Globalaffairs

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Carolina Ferreiro Fajardo

Nowadays, the Fair Trade is the most viable initiative for the achievement of more equal commercial relations between producer and consumer. This activity is an alternative to international trade at global level and it has become an effective cooperation tool for eliminating poverty and exploitation in undeveloped countries.

We can state that the Fair Trade is a growing activity in Spain because it had a 17% increase in the last five years. Despite these data, Spain has long way to go because it is bottom of the league when it comes to fair products market.

According to the last statistics (2006) of the Fair Trade Yearbook in Spain carried out by the SETEM organization, the average spending in fair products is less than 350 euros per thousand inhabitants. This figure shows that the Fair Trade is a social accepted activity but not enough known especially if we compare it with the EU average where the average spending is 2,318 euros per thousand inhabitants. The Spanish regions with the highest rates of fair products sales are: Catalonia 35,5%, Madrid 20,3%, Galicia 15,5% and Andalucia 9,3%.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Rasna Warah

The appointment of Asha-Rose Migiro as United Nations Deputy Secretary-General is not only a coup for Tanzania, but also for Africa as a whole – as well as for the many women who are still under-represented in top UN managerial posts.

But the appointment should leave a bittersweet taste in the mouth of Kenyan diplomats who have yet to be appointed to any significant post within this global body.

As far as I know, no Kenyan heads a UN agency or forms part of the new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s “cabinet”. Yet Tanzania has two women at high level posts within this global body – my former boss, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, who heads the United Nations Office in Nairobi, and now Ms. Migiro, who effectively becomes the highest ranking female within the entire United Nations system.

It is not due to lack of expertise or skill that Kenya loses out on securing top UN appointments. Kenya has a large pool of highly-qualified diplomats who have made a mark in inter-governmental negotiations.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Lucia Valero

When President George W. Bush cited the global climate change as “the serious challenge” in his annual State of the Union address in January 23rd, 2007, the reactions across the world were far from being indifferent.

While some politicians considered the statement as the first approach to a major U.S commitment to tackle global warming, media and environmental groups received his words with scepticism for understanding that there were not real measures to be taken as the Government is deeply involved in other issues such as the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

The truth is, as environmentalists claimed, that the President’s energy initiatives were not dramatically different from those issued in the State of the Union address in 2006, and again were focused on the nation’s addiction of foreign oil and the need to reduce gasoline usage by increasing the supply of alternative fuels, mainly ethanol.
In fact, it was the second year that Bush promoted ethanol as the best alternative to oil and asked for further investments in the so-called “green energy of the future”.

Bush stated, as he did last year, that more researches must be conducted to produce new batteries for hybrid and electric cars in order to have cleaner vehicles.

Nevertheless, what it made a difference from the last State of the Union address –and thereby welcomed by policy makers- was the accurate mention to climate change as a matter to be taken into account.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Fernando de Sisternes

Sarajevo, 2006 December the 13th. It is a cold December morning in Sarajevo and at the headquarters of the main gas distribution company of the country, its president and the local minister for energy affairs are meeting. Today they are hosting one of the numerous consulting teams that have streamed into Bosnia with the aim to contribute to the country´s situation restructuring after the war that, during the early nineties confronted Muslim-Bosnians (Bosniaks), Croatians and Serbs for the territorial control and defence of the resulting fragments from the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Once introductions have taken place, the meeting turns to discuss the present situation of the gas sector in Bosnia. One of the experts asks the minister why companies with the intention to develop the national gas infrastructure, and who know its requirements, have not yet begun to work on these projects. The minister quickly answers, responding resolutely that there is not agreement between the two integrating parts of Bosnia (one region of Serb majority and another region of Croat and Muslim majority) since both regions’ demand is that the new expansions begin from their respective demarcation.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By F. Rwnadizi

No doubt that there are many nations in the world, for one reason or another, do not have their own states, but the Kurds are the biggest amongst them. The Kurdish question, which has remarkably existed in the agenda of world politics since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is yet to be resolved. Ever since then the Kurds have been divided among countries in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The Kurds speak Indio-European language that is from the same language family of Persian, Pashto and Baluchi. In the pre-Islam history Kurds were Zoroastrians, Christians and some were Jewish, and some without religion. Nowadays, most of the Kurds are Sunni Moslems with some Shiites who are far less in number; but there also others who are Jezzidies, Christians, Jewish, Kakayees and some Zoroastrians who are believed to have clung to the native religion.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Central Powers, in the “Program of World Peace” the Kurds, like other non-Turkish nations under the rule of the Empire, it was supposed to have independence.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Carolina Garcia

Seven years ago, in September 2000 the Millennium Declaration was signed in the UN headquarter in New York that set the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This Declaration was a challenge for several reasons: it was approved by a large consensus within the international community; it was signed by 189 heads of State and Government and subsequently signed by two more governments. For the first time an international document states that the fight against poverty is not exclusive to UN but it has to involve all countries. Furthermore this document fixed a deadline for goals execution: 2015.

The Millennium Declaration is nothing new because it is mainly a compendium of several international agreements regarding development signed in the 90’s. The true advance of this Declaration is that makes the fight against poverty a priority for all states, besides for the first time it fixes a global agenda for development. The eight Millennium Goals agreed in the UN headquarter have to be accomplished in 2015. So as to quantify this task clear aims and deadlines for each goal were arranged; these two factors assess the goals implementation degree each year.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Roger Casas

On 21 July 2006, Ta Mok (also known as “the butcher”), one of the former main leaders of the Khmer Rouge, died in a hospital of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh . Together with other leaders of that group, Ta Mok was considered responsible for the annihilation of more than one million and a half Cambodians through violent death, overwork or starvation, under the rule of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), between 1975 and 1979. DK policies, inspired on Maoist thought, were aimed at radically transforming Cambodian society, destroying the old social order and its institutions -such as private property, formal education, markets and currency, religious practices, etc.

“As historian David Chandler has pointed out, “no Cambodian government had ever tried to change so many things so rapidly” ; no other regime had such radical consequences for the whole country, which saw its population decreased in around 25%: The results of this utopia continue affecting the lives of millions of Cambodians today”.

Ta Mok, who was 80 at the time of his death, was one of two former Khmer Rouge leaders imprisoned for crimes committed during the period of DK; the other one, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as “Duch”, head of the Khmer Rouge secret police and of the infamous prison S-21 (Tuol Sleng), a detention center in Phnom Penh where around 15 thousand people lost their lives, is awaiting trial . The rest of the leaders of DK are still roaming free: among them, Nuon Chea, “Brother Number Two” in the Khmer Rouge hierarchy, Khieu Samphan, nominal head of state and chairman of the state presidium, or Ieng Sary, minister for foreign affairs. Pol Pot, “Brother Number One” of the Khmer Rouge and virtual strongman of the regime, died in his jungle refuge in 1998. The recent deaths of Slobodan Milosevic and Augusto Pinochet, both facing trial for genocide, have raised fears that the rest of potential culprits may disappear before being put on trial.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Cicibel Lucas

Out of the American continent Guatemala is a country little known by political, cultural, and social terms, even of geographical location. In the last years the country starts calling the attention as tourist destiny by its cultural indigenous mixtures. Guatemala turns out to be mentioned in magazines of social and political analysis as example of serious social problems. In the area of the investigation in social communication there is mentioned that it is one more society with great influence of The United States, with the television as the principal way.

In the land of the Quetzal, live more than 14 million people with a majority of young population between 18 and 45 years, to whom 60 per cent is indigenous with a high percentage of illiteracy. Twenty-two languages, oral the majority and many losses, place behind the official language, the Spanish. Some of them attribute to these characteristics the guilt of the slow social Guatemalan development. Its political history is conventional with those of Latin-American countries, long political interventions, wars, exiles, governmental corruption, managerial manipulation and natural disasters.

The topic of this article is to explain how the national television in Guatemala offers the international news, or the events that have relevancy abroad under a uniformity of audio-visual production in all the channels of the television. Though, the television information in the majority of countries generally is based on the news and the images of international agencies, those are small where they produce for if same correspondents’ news or they have own agencies. To it is added that the great television offer for cable has touched the doors of almost all the houses.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By Evgeny Lykov

The concept of security is absolutely central to both theory and practice of International Relations (IR). At the same time the fact that the discipline of IR is fragmented into highly contending perspectives makes it extremely difficult to reach consensus concerning definition of the concept. Traditionally the concept of security has been mainly related to the use of military force. However, in the modern world other factors such as economic considerations and welfare values are of increasing importance and relevance to the concept of security. The main purpose of this essay is to explore the extent of such relevance and to identify whether the concept of security should be expanded beyond consideration of military force.

Central questions

The central problem in the study of security in the post-Cold War era is the lack of consensus concerning the question of: What constitutes security? Thus understanding and explanation of security depends on the sorts of specifications that are made i.e. what should and should not be included into the concept.

These specifications could be made through answering two following questions: who or what should be the focus of interest in security (e.g. states; groups or individuals); and who or what threatens security? (Terriff, 1999:3) Thus, below discussion of different approaches to security will focus on examination of possible answers to these two questions.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By I. Manez

The brand “Made in Spain” continues to be the “great unknown” in the American market. Here is a practical example: if we are to conduct a survey in the heart of New York asking individuals to connect images to certain countries, bulls, paella and folklore would head the list of subjects for Spain. The last concepts that would come to mind are technology, innovation, or design. To change this situation, the current Spanish government has approved the Integral Market Development Plan 2005-2007 for the U.S., also known as the PIDM for its Spanish acronym. The main objective of this plan of action is precisely to consolidate the image of Spain as technologically advanced economy.

This lack of knowledge about Spain, which continues to exist in the American market, is reflected by a disproportionate commercial balance, in which American exports vastly exceed Spanish exports. A great part of this imbalance is caused by the decreasing competitiveness of Spanish products in international markets and insufficient promotion of Spanish brands abroad. Before going any further, see the data below regarding competitiveness, collected over the past two years in the Competitiveness Trend Rates prepared by the Ministry of Industry, and the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum.

To demonstrate this commercial imbalance, one needs only to analyze the business relationships with a state such as Florida. In a market such as that of the State of Florida, which on the surface can appear similar to that of Spain due to its high number of Spanish speakers (one of every six Florida residents speaks Spanish at home), we observe that of the 50 countries with the most commercial relationships with the State of Florida, Spain is in 20th position, following countries such as Peru, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. This position in the rankings is important when we refer to Florida as one of the most important commercial axes of the Americas, given its nature as a port of entry for international products. If we broaden the field of analysis and centre on the U.S as a whole (the number one economy in the world, generating 21% of global production and absorbing 16% of the world’s imports with a market of 293 million consumers), we see that Spain represents only 0, 4% of the foreign investment received by the U.S, a number 15 times lower than, for example, that of France.

The need to change this situation is clear, and now it is the time, given that both the Spanish and the American economies are in a growth phase.

Continue reading »