Globalaffairs

Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Adrian Brito

On September 19th, 1960, Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and head of the Soviet delegation to the Fifteenth Session of the General Assembly, opened his Statement at the Pier saying, “the thoughts and aspirations of a majority of people in all countries are now focused on one goal- how to achieve a situation in which lasting peace will be ensured all over the world.” Two years and one month later, the Soviets engaged in a massive arms buildup in Cuba, ostensibly to protect Castro from an American invasion, despite the fact that Kennedy had warned the Soviets against the introduction of any offensive weapons. For the first time in human history, the world was placed on the brink of Nuclear War, and if the nuclear spark was ignited, existence as we know it would most likely have ceased to exist.

What could have moved Khrushchev and his aides to challenge the United States so defiantly despite Kennedy’s warning? American history zbooks fall short of detailed explanations for this and only provide a scant set of facts about Soviet military pressure, missile gaps, and control of Berlin to explain such a complex and carefully maneuvered plan whose intentions and goals go far beyond mere superpower hegemonic policies. Three reasons appear to triumph any other explanations: Cuban defense, containing the United States, and Soviet Cold War politics. Even though Soviet perspectives are not exhaustively documented in textbooks, less are the Cuban viewpoints and Castro’s thoughts on the issue. Fortunately, thanks to the information revolution, we can now analyze why the Soviets naively ignored the Cuban Commander in Chief’s ideas and proposals and made the Cuban government live thorough, in the words of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the “brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean crisis.” Recently declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, declarations from ranking Cuban officers in Cuban journals and the publication of books such as Nikita Khrushchev’s Memoirs will hopefully provide American historians with facts that were impossible to obtain in the past.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Glen Ruffle

The Free Trade versus Fair Trade debate was re-ignited again recently by a report from the Adam Smith Institute, which condemned Fair Trade as Unfair. So just what are the real benefits and problems with free trade, and is it the solution so often advocated?

A row recently erupted in the UK after the publication of a report by the Adam Smith Institute condemning ‘Fair Trade’ products as being unfair and working to trap the poor producers in a life of poverty. In retaliation, non-governmental organisations and development charities attacked the report as inaccurate, poorly researched and factually incorrect. According to them, the Fair Trade movement, where farmers are guaranteed a price for their produce that guarantees them a profit, is far better than allowing the market to work freely. So what is the truth? Is free trade the best way forwards, or does protectionism offer the best method of developing an economy?

Statistically, free trade is the best choice if you want to increase your countries GDP (gross domestic product). By opening up your markets, you can increase the amount of trade and investment, and according to the official statistics, you can cause massive economic growth to occur in your country. One estimate argues that free trade for all of Africa would boost Africa’s economies by a massive 6%; while the leader of the Conservative Party, and potential next Prime Minster of Britain, David Cameron MP, pointed out that if free trade in agriculture was introduced to Africa, the financial benefit to Africa would be the equivalent of all the worlds spending on development aid and assistance! Since opening up their markets, both India and China have seen massive economic growth, lifting many out of poverty.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Paul Pryce

With the intervention of Ethiopian forces and the deployment of Ugandan and Burundi peacekeepers under the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), it would seem that Somalia is on the path to lasting peace. However, recent events might very well indicate that Somalia is on the verge of a renewed state of armed conflict. This new war in the Horn of Africa would most likely be fought over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.

The colonial era bequeathed upon the region a series of illogical and arbitrary borders that rent the Somali people asunder. The Republic of Somalia was formed in 1960 through an act of political union between Italian Somaliland, which bordered the Indian Ocean, and the former British Somaliland, which bordered the Gulf of Aden and Djibouti. While this united much of the Somali people under a Somali state, some communities were excluded. Djibouti, a former colony of France, is predominantly made up of Somali Muslims but it was excluded from those territories assigned to Somalia by the Allies at the conclusion of the Second World War. The Ogaden, another territory almost exclusively populated by ethnic Somalis, was given over to Ethiopia.

Accordingly, in 1960, principal amongst the various mandates that this newly formed Somali state set out for itself was the recovery of what were called “lost territories”. These lost territories included Djibouti, the Ogaden and Kenya’s Northern Frontier District. An irredentist public narrative began to form: Somalia’s destiny was to re-unite its lost territories under the banner of a “Greater Somalia”. This united nation would, according to the rhetoric, become the definitive regional superpower, outshining its neighbours Kenya and Ethiopia.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Lai Ali-Ajibode

It was September, 27 2004, and Dokubo Asari, the leader of a powerful group announced their plan to launch an ‘all-out-war’ aimed at taking back the oil-rich region on the Niger-Delta if the government refused to cede control of the resources over to the predominant tribe in the area, the Ijaws. The Nigerian government deployed military troops to protect the oil companies’ investments and infrastructures against vandalism from the militant group known at the time as the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF). Shell Petroleum Development Company, which produces about 1 million barrels of oil per day, slightly reduced its production. Speculators and oil traders reacting to the threat of disruption of oil production, fueled crude oil prices to rise above $50 a barrel which was unprecedented at the time.

In another instance, the summary of Human Rights Report on the Politics of War from March 2008, reports that:

“In July and August 2007, warring gangs in Port Harcourt—the capital of Nigeria’s
Rivers State—unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence against the city and its people. Gangs fought pitched battles in the streets with automatic weapons, explosives, machetes, and broken bottles. These groups opened fire at random on crowds, gunning down scores of terrified civilians in the streets. People who had been walking home from work on ordinary afternoons suddenly lay dying on the operating tables of nearby clinics. Families have been left struggling to understand why their loved ones were so senselessly murdered.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Glen Ruffle

As another NATO conference ends, the alliance continues to look slightly lost and without a purpose. Meanwhile, ‘Defence Europe’ is well underway, and more States will soon see the EU as the fulfillment of their security rather than NATO. This spells one thing: the end of the alliance.

The recent NATO summit in Bucharest saw the acceptance of Croatia and Albania into the alliance, which eventually will expand its membership to 28 member states. Many of these states still see NATO as the cornerstone of European security, and this is a powerful motive for joining up to the alliance. Yet are these states living in the past? The Cold War is over, and with its death came the demise of the reason for NATO. Russia is not the USSR: it is not as dangerous as we sometimes think. Russia needs Europe to buy its gas and oil; it cannot be too aggressive to its customers. China is too far from Europe to pose a direct military threat, leaving only the Middle Eastern states, which pose security threats of a different kind; a kind that NATO will struggle to fight.

The new world is one where soft power is as vital as hard, military power. The soft power of education, medical aid, infrastructure building and institutional reforms, are all areas in which the EU has a greater capacity than NATO. But don’t expect rivalry between the two organizations to emerge: the reality is that they are both already entwined and likely to merge only ever closer together.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Faye Karavasili

The Balkans change faces constantly resembling a lava lake inside the crater of an old volcano that has been awakened for some time, awaiting the next violent eruption. On 17th of February yet another change took place disrupting any chance of the healing process being completed when Kosovo declared its independence contrary to every international law on the book but with the all powerful American support.

Even though the road towards this end had been paved and nobody was really surprised, the actual event came as a shock, and not just for the Serbian people who looked on in disbelief. The Serbs were infuriated as that was the second time they saw international law and protocol being overridden without an explanation – first case being the 1999 NATO bombings taking place without the approval of the UN Security Council prompting severe criticism as to their legitimacy – and naturally felt their faith in the “civilized” international community and the credibility of supranational organizations evaporating instantly, making the future course of their country unpredictable; the Albanians rejoiced, viewing Kosovo more or less as a national victory and a step towards the Great Albania ideal with international backing; the United States exhibited cautious optimism and sloppily tried to justify the unorthodox legal event as a “one off”, incapable of producing the dreaded precedent that provoked an understandably acute reaction from the many regions of the world containing a potential Kosovo. Premature elections all around, constant outside intervention and the eventful Bucharest NATO summit this April demonstrated to all that the Balkans continue to be an explosive entity with way too many unresolved issues threatening to destabilize much more than just the peninsula of Haemos.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Alexandre Calvo i Cristina

Pakistan was born out of the doctrine, espoused by the Muslim League , that the Subcontinent’s Muslims would be discriminated against in a Hindu-majority India and would therefore need a state of their own, a homeland for the followers of such faith . As a consequence British India is succeeded by two independent states , which will look at each other with hostility, and will even meet in the battlefield on a number of occasions .

Pakistan, with a smaller population and territory than its neighbour and rival, is immediately forced to seek allies and in the context of an in Asia sometimes not so Cold War , sees in Indian neutralism the chance to find its place in the Western camp as a faithful ally of the United States , which after the fall of China is desperately seeking partners in the region. Pakistan’s participation in the Baghdad Pact and in SEATO , together with notable economic and military aid from the United States, seal the alliance.

The Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 led the US to suspend military aid to the country, and even though such measure was also adopted with regard to India, its effects were more keenly felt in Pakistan, where the notion that the US were not a trustworthy ally gained a foothold . In succeeding years the relationship regained its strength , and in 1975 weapons sales were resumed .

Later, American rapprochement to Red China with the aim to weaken the USSR will reinforce even more Pakistan’s strategic advantage over India, since Pakistan was the US’ only communication channel to Beijing , allowing the country to play a double game as ally of both capitals .

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Cristina Deptula

In a Gallup poll conducted near the end of April 2008, United States residents expressed that rising gas prices were one of their main concerns during the current Western economic slowdown. Pollsters asked respondents to categorize issues as ‘crises’ or ‘major problems’ (or minor problems, or not problems at all.) Over forty percent of those polled considered gas prices a crisis, and over half considered them a ‘major problem.’ Gas pricing was more often described as a crisis than mortgage foreclosures, healthcare costs, or job losses.

With these consumer concerns, some employees and employers have looked into telecommuting as a potential method for saving money while also reducing pollution created by daily driving. Telecommuting involves working somewhere other than one’s company office – one’s home, a local coffeeshop, a park – and then communicating online with managers and coworkers.

At first glance telecommuting seems a workable business model: technically possible, offering many benefits to employees and lessening the need for driving. However, United States companies seem slow to adopt the idea of working in a remote capacity, and most employees still commute every day to a physical location.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By Kim Young

The United States is in the midst of an exciting Presidential campaign 2008 to nominate the next President of the United States. He or she, will be inaugurated in January of 2009. Up to press time Senator Barack Obama, Senator Hilary Clinton and Senator John McCain were still in a heated contest ahead of the Democratic National Convention and the GOP (Republican) Convention due in summer.

An interesting but not entirely new and important consideration in the process of campaigning is the use of rich, new media to reach a wider target audience and thus garner more support which translates into votes for the upcoming general election. All three senators have been using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo, iGoogle, Del.icio.us, LinkedIn, Digg and You Tube among others to reach their various target audiences. Importantly, for future purposes, name recognition on the global scale is an advantage using these methodologies which include also blogs, vlogs, podcasts and twittering. Web 2.0 is largely responsible for this exciting new shift to empowering citizen journalist in the process of political enfranchisement.

Users who do not frequent the official websites of the candidates can join informal but active advocacy groups on any social network sites which include RSS feeds and widgets, mashups and Ajax, APIs and can not only share their comments, but can actively engage in discourse about and participate in grassroots political campaigning on behalf of their candidate without being officially a part of “The Campaign”.

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Issue 9/June-July 2008
By María de Molnar d’Arkos Millorete and Juan Luis Dorado Merchán

In the times of the Roman Empire, there was an unprecedented long distance trade route that changed the way that international trade was understood on an international scale. We are talking about the Silk Road.

It connected the Xi’an Chinese province, Constantinople and Alexandria, going through Persia, Antakya and Damascus between other destinations. Silk was brought to the gates of the Roman Empire, overcoming deserts and great difficulties. The Silk Road was a milestone in commercial conception, and it also helped to link two very different parts of the world: Eastern and Western civilization.

Nowadays, more than 2,000 years later, a new power structure is being established in the global market. China is playing a leading role as a developing economy, this time accompanied by Latin America.
These lines are not pretending to be a comparison between the millennial Silk Road and trade relations between China and Latin America in the 21st century. It is a simile between both situations and how this could alter and modify the course of every market worldwide, especially harming the interests of a third party: The United States.

Chinese and Latin American Relations in the 21st century

China’s situation as an economic and global power is well known. From this position, its influence on all levels is felt in the rest of the word, especially in the Asia-Pacific area but keeping an eye on other areas like Africa and Latin

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