Diplomacy & Crisis News

/ Allemagne, Inégalités, Travail - Europe / Allemagne, Inégalités, Travail - Europe

Foreign ministers representing the primary external players in Syria’s conflict will gather in New York on Friday, and the stakes are high. In two meetings in Vienna spearheaded by the United States and Russia this fall, states backing President Bashar Assad’s regime and its primary, non-jihadist opponents agreed to push for a renewal of negotiations between the Syrian sides in January 2016 and set an ambitious timeline for those talks to achieve a national ceasefire and transition to “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance.”

The idea that “peace processes must be well-supported politically, technically and financially”, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated in the introduction to the UN Guidance for Effective Mediation, is something of a truism. Certainly, no one would ever advocate poor political technical or financial support to a peace process. But the appearance of mediation support as a dedicated activity, along with formal mechanisms to pursue it, is a relatively recent development with significant implications for the work of multilateral envoys.

Despite the immense needs in conflict-affected areas of northern Mali, the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) is hampered by constrained access and limited funding, and is thus calling for &#8220action now&#8221 to help the more than 380,000 children who remain out of school in the region.

(Own report) - With impressive scholarship programs, the German government seeks to establish firm ties to the future elite of post-war Syria. Already last year the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to bring more than 200 selected Syrian students to Germany, within the "Leadership for Syria" program, to be instructed - alongside their academic studies - in advanced training in "governance," organizational setup and similar courses. The program run by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - the largest foreign program the organization has ever undertaken - has the declared objective of preparing "a select elite among Syria's future leadership" for "active participation in organizing" post-war Syria. This assures Germany a wide range of channels for influence in Damascus over the next few decades. Berlin is also making efforts to sift out students from among the refugees arriving in Germany to be included in its efforts to gain influence. This would crystallize into Germany's becoming the Syrian elite's top European point of reference.

A major breach of the agreement signed in Addis Ababa and Juba in August to end South Sudan’s now two-year old civil war is increasingly likely. While low-level conflict is continuing in Unity state, conflict is now escalating in the Equatorias and Western Bahr el Ghazal. Many of the disparate members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) reject the agreement, while the government shies from implementing a deal it believes is to its detriment. The heads of state of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD, the regional body that mediated the agreement), former Botswanan President Festus Moghae, head of the agreement’s Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), and key states that partnered with IGAD, including China, Norway, the U.S. and the UK, must take urgent, united action to put the peace process back on track or South Sudan will enter the new year at war again.

Dédramatiser les questions de logement et de propriété dans une Amérique que ses crédits immobiliers pourris étaient en train de mener à la catastrophe, promouvoir une vie plus simple, plus équilibrée et plus écologique : le concept de tiny house avait tout pour séduire. / États-Unis (affaires (...) / États-Unis (affaires intérieures), Culture, Idées, Inégalités, Logement, Pauvreté, Urbanisme - 2015/05

Emouvant quand il meurt dans un naufrage, inquiétant lorsqu'il perturbe l'ordre public, l'étranger dope toujours l'Audimat. En France comme aux Etats-Unis, le traitement de l'immigration se focalise de plus en plus sur les questions humanitaires et de sécurité, en épousant en général les exigences (...) / États-Unis, États-Unis (affaires intérieures), Europe, France, Histoire, Idéologie, Immigrés, Information, Sécurité, Médias, Migrations, Mutation, Relations Nord-Sud, Frontières - 2015/05

« Le ciel ne se prend pas par consensus, mais d'assaut », avait lancé M. Pablo Iglesias, qui allait être élu secrétaire général de Podemos, lors du Congrès inaugural de la formation, en octobre 2014. Son projet, ambitieux, visait à ravir d'emblée le pouvoir central pour mieux « renverser la table » . Il (...) / Espagne, Démocratie, Élections, Parti politique, Politique, Ville - La valise diplomatique

Diplomats are working at fever pitch to resolve the long-running crisis in Libya, with one eye on halting waves of refugees headed for Europe and the other on uprooting Islamic State from the North African coast.

Few countries have done more, more quickly to combat corruption than impoverished, violence-wracked Guatemala. In less than a year prosecutors have linked nearly 100 officials and business people to schemes that may have robbed the state of more than $120 million in customs revenues, while earning fortunes in kickbacks.

La majorité des historiens situent le début de la Commune au 18 mars 1871, quand Adolphe Thiers décide de confisquer les canons de la Garde nationale. Or, si l'on commence, non par cette réaction spontanée, mais par les réunions de travailleurs de la fin de l'Empire, une tout autre image apparaît. / (...) / Allemagne, France, Citoyenneté, Communisme, Culture, Démocratie, État, Femmes, Idées, Idéologie, Inégalités, Mouvement de contestation, Politique, Urbanisme, Ville, Socialisme, Socialisme libertaire, Répression - 2015/05

Les deux gouvernements rivaux de Libye cherchent à contrôler les richesses pétrolières. La plupart des installations sont situées en Cyrénaïque et contrôlées par le pouvoir basé à Tobrouk et à El-Beida ; le gouvernement de M. Abdallah Al-Thani exige des opérateurs et des clients étrangers de ne traiter (...) / Libye, Conflit, Énergie, Géopolitique, Pétrole - Proche-Orient

Islamic State gunmen brought death to the streets of Paris on November 13, leaving the European Union in a state of shock. This is a turning point at which Europe must decide how best to defend its way of life. The way forward should be guided by three principles: defending liberty, ensuring the equality of Muslim communities, and radically improving EU-wide security measures including exchange of information and defence of external borders - See more at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/twt/after-paris-europe-s-challenge#sthash.VYhBr0Vh.dpuf

Via Richard Bistrong

Corruption is an affliction that blights much of the world. A perception study last year by Transparency International found that two-thirds of the world’s countries score below 50 on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

For many former communist countries still undergoing a period of cultural and institutional transition, corruption is a major barrier on the road to achieving its goals. It hinders competitiveness and makes investment decisions more difficult, while adding additional layers of cost and diminishing the ability for countries to provide adequate levels of welfare for their citizens.

Despite its shortcomings, one of the greatest single achievements of the European Union has been its success at mentoring and assisting former communist and Soviet states in their bid to transition to a functioning Western style democracy.

Romania is an interesting example of this process. Following the country’s accession to the European Union in January 2007, the country’s efforts to tackle corruption were modest at best. An investigation in 2012 into corruption levels in Romania by the  European Commission expressed serious concerns over the political situation and the ability to comply with fundamental principles of the Union.

Recently, however, evidence of progress has been more encouraging. Last year, the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (NAD) successfully convicted 1,138 leading public figures, including top politicians, businessmen, judges and prosecutors. Furthermore convictions against high-level politicians and businessmen saw a significant increase compared to 2013; a shift in the anti-corruption drive that has continued into 2015 and has had a substantial social impact. A 2015 poll suggested that 60 per cent of Romanians trust the NAD, in contrast to only 11 per cent who express trust in parliament.

Perhaps the most high profile individual to be tainted by the clampdown on corruption is the country’s former Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, who stood down last month following mass protests triggered in part by charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering leveled against him. Other notable examples include Romanian media mogul, Adrian Sârbu, who was charged last year with tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement and who is expected to stand trial in February 2016.

Ponta and Sârbu’s cases are particularly interesting as they indicate the endemic nature of corruption as well as its ability to traverse national borders with seeming impunity. One of Sârbu’s most notable business partners was Ronald Lauder, former US ambassador to Austria and son of the cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder. Quick to identify the significant opportunities presented by the nascent media industry in Eastern Europe, in 1994 Lauder founded Central Media Enterprise (CME). By 1997, the news and entertainment company owned TV stations in Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.

According to the New York Times, in Ukraine Lauder engaged with two local businessmen, Vadim Rabinovich and Boris Fuchsmann, whom the FBI and European law enforcement agencies suspect of having ties to Russian organized crime. In 2001 CME was investigated by US federal prosecutors over allegations it paid at least $1 million in bribes to Ukrainian officials for a valuable television license. These connections and allegations culminated in the magnate facing a lawsuit seeking $750 million in damages filed by rival broadcaster Perekhid Media Enterprises Ltd.

These examples demonstrate that while country’s like Romania have much work still to do in addressing rampant corruption, the fact that even serving Prime Ministers and leading international businessmen are no longer free from the spotlight of the justice system is enormously encouraging. The European Union deserves at least some credit for this transformation. It must not allow progress to slide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last 15 years has seen the creation of some of the most polarized media to ever exist in the last half century. The difference in perspective and truthiness from one media outlet to another is so divided that it has produced a narrative that can only exist in the solitudes of those who have a similar perspective. The common theme for all media and politically aligned parties is that their truth works against the elite.

Gaining a political foothold requires convincing  a polarized media and their supporters that the real stories are being hidden by some monolith of power, changing depending on who the elite of those opponents tend to be and their position of power in society. Both sides of the political spectrum have defined the battlefield of ideas that often do not exist as real societal issues.

If there is no single truth, lies can become powerful tools in an election. If lies can be legitimized, actions against opponents may go beyond simple media debates, shielding the application of justice and human rights if a criminal act can be silenced or validated.

The individual who wins the elections in the United States, France or Germany may be the one who can show not to associate with elites, even if they are some of the most wealthy and influential people to exist in those communities. A danger comes from over-reacting to someone who is the anti-elite as it turns simple media accounts into a mind numbing morass of phraseology and vitriol. The anti-elites put debaters in the position of being seen as defending an elite that works in the shadows against the interests of the general public.

This message might not resonate with the average citizen, but when their lives are directly affected or threatened, responses from either camp that tamp down discussions can promote grassroots support in the community against the ruling party at the time. Trends begin to play a more important role than policy as the latter fails to meet a certain standard of societal expectations. Those who last are those who are new to the game, and have been able to not use their power to corrupt or oppress. The left in Latin America, once considered a movement that would change North American dominance in the region, fell on their own sword for many of these reasons.

Brazil’s economic miracle was successful even before the rise in commodity prices wedded to a Chinese economic boom. Economic policy initially implemented under the former center right government before the electoral dynasty of the Worker’s Party (PT)  kept social policy in the forefront of the country’s agenda, while managing a balanced debt reduction strategy. Keeping the public debt under control and combining it with social programs placed Brazil to take full advantage of a commodities boom.

In recent years, the negative response to elitist international sporting events and the corruption that flowed between the PT and business elites has tarnished the party’s image and an confidence in President Rousseff’s government: her approval rates fluctuate around 10%. A citizen’s movement buoyed by an assertive judicial branch has gone beyond party politics in an effort to weed out corruption. Even former President Lula may be face criminal charges, and there is a strong popular movement to impeach President Rousseff.

Argentina was rocked by the death of a prosecutor investigating the former government’s tampering of information about an attack on the Jewish community. When he was found dead, documents revealed that he was on the verge of indicting President Cristina Kirchner herself, the populist leader of Argentina. In recent years, she had increasing difficulties to maintain her popular support and legitimize her socially-oriented, but fiscally irresponsible policy decrees. Her party recently lost an election to Macri, a pro-business candidate, with many in Argentina reorienting their distaste for an elite against the very government that routinely denounced the abuses of the high society.

Venezuela’s opposition gained a great deal of recent support as Chavismo and President Maduro lost the public’s trust. Despite an intensive media campaign in Venezuela promoting the populist government, the degrading state of Venezuela’s economy, standard of living and several violent actions taken against opposition politicians threatened to rob Chavismo of its political legitimacy. It is not possible to promote a narrative in Venezuela that no longer reflects the real issues in society, and while Maduro is still President, he could be the last supporter of Chavez’s revolution to hold power in the country.

2015 represents the beginning of the fall of those alleged elites, whether or not they are truly those in power. Often, political campaigning places those elites into power, but corruption scandals and the subsequent investigations and monitoring may put pressure on leaders to take actions to the benefit of society. Corruption tends to have deep roots, so while the mainstream media chooses sides, hopefully an intelligent community and assertive judicial community will push against elites from both political camps.

L'analyse autant que la solution proposée dans « Le Capital au XXIe siècle », de Thomas Piketty refléteraient-elles la myopie du regard que nous portons sur le monde économique ? / France, Capitalisme, Économie, Finance, Fiscalité, Idées, Idéologie, Inégalités, Intellectuels, Libéralisme, Médias, (...) / France, Capitalisme, Économie, Finance, Fiscalité, Idées, Idéologie, Inégalités, Intellectuels, Libéralisme, Médias, Personnalités, Politique, Presse, Travail, Marxisme, Néolibéralisme - 2015/04

Non violent, animé par des jeunes, le Balai citoyen incite les Burkinabés à s'engager. En octobre 2014, il a joué un rôle décisif dans la chute du président Blaise Compaoré. / Burkina Faso, Démocratie, Élections, Jeunes, Mouvement de contestation, Musique, Corruption - (...) / Burkina Faso, Démocratie, Élections, Jeunes, Mouvement de contestation, Musique, Corruption - 2015/04

I diplomatici stanno lavorando febbrilmente ma ci sono pericoli derivanti da un processo veloce che consacrasse un governo di unità nazionale senza aver consolidato l'appoggio interno o affrontato questioni relative alla sicurezza