Iran and Venezuela stand continents apart. Yet as two leading members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel with mixed economies and shared foreign policy orientations, and as leading betes noires of American hegemony, their growing interdependence reflects a strategic alliance that goes well beyond their bilateral relations and, in fact, is connected to their aspirations for a “new world order”.
Here is some cheering news: as suspected Brown’s much vaunted global stimulus amounts to practically nothing. William Buiter has done us the honour of putting his considerable expertise to debunking this particular piece of New Labour hype. As we have predicted for some time institutions like the IMF are now blocked from the point of view of the machinations of Brown’s New World Order brigade. It remains for Washington and London to desist from further, fruitless attempts to impose their hegemony and instead dismantle their empire, and for new global leadership to emerge based on the rising poles to the South and East, such as China, Iran and Bolivarist South America.
From:
The green shoots are weeds growing through the rubble in the ruins of the global economy
The global stimulus associated with the increase in IMF resources agreed at the G20 meeting earlier this month will be negligible unless and until these resources actually materialise. The statements, declarations and communiqués of the G20, including the most recent ones highlight the gaps between dreams and deeds.
Politologue russe influent, issu des milieux nationalistes, le général Léonid Ivashov était chef d’état-major des armées le 11 septembre 2001. Ce jour-là, il avait placé ses satellites en alerte pour observer les manœuvres militaires aériennes annoncées aux USA, mais c’est un tout autre spectacle auquel il fut confronté. Au vu des analyses de cet événements par ses experts, il a écarté l’hypothèse Al-Qaïda et conclu à une provocation de l’élite financière anglo-saxonne.
[Influential Russian political scientist, of the nationalist school, Leonid Ivashov was Chief-of-Staff of the Russian armed forces on September 11th. On that day, he placed his satellites on alert to observe the announced US air force military manoeuvres, only to be confronted with something quite different. After an analysis conducted by his experts, he discarded the Al-Queda hypothesis and concluded that it had been an Anglo-saxon provocation.]
Sur cette base, il développé la vision stratégique russe du monde post-11-Septembre. Nous reproduisons ici un de ses articles, représentatif de sa pensée et de celle des officiers supérieurs russes. Le lecteur sera surpris de constater que ce qui est considéré comme un délire dans les pays de l’OTAN est une vérité d’évidence en Russie, comme d’ailleurs dans de nombreux autres régions du monde. Au-delà de la question d’établir la vérité, l’honnêteté intellectuelle exige de comprendre et d’accepter la relativité des points de vue. Cet article sera particulièrement précieux pour les militaires français au moment où le ministre de la Défense a engagé une chasse aux sorcières contre les enseignants de l’École de guerre qui ont osé rendre compte de la diversité des interprétations du 11-Septembre.
[On this basis, he developed a Russian strategic vision for the post-9/11. We reproduce here one of his articles, representative of his thinking and that of his superior officers. The reader may note that that which is taken for a delirium in the NATO countries is regarded as self-evident truth in Russia, as in other areas of the world. Beyond the question of establishing the truth, intellectual honesty demands the understanding and accepting of other points of view. This article will be particularly valuable for the French military at a moment when the Defense department is conducting a witch hunt against teachers at the War College who dare to present alternative interpretations of 9/11.]
So Brown thinks he can still exploit the crisis to project anglo-american power globally. The “deglobalisation threat” is a codeword for the kind of sovereign oppostion to the empire which we are seeing throughout the world. Brown is deluded, the empire is over, and his failure to recognise this fact preventing a rational response to the crisis in the UK and the USA.
The economic crisis should be treated as “the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order”, with new rules introduced on trade, Gordon Brown says.
The prime minister set out a series of actions designed to “replace fear with confidence” and warned against just “muddling through as pessimists”.
During a speech defending his handling of the crisis he also warned against the “deglobalisation threat”.
Latin America’s New Consensus
Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org
When the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz said the great tragedy of Mexico was that it was so far from God and so close to the United States, the comment summed up the long and tortured relationship between the Colossus of the North and Latin America. Read the rest of this entry »
The Age of Triumphalism is over
Americans are no longer in the mood to chase after distant evildoers.
By Andrew J. Bacevich LosAngelosTimes
October 26, 2008
All but lost amid the hullabaloo of the presidential campaign, the State Department recently dropped North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Kim Jong Il pocketed a concession that even a year ago would have seemed unimaginable. The American people — feeling more threatened by Wall Street than by Pyongyang — managed barely a shrug. Read the rest of this entry »
No one can disagree with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s argument that the world has dramatically changed and that the global financial system needs to change too. The French leader made the observation ahead of his meeting with US President George W Bush at the Camp David retreat this weekend to brainstorm over the current economic meltdown. Read the rest of this entry »