Summit Agrees To Establish Earth Monitoring System by 2014 - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Delegates at the Earth Observation Summit yesterday agreed to create a global environmental monitoring system by 2014 that would help predict natural disasters, save lives and prevent billions of dollars in damage. Ministers and ambassadors from 44 nations and 26 international groups including the European Commission agreed to a 10-year plan to kick start the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), a communique said."

Could Overseas Financing Hurt the US? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Nor is there anything new about countries using financial clout to further geopolitical goals. The U.S. took that route during the Suez crisis in 1956, notes former Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel, now an Illinois congressman. To force Great Britain and France to remove troops from Egypt, the U.S. refused to supply them with emergency oil supplies and blocked the International Monetary Fund from helping Britain defend its currency. Now, Rep. Emanuel worries, the U.S. has given China 'veto power over our economic and security independence.'
Unfortunately, the U.S. dependence on foreign lenders has become woven into the structure of its economy. It requires either much stronger foreign demand for U.S. exports or much weaker U.S. demand for imports -- neither of which is likely. A weaker dollar will help, but the depreciation to date is likely far from adequate. The IMF has another idea: a faster reduction in the budget deficit than the Bush administration contemplates. That would reduce U.S. demand for foreign savings and insulate it from the moods of foreign investors -- political or otherwise. "

Could Overseas Financing Hurt the US? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Foreign central banks, led by China's and Japan's, now hold close to $1 trillion of Treasury bonds and bills, almost a quarter of publicly held U.S. debt. That serves their economic interest, but it also gives them a potential financial lever.
Imagine a standoff between the U.S. and China over Taiwanese independence. What would happen if China stopped buying U.S. bonds, or sold them outright? As bond prices fell, their yields, which move in the opposite direction, would rise. Mortgage rates would rise, depressing home sales and weakening the economy."

Could Overseas Financing Hurt the US? - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "As the U.S. has grown ever reliant on foreign central banks to finance its trade and budget deficits, the question arises: Could foreign governments, like China's, one day use this clout to influence U.S. foreign policy? Most experts say it's far-fetched. But some look at history and the state of modern markets and are worried.
'There is surely something odd about the world's greatest power being the world's greatest debtor,' Lawrence Summers, Harvard University president and former U.S. Treasury secretary, said in a recent speech. He calls it 'troubling' that the U.S. depends so much on 'inevitably political' entities to finance its foreign debts."

Asia Signs Up To 'New Silk Road' - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "Asian countries have signed a landmark treaty to create a highway that will connect Asia with Europe, like the ancient Silk Road trading route. The treaty was signed by 23 nations at a UN meeting and outlines a network that will link the continents in some 140,000 km (87,000 miles) of roads. The UN first proposed the plan in 1959, but it was delayed during the Cold War. (This) highway will contribute tremendously to regional economic integration,' a UN official said. "

Banker Presses Aid for Poor to Fight Terror - Empire? - Global Policy Forum: "As he nears the end of a decade as president of the World Bank, Wolfensohn laments what he calls a growing imbalance in global spending by the world's governments: $900 billion is spent annually on defense; $300 billion on support for the world's richest farmers; and only $56 billion on development assistance for the poor. "

PAPER: Good Stuff? For most of its history, paper existed as a precious and rare commodity. Today, it covers the planet. From the contents of our in-boxes to the currency in our wallets to the containers for our frozen dinners, paper is never far from reach. Global paper use increased more than six-fold over the latter half of the 20th century, and has doubled since the mid-1970s.
About 93 percent of today's paper comes from trees, and paper production is responsible for about a fifth of the total wood harvest worldwide. A sheet of writing paper might contain fibers from hundreds of different trees that have collectively traveled thousands of kilometers from forest to consumer.
Though invented as a tool to communicate, about half the paper in today's consumer society serves another purpose—packaging. This and other rapidly discarded paper now represents a big chunk of the modern waste stream, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the municipal solid waste burden in many industrial countries.

Lettre #288 du 1 au 7 Mai 2004Les traînées de condensation formées par les réacteurs des avions ont pu provoquer une hausse des températures contribuant au réchauffement climatique aux Etats-Unis entre 1975 et 1994 et s'ajoutant aux gaz à effet de serre, a affirmé mardi un scientifique de la Nasa."Le résultat montre une augmentation des nuages attribuables au trafic aérien qui pourrait contribuer pour près de moitié au réchauffement observé aux Etats-Unis pendant près de 20 ans, à partir de 1975", a déclaré Patrick Minnis, chercheur au centre Langley de la Nasa à Hampton (Virginie). "Mais il est important de dire que les traînées de condensation s'ajoutent et ne remplacent pas les gaz à effet de serre", tenus pour les principaux responsables du réchauffement climatique, a-t-il ajouté dans un communiqué.

BBC - Science & Nature - Genes - I Am UniqueIn your own personal “big bang” moment when you were conceived, a sperm and egg met for the first time. Each of them was carrying a special delivery. Half of the instruction manual for how to build a human. Magic happened, the two sets of instructions came together and the rest is history.

BBC - Science & Nature - Genes - Handing Down GenesThe night your parents “decided to turn off the television” was the most important of your life. When sperm and egg met, a brand new cell was created with the proper number of chromosomes restored. Each chromosome found a new partner but from a different body. Half of your chromosomes came from your mother and the other half came from your father.

Units of decision-making we need deliberative coordination: deliberation among units of decision-making directed both to learning jointly from their several experiences, and improving the institutional possibilities for such learning—a system with continuous discussion across separate units about current best practice and better ways of ascertaining it.

Global-Justice Much of our thinking about democracy assumes the existence of a state: by “state” I mean a politically organized society, with a central authority, operating over a territory, that monopolizes the legitimate use of force and has a wide range of policy competences (employment, environment, health, product safety, domestic security, research/development, etc.). Our standard conceptions of democracy—current paradigms of democraticness—are linked to this institutional setting. The idea is, roughly, that policy-makers are held accountable to citizens through regular competitive elections, against a background of basic liberties of speech and association...This was not always the understanding of democracy. In Democracy and Its Critics, Robert Dahl writes about two major transformations of democracy: first, the development of direct democracy in Greek city-states, then second, the development of representative democracy in the United States and early modern Europe, as a response to, among other things, a growth in the size of political units.

Foreign Policy In Focus-PetroPolitics Special Report: Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World's Oil: "These critical points would necessarily include areas that are petroleum sources. Whether or not the administration consciously linked energy with its security policy, Bush undeniable prioritized the enhancement of U.S. power projection at the same time he endorsed increased dependence on oil from unstable areas.
As a result, a two-pronged strategy governs U.S. policy toward much of the world. One arm of this strategy is to secure more oil from the rest of the world, and the other is to enhance the capability to intervene. While one of these objectives arises from energy preoccupations and the other from security concerns, the upshot is a single direction for U.S. dominance in the 21st Century. It is this combination of strategies, more than anything else, that will anchor the United States' international relations for years to come."

Foreign Policy In Focus-PetroPolitics Special Report: Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World's Oil: "As the NEPDG began its review of U.S. energy policy, its members saw the United States was faced with a grave choice between two widely diverging paths. It could continue down the road it had long been traveling, consuming increasing amounts of petroleum and--given the irreversible decline in domestic oil production--becoming ever more dependent on imported supplies. Or, it could choose an alternate route of reliance on renewable sources of energy and gradually reducing petroleum use"

U.S. lacks direction, cohesion in war of ideas - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics: "The CIA, for its part, is engaged in some covert propaganda to counter pro-terrorist propaganda and activities. But Bush administration officials said the efforts have been far short of what the agency did during the Cold War to counter anti-American ideological attacks by communists and their supporters"

U.S. lacks direction, cohesion in war of ideas - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics: "The report, issued Oct. 1 by an outside advisory group, said the department spends about $600 million annually in promoting the United States and $540 million on broadcasting, but only $25 million on attempting to influence the estimated 1.5 billion people in the Muslim world. "

Terror and The War Of Ideas (washingtonpost.com): "Terrorism today doesn't need government backing, because it is fueled by three broad forces: the openness of free societies, the easy access to technologies of violence and a radical, global ideology of hatred. It can be stopped only by responses at each level. "

war of ideas."liberal ideas are causing a global democratic revolution. The democratic worldview is winning the war of ideas." b. Robert Dahl/Seymour Martin Lipset variant: "economic growth is causing a global democratic revolution."

A short history of trade Restrictions on trade have fallen since the late 1700s, and especially since 1945, as "liberal" ideas won the day. The US led the movement to free trade during 1945-today. But the U.S. still restricts imports of some products, especially products made by unskilled workers, including agricultural products and textiles. This is a blow to poor countries.

TRADE THEORY AND BACKGROUND 1. Free trade ("liberal") doctrine holds that national prosperity is advanced by the unfettered exchange of goods and services with other states. This is achieved by removing restrictions on trade.
2. Mercantile doctrine holds that national prosperity is advanced by achieving a trade surplus. This is achieved by state subsidies to exporting industries, and by state restrictions on imports. These restrictions include tariffs, import quotas, and import-impeding regulation of imported products.

Weapons of mass destruction The cost of making weapons of mass destruction has fallen, the expertise needed to make them has spread, and the number of states trying to make them has grown. Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Libya--all friendly with terrorist groups--have joined the game. There is fear they will supply such weapons to terrorists if they build them.

Containment
Neo-containment Type #1 : the USA identifies and contains the new potential Eurasian hegemon (Russia? China? Germany?) The USA would contain the potential hegemon's imperial expansion, and might also try to hamper its economic growth.
Neo-containment Type #2: the USA identifies and contains the world's most crazy or hostile states, e.g., by limiting their control of power-assets (weapons of mass destruction, oil resources) and by lowering US dependence on their products (oil).
Question: Should preventive war be among America's means of counterproliferation?

Elite generational trauma "Isolationists and interventionists each emerge from disasters caused by the others' policies." (Santayana corollary: "Those who remember the past are condemned to make the opposite mistake.")

Organization Organization theory (Morton Halperin, Graham Allison, Aaron "organizations seek size, wealth, autonomy, and conservation of their "essence" (i.e., no change in their mission); follow standard operating procedures; and cannot self-evaluate."

Security the greater the security threat states face, the more aggressive they become. "States seek security, and clash because their efforts to secure themselves threaten others' security." The search for security causes wars; empires and interventions; and arms races...The more easily states can conquer, the more aggressive they become. "States seize what their power allows; empires grow and contract as the metropole's power rises and falls..." "
Balance of Threat": "states align against the most threatening power," with threat a function of strength, aggressiveness, and proximity (vs. "bandwagoning": "states align with threats").
"Attribution theory"--states tend to attribute their own behavior to their circumstances, while attributing others' behavior to their innate character. (Hence they see their own nasty conduct as excused by necessity, while others' nasty conduct is unprovoked and unjustified.)
conduct is unprovoked and unjustified.)
A related syndrome: states tend to ascribe others' good behavior to their own efforts to make the other behave well; and to blame others' bad conduct on the other's innate character.
Belief perseverance--states are slow to absorb new facts & realities that clash with their elite's existing beliefs.
States tend to exaggerate the shared character of that clash with their elite's existing beliefs.
States tend to exaggerate the shared character of information, hence they are often unaware when others' perceptions diverge from their own.
Spiral model: "Wars arise when states punish others expecting compliance; but punishment only provokes retaliation, sparking a conflict-spiral."
Deterrence: "Wars arise when states appease aggressors; this leads the aggressor to expect further appeasement, and to ignore warnings when appeasement ends."

April 28, 2004: World Food Prices Rising: Environmental Neglect Shrinking Harvests in Key Countries: "Growth in world grain production is lagging behind the growth in demand largely because environmental trends, such as spreading deserts, falling water tables, and rising temperatures, are shrinking harvests in many countries. ".."The question now is whether farmers can expand the grain harvest this year enough to eliminate the huge deficit of last year. Unfortunately there are no efforts underway that are sufficient to reverse the expansion of deserts, the fall in water tables, or the rise in temperatures that are shrinking harvests in key countries. In the absence of such an effort, food prices are likely to continue rising. "

KurzweilAI.net: "KurzweilAI.Net focuses on the exponential growth of intelligence, both biological and machine, and the merger of the two in a post-humanist future."

KurzweilAI.net: "What is KurzweilAI.Net? KurzweilAI.net features the big thoughts of today's big thinkers examining the confluence of accelerating revolutions that are shaping our future world, and the inside story on new technological and social realities from the pioneers actively working in these arenas.
We are witnessing intersecting revolutions in a plethora of fields: biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, virtual reality, human brain reverse engineering, brain augmentation, robotics, and many others. The leading visionaries represented on this site examine these transforming trends and their profound impact on economics, the arts, politics, government, warfare, medicine, health, education, disabilities, social mores, and sexuality"

WFS - Tibs--THE FUTURIST: "Malnutrition, disease, and human misery in general will reach 'unimaginable' levels within 50 years if current environmental and population-growth trends continue, warns agricultural ecologist David Pimentel of Cornell University. At current growth rates, the human population will reach 12 billion by 2054; reducing the birthrate from an average of 2.9 to 2 children per couple will delay that milestone by about 20 years. Feeding this expanding population will put more stress on cropland, which is already declining by 10 million hectares a year due to soil erosion, says Pimentel. 'The only way to reverse the growing imbalance between human population numbers and food supply is to actively conserve cropland, fresh water, energy, and other environmental resources,' he concludes, recommending more effort in developing ecologically safe agricultural technologies."

Foreign Policy: "The radical Islamists seek to weaken the United States and the West because they are both impediments to this end. During the 1990s, militants in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria began turning their attention abroad as they grew frustrated by their failure to change the status quo at home. The militants felt that striking at the Arab regimes' Western sponsors (the ?far enemy? as opposed to the ?near enemy?) would be the best means to improve local conditions. This strategy, which bin Laden and those around him aggressively advocate, remains contentious among Islamic radicals, especially in Egypt. "

Foreign Policy: "Bin Laden is a propagandist, directing his efforts at attracting those Muslims who have hitherto shunned his extremist message. He knows that only through mass participation in his project will he have any chance of success. His worldview is receiving immeasurably more support around the globe than it was two years ago, let alone 15 years ago when he began serious campaigning. The objective of Western countries is to eliminate the threat of terror, or at least to manage it in a way that does not seriously impinge on the daily lives of its citizens. Bin Laden's aim is to radicalize and mobilize. He is closer to achieving his goals than the West is to deterring him. "

Foreign Policy: ". In 2002, total aid flows from rich countries to poor ones reached $58 billion. Rich countries provide poor ones with grants, loans, food, and technical advice to support everything from massive infrastructure projects to immunization programs in tiny rural villages. Most comparisons of aid examine simple measures such as total assistance as a percentage of the donor's GDP. T"

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Excerpt): "This U.S. policy on China is misguided. A wealthy China would not be a status quo power but an aggressive state determined to achieve regional hegemony. This is not because a rich China would have wicked motives, but because the best way for any state to maximize its prospects for survival is to be the hegemon in its region of the world. Although it is certainly in China's interest to be the hegemon in Northeast Asia, it is clearly not in America's interest to have that happen. "

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Excerpt): "What makes a future Chinese threat so worrisome is that it might be far more powerful and dangerous than any of the potential hegemons that the United States confronted in the twentieth century. Neither Wilhelmine Germany, nor imperial Japan, nor Nazi Germany, nor the Soviet Union had nearly as much latent power as the United States had during their confrontations. But if China were to become a giant Hong Kong, it would probably have somewhere on the order of four times as much latent power as the United States does, allowing China to gain a decisive military advantage over the United States in Northeast Asia. [1] In that circumstance, it is hard to see how the United States could prevent China from becoming a peer competitor. Moreover, China would likely be a more formidable superpower than the United States in the ensuing global competition between them. "

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Excerpt): "States still fear each other and seek to gain power at each other's expense, because international anarchy?the driving force behind great-power behavior?did not change with the end of the Cold War, and there are few signs that such change is likely any time soon. States remain the principal actors in world politics and there is still no night watchman standing above them. For sure, the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a major shift in the global distribution of power. But it did not give rise to a change in the anarchic structure of the system, and without that kind of profound change, there is no reason to expect the great powers to behave much differently in the new century than they did in previous centuries. "

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "The real world in which we live is characterised by a gross imbalance in the distribution of power. This power in all its forms is concentrated in a few countries. These countries own the bulk of the wealth of nations. The dominant ideas within these countries define the global agenda. "

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "Among the central theses of the proponents of neo-liberalism are the sanctity of the market economy, property rights and a minimalist state. In reality this means granting the greatest freedom to private corporations to do as they wish. It signifies the inviolability of the power they dispose of as a result of the assets they hold. It is a call for the radical reduction of the capacity of the state to intervene"

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "This results in a mutually reinforcing process. Whereas the economic strength of the multinationals gives weight to the international standing of their national governments, that political weight is, in turn, used to advance the global interests of the multinational corporations. Necessarily, those outside this equation find it very difficult to contest this combined political and economic power. "

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "The process of the concentration and centralisation of capital has meant the continuous growth of the political power of the countries in which the headquarters of these global economic players are domiciled. "

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "Through natural growth, mergers and acquisitions, there have emerged powerful companies that play a major role in determining the future of the world. These include those who control financial capital. As experience has shown, when these shift from place to place what, to them, might be insignificant volumes of capital, economies of entire countries can be plunged into deep crisis, with large numbers of people losing jobs and many driven into poverty. "

Address at the 22nd Congress of the Socialist International: "A central feature of the process of globalisation is the concentration and centralisation of power into ever fewer hands. We refer here to all forms of power - political, economic, military, technological, intellectual, information, and so on. "

Home for PS100: "Typically there is agreement about the goals --- no one would argue against a strong economy, or cheaper gas prices, or making health coverage universally available. The debates arise over the best way to reach these goals."

MIT OpenCourseWare | Political Science | 17.40 American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Future, Fall 2002 | Lecture Notes

Ps481 Home Page: "Methodology in International Relations "

Power transition: "The present or second period is the period of the power transition... characterized by great and sudden shifts in national power caused primarily by the differential spread of industrialization throughout the world. As each nation industrializes, it experiences an increase in wealth, in population, and in the efficiency of its governmental organization. Since these are the major determinants of national power, it also experiences an increase in power...
The most powerful nation in the world customarily heads an international order that includes other major nations (the powerful and satisfied) and also some minor nations and dependencies (the weak and satisfied and the weak and dissatisfied). As long as the satisfied nations enjoy a large preponderance of power over the rest of the world, peace is guaranteed. However, as new nations industrialize, the old leader is challenged. A recently industrialized nation may be dissatisfied with the existing international order because it rose too late to receive a proportionate share of the benefits, and it may succeed in drawing to its side lesser nations who are also dissatisfied because they are exploited by the nations that dominate the existing order.
Such a challenge usually results in war... the major wars of recent history have all been wars involving the dominant nation and its allies against a challenger who has recently risen in power thanks to industrialization. In the recent past, such wars have occurred when the challenger had grown rapidly but before the challenger was as powerful as the dominant nation and its allies and the wars were started by the challenger. ..."

pt: "... the powerful and dissatisfied nations are usually those that have grown to full power after the existing international order was fully established and the benefits already allocated. These ...(newly emerging powers) had no share in the creation of the international order, and the dominant nation and its supporters are not usually willing to grant the newcomers more than a small part of the advantages they receive.... The challengers, for their part, are seeking to establish a new place for themselves in international society, a place to which they feel their increasing power entitles them. Often these nations have grown rapidly in power and expect to continue to grow. They have reason to believe that they can rival or surpass in power the dominant nation, and they are unwilling to accept a subordinate position in inter"

pt: "'At the very apex of the pyramid is the most powerful nation in the world, currently the United States, previously England, perhaps tomorrow Russia or China.... Just below the apex of the pyramid are the great powers. The difference between them and the dominant nation is to be found not only in their different abilities to influence the behavior of others, but also in the differential benefits they receive from the international order to which they belong. Great powers are, as their name indicates, very powerful nations, but they are less powerful than the dominant nation.... "

The distribution of international power

MIT OpenCourseWare | Science, Technology, and Society | STS.002 Toward the Scientific Revolution, Fall 2003 | Readings: "History isn't just about learning facts and dates. It's also about understanding how and why things happened. So don't get bogged down in taking in all the facts and dates, at the expense of the big picture. The key is to ask yourself, 'Why would this event be important, and how does it relate to other events?'"

What is technology?
Technology as "the constellation of tools, machinery, systems, and techniques that manipulate the natural world for human ends." or "tools to
control their environments." As such, technology is not separate from culture but rather an integral part of it. It is thus influenced by all the human beliefs, ideologies, traditions, social organizations, and behaviors that comprise culture. And cultural components themselves are always changing.
Ways ofthinking about technology in historical perspective:
1. Technology as the production of knowledge and development of knowhow [By and large, technological change is incremental in nature. Revolutionary developments are unusual ].
2. Technology as a social force: the socio/economic impact or implications of technology. The problem of technological determinism[see Marx and Smith, Does Technology Drive History?] Unanticipated consequences: the auto and environmental pollution.
3. Technology as a human/social product: the idea that social/political forces an influence or shape the direction and forms that technologies take. Example: military enterprise and technological change: the development of interchangeable parts manufacturing.

By endorsing Ariel Sharon's plan George Bush has legitimised terrorism: "We all have lands that 'God' gave us. Didn't Queen Mary die with 'Calais' engraved on her heart? Doesn't Spain have a legitimate right to the Netherlands? Or Sweden the right to Norway and Denmark? Every colonial power, including Israel can put forward these preposterous demands. What Bush has actually done is give way to the crazed world of Christian Zionism. The fundamentalist Christians who support Israel's theft of the West Bank on the grounds that the state of Israel must exist there according to God's law until the second coming, believe that Jesus will return to earth and the Israelis - for this is the Bush 'Christian Sundie' belief - will then have to convert to Christianity or die in the battle of Amargeddon. "

Worldwide Economy Roars Ahead- Empire? - Global Policy Forum: "The US remains the world's only military superpower. But it has company in the economic sphere. That means the Bush administration may need to be less unilateral in economic policies, says C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics. It can't ignore market forces. So the US has 'no other option' than to be cooperative on trade and similar issues. "

Europe against Empire? -Empire? - Global Policy Forum: "It of course suits European opposition to turn the USA into the fearsome hyperpower. Such an image distracts from the regional ambitions of its own Great Powers, and their own lack of commitment to sovereign equality. (Chirac owes his recent warm welcome in Algeria more to his ability to channel anti-American sentiment than anything else.) But surely European leaders do not deserve credit as enemies of imperialism. They do not resist the idea of a world ruled by Great Powers; they just want in on the game. "

Expanding Military Intervention - Empire? - Global Policy Forum US expansion of the “global war on terrorism” is very expensive. According to the US Congressional Budget Office, the US annual military bill could grow from $369 billion in 2004 to $600 billion in 2013. (Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy)

World Federalist Movement - Canada: "global cooperation is urgently needed to solve some of humanity's biggest problems."

World Watch Magazine: May/ June 2004: A California company is introducing human genes to open-field rice crops. Echoing the warnings of Rachel Carson a generation ago, environmentalists now worry that the unanticipated consequences of such biopharmed crops could lead to a twenty-first century “Silent Winter.”

Canadian Foreign Policy Journal: "The new American century aims to reverse the thesis of American
decline and spread liberalism and democracy by ensuring “the US army is unrivalled in the world. Washington can dictate its law wherever and whenever it wants.” (Gonzalez 2003). It is not the structure of international politics that has changed since 9-11, but policies and attitudes. After all, the American military preponderance has been known since at least the first Gulf War at the beginning of the 1990s, as has the superpower tendency to unilateralism and the weaknesses of the UN in security matters.3 However, under Bush, selective unilateralism has given away to rampant unilateralism and general disdain for international organizations.

Canadian Foreign Policy Journal: "The new American century aims to reverse the thesis of American
decline and spread liberalism and democracy by ensuring “the US army is unrivalled in the world. Washington can dictate its law wherever and whenever it wants.” (Gonzalez 2003). It is not the structure of international politics that has changed since 9-11, but policies and attitudes. After all, the American military preponderance has been known since at least the first Gulf War at the beginning of the 1990s, as has the superpower tendency to unilateralism and the weaknesses of the UN in security matters.3 However, under Bush, selective unilateralism has given away to rampant unilateralism and general disdain for international organizations.

Canadian Foreign Policy Journal Generally speaking, international commentators have proposed four types of power regimes which might drive the future of international politics: an American hegemony; a coalition of democratic states; the current UN system; or a reformed system of global institutions that wouldbe both more effective and more representative.

Changes in the World, North America, and Canada Since the End of the Cold War:
▪ Mutually Assured Destruction and the division of the world into two major power blocs are no longer providing even a semblance of international order;
▪ Occurrences of international terrorism and failed states are increasing;
▪ United States is clearly emerging as the world’s only superpower;
▪ Long-held tenets of Canadian foreign policy are being undermined;
▪ Multilateral security institutions (such as the UN and NATO) are proving ineffective in ensuring world peace and stability;
▪ Europe, NATO, and the UN are failing to serve Canada as a counter-balance to American influence;
▪ Open societies, such as the United States, are clearly open to fanatical enemies of the democratic secular world, as shown by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001;
▪ Canadian society is rapidly changing from being largely Caucasian as immigration of people from troubled parts of the world tie Canada more closely to
tragic events in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East;
▪ Canada has been slipping badly in international influence over the last decade with the erosion of foreign policy assets, Canadian Forces capability, foreign affairs budgets, and Canadian overseas aid commitments.

Canadian Foreign Policy Journal: "Despite current appearances, global management can only be achieved through multinational cooperation, and not some form of hegemony. The future of the global community would best be served if internationalists started, now, the process of reforming international institutions so their effectiveness could be improved. This study focuses on how to promote a process of innovation in international institutions, post-September 11, 2001, by analysing their global environment, their origins and evolution, and by suggesting new techniques for their transformation."

The Jerusalem Report Magazine: Israel : Israel Article: "'The Zionist goal of a safe haven for the Jewish people can only be achieved through peace,' he told another interviewer recently. 'The right is naive to accept the notion of 100 more years of conflict...Their policies lead to the end of the Jewish national state. They lift up their hands in despair where I keep trying.'"

The Jerusalem Report Magazine: Israel : Israel Article: "'The 37-year-long debate about the [Palestinian] territories is over,' he asserts. 'The argument between left and right is no longer over whether or not to keep the territories. It is over how best to end the occupation.' The right-center under Sharon and many in Labor favor unilateral disengagement; the left, led by Yahad and including Labor doves, say by agreement. 'This,' says Beilin, 'is a new debate, in which I believe we on the left have the upper hand.' In endorsing the left?s emphasis on the need to end the occupation, the right has usurped some of its political space, he acknowledges. But, he says, it has also given the left a new legitimacy."

Globalisation In this context, globalisation is seen as a structural transformation of the international system away from traditional sovereignty, creating an urgent need for new forms of governance, because of a “governance gap” or a “governance dilemma”. The greatest challenges to these new forms of governance are violent conflict and poverty, two negative phenomena which are related through complex and still little understood causational chains...Governance is not exclusive to any particular level of the world system but is a multi-level phenomenon....New forms of governance represent the political content of the emerging transnational space created by globalisation, so far dominated by economic market forces. It is here assumed that any viable world order must rest upon an institutionalised balance between economic and political forces.

Governance Possible governance implications of emerging conflict patterns that are challenging the international system [the interrelationship between conflict and development at global, regional, national and local levels]...The authors build a case for the argument that increases in trade and investment will enhance the prospects for democracy and peace by strengthening interdependence among nations in a liberal world order..

World Federalist Movement - Canada: "The spread of weapons of mass destruction and the trade in arms threaten interntional security. A growing world population is stretching the Earth's natural capacity to sustain life. Many of the gravest threats to the Earth's life support systems have a global dimension, and call for political decision making and action on a global scale....The world is now our largest community. However, the world's legal and political institutions have not kept pace with the changes transforming international society. The present patchwork of United Nations agencies, regional organizations, ad hoc diplomacy and international treaties is not an adequate foundation for the governance of world affairs in the 21st century."

World Federalist Movement - Canada: "Global cooperation is urgently needed to solve some of humanity's biggest problems."

Post-Westphalia world The pace and direction of transition to a post-Westphalia world will depend upon many factors: the degree to which elites can legitimise globalisation-from-above, the extent to which the anti-globalisation movement can collaborate with governmental forces that are dissatisfied with the manner in which the world economy is functioning, the creativity of reformist and transformative politics within regional and global arenas, and the extent to which the state can demonstrate its problem-solving competence in response to a variety of global challenges (global warming, transnational crime, genocide, illegal immigration and refugees).

Worldwatch Paper 162: The Anatomy of Resource Wars In several countries around the developing world, abundant natural resources help fuel conflict, either by attracting predatory groups seeking to control them or by financing wars that were initially caused by other factors. Prominent examples include Sierra Leone, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Afghanistan. Conflict has also erupted in several countries where the benefits of mining and logging projects—oil in Columbia and Nigeria, timber and natural gas in Indonesia, and copper in Bougainville/Papua New Guinea—accrue to a small elite while the social and environmental burdens are borne by local communities...Governments, rebels, and warloads have made billions of dollars by selling conflict commodities and have used the money to arm themselves and line their own pockets. But the cost of these conflicts has been extraordinary—more than 5 million people killed during the 1990's, as many as 20 million driven from their homes, and considerable environmental destruction. In this new publication, Senior Researcher, Michael Renner assesses the anatomy of resource wars, examines a number of specific cases, and discusses efforts to break the link between resources and conflict.

Aljazeera.Net - The failure of US journalism: "The paradox of US journalism is that a press which operates free of direct governmental control produces news that routinely reproduces the conventional wisdom of a narrow power elite. Coverage of the Iraq war highlights two of the key reasons.
First, the majority of US journalists are unable to transcend the limiting effects of the ideology of American exceptionalism - the notion that the United States is the ultimate embodiment of democracy and goes forward in the world as a benevolent champion of freedom, not as another great power looking to expand its influence around the world.
Uncritical acceptance of this ideology permeates mainstream US coverage; even 'critical' reporting usually tends to take it as a given."

Foreign Affairs - Book Review - Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties - Vaclav Smil: "Energy is above all a quantitative subject -- an idea that is good in principle can be quantitatively insignificant -- and this book is not for the numerophobic. But given the pervasive importance of energy, Smil conveys well the complexity and uncertainty of the energy system and its social and environmental impacts. (An especially instructive chapter recounts the dismal record of long-term energy forecasts.) Still, Smil believes that current energy practices cannot continue indefinitely, not because fossil fuels will be exhausted but because the environmental impact of their use will become increasingly unacceptable and even dangerous. He sees promising technical and economic potential for change but is pessimistic when it comes to the possibility of intelligent, concerted action in that direction. "

Amazon.com: Books: Energy at the Crossroads : Global Perspectives and Uncertainties: "today's complex energy issues -- how to think clearly and logically about what is possible and what is desirable in our energy future. After a century of unprecedented production growth, technical innovation, and expanded consumption, the world faces a number of critical energy challenges arising from unequal resource distribution, changing demand patterns, and environmental limitations. The fundamental message of Energy at the Crossroads is that our dependence on fossil fuels must be reduced not because of any imminent resource shortages but because the widespread burning of oil, coal, and natural gas damages the biosphere and presents increasing economic and security problems as the world relies on more expensive supplies and Middle Eastern crude oil."

April 14, 2004: Saudis Have U.S. Over a Barrel - The Shifting Terms of Trade Between Grain and Oil: "We have spilled more than enough blood and spent more than enough of our treasure to protect access to oil supplies in the Middle East. RAND Corporation analysts calculate that even in peacetime it costs at least $30 billion per year to maintain the U.S. military presence needed to assure access to the region's oil. It is time for a change.
Unless the United States assumes a leadership role, Saudi Arabia will continue to dictate the terms of trade between oil and grain. This means they also will dictate U.S. gasoline prices. The United States, as the world's largest oil consumer and importer, can regain some influence on oil pricing by sharply reducing its dependence on oil. This would also delay the day when oil production peaks, buying the world time for a smoother transition to the post-petroleum era. The United States has the technologies and energy resources to lead this effort. What the world needs today is not more oil, but more leadership. "

April 14, 2004: Saudis Have U.S. Over a Barrel - The Shifting Terms of Trade Between Grain and Oil: "During the early 1970s before the oil price hikes by OPEC, the United States largely could pay its oil import bill with grain exports. But in 2003, grain exports covered only 11 percent of the staggering U.S. oil import bill of $99 billion. While the exchange rate between grain and oil was deteriorating, U.S. domestic oil output was falling and oil consumption was rising, which means that oil imports were climbing. In 2003, oil imports accounted for 60 percent of total use. "

April 14, 2004: Saudis Have U.S. Over a Barrel - The Shifting Terms of Trade Between Grain and Oil: "In 1970, a bushel of wheat could be traded for a barrel of oil in the world market. It now takes nine bushels of wheat to buy a barrel of oil. The two countries most affected by the dramatically shifting terms of trade between grain and oil are the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The United States, the world's largest importer of oil and its largest exporter of grain, is paying for this shift in the wheat-oil exchange rate with higher gasoline prices. The nine-fold shift is also driving the largest U.S. trade deficit in history, which in turn is raising external debt to a record level, weakening the U.S. economy. In contrast, Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter and a high-ranking grain importer, is benefiting handsomely. "

B E L L A C I A O - When U.S. Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists? -: "Terrorism does not necessarily have anything to do with Islamic culture; he spread of terror as a tactic is largely an outgrowth of American cold war foreign policy. After Vietnam the American government shifted from a strategy of direct intervention in the fight against global Communism to one of supporting new forms of low-level insurgency by private armed groups...In practice it translated into a United States decision to harness, or even to cultivate, terrorism in the struggle against regimes it considered pro-Soviet. The real culprit of 9/11, in other words, is not Islam but rather non-state violence in general, during the final stages of the stand-off with the Soviet Union. Using third and fourth parties, the C.I.A. supported terrorist and proto-terrorist movements in Indochina, Latin America, Africa and, of course, Afghanistan... [ he argues in his new book, "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror" (Pantheon)."

Aljazeera.Net - Israelis better at manipulating media: "So the general conclusion must be that the mainstream western media, even more so in the US, do not provide an empathetic, coherent, insightful, factual, contextualised and detailed account of the Palestinian narrative as rooted in the daily life under occupation and arising out of a collective longing and striving for freedom in a national state.
Obviously, the power of the media is such that an underdeveloped representation of the Palestinian story influences politics. Having international law and a worldwide consensus about the need for a Palestinian state on one's side is not enough when the main influential political actors and their audiences do not fully understand one's basic narrative. "

Presentation US government which will spend $US 450 billion on military spending but $US 13 billion on development assistance.

$1,000,000,000,000 More than $1 trillion dollars (US$1,000 billion) is paid in bribes each year, according to ongoing research at the World Bank Institute (WBI). The Institute's director for Governance, says this US$1 trillion figure is an estimate of actual bribes paid worldwide in both rich and developing countries.

Headlines for Friday, April 9, 2004This year's edition of the World Bank’s African Development Indicators (ADI) 2004 depicts a diverse picture of development in Africa, with several countries making remarkable progress and others lagging seriously behind, All Africa reports. Thirteen Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries averaged more than 5 percent growth for the period 1995-2002, but many others saw their economies contract, usually as a result of severe civil conflict and adverse weather conditions. The region's economic growth slowed in 2002 to 2.8 percent, slightly down from 2.9 percent in 2001. Bearing the diverse performance in mind, the publication notes that Africa urgently needs rich nations to deliver on their promises of more generous aid and wider trade opportunities to reverse the exacting cruelty of disease and poverty on the continent.

Headlines for Friday, April 9, 2004: "World Bank President James Wolfensohn reminded that the funds promised for development are paltry compared to the $900 billion spent each year for defense and argued that a shift in priorities could help combat both poverty and terrorism. "

Africa and the Crisis of Instability - Nations and States - Global Policy Forum: "In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, most of Africa was battling with the destabilising and debilitating forces of colonialism, neo-colonialism (imperialism), apartheid, the Cold War and political authoritarianism. With the disappearance of these centrifugal forces, except neo-colonialism and political authoritarianism, several African states have started to recover their souls and move towards normality. "

NGOs are calling on the IMF and World Bank to end the tradition of appointing Europeans and US citizens to the Institution’s top posts, while excluding candidates from poor countries. NGOs argue that the process is not in line with the Institution’s recommendations to its borrowers of transparency and good governance. (Jubilee Debt Campaign)
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/int/bwi/2004/0326carve.htm

AIDS Casts Grim Shadow Over Southern Africa Food Crisis - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum: "The drought-induced food crisis across southern Africa has again highlighted the deadly impact that HIV/AIDS is having on food security in the region. The disease has already killed about seven million farm workers since 1985 in the 25 worst-hit African countries, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and UNAIDS fears another 16 million may die over the next 20 years unless access to treatment is improved and prevention responses are swiftly implemented. "

Global Policy Forum But practically, whatever reform of the UN is proposed, it comes up against the brick wall of the veto. The US and the other countries on the Council are not going to allow reform unless their predominance is protected. Even if we could reduce the role of the Great Powers, who would we replace them with? We cannot point to any country in the world that will do anything other than represent its national interests, or more accurately the interests of its ruling class: ...each member of the UN tries to use its membership to further its own interests. States have not joined out of respect for the 'UN idea', or with a view to creating a stronger organisation by transferring some of their powers to it. Rather they are in the UN for what they can get out of it. Of course, some states may see it as in their interests to increase the deference which is paid to the opinions of the UN--as expressed, particularly, in the resolutions of the General Assembly. This is likely to be much more true of the weaker than of the stronger members... But even weaker states show little sign of wanting to endow the UN with any general authority.

Is the UN an Alternative? However, there seem to be as many proposals for UN reform as there are commentators. It has been argued that Britain and France should give up their seats in favour of a single European Union representative. Others have argued that any one of a number of states deserve the status of permanent membership, including Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and India.57 The Commission on Global Governance called for the expansion of the Security Council, the phasing out of the veto, and an increase in power for the General Assembly.

The UN after the Cold War For many the end of the Cold War seemed to offer the possibility that the UN-could finally act as a force for peace.24 With the end of the Cold War we have certainly entered a new era of international relations, but any hope that the UN would come into its own has been demolished by the experience of the last ten years. The US has not sought collaboration, but instead has sought to take advantage of the weakness of its main rival and attempted to construct a New World Order in its own image. In the early 1990s it appeared that the UN could become the plaything of American strategic interests, but as the decade has dragged on it has become increasingly difficult for the US to use the UN to sanction its military operations. It has chosen instead to develop the role of NATO.25 However, that is not to say that the UN is no longer useful to America in some circumstances, or to predict its imminent demise.

Is the UN an Alternative to Empire? - Global Policy Forum Given the last 54 years of repeated wars, oppression and abuses of human rights, we would have to conclude that the UN has failed in its task. The question that we have to answer is whether this failure arises from something fundamental to the UN, or whether it is an organisation we could hope to change. Many on the left, including those like Ken who stood out against the bombing of the former Yugoslavia, will agree that the UN has its faults, but argue that the principles of the UN Charter are an ideal worth fighting for, and that we must fight for its reform.

Is the UN an Alternative to Empire? - Global Policy Forum Within two years of the founding of the UN the Cold War had begun. A terrible symmetry was imposed on the world, with the two Great Powers armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. Whilst there was no conflict at the heart of the system, the two superpowers fought their wars largely by proxy at the edges of the system. Between 1945 and 1989 there were 138 wars, resulting in 23 million deaths. All were fought in the so called Third World. The Korean War killed 3 million, the Vietnam War 2 million. Military interventions not classified as wars, like those in Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Grenada in 1983, claimed thousands of lives.

Is the UN an Alternative to Empire? - Global Policy Forum Whilst at times the US had to make compromises in order to keep the Allies on board, it was always American interests which dominated in the negotiations to set up the UN. What emerged from the negotiations was a United Nations system dominated by the Security Council, which was in turn controlled by the five permanent members. The five represent the balance of power as it existed at the close of the war: the three Allies, with France and China.

April 8, 2004: Europe Leading World Into Age of Wind Energy: "Europe is leading the world into the age of wind energy. In its late 2003 projections, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) shows Europe's wind-generating capacity expanding from 28,400 megawatts in 2003 to 75,000 megawatts in 2010 and 180,000 megawatts in 2020. By 2020, just 16 years from now, wind-generated electricity is projected to satisfy the residential needs of 195 million Europeans, half of the region's population. "

High Military Expenditure in Some PlacesThe US military budget is more than eight times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender. The US military budget is more than twenty nine times as large as the combined spending of $14.4 billion from the seven “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria). It is more than the combined spending of the next twenty three nations. The United States and its close allies spend more than the rest of the world combined, accounting for some two thirds to three-quarters of all military spending, depending on who you count as close allies (typically NATO countries, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea). The seven potential “enemies,” Russia, and China together spend $116.2 billion, 27.6% of the U.S. military budget.

High Military Expenditure in Some Places: "The U.S. military budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 is $420.7 billion
For Fiscal Year 2004 it was $399.1 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2003 it was $396.1 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2002 it was $343.2 billion.
For Fiscal Year 2001 it was $305 billion. And Congress had increased that budget request to $310 billion.
This was up from approximately $288.8 billion, in 2000. "

High Military Expenditure in Some Places: "On the military in general, the USA spends more than the rest of the G7 countries combined "

Lawrence Davidson: Orwell and Kafka in Israel/Palestine: "Whether it is for imagined military reasons (which entails a denial that occupation is the source of their insecurity), or faith based religious reasons (which entails exoneration from responsibility for brutal actions because they are doing the work of God), the majority of Israelis have come to the conclusion that there is no alternative to a hard line, right wing government which can only conceptualize a peace treaty that ghettoizes, economically emasculates, and subordinates any eventual Palestinian political entity. And even then most Israelis do not believe such a treaty will lead to real peace, not because it fails to satisfy Palestinian needs, but because the Palestinians are all anti-Semites who will forever want to destroy all of Israel. "

Lawrence Davidson: Orwell and Kafka in Israel/Palestine: "The Israelis and their supporters have other rationalizations for occupation. There is the biblically based claim that 'Judea and Samaria' are 'covenant lands,' that is lands given to the Jews by God. This, of course, is a matter of faith and not provable fact. Many people take the bible, where this covenant is to be found, as the word of God. However, this too is faith and not provable fact. Nonetheless, such faith put forth as fact allows some Israelis to see the indigenous population as 'strangers in the land' and Jewish folks from Brooklyn as rightful inhabitants. This leads to more tricks of the mind. For instance, Carolyn Glick, the Associate Editor of the Jerusalem Post told this author and others that the removal of the West Bank colonies would constitute the 'ethnic cleansing of Judea and Samaria.'"

Lawrence Davidson: Orwell and Kafka in Israel/Palestine: "It was Orwell's conviction that 'political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful.'"

US Bludgeons Nations to Reject War Crimes Court - International Justice - Global Policy Forum: "The United States has used its military clout in Asia to reinforce an extraordinary campaign of sabotage against the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal - Washington says it has no right to try US nationals - but the cost may be scars in bilateral foreign relations in Asia, and elsewhere. One year after the first judges were sworn in for the International Criminal Court (ICC), only five Asian countries have accepted its authority, the lowest representation of any region worldwide. Yet 13 states in South and East Asia, and a further five Central Asian republics, have signed a contrary agreement with the US that seeks to undermine the court's jurisdiction by withholding the right to try US nationals. They signed under a threat of aid withdrawals involving tens of millions of dollars in the defense field, threats that are already being carried out against both neutral states and wavering allies alike in other regions. "

The Perfect Storm That�s About to Hit - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forumthe dollar's value is declining because of America's growing debt. The IMF is so concerned about US debt - the result of rising budget deficits and trade imbalance - that it issued a report warning that if steps weren't taken to reverse the trend, it could threaten the financial stability of the world economy.

The Roving Eye: The Emergence of Hyperterrorism - 9/11 - Global Policy Forum: "Brussels also alerts that this happens independently of other al-Qaeda objectives which remain very much in place: the departure of all American soldiers from Saudi soil; the fall of the House of Saud; and the expulsion of Jews from the Middle East. Al-Qaeda's ultimate objective is a caliphate. As far as the absolute majority of Muslims in the world are concerned, the global jihad's most seductive appeal undoubtedly remains its struggle to end the American imperial control of Islamic lands.
Romano Prodi, head of the European Commission, says that force is not working against terrorism: 'Terrorism now is more powerful than before.' Most European politicians and intellectuals - apart from Blair, Berlusconi, Aznar and their friends - consider that the Bush administration's response to asymmetric warfare has only served to increase the threat. It's a classic reductio ad absurdum. Increasingly lethal American military muscle deployed all over the Islamic world has led to more lethal terrorist attacks, in the Islamic world and also in the West. More muscled defense of hard targets, or strategic targets, has led to more indiscriminate attacks on so-called soft targets (like the Madrid trains). Madrid is a tragic mirror of Baghdad and Karbala: more than 200 innocent workers and students died in Madrid, more than 200 innocent pilgrims died in Iraq. "