The New World Order is not turning out as planned. Instead of all power emanating from London and Washington, new power centres are emerging to the South and East: a new global equilibrium raises the possibility of a new post-imperial age of peace and equality between nations.
In 1955, when the founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement (N.A.M.) held their first meeting in the now-famous Bandung Gathering, the role of the N.A.M. seemed clear: prevention of a new war. In a world already savagely ravaged by the Second World War, the U.S.S.R. and the United States embarked on a new kind of military and political confrontation: Cold War. So the role and the place of a non-aligned movement were clear and easy to carve—keeping the two opposing blocs in equilibrium and preventing the Cold War from becoming a nuclear war. Read the rest of this entry »
1. I am glad to read the report that the new Prime Minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama intends to pursue the proposal for an East Asian Economic Community.
God may not be Brazilian, as many of the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro proudly boast, but The Almighty seems to be swinging His or Her not inconsiderable influence towards the Cidade Maravilhosa, the Marvellous City on the South Atlantic ocean, as it pitches strongly for the chance of staging the 2016 Olympic Games. Its three rivals, Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago, seem to be fading as they turn into the home straight towards O Day in five days’ time. On 2 October the victorious city should be announced in Copenhagen, watched by a billion television viewers from across the world.
Iran’s President Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly saying that the role of single powers and capitalism are over, and he will go the way of communism. Libya’s leader, Colonel Gaddafi, came down on the UN. Read the rest of this entry »
While all the hubbub here in the US has centered around abominations such as cash 4 clunkers, tax credits for buying homes, and the other machinations directed at returning the US to the blissful year of 2005, other portions of the world have taken notice and have been conducting some activities of their own. They have been locking down ever-growing stockpiles of critical basic materials needed to run their economies. These strategic moves have certainly not been done in secret, but given how we spend our intellectual energies here in America, they might as well have been. Leading the pack has been China, but there have certainly been others. Read the rest of this entry »
There is a widespread supposition that Obama, being black and a member of an oppressed race, will imbue US foreign policy with a higher morality than the world experienced from Bush and Clinton. This is a delusion.
A split is emerging between the United States and Japan over the new Tokyo government’s anti-globalisation rhetoric and its threats to end a refueling agreement for US ships in support of the war in Afghanistan.
Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, has caused alarm in Washington after publishing an article blaming the US for the ills of capitalism, the global economy and “the destruction of human dignity”.
BOOK REVIEW
US hegemony slips into history
The Future of Global Relations by Terrence Edward Paupp.
Reviewed by John Feffer
The end of the Cold War ushered in a new period of unipolar American power. In this country, liberals and conservatives alike celebrated the triumph of market democracies under the leadership of the United States. The Bill Clinton administration attempted to consolidate America’s geoeconomic power. The George W Bush administration attempted to consolidate America’s military and geopolitical power. Read the rest of this entry »
From the early point in this blog, I have emphasised the importance of China in the world economy, and this view is now shared by the mainstream. China has rapidly moved from being an important element of the world economy into becoming one of the central actors. On a bookshelf crowded with books about China, I have a copy of JamesKynge’s ‘China Shakes the World’, a book with a title which many would have taken as poetic fancy at the time of writing. For those of us who actually witnessed the growth of China, it was simply a statement of reality. China was already shaking the world at the time that the book was written, but most of the West had simply not noticed. We are all now paying attention. Read the rest of this entry »
In These New Times 