good thing” can be bad. Pesticides are for crops like
chemotherapy is for cancer: in the same way that chemo kills the good cells
in addition to the bad ones, pesticides tend to kill organisms that weren’t
intended to be killed. Pesticides also affect the whole ecological system,
leeching into the soil and water, and poisoning birds, fish and other small
animals.
And the effect of pesticides on humans? An entry in Toxipedia
says it has “neurological health effects
such as memory loss, loss of coordination, reduced speed of response to
stimuli, reduced visual ability, altered or uncontrollable mood and general
behavior, and reduced motor skills.” Thanks, but no thanks!
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 16, 2017
COMMON
SENSE – A RELIC OF THE PAST?
By: Tomislav Jakic
Once
upon a time, this is how fairy tales usually begin. This is not a fairy
tale, but once upon a time people used to talk about common sense and to
think based on common sense. It was never an ideal time, but always when it
seemed that the lack of common sense and the evil in us would draw the world
in the abyss of self-destruction, common sense woke up and rebelled; most
usually in combination with pragmatism. Mankind paid dearly in the ensuing
battle, it went through unbelievable horrors, but eventually common sense
would prevail. And so it went until the year 1990, when the cold war ended.
It was an extremely dangerous confrontation between two, not only
ideologically different blocks. The world peace was saved only due to the
fragile, but at the same time efficient balance of fear, namely on the
knowledge that an open armed confrontation would end without anybody being
victorious. But, as from the beginning of the last decade of the 20th
century, when East – West confrontation ended, due to the fact that the
Soviet block disintegrated, when the “dawn of democracy” begun shining on
countries, previously ruled with iron hand from one centre and by one and
only party and its repressive system, we are witnessing a constant and
steady downgrading in all sectors of life. Because of this and despite
democracy as a system, despite democratic forms and despite the multiparty
system, it is unavoidable that we put to ourselves the question: does common
sense belongs to the past, is t a relic of the past?
Read more on the next
page:.........
JUNE 8, 2017
PUBLICATIONS AUGUSTUS
2018
Keeping the Nuclear Arms Control alive - Alexander Savelyev[*]
Abused,
trafficked, unwanted – A view on the US migration policy development -
Ingrid Noriega
PUBLICATIONS JUNE
2018
Overheating
the Humanitarian Law in contemporary international relations - (Refugee
Status – a political challenge and legal limbo) - Dr. Nafees Ahmad
Who are
the ‘Willing’ in Central Europe – Axis of the 1930s coming back ? - By
Jacques Goodloe
Retreating
construct of the Contemporary International relations - Amel Ouchenane
The
Post-War Order Is Over - (And not because Trump wrecked it.) - By Victor
Davis Hanson
PUBLICATIONS MAY
2018
Planet
Junk - Is Earth the Largest Garbage Dump in the Universe? - Robert
J. Burrowes
Why
is the Korean Reunification not to Work anytime soon -
(Denuclearisation of the Far East long way Ahead)
PUBLICATIONS APRIL
2018
HOW CAN
PARITY BE MORE PROPORTIONAL? - Zlatko Hadžidedić
TURKEY
– EU: Waiting for Godot - By Aaron Denison
PUBLICATIONS MARCH
2018
HOW CAN
PARITY BE MORE PROPORTIONAL? - Zlatko Hadžidedić
De-evolutioning with Brexit and Trump: Where Marx went wrong -
Ananya Bordoloi
The World
without Colonies – Dakhla without Potemkin Village - Emhamed Khadad
PUBLICATIONS FEBRUARY
2018
Future
of the Banking Industry – Not without Blockchain - By Oliver Aziator
Climate
Change: Unfit for the residual heat - By Élie Bellevrat and Kira
West
The
European Commission's Strategy for the Western Balkans - Bureaucrats
Crusade - By Zlatko Hadžidedić
ASEAN
Shared - the EU twin from Asia: New memories, old wounds - Rattana
Lao
![Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Assos. Prof.[1] Nguyen Linh[2]](images/Prof_Dr._Nguyen_Anh_Tuan_140.jpg)
The
moniker “refugee” is identified by the academics, aid agents, media
persons, governance architects, political establishments from
multiple perspectives regarding their protection, rights, and
responsibilities. Today, refugees depict the global landscapes with
conflict and divergence of assessments that invigorate the global
normative debate on the protection, resettlement, reintegration, and
management of the 65.6 million of refugees worldwide. The refugee
problem is convoluted, and refugee groups and stakeholders create
difficulties in addressing global canvas of refugee issues. There
are few questions to attend the refugee concern such as who is a
refugee in the present circumstances and what are the most critical
issues before the refugee communities and institutions entrusted
with their protection, collaboration, and interaction? I will try to
address this miasma by concentrating on the legal definitions of the
term “refugee” and what are the categories of displaced people
included and nature of issues attended by the impugned definition.
