Mr. Diego Arria, the editor of our Democracy in Venezuela Blog was among the international observers of the Honduran presidential elections on November 29, 2009. He met with the acting Honduran President, Mr. Roberto Micheletti. Mr. Arria has been an outspoken critic of the ousted president, Mr. Manuel Zelaya and his policies which Mr. Arria believes endangered the wellbeing and security of the region. In the meantime, President Barack Obama declared that he would recognize the results of the democratic Honduran elections – a stunning but well-reasoned reversal of the previous policy formulated by Mrs. Hilary Clinton, who declared that the U.S. would disregard the election’s results and would recognize only Manuel Zelaya as the President of Honduras.  Read more  

BRAZIL'S UNIQUE GROWTH   BY RICH BASAS | Nov 14

November 10th brought much attention to Brazil as a blackout in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo shrouded Brazilians in darkness. The rest of the world on the other hand is starting to see Brazil in a new light as the BBC World Service reported the announcement of the first steps towards physically accessing massive oil reserves on Brazil’s coast. Brazil’s coastal reserves will possibly make it one of the largest oil fields to be developed globally in the last twenty years. While signs of this oil find have been known since 2007, the positioning of Brazil as the third BRIC to become a significant economic power has become the focus of many economic success stories since the economic crisis began this time last year.  Read more

It seems evident that the performance of these three companies is closely related to the role they play in their countries. In Brazil Petrobras is a commercial company, in Mexico Pemex is a symbol of nationalism and in Venezuela, PDVSA is a political tool at the service of a dictator. The results speak for themselves. Petrobras is successful, Pemex is eroding steadily, and PDVSA is in its way to collapse. [...] Pemex is still dominated by prejudice. Petrobras has learned the benefits of reason. Petroleos de Venezuela is an agent of hatred. Read more

THE ELECTIONS FIX   BY MO SACIRBEY | November 4

When a military coup overthrew the then internationally recognized government of Guinea, the coup leaders promptly announced that all would be made OK with elections for the fall of 2009, in only 9 months. What was revealed later is that the coup leader Captain Moussa “Dadis” Camara would of course run for President in such elections. And, just to make his point, the Captain’s military opened gun fire upon demonstrators in the middle of the capital of Conakry when they rose against the prospect that the military coup leader would subvert a fair or more likely flawed election process to legitimize the initial coup as well as hold on power. Read more

U.S. LED SMEAR SQUADS ACTIVE IN BOSNIA?   BY MO SACIRBEY | November 1

Recall that US operatives under the George W. Bush Administration extra-judicially picked up "6" BiH residents, of Algerian background), and renditioned them to Guantanamo. The Council of Europe condemned the action. After 5-6 years the "6" were released from Guantanamo for lack of any evidence to link them to past or planned future terrorist actions. However there was no prosecution or even investigation of this rendition, (identified as kidnapping by the Council of Europe and under the legal criteria of most western democracies). Perhaps some believe that these "6" Muslims were fortunate enough to finally be released from Guantanamo, even if they had lost a significant chunk of time and endured legal abandonment. Read more

THE RETURN OF BAD MEDICINE   BY MO SACIRBEY | October 18

Since the now much discussed visit of Friday, (October 9, 2009), to Sarajevo, “Butmir,” of US and European representatives, (delegations led by James Steinberg and Carl Bildt respectively), many have asked is the prospect for BiH and its people better? Well it is looking better perhaps because Bosnia & Herzegovina is in the play-offs for the World Cup,  having overcome more established national soccer programs such as Belgium and Turkey. Or, perhaps the respect for BiH on the global scale has an opportunity to rise since BiH was elected to the UN Security Council on Thursday, October 15, 2009. Rather than now being a subject of debate, BiH will also be sought out by other countries as decision maker and one vote of 15 on the UNSC. As for the “Butmir” meetings, well that is a different story. Read more

A 1700-WORD HISTORY OF VENEZUELA FOR AMERICANS   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | October 11

Hugo Chavez is a pupil of Fidel Castro, something he says openly. From day one he adopted the three strategies that Castro put together in the 1960’s: consolidation of political power at home; the hemispheric expansion of its socialist ideology, and the structuring of a global alliance against the United States. In developing these three strategies he has been helped by some $800 billion in income during his ten years in power. With this significant mass of money he has followed a policy of handouts, both at home and abroad. Read more

THE HOPE IS NAKED   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | October 10

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has established a very bad precedent, showing that it is enough for an aspiring politician to talk and give speeches but stop short of any meaningful action. It is equally sad that Obama so quickly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. It was against the principle of “fair-play” espoused by the idea of the Olympic Games, which he has so vigorously promoted last week in favor of the Chicago candidacy. The “fair-play” rule says that it is not “ok” to accept a prize if you know that it was given to you mistakenly and that others deserve it better. Read more

THE BIRTH OF NEOSOCIALISM   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | October 3

Obama’s September decision to terminate the antimissile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is perhaps more interesting if one considers his overall performance in the foreign affairs field. During the last several major international crises, the Obama Administration has almost always landed on the wrong side of the history. Read more

"ISLAMIC BANKING" PERFORMANCE: A RELATIVE SUCCESS OR FAILURE?    BY MO SACIRBEY | August 22

“Islamic banking” was tested on a global basis in unprecedented ways during this recession. How did it perform relative to other financial institutions, and according to whose criteria? By its definition, strict prohibition on “usury” and interest driven lending, Islamic banking did not employ traditional leverage and thus fared substantively better in a recession marked by a sharp contraction of credit and liquidity. (Islamic banking lacks an absolute generic model but can be characterized as restricting investments in certain industries, such as alcohol, and interest driven financial instruments). Read more

DON'T FORGET SREBRENICA   | July 10, 2009

Srebrenica is about to commemorate another anniversary on July 11 of the start of the massacre, “genocide,” (as judged by both the International Court of Justice, ICJ, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY), that culminated in the murder of 8,000 or perhaps more of its citizens. Bodies are still being unearthed. There are modest gravestones to mark the resting place of some of the victims and even a monument to remind the living. Read more

HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND LATIN AMERICA   BY RICH BASAS | July 5, 2009

It came as no surprise to those who knew about the past rights abuses by Iran’s government when many Iranians, especially young Iranians, took to the streets in the last few weeks and were met with brutal retribution affecting every sector of Iran’s vibrant society including intellectuals, the media, youth and diverse cultures. While much of Western media sought to compare the protests in Iran to those of Eastern Europe and China, Iran is unique and is forming what must be regarded as its own unique movement that will produce its own unique results. A comparison of best judgment is one that would compare opposite popular political movements to that of the one in Iran, namely those in many left leaning governments in Latin America. Read more

CELSO AMORIM AND BRAZIL'S BURIAL OF DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES IN LATIN AMERICA    BY DIEGO ARRIA | June 19, 2009

Latin American literature is abundant in stories and poems about those persons whose job is to bury people. From the writings of the Colombian poet Julio Flórez, who died early in the century, to the people who belong to the world of fantasy. But there are other types too – that belong to the real world of politics, as is the case of Celso Amorim, the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Brazil. But why include Amorim in this category? Because, unlike the poets who write about how they buried their own love and passions, the Foreign Minister of Brazil works hard to bury the core principles and values that affect millions of people in Latin America. Read more

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT BLOCKING SACIRBEY'S TESTIMONY          | May 29, 2009

The U.S. State Department is now trying to block Muhamed Sacirbey's travel to The Hague in order to testify in the prosecution for war crimes of Serbia's, (during Slobodan Milosevic's rule), military chief of staff General Momcilo Perisic. (Sacirbey, now regular contributor to the EuropeanCourier.org, was BiH's Foreign Minister and UN Ambassador during its war with Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs). While Sacirbey, both an American and Bosnian, seeks to testify regarding Perisic's culpability, at least certain Bosnian and U.S. officials have worked to deny the Tribunal the opportunity of this key witness. The ICTY has sought to allow Sacirbey to appear for some time. Tribunal investigators and prosecutors have traveled to meet him in U.S. to hear his evidence and receive his testimony. Read more

CHAVEZ TO THE U.S.: HOW DO I HARM THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS  

BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | May 20, 2009

Chavez's alliance with Iran’s President Ahmadinejad has opened up Latin America to that

fundamentalist country. Chavez has provided Iran, so far, with entry to Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. Iran is conducting active ideological indoctrination in these countries, disguised as cultural interchange, and is openly promoting anti-U.S. political strategies.His promotion of Islamic terrorism through increasing links with Hizballah and Hamas is sending Islamic terrorists to the U.S. border. The alignment with Iran, mentioned above, and the increasing connections with terrorist Islamic groups, is allowing for the entry of Islamic terrorists into Venezuela, where they are provided with false Venezuelan documents and sent to the Mexico-U.S. border. Read more

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT   BY DIEGO ARRIA | May 9, 2009

When the Venezuelans recover justice, a public denunciation of the February 1992 coup will take place through the words of Chavez’s fellow, Commander Francisco Arias Cardenas, and this will be heard in domestic and international courts: "We are facing a murderer, Hugo Chávez, author and intellectual leader of this band of criminals who ordered the snipers to fire on protesting crowds. The President, who is a murderer, spotted with the blood of the Venezuelans" as he said on April 11, 2002. Read more

WHAT CHAVEZ HAS WROUGHT   BY DUNCAN CURRIE | April 28, 2009

The National Review Online granted the EuropeanCourier.org a permission to republish

an article by Duncan Currie, its Deputy Managing Editor, about Hugo Chavez’s persecutions against Mr. Diego Arria, EuropeanCourier.org’s contributor and the editor of our “Democracy in Venezuela Blog”. Mr. Arria’s phones have been wiretapped, while his real estate in Venezuela has been ransacked several times by Chavez’s paratroopers. Mr. Arria also provides his insightful comments on U.S. government’s unexpected U-turn in its policy toward Hugo Chavez. Read more

LIEBERMAN SAYS 'JUMP', EUROPE SAYS 'HOW LOW?'   BY OREN RAWLS | April 9, 2009

Let’s be clear, that is exactly what Avigdor Lieberman is: a bigot. The man has a big mouth, one from which disgusting things often emanate, and his appointment as foreign

minister makes a mockery of the diplomatic profession. He may clean up his act a bit, but for more than a few Israelis, Lieberman is simply an embarrassment. But is Benjamin

Netanyahu’s foreign minister posing a threat to regional and international stability?

How has Europe’s best and brightest so quickly arrived at such a conclusion, if not based on ignorance, malice or a combination thereof? Read more

BRCKO POKER   BY MO SACIRBEY | March 17, 2009

Holbrooke and company knew Izetbegovic's thinking. Worse, they had become accustomed to eventually wearing him down to his minimal position. President Izetbegovic was negotiating, bargaining, but they were engaged in a different back and forth, poker. He did not recognize their game, but it was their table. They employed, both bluff and the overwhelming weight of their favored position. And yes, they generally knew what his hand was, his bottom line. Even if America was and is BiH's best friend of means, it did not translate to the personal diplomacy of some US representatives. Regardless of who else won or lost, Holbrooke was not going to walk away from this table empty handed. Read more
  

DIPLOMAT ARTIST: THE KILLING FIELDS   BY MO SACIRBEY | February 23, 2009

This month the first trial begun for a high level Khmer Rouge official before the UN backed

Cambodia Tribunal prosecuting violations of humanitarian law, 30 years after the murderous Pol Pot regime was ejected from power and 25 years   after the world was first exposed to such crimes in the brilliant film: "The Killing Fields." However, this film is not just about past genocides and abuses. It reminds that even today many around the globe and Asia are targeted. Just across the Siam Peninsula, the Rohingya, a Muslim minority of Burma, Myanmar, is on the verge of extinction. Read more
  

THE FUTURE OF HUGO CHAVEZ'S PETRO-DIPLOMACY   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | February 12, 2009 

During the 1990’s the oil price had averaged $20 per barrel, reaching $10 a barrel in 1998, as a result of the Asian financial crisis. That year Hugo Chavez came into power. He can be partially credited with persuading OPEC to engage in a rigid production quota reduction that took 3 million barrels per day off the market. As the Asian economy improved, demand increased while supplies remained tight. As a result prices recovered in 2002, to about $30 per barrel. Read more

THE THREAT CLOSER TO HOME   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | January 29, 2008 

For the last year and a half I had been planning and collecting material for a book in English on the authoritarian Venezuelan president and paratrooper Hugo Chavez and on his impact on Venezuelan society and the hemisphere. I was almost getting ready to start writing when I found out the book  had already been written. It is “The Threat closer to home” by Douglas E. Schoen and Michael Rowan, just out of the press.  Not only did the book contain almost all that I had wanted to say but also said it better.It is a compact volume, extremely well organized, containing not only the most complete and up to date information on Hugo Chavez’s performance during his ten years of almost absolute power but also a narrative on his origins and on what makes him tick. Read more

VENEZUELA 2009   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | January 1, 2009

Confronted with a new electoral defeat and an incoming financial crisis, Chavez will shed all remaining pretenses of democratic rule and will become openly autocratic. He could formally suspend all constitutional rights and might send to prison one or more members of the opposition, under charges of corruption or of conspiring against his life or his regime. He could decide to close down Globovision and, even, El Nacional daily newspaper. Read more

VENEZUELA: RISE AND FALL OF AN AUTHORITARIAN PETROSTATE  

BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | Dec 16, 2008 

The new leader, a military man, came to power in 1998-1999 and found a country in political and economic crisis. Increasing oil prices in 2000 started to make him look good. Based on this oil windfall he developed a policy of increasing state control of the industry and used energy as a political tool. When independent, private television stations criticized him, he closed them down. He is actively working to modify the laws of the country to allow him to rule for 15 or more years. This leader is… Vladimir Putin. Read more

FROM UNCLE SAM TO UNCLE TOM   BY DIEGO ARRIA | December 14, 2008

The truth is that the only obstacle in normalization of bilateral relations between Venezuela and the United States is Hugo Chavez himself. To preserve his power, Chavez necessarily needs to have some external enemy to fight against. He arbitrarily chose the United States to become his imaginary enemy. Without the United States he would be boxing his own shadow. Read more

D. ARRIA: CHAVEZ'S REGIME WILL COLLAPSE   | November 29, 2008

The EuropeanCourier.org speaks with Mr. Diego Arria, a Venezuelan politician, former Governor of Caracas, Minister of Information and Tourism (1977-1978), a diplomat and former President of the United Nations Security Council (1992-1993). We talk results of Venezuela’s recent local elections, Obama’s policy toward Latin America and the anticipated end of Hugo Chavez’s regime. Read more

FREE TRADE IN AFRICA    BY BINOY KAMPMARK | September 6, 2008

Trade officials and civil society organizations in South Africa have made no secret of their resentment towards the free trade agreements stemming from the European Union.  These primarily concern Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the EU and African, Pacific and Caribbean countries.  Critics see such agreements as instruments as enriching to the EU as they are impoverishing to the African states.  The EU’s bargaining chip is considerable: a threat to impose higher tariffs on countries that won’t sign such agreements. Read more

FRANCE AND AFRICA: A DECLINING RELATIONSHIP?   BY MICHEL GARY | August 22, 2008

In Chad, in October 2007, a French charity, “l'Arche de Zoé” tried to send 103 orphans from Darfur to Europe, so that they can be adopted. A flight had been organized from Chad to France. Just before leaving, the members of the charity were arrested by the Chadian police for “attempted kidnapping and fraud”. In fact, most of the children, probably, were not orphans and came from Chad, not Sudan. Read more

TIBET, DARFUR AND THE BEIJING OLYMPICS  BY MICHAEL MADSON | August 7 , 2008

Boycotts against Beijing were, from the beginning, doomed to failure. As David von Drehle wrote in Time Magazine, “boycotts are empty gestures. Governments boycott, athletes suffer, and the only thing that changes is that the credibility of the Olympics as a festival of goodwill suffers another dent.” Read more

ATTACKING IRAN   BY BINOY KAMPMARK | July 30, 2008

In June, it was reported that Israeli forces were conducting military exercises for

an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israeli historian Benny Morris of Ben-Gurion University has suggested that an attack on Iran within the next five to seven months is inevitable. November 5 to January 19 is the time given for a likely air strike – between the election and inauguration of the new American president. Read more
 

KEEP HIM ALIVE!!!   July 21, 2008

Uncovering the truth about the alleged secret deals between the Clinton Administration and certain war criminals is important not only for the international community but also for the American political process because many of those, who were dealing personally with Radovan Karadzic in the 90's are presently advising Barack Obama or took active part in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We count on the Serbian authorities and the ICTY’s authorities that Karadzic is successfully prevented from committing a suicide in his cell, overdosing medicine or misusing it. Read more

"THE DARKEST MOMENT IN THE U.N.'S HISTORY"   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | July 12, 2008

EuropeanCourier.org attended a conference at the United Nations’ headquarters on July 11, 2008, devoted to commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre and featuring some prominent former and active diplomats. With this material our magazine expands coverage to reporting on international diplomacy issues related to the work of the United Nations. Stayed tuned for other reports about the most pressing global issues, including Iran, Iraq, nuclear terrorism and others. Read more

SREBRENICA TABOO   BY MO SACIRBEY | July 8, 2008

When Bianca Jagger came to see me that summer of 1998, I knew that any initiative by Bosnia & Herzegovina representatives to the United Nations to investigate Srebrenica would be blocked by Republika Srpska officials within the BiH Foreign Ministry and Government. The Security Council permanent powers were also opposed to reopening of any issue related to BiH, and especially Srebrenica. Read more

JUSTICE DENIED: MEANDERS OF THE BALKAN DIPLOMACY   BY FLORENCE HARTMANN | June 30, 2008

For over a decade and in direct contradiction to all the new evidence which has emerged since then, the Western officials have been denying that they could have reasonably foreseen the attack on Srebrenica and Zepa back in July 1995, which resulted in extermination of 8,000 innocent people. Srebrenica was the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of the World War II and the Holocaust. Both the ICTY and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that Srebrenica and its people have been the victims of genocide in violation of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Read more

LOOKING TO EUROPE? AN ASIA-PACIFIC UNION  BY BINOY KAMPMARK | June 29, 2008

Imagine this: a seamless political and economic area in the Asia-Pacific region, where military and trade interests are bound by a deep compact far beyond any existing arrangement. In short, something akin to the European Union, a replication in part of its institutional arrangements. The features: a common market, shared principles and modified sovereignty; where freedom of movement in people, capital, goods and services is guaranteed. Read more
 

UNITED NATIONS REPORT ON SREBRENICA GENOCIDE    BY MO SACIRBEY | June 19, 2008

Srebrenica was betrayed. There is little doubt and much evidence to now support this conclusion. Much had not yet surfaced back then in 1998-2000, or it was more effectively suppressed, for obvious reasons. The resolution of Srebrenica is part of the future on a regional level, but also to restoring credibility to multilateralism and its institutions. The United Nations must consider reviewing its original report, evidence and methodology. Read more
  

THE FUTURE OF CUBA   BY RICH BASAS | June 12, 2008

The diplomatic course adopted by the next President will determine whether Cuba and the U.S. would start dialogue to help Cuba to reintegrate into international community and global economy. Presently, the U.S. sees no evil in doing business with communist China despite China’s reported abuses of human rights. At the same time similar human rights abuses in Cuba have been the rationale behind the imposition of rigid sanctions against Castro’s regime. Read more

OUTSKIRTS OF EU: PERSECUTION IN BREAK-AWAY REPUBLIC OF TRANSNISTRIA  

BY AMANDA HOWE | June 7, 2008

The “5+2 process”, which refers to negotiations intended to help Moldova and Transnistria reach a settlement regarding the region’s autonomous status, has stalled. The parties include the OSCE, the Russian Federation and Ukraine as mediators. The European Union and United States are observers at the negotiations. Read more

HILLARY, BOSNIA AND THE BAGHDAD PEACE ACCORDS   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | May 18, 2008

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Holbrooke/Clinton would be like awarding it to Henry Kissinger for stopping the war in Vietnam. Yes, it did happen in the past but afterwards everybody thought it was undeserved and the very image of the prize suffered. It is perhaps not even irony that all peace endeavors made by the Clinton Administration in the 90's, produced only one Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Al Gore in 2007 for saving penguins and icebergs in the South Pole. Read more

AMBASSADORIAL DEBATE   May 10, 2008

- a discussion between Mr. Diego Arria (a prominent opposition leader in Venezuela) and Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey (former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina) about: Kosovo's independence, International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, international diplomacy and the weakness of the United Nations (moderated by the European Courier). Video

FOOD IN FUEL TANK, HUNGER ON ROAD   BY MO SACIRBEY | April 24, 2008  
  

What is dramatically increasing malnutrition and raising the risk of mass starvation on a global basis? 100 million people are under threat of hunger according to the United Nations and possibly 20 million starving. Many more infants and children could be handicapped for life from a lack of needed nutrients at the critical time in the development of bodies and minds. Read more

PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY LEGACY   BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | March 3, 2008

As President Dmitry Medvedev has succeeded Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, there has been considerable speculation about the future directions of Russia’s foreign policy. Some analysts noted that Medvedev’s public pronouncements to date have been less confrontational and more conciliatory than Putin’s harsh anti-western rhetoric. Read more

EXPIRATION DATE OF HUGO CHAVEZ   February 5, 2008
    

– a discussion between Mr. Diego E. Arria, an opposition leader in Venezuela, former Governor of Caracas, former Minister of Tourism, former Minister of Information, and former Permanent Ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations, and Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina and former Permanent Ambassador of BiH to the United Nations. Transcript | Video
  

BURMA, REPRESSIONS AND (IN)HUMANE SANCTIONS   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | January 16, 2008

Burma is not a major foreign policy focus for most Western nations and few top diplomats or government officials can afford to spend the time or effort to understand all the detailed complexities of the situation. [...] However it is felt it is time for Western governments to seek other options towards improving the situation in Burma than the use of economic and political sanctions. Read more

MIGHT NEEDS RIGHT, SECURITY COUNCIL REFORM MEETS THE ICC

BY MO SACIRBEY | December 13, 2007

Multilateralism, for the moment at least, has lost its mojo. The dominant forces in the current U.S. Administration are only part of the downer mood. Unfortunately even many that rhetorically advocate multilateralism do not necessarily have the UN in consideration as the forum to consummate critical policy . Read more

SECURITY COUNCIL IN REHAB   BY MO SACIRBEY | November 1, 2007

You know that Amy Winehouse melody: “They wanna make me go to rehab, but I say, No, No, No!!!” Well, that obstinacy fits the UN Security Council, for the last 15 years or more. Everyone knows that the UN Security Council is in need of reform, but only the Security Council is in a position to ultimately act upon it. Read more
  

RUSSIA’S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD ASIA BY DR. DMITRY SHLAPENTOKH | April 12, 2007

Iranians [...] recently clearly conveyed their displeasure when Ahmadinejad proclaimed that Israel will collapse in the same way as the USSR. The statement was made at exactly the time when most Russians nostalgically remember the death of the USSR 15 years ago. The Iranian president was also aware that Putin proclaimed the collapse of the USSR as the greatest catastrophe of the twentieth century. Read more

MIDPOINT IN ACHIEVING THE UN’S MILLENNIUM GOALS   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | March 11, 2007

In Vietnam, back in 1990, over 80% of the population lived in extreme poverty (earning less than $2 a day), but that number has fallen to well under 50% today according to a recent World Bank report. The story of rapid poverty reduction can be found in the recent history of China. During the period of 2001 through 2005, an astounding 156 million people were able to lift themselves out of extreme poverty [...] Read more

MYTHS OF GLOBALIZATION   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | January 2, 2007

The world's largest company measured by sales, Wal-Mart, calls itself a "global retailer" in its 2005 annual report. However, it only has direct sales operations in around 5% of the countries that make up the United Nations, around 80% of its sales come from the USA and approximately 90% of all sales come from North America. Is Wal-Mart a "global" company? Read more

LEBANON: THE MIDDLE EAST CAULDRON   BY TIMOTHY NEENO | December 17, 2006

Whatever good intentions may have gone into it, Iraq has now made further U.S. military interventions anywhere all but impossible. As the new Democratic Congress begins investigating the war in January of 2007, every mistake Bush and Rumsfeld made in Iraq will be highlighted and fed to the media. Republicans will not want another war between now and November of 2008. Read more

ASIA’S RAPID ECONOMIC RISE   BY DR. SCOTT A. HIPSHER | November 26, 2006

The rapid economic growth of China, India and much of the rest of the most populous continent is causing leaders and the voting public in the US and Europe to sit up and take notice. The repercussions of Asia’s increasing economic power are frequent topics of discussion in government offices, boardrooms and factory lunchrooms across the Western world. Read more

USA-ASIA: JAPAN RESURGENT   BY TIMOTHY NEENO | October 2, 2006

On September 26, 2006, Shinzo Abe took office as Japan’s new Prime Minister. Abe has vowed to give Japan a more prominent place in the world scene, and is calling for a revision of Article IX of the Japanese Constitution [...] which forbids Japan from having any military other than self defense forces, and permanently renounces “war as a sovereign right of the nation”. Read more

ASIA: STATUS OF ETHNICAL MINORITIES IN JAPAN   BY PIOTR SZCZEPANIAK | August 19, 2006

Officially, the problem of discrimination of ethnical minorities in Japan does not exist. The Japanese political elites have been successfully promoting and popularizing over years the image of ethnically and culturally homogenous country. Read more

NORTH KOREAN SYSTEM OF SUCCESSION OF POWER   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | August 8, 2006

Comrade KIM JONG IL, the present leader of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, is an extraordinary man. To begin with, he had an unprecedented opportunity to be the closest and most faithful assistant of Comrade Kim Il Sung, who was his father and the first leader of the North Korean communist state. Read more

NORTH KOREAN STRATEGY OF SURVIVAL   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 22, 2006

At the beginning of 2005, North Korea declared that it had manufactured atom weapons for self-defense and would continue to strengthen its nuclear program. Threateningly, the regime suspended its participation in six-part talks for an indefinite period of time. Read more

DOES THE WORLD NEED CHINA?   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 11, 2006

As it has been proved throughout the world’s history, rising economic and military powers tend to start external expansion at certain point of their development.There is no reason to assume that the rising Chinese superpower would take different course. Read more

UNITED NATIONS' FIGHT AGAINST NUCLEAR TERRORISM   BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 6, 2006

War on terror has many front lines. Besides numerous intelligence agencies and military forces actively taking action to eliminate terrorist threat around the world, there are many other groups of people and organizations willing to contribute to this great effort. Read more