Diplomacy & Crisis News

Responding to the plight of the Rohingya is an international human rights imperative.

Is Australia moving out of the “slipstream” of power?

Stock markets around the world have been roiled on Chinese policy and a slowing economy.

Martine L. Petauton, rédactrice en chef du site Internet Reflets du Temps, a consacré le 15 août 2015 une recension au dossier sur la Russie présenté dans le numéro d’été (2/2015) de Politique étrangère.

« Une fois passée la période – derniers feux de la Guerre Froide éteints – où la « super puissance américaine » Bushienne 1 et 2 flamboyait dans tous les médias, c’est du côté de l’ancien partenaire soviétique, que tous les regards se sont peu à peu tournés. 1991, éclatement du bloc de l’Est. Russie et ses satellites plus ou moins bougeants. Quid de la Russie ; quid surtout de la réalité de sa puissance ? Actuellement, il n’est guère question que d’elle, ses hydrocarbures, sa crise économique, ses mugissements sur la scène Ukrainienne, et son chef – Poutine, le rusé, Poutine, le craint, à tout le moins, le redouté.

La problématique de la toujours remarquable revue de l’Ifri, est, de ce fait, posée pile dans l’axe : Russie, une grande puissance, certes, mais peut-être faible. »

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Le 20 août, Pierre Nkurunziza a été investi pour la troisième fois. Son investiture, annoncée le matin même, a eu lieu presque en catimini et les ambassadeurs européens et américains accrédités à Bujumbura étaient visiblement absents tout comme l’Union africaine. La multiplication des assassinats en août a conduit la présidence à organiser l’investiture à la sauvette.

Joaquín Guzmán Loera -- better known by his alias "El Chapo" or "Shorty" -- has again lived up to his legend. With his spectacular escape from a high-security prison in Mexico, the notorious drug lord outdid his first jailbreak in 2001, when he reportedly snuck out hidden in a laundry cart. This time his exit from prison befitted a man reputed to head one of the world's most powerful criminal organizations: through a tunnel dug under his shower, extending nearly one mile, complete with ventilation and lighting.

A wave of protests has brought Iraq to the edge of yet more serious conflict. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has introduced sweeping reforms to halt the deterioration but in a manner that may make things worse. An important course correction is needed if he is to survive politically and Iraq is to avoid what could become in effect a military takeover.

Formation ? Formatage ! La méfiance suscitée par les organisations politiques semble avoir déteint sur leur prétention à éduquer les militants. De Lutte ouvrière au Front national, comment les partis conçoivent-ils désormais leur fonction pédagogique ? / France, Culture, Éducation, Extrême droite, (...) / France, Culture, Éducation, Extrême droite, Histoire, Idées, Idéologie, Jeunes, Mutation, Parti politique, Politique, Sondage d'opinion, Stratégie, Extrême gauche, Société civile - 2015/01

Une dystopie est un « récit de fiction peignant une société imaginaire organisée de telle façon qu'elle empêche ses membres d'atteindre le bonheur ». A rebours de la vision bucolique du monde agricole qui continue de prédominer envers et contre tout, les tableaux photographiques composés par Alexa (...) / France, Agriculture, Culture, Écologie, Photographie, Environnement - 2015/08

Avec The Guardians, ouvrage érudit et agréablement écrit, fruit d'un long travail sur les archives, l'historienne d'origine canadienne Susan Pedersen explore la politique des mandats de la Société des nations (SDN), l'ancêtre de l'Organisation des Nations unies (ONU), dans l'entre-deux-guerres . Elle (...) / Palestine, Colonialisme, Conflit, Droit international, Histoire, Pacifisme, Organisation internationale - 2015/08

Même si les thèmes liés à l'environnement occupent largement la scène publique, les partis qui placent ces questions au cœur de leur engagement ne passent pas la rampe électorale. / France, Démocratie, Écologie, Élections, Parti politique, Politique, Stratégie, Environnement, Décroissance - (...) / France, Démocratie, Écologie, Élections, Parti politique, Politique, Stratégie, Environnement, Décroissance - 2015/04

Статья Елены Милашиной «Халифат. Приманка для дураков!», на примере дагестанского села Саситли рассказывающая о том, как устроен трафик наших граждан на войну в Сирию, спровоцировала бурную дискуссию в Сети. Эксперты и жители Дагестана обсуждают факты, оценки, выводы. Мнения разделились: кто-то рад, что наконец-то озвучена версия о том, как российские спецслужбы открыли радикально настроенной молодежи дорогу в ИГИЛ (организацию, запрещенную на территории России) и теперь делают все, чтобы разочаровавшиеся оттуда не вернулись.

Americans are divided over whether or not to accept the deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program. The numbers – deep cuts in enriched uranium stocks and centrifuges – and the most intrusive inspection regime ever make the deal look good. But even those who believe it defuses the Middle East's literally most explosive situation for nearly a generation – a world-politics eternity – must acknowledge that many Americans are dissatisfied.

Brazil is often seen by its own people as a fallen economic angel. Once the great success story of an emerging market titan and key member of the BRICS, Brazil is now returning to the poor economic conditions it was stuck in twenty-five years ago. Many Brazilians were proud to see their country break out from a history of credit devaluations and transform itself into one of the only countries that successfully weathered the 2007–08 economic crisis, better than most of their European and North American counterparts.

Today, protests against the government are fueled by the realization that the opportunity to change Brazil has been squandered. Corrupt practices by large industry leaders and the ruling political party were exposed after President Dilma Rousseff narrowly won her second term as president. This scandal came about after years of pouring money into national infrastructure projects that were designed to satisfy the needs of foreign companies and the International Olympic Committee over those benefiting the citizens of a democratic Brazil.

The August 2015 protest is the fourth mass protest that has taken place pushing for the Rousseff’s impeachment. While there is no legal mechanism to force her impeachment, her political party’s connection to a scandal linked to one of Brazil’s biggest oil companies has led to her having one of the lowest approval ratings of any elected official in the world. While the strength of Brazil’s economy has dwindled, peaceful protests and the actions by some in Brazil’s activist community to expose the scandal have shown Brazil to be a country that holds values like fairness and democracy close to its heart.

The catalyst for the first wave of protest movements was Brazil hosting the 2014 World Cup. Many in Brazil resented the fact that the country’s love of the beautiful game would take away from the government’s ability to look after the country’s more basic needs. Funds went to various international agencies in order to put on sporting events and were given precedence over building up Brazil and its people. The government’s actions sparked anti-FIFA protests, some of which ended with the deaths of several protesters. The recent corruption scandal and the upcoming Olympic Games has done nothing more than fan the flames of almost universal outrage among all Brazil’s political factions, placing the PT party in jeopardy and getting even the once-loved former president, Lula Da Silva, into legal trouble.

With the 2016 Olympic Games coming up, mass protests could reach such an extreme so as to lead to the end of the PT party in Brazil and perhaps even the Olympics as beloved “brand.” That would be more than acceptable if it meant Brazil would become a more democratic country. The hit the games can have on the democratic system has scared, and perhaps will continue to scare, some away from bidding for the Olympic Games.

Nevertheless, a number of cities and countries still view hosting the games as an appropriate and responsible idea even when they are burdened by massive amounts of debt. Sure, Boston wisely backed out of the most recent bid process. But Toronto is currently considering a bid despite the fact that Ontario has the highest amount of sub-sovereign debt in the world. Los Angeles is also under consideration even though California has the second highest sub-sovereign debt in the world, second only to Ontario. Along with the economic conditions of candidate cities being ignored, investigations into allegations of corrupt practices are being currently conducted against IOC officials. It seems that some will just never learn.

Last week, the Chautauqua Institution dedicated its programming to “Redefining Europe.” Then, last Friday, amid all the Europe talk, both the Greek parliament and the Eurozone finance ministers approved a bailout to keep Greece in the Eurozone. European Commissioner Jean-Claude Junker acknowledged that EU leaders have “looked into the abyss” of a Eurozone breakup this year, suggesting that they are now back from the brink of it. Eurozone leaders, once again, showed their intent to preserve the Euro and have chosen to take politically difficult actions to defend the credibility of the European Union. But Junker’s abyss is still there, even if the Eurozone has backed away from it. Europe still must be “redefined.” Part of that “redefining,” as the past few months have shown, will involve concessions to keep Europe’s perennially weaker economies in step with its stronger ones. Beyond that, how does Europe need to be “redefined”?

It is far from an academic question, and the Chautauqua speakers had some ideas. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen defended the EU as the 20th century’s “dullest miracle” for preserving peace during its tenure despite continually wrestling with budgetary and immigration issues. The EU has achieved its fundamental aim: preserving Europe’s stability.

To buy into the argument that EU expansion in any way pushed Russia into its current aggression in Ukraine, Cohen suggested, was to accept a myth that serves Putin. Meanwhile France and Italy, he argued, are powers to be taken more seriously than America currently sees them. In response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings in early 2015, France has explored enhanced intelligence capabilities to address domestic terrorist threats. Italy, meanwhile, under the leadership of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and with Mario Draghi leading the European Central Bank, has assumed a greater role in EU affairs than it did under former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Finally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finds Germany in the EU’s captain’s chair, a state of affairs the EU itself was designed to prevent. America has prodded Merkel to lead Europe, in a manner that she, her fellow Germans, and many of her fellow Europeans (Greeks, in particular) find discomforting. Reluctance towards German leadership stems from a firm historical base, and the best that can be hoped for, Cohen argued, is a Germany that does just enough to keep Europe stable. Proactive leadership, particularly in the realm of defense, is asking too much.

Constanze Stelzenmuller, Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, painted a different picture. German leaders, she argued, hold both the lessons of their nation’s past and the need for its contemporary leadership concurrently in their minds. In her view, Germany is intent on playing all of the leadership roles — economic and strategic — that its economic weight begs of it.

Stelzenmuller spoke of her advisory role on a current German Defense Ministry initiative to reassess the role of the German military in light of the renewed Russia threat. Tellingly, this initiative includes town hall meetings with German citizens to calibrate what level of support to expect for a more assertive strategic stance. Germans have balked at such efforts in the past; attempts to re-establish a standing army in West Germany early in the Cold War met with ambivalence among politicians and protests among citizens. Stelzenmuller suggests that decades-long tide is turning. Still, Germany’s leaders preserve the anti-Nazi graffiti that was placed on Berlin’s Reichstag by that cities’  liberators for a good reason. Germany’s role in Europe’s defense will change only after careful and public consideration.

It was not a coincidence that the writings of the late Tony Judt were discussed repeatedly. Judt, a former New York University professor and author of the classic Cold War history of Europe Postwar, analyzed the fundamental differences between the development of democracy in Europe and the United States. Building off the pre-World War II example of the Fabians in Britain, the role of democratic government in Europe had less of a free market character than America. Even before the rise and fall of the Nazis underscored the connection between economic and strategic stability, a broader belief prevailed in Europe than in America that government should maintain backstops for basic human needs.

As a result, taxes that were high enough to provide universal health care and stronger unemployment and social insurance have a level of support in Europe they do not, and likely will not, have in America. But Judt’s point is broader: Apples-to-apples comparisons of American and European democracy, while tempting, are not possible. Having endured the horrors of war on their own soil, many European countries see government as a force that stabilizes society. More insular and self-sufficient than most of Europe, many Americans still see government as a financial drag and creative constraint on its citizens’ inherent dynamism. When another post-World War II generation comes of age, the gap between the two may close. For now, it remains.

The EU’s latest actions towards Greece demonstrate an enduring commitment to the European project. Without minimizing its challenges, “redefining,” or even “reforming” Europe is a simpler job than rebuilding it. That is a blessing, and a mark in the EU’s favor during a challenging time in its history.

LoveStar est un génie. Il a libéré le monde des câbles électriques et de l'emprise de l'électronique après avoir percé le mystère des ondes émises par les sternes arctiques. L'« homme moderne et sans fil » apparaît comme la nouvelle étape de l'évolution. Depuis la vallée d'Oxanadalur, propriété du héros en (...) / Communication, Culture, Entreprise, Littérature, Mutation, Science, Technologies de l'information, Technologie, Fiction, Islande, Marketing - 2015/08

On annonce assez bruyamment un peu partout la disparition prochaine des livres. Faut-il à ce propos prendre modèle sur Démocrite, le philosophe que le spectacle du monde faisait s'esclaffer, ou sur Héraclite, qui au contraire en pleurait ? A moins qu'il ne faille, comme Spinoza, préférer « ne pas (...) / Crise des valeurs, Culture, Internet, Livre, Mutation, Société, Technologies de l'information, Technologie - 2015/08

US-ally Saudi Arabia is leading a war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. But after nearly five months, the Houthis have entrenched themselves in captured territory, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) have gained ground, and the war has created a humanitarian catastrophe, with over 4,000 dead and aid agencies warning of impending famine.

Cinq films français en compétition au Festival de Cannes, en mai dernier. La Palme d'or est attribuée à un film français : Dheepan, de Jacques Audiard. Les prix d'interprétation couronnent Emmanuelle Bercot dans Mon roi, de Maïwenn, un film sur la domination masculine, et Vincent Lindon dans La Loi du (...) / France, Portugal, Art, Capitalisme, Cinéma, Culture, Immigrés, Travail, Sri Lanka - 2015/08

« On ne pouvait maintenir la marmite fermée en appuyant éternellement sur le couvercle. Le silence et les mensonges n'étaient supportables que jusqu'à un certain point. » Illustrations du poids des non-dits dans les relations filiales, fraternelles, amoureuses... ces phrases traduisent aussi (...) / Espagne, Russie, URSS, Communisme, Conflit, Histoire, Littérature, Seconde guerre mondiale 1939-1945, Socialisme, Guerre d'Espagne 1936-1939, Fascisme - 2015/08