By James Stafford

Ukraine is on the brink of committing economic suicide after imposing a crippling 55 percent tax on private gas producers, while parliament prepares to vote on next year’s budget, which aims for a continuation of the same.

The Oct. 14 budget vote—which is already a month late—is a major condition for Ukraine’s next credit tranche from the European Union, but if the 2015 budget goes through as proposed, it will decimate independent gas production, remove any potential for Ukrainian energy independence and deal a further blow to the already struggling economy.

“Kiev’s attempt at fiscal discipline to fund the war effort in the east and stave off an economic crisis is not working, and the end result is going to be economic suicide,” Robert Bensh, majority shareholder of Cub Energy, Ukraine’s fourth-largest independent gas producer, told Oilprice.com from Kiev.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed off on the new tax code on Aug. 1, which effectively doubles the tax private gas producers in Ukraine will have to pay, calling into question any new investment, as well as commitment, by key producers already operating in the country.

For now, the new code will remain in force until the end of this year, during which time private gas drillers will be required to pay 55 percent of their subsoil revenue for extracting under five kilometers. This is up from 28 percent. Additionally, for any extraction beyond five kilometers, the tax will be 28 percent, up from 15 percent.

Despite strong lobbying efforts, the interim government plans to continue the new tax regime for next year, if it approves the budget.

The dire economic situation ahead of the Oct. 26 elections is accompanied by a growing sense of pessimism internationally.

“Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s cabinet has raised taxes and is attempting to tighten fiscal discipline. However, these measures have not enabled Kiev to break the vicious cycle,” Vladimir Fedorin, founding editor of Forbes Ukraine, told Russian media.

Fedorin also said “the list of (election) candidates includes out-and-out sociopaths, civic activists, second-rate businessmen, career politicians, crooks of all kinds and even major embezzlers of state funds.

“The one group missing is reformers—the leaders who understand that you should not favor short-term relief measures over long-term economic development,” he added.

Bensh said the outlook is dismal. “The gas tax isn’t going to generate material tax revenues for the state. Ukrainians realize this isn’t a revenue-generating issue; it’s an energy security issue. Kiev is discouraging investment in the independent sector and destroying any chance for Ukraine to have any semblance of energy independence from Russia.”

JKX Oil & Gas Plc, another private producer, said earlier this month it would substantially reduce its capital expenditure to offset the impact of higher production taxes.

JKX said the rise would cost it an estimated $10 million, with the cost to be covered by slashing spending in the country by 25 percent.

With a gas tax on private producers, Russia wins. “It’s the economy, not the Russian army, that has brought Ukraine close to the brink,” notes Business Insider’s Walter Kurtz.

Beyond this, there will be reverberations across sectors, as the gas tax scares away foreign direct investment in general.

Meanwhile, not just international donors have lost confidence in Kiev’s economic policy — domestic depositors have, as well, and are rushing to convert their holdings into dollars. The National Bank has been forced to print more money, further exacerbating the devaluation, and the government might find itself soon enough bailing out the banks with budget money it doesn’t have.

As elections approach, Western skepticism over Ukraine is growing, with the general consensus that Ukraine will not pursue any real reforms, nor will it be able to accept any aid without seeing it disappear through the cracks of corruption.

President Poroshenko’s stated goals to rebuild the economy and make it attractive to outside investors appear overly ambitious at best, and utterly impossible at worst–particularly if the one lifeline to energy independence through private gas production is definitively severed with the October budget vote.

Said Bensh, “Attracting $40 billion in foreign investment and joining the European Union by 2020 is a pipe dream for a country that is holding current investors hostage and making the atmosphere prohibitive for any new investors.”

Source:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Will-Ukraine-Commit-Economic-Suicide.html

The post Will Ukraine Commit Economic Suicide? – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Abu Bakr al-Yamani

Yemeni women are playing an active role in the fight against al-Qaeda by providing the army with food, funding, moral and media support, officials and activists told Al-Shorfa.

In September, the Yemeni Women Empowerment Foundation began sending women to army security posts and checkpoints to serve meals, cake and sweets they had prepared at the foundation’s workshop as an expression of gratitude and support, the foundation said.

“This initiative came to raise the morale of the army and security forces and as an expression of public cohesion, [shared] responsibility and common destiny among all the people of the country,” foundation president Zaafaran Zayed said at the initiative’s opening ceremony.

She called on all women and civil society organisations to join the initiative and to participate in and support its activities so they can reach all the country’s provinces.

Women play an important role in supporting the army in its ongoing battle against al-Qaeda and terrorism, Abyan province deputy governor Ahmed al-Rahwi told Al-Shorfa.

“These modest and symbolic efforts undertaken by women in support of the army’s efforts in the war on terrorism have a significant impact on morale,” he said.

Efforts made by women’s organisations and individuals have included pledging cash donations, preparing meals and serving them at army checkpoints, and donating pieces of jewellery, he said.

“The woman’s voice is important to kindling enthusiasm and raising the morale of the soldiers, especially if it expresses itself loudly through popular events, the media and in the statements that accompany these events,” al-Rahwi said.

All of these “contribute positively to the public mobilisation of society and to focusing the efforts that back and support the army in fighting terrorism”, he added.

The army’s recent campaign to drive al-Qaeda from districts of Abyan and Shabwa provinces has received support from individual women and organisations such as the Yemeni Businesswomen Council.

The Businesswomen Council issued a statement in mid-May affirming their support of the armed and security forces in the war on terrorism because of its devastating effects on the country.

A ‘battle for all of society’

“The battle against terrorism is not a battle for the army alone, but rather for all of society, both men and women,” said writer, human rights activist and National Dialogue Conference rights and freedoms working group chairwoman Arwa Abdo Othman.

Othman said her contribution has included her journalistic writing in support of the army and on the importance of standing alongside it in the war on terrorism.

Women have supported the army in many ways, through civil society organisations and by responding to the recent call to prepare meals and sweets for its troops, she said.

Women, particularly elderly women, have donated gold for the benefit of the army, she said.

“The woman’s voice is strong and motivating” in influencing social positions, Othman said.

The role of women is part of a comprehensive strategy to fight terrorism, which includes political and social contributions to the process of reconciliation, accord and political stability, said Col. Saeed al-Faqih.

“Women play a profound role in the upbringing of generations and instilling the concepts of moderation as a way of life,” he said.

The role of “Yemeni women is clear and prominent in the fight against terrorism and in supporting the army in the war on al-Qaeda”, said Saeed al-Jamhi, a researcher specialising in al-Qaeda.

“Women declared a clear and supportive position through some of the events organised by civil society organisations devoted to women and public organisations to express their support for the army by providing food and preparing meals for the soldiers,” he said.

“This is a great boost for morale,” he added.

Women in the media

Yemeni women also play a role in supporting the army through the media and on social networking sites, al-Jamhi said.

A number of women human rights activists have emerged in the various print, audio and visual media who seek to raise the army’s morale, he said.

This contributes greatly to focusing public efforts on supporting the army and on the importance of community participation in the war on terrorism, “all of which have had a clear impact in the campaign the army is waging against al-Qaeda in areas of Shabwa and Abyan”, he said.

Journalist and human rights activist Samia al-Aghbari said educated women can play a useful role in writing about these activities.

They also can help by “boosting morale and directing the efforts of the community towards serving the army, because terrorism is a scourge everyone must help eradicate”, she said.

Al-Aghbari recently oversaw the launch of an initiative by a group of journalists from the Yemen Journalists Syndicate to express support for the security forces through a supportive media campaign.

This campaign also focused on social events and pro-security marches, in addition to efforts to “garner public support for the efforts to support the security forces and the army in their battle against al-Qaeda and to raise awareness of the dangers of terrorism”, she said.

The post Yemen: Women Play Active Role In Fight Against Terrorism appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Rwanda’s ruling elites and society at large need to accept the existence of certain ‘inconvenient’ historical facts – such as the thousands of Hutu refugees killed at the hands of Rwandan troops in the eastern part of then Zaire – in order to create the collective memory which does justice to victims on all sides.

By Urszula Róg

2014 marks twenty years since the infamous genocide against Tutsi took place in Rwanda. In April the whole country commemorated the victims of the bloodbath in which almost 1 million people died. Though it is already two decades since these gruesome acts, the collective memory of the genocide continues to play an important role in both political and social life. Moreover, just like in the case of some other nations, the commemorations are used as a tool to rebuild social and political order after the traumatizing events. Now, twenty years on, yet another anniversary prompts reflections on the role of the collective memory in post-genocide Rwanda.

Paul Ricoeur, a world expert in the philosophy of memory, points out that memory plays a crucial role in the shaping of identity, both at the individual as well as the group level. Maurice Halbwachs, in turn, claims that we always remember as the members of a certain community. This could be a family, a nation , a religious community or social class. As such, our memories are acquired, stored and passed down within some socially constituted frameworks.[1]

In Rwanda, where ethnic divisions have been officially removed from social discourse, the construction of identity becomes one of the key elements of government politics. Likewise, the commemorations which take place every year on 7-13 April, remain an important factor in the context of building a national identity as the country keeps trying to break through the trauma of the 1994 genocide. Subsequently, public remembrance of the atrocities is regarded as a duty and one of the main elements on the road to reconciliation. Hence, the commemoration events, largely covered by the media, are attended by thousands of people, among them the government officials, foreign visitors, representatives of survivors’ associations and local inhabitants.

The main celebrations are held annually at the Amahoro stadium in the capital of Rwanda – Kigali. These are repeatedly chaired by the president, Paul Kagame. Here, one of the main elements of the program is the president’s speech, which repeatedly emphasizes the obligation for sustaining memory of the horrific crime. In 2010, president Kagame stressed the need for forgiveness, saying, ”we are here to remember – remembering is a must and an obligation. In remembering we must also forgive – it is a duty – to forgive those who sincerely seek to be forgiven”[2]. In his 2014 address to the nation on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the president thanked his countrymen for their efforts to build the nation, at the same time emphasizing the importance of historical truth as the memory requirement: “Historical clarity is a duty of memory that we cannot escape,” he said. “Behind the words “Never Again”, there is a story whose truth must be told in full, no matter how uncomfortable”[3].

In the light of president Kagame’s words, a question of whether the memory of the genocide is shared by all Rwandans arises? It is obvious that the memory of Hutu and Tutsi genocide is not the same. Sadly, though, the line of politics adopted by Paul Kagame seems to be selective and does not take into account these differences. As such, the official memory discourse of the genocide fails; no mention is made of deaths of thousands of Hutu refugees who were killed at the hands of Rwandan troops in the eastern part of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Such selectivity of the genocide memory became the subject of large scale criticism. Filip Reyntjens argues that, ‘the credit of genocide’ allows president Kagame to divert attention from the crimes committed by RPF soldiers and gain the sympathy of the international community [4]. Similarly, such selective memory certainly does not serve the reconciliation processes, and as Rene Lemarchand claims, forced social amnesia is the most dangerous obstacle to reconciliation [5].

We have to remember that the memory of the Rwandan massacre is created not only by official government discourse, but also by the individual memories of both perpetrators and the victims. Hence, however difficult, it is necessary to find a balance between what should be remembered and what should be forgotten. It is crucial to remember, though, that the blurring of the boundary between amnesty and amnesia can not constitute an effective politics of memory.

The Rwandan government promotes collective memory through the annual commemoration of the genocide. It presents the events as one of the main elements of nation building politics as well as actions aimed at the prevention of any such future happenings. It can be easily noticed, though, that the celebrations serve not only as the means to promote reconciliation, but are also aimed at strengthening the power. The critics of president Paul Kagame’s politics accuse him of authoritarianism and treating the anniversary celebrations through ‘forcing memory,’ which is to serve the objectives of the government. Such manipulation of the past is certainly dangerous and may lead to further conflicts in the future. As such, applying the collective amnesia is certainly not the solution here. It is rather hard work of the ruling elites and society at large, which calls for acceptance of certain ‘inconvenient’ historical facts and creating the collective memory which does justice to victims on all sides.

Urszula Róg is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She is a junior analyst in Polish Centre for African Studies. Her research deals with the issues of ethnicity and its impact on the structure of state and society, ethnic conflicts, genocide and post-conflict reconstruction.

* This is a part of the article about collective memory of the genocide in Rwanda, which will be published soon in Polish.

References

1) Halbwachs, Maurice, On Collective Memory, Edited by Lewis Coser, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1992.

2) Speech by President Paul Kagame at 16^th Commemoration of The Genocide of The Tutsi, Kigali, 7 April 2010, http://www.presidency.gov.rw/speeches/332-speech-by-president-paul-kagame-at-16th-commemoration-of-the-genocide-of-the-tutsi-kigali-7-april-2010 [Accessed on 20/09/2014]

3) Speech by President Paul Kagame at the 20^th Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Kigali, 7 April 2014, http://www.paulkagame.com/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1345%3A20th-commemoration-of-genocide-against-the-tutsi-&catid=34%3Aspeeches&Itemid=56&lang=en [Accessed on 20/09/2014]

4) Reyntjens, Filip, Rwanda, Ten Years On: From Genocide to Dictatorship, African Affairs, 103(2004).

5) Lemarchand,Rene The Politics of Memory in Post-genocide Rwanda, in Phil Clark and Zachary D.Kaufman (ed.) After Genocide. Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London, Hurst&Company, 2008.

The post Commemorating Genocide: An Important Element Of The Politics Of Memory In Rwanda – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Many qualitiy studies and policies have for many years addressed the relationship between culture and economics. However, this relationship has taken different forms in different countries and regions. Furthermore, initially, studies took a sociological or, in any case, theoretical, approach. It is only relatively recently that the cultural sector has been formally studied from the perspective of economics and statistics. Therefore, only now is a framework being created of economic structures for the cultural sector. In fact, the cultural has proved on many occasions that it can generate significant dynamics from an economic perspective.

In Morocco culture is the human endeavor par excellence that produces feelings and imaginaries. It also reinforces the feeling of identity and citizenship. The co-existence of cultural manifestations close to, what we can define as, traditional culture, which is product of a multiplicity of ethnic groups and subcultures that has participated in the construction of the identity and history of the kingdom; and the manifestations closer to what we can define as modern culture or, further more, as industrial culture, which is also a characteristic of the contemporary culture. The sustainability of these cultural manifestations (sacred music festival in Fez, Mawazine in Rabat, Gnawa festival in Essaouira and others without exception are then, the inevitable guarantee of multiethnic and pluricultural society.

Many of those cultural activities activities generate, additionally, an analogous economic impact to the one produced by other sectors of the economy. In one word, culture is, besides an indispensable element for social cohesion and the reconstruction of an identity, an economic sector equally or even more important than any other productive sector of society.

On October 7, King Mohammed IV inaugurated Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, a leading project which will contribute to preserving and spreading Morocco’s artistic and civilizational heritage. The Moroccan Press Agency reported that the chairman of the National Foundation of Museums Mehdi Qotbi underlined that the implementation of this project shows the sovereign’s will to make culture a real engine for human, social and economic development and his resolve to equip the country with high-level cultural facilities that encourage creativity and promote the principles of cultural democratization.

Worth 200 million dirhams, the new facility is the first museum institution dedicated entirely to modern and contemporary art and meets international museum standards, he said, adding that the new facility is aimed at building bridges with foreign foundations and institutions.

The Museum was designed to raise awareness and initiate the public, mainly youth, to contemporary artistic creation, and promote participation in the country’s cultural life as well as openness on international creation. It will also offer trainings and conferences to well-informed audience as graduates of architecture schools and of fine arts, and art historians.

The three-floor facility includes mainly an auditorium, exhibitions named after renowned Moroccan artists (Chaibia Talal, Jilali Gherbaoui, Meryem Meziane, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Farid Belkahya, Hassan Glaoui, André Elbaz, Mohamed kacimi), a pedagogical workshop, a laboratory for art restoration, a library, and a VIP lounge. Later King Mohammed VI launched the building works of the Rabat Grand Theater, a project that mirrors the continuous royal solicitude for art and culture.

Morocco is one of the rare countries in the African continent that has understood that the cultural sector can generate growth and employment. This was the point where cultural industries in Morocco have become the focus of cultural policy concerns. Certainly, Moroccan cultural policy will continue to generate development and growth of cultural industries and to ensure public access on equal terms to the greatest possible variety and quality of cultural content.

The post Morocco: Culture As Engine For Economic Growth, Employment And Development – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

“The Tories’ major announcement was to scrap the Human Rights Act, because, and I quote, ‘people get very frustrated with human rights.’” — Tim Farron, Liberal Democrats President, The Guardian, Oct 7, 2014

Political positions were only ever the designations of seating arrangements. Left and Right distinctions have as much to do with actual political differences as they do with furniture – witness the 1789 arrangements of the National Assembly. Occasionally, such positions fall to the way side, or at the very least, become peculiarly artificial. The Human Rights Act in the UK has been one of those grand British contradictions, typical in a society thrilled with rights as a matter of “values”, but suspicious about their suggestive nannyism. Be free, but be suspicious when told about where you went wrong about protecting them.

The Tory party are, in that sense, typically confused about where to place such rights. Paradoxically, they batter and pound for the platform that liberties are meant to be protected – at least when it comes to some of them. But liberties are one thing – once they assume the proper form of genuine rights, the sort one can actually claim (lawyers term these “claim rights”) the water of discussion gets somewhat murkier. Liberty talk is always deemed more attractive than that of rights. When the purse gets involved, the conservatives will run.

The Human Rights Act (1998) is deemed insidious in a range of ways. It supposedly clips sovereignty by slipping European law into the lives of British citizens. It stands guard over British officials. For that reason, the British conservatives are advocating the British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities as both counter strike and replacement. The response is characteristically piecemeal, so much so that the anti-EU UK Independence Party have deemed the proposal by David Cameron’s party worthless. Labour and the Lib Dems take more traditional views on this – a pure political agenda is at work.

The Tories point is to place Britain in an exceptional category – for them, it is the Rolls Royce of human rights reform and innovation. This is done while placing the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 in its historical place. The enemy in this enterprise of reform is the European Court of Human Rights, a creature of judicial unsoundness which is suffering from “mission creep” (such is the curse of military operational language.)

In taking such a stance, the Tory statement is placing the European Convention in the zoo of legal paraphernalia, distant and hopefully irrelevant. “It was agreed in the shadow of Nazism, at a time when Stalin was still in power in the Soviet Union and when people were still being sent to the gulags without trial.”1

Such wording sets the scene for a rather crude, and frightened, form of originalism – reading the charter in a virginal state that has bucked evolution over the years. Such documents, in terms of intention, are read at the creation, rather than in the current point of history. When the drafters of the charter came together, claim the writers of the Tory manifesto, they did not contemplate various “voting rights for prisoners”. Nor was artificial insemination for prisoners and their partners something that the drafters had in mind (oh, how unimaginative they must have been.)

The Tories are now arranging the legal furniture for 2015, assuming that they will retain power (without the Liberal Democrats) and be rid of the turbulent priest that is the European justice system. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has been claiming that there should be no “legal blank cheque to take human rights into areas where they have never applied”, a fascinatingly restricted view on rights if ever there was one.2

It is then with some irony that the conservative approach to human rights, once established, is not that they stay in unmodified stone, but evolve in the matter befitting society. Evolution, in other words, is appropriate as long as it is parochial. All is fine if Britain does it. Conservatives, after all that jostling, like nothing more than to mould and adjust the way a human right is applied. The point to stress here is that it is always being done for the public good. “Over the past 20 years, there have been significant developments which have undermined public confidence in the human rights framework in the UK, and which make change necessary today.”

The leap of eccentricity occurs when rights become situational – a matter of interpretation for the country in question. This is the classic contradiction – things change, but things must stay the same. By all means, “fundamental human rights is as important as ever.” But the logic of this, then, is not to have a meddlesome supra national entity seeking to place their judicial paws on the Sceptred Isle, with its own brand of rights to uphold and parade. “That is why we must put Britain first, taking action to reform the human rights laws in the UK, so they are credible, just and command public support.”

Not all will be comfortable with Cameron’s stance. The Daily Mirror has made a good fist of attempting to justify the rewards of the Human Rights Act over the years.3 It points out, as Lib Dem President Tim Farron has, that no one less than the conservative deity, Winston Churchill, saw scope for the European Convention.4

The rights of such people as Gary McKinnon, UFO fantasist and hacker of US government computers, were protected because the legislation prohibits “degrading treatment or punishment”. The right to have children is preserved, as is that of preventing families from being separated. Victims of domestic violence fall under its protective umbrella. And it has been used as a weapon against the surveillance community.

Removing the act will not simply be an excuse for political restructuring – it will be an announcement that rights are purely subordinate entities, lying at the mercy of state discretion. This will not worry those negotiators, who are already sharpening their implements. Should there be “anything in that relationship [with the EU] which encroaches upon our new human rights framework, then that is something […] for us to address as part of the renegotiation.”5

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/03_10_14_humanrights.pdf
2. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-29466113
3. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/helps-every-day-what-human-4375438
4. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/07/winston-churchill-leave-conservatives-liberal-democrats-protest-human-rights-act
5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/03_10_14_humanrights.pdf

The post Tory Angst: Getting Bolshie Over The Human Rights Act – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The beheading of Western hostages by the terrorists of ISIS or the Islamic State (IS) is vicious but not an unusual practice in countries considered close Western friends or allies. Take Saudi Arabia as an example, which is nearing the status of the State of Israel as an “indispensable” US ally. There exists, however, a significant difference between the two: Israel is considered a Jewish democracy or a democracy sui generis, Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is the most fundamentalist, radical and gruesome Islamic regime the world has ever seen. How can the US be on good terms with both regimes?

The various US governments are well informed about the machinations of the radical Saudi Arabian regime. They took it gratefully, when it served their interests, when Western secret services together with the Saudis laid the foundations for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The American side is fully aware of the establishment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic schools worldwide and the indoctrination provided in these schools that serves to spread their Salafist and Wahhabite version of Islam. In addition to this ideological campaign, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic regimes on the Arabian Peninsula have invested billions of U.S. dollars in upgrading the Al-Nusra Front, IS and, on top of all that, to build a terrorist infrastructure against Syria and Iran, which they designate as enemies of Islam. These terror organizations kill all “infidels”, including Shiite Muslims, but primarily Christians, Yazidis, Alevis and Kurds. They destroyed and expelled the ancient Christian community of Maaloula in Syria, and desecrated all their churches and monasteries.1

Al-Qaeda has been founded by the CIA, Hamas was tolerated by the Israeli intelligence, and al-Nusra Front and ISIS are creations of the Saudi, Qatari and American intelligence agencies. Not President Bashar al-Asad has to go, as President Obama used to say, but rather King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and his rotten ilk on the Arabian peninsula. His regime is the spiritus rector of terrorism against Syrians. Speaking of beheadings: They are on the agenda in Saudi Arabia. This year, 30 people have been beheaded there. No Western outcry was heard.

One can distinguish between the legality of beheadings. Saudi beheadings are carried out under the rule of law, although obscure, i.e. after a trial, whereas the other beheadings are outright murders. Are Western victims worth more than Saudi Arabian? Capital punishment is to be opposed, but is not limited to Saudi Arabia. In many of US American states it’s on the agenda, too. But crucifixions and beheadings are the trademark of ISIS. Why not attack the original first before one deals with the copy.

Saudi Arabia and the US have a long “friendship” that was very close during the reign of George W. Bush. The Saudi Ambassador, “Bandar Bush”, was a frequent guest and political consultant at the White House. After leaving the US, he became chief of the Saudi intelligence. He was finally removed from office by the Saudi regime, after he went in February 2014 to Russia in order to bribe Russian president Vladimir Putin with a billion US dollar weapon deal and to threaten him to send terrorist to the Winter Olympics in Sochi if he does not withdraw his support for the Assad regime.

After the Saudis and the other Islamist regimes have created terror groups like ISIS or al-Nusra Front in Syria and Iraq, why should the United States and some “willing” Western Allies pull the chestnuts out of the fire for these undemocratic and totalitarian regimes? The US administration should let the Saudis fight it alone, like the Saudi ambassador to Great Britain in an op-ed in the New York Times full-bodied announced.2 The used political rhetoric indicates that he even acts as a megaphone of the neocons, certain Zionist circles and their rubber stamps in the US Congress, which are very critical of Obama’s policy towards Syria and Iran.

Much more important is that the US government comes to terms with Iran over the imaginary nuclear threat. The mullahs, in contrast to Saudi Arabia or even Netanyahu, represent the most reasonable and responsible-minded Muslim regime in the Middle East. They would be a great asset for US interest in the region, although the US administration can’t be politically trusted by the Iranian mullahs. The Iranian government under President Mohammad Khatami have repeatedly extended the hand of reconciliation to the different US administrations, but the US has slapped on the outstretched hand. In order not to upset Binyamin Netanyahu, the Obama administration believes, despite all evidence, that Iran pursues a secret nuclear program.

On September 29, 2014, the Saudi Arabian human rights activist Samar Badawi testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to the situation of the role of women and that of human rights in general in Saudi Arabia. Martin Woker of the Swiss daily “Neue Zurcher Zeitung” conducted an interview with her, in which she described the dismal situation of women and human rights in here country. Although she knows that the Saudi regime may punish her for the outspokenness, she called a spade a spade. Her husband, the human rights lawyer Walid Abulkhair, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on tenuous charges. He was arrested on the basis of new anti-terror legislation. To the support of terrorism by the Saudi regime, she said the following: “They (meaning the regime) have created the ‘Islamic State’. They are the major financiers of terror. They have imprisoned peaceful activists and sentenced them to years in prison. It is a natural thing that something like the IS emerges. The result of this violence is that violence. We, and with us all Saudi human rights organizations, reject violence.”3 Why doesn’t the Obama administration get rid of this evil and rotten Saudi regime?

1. http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/46867-christians-of-maloula.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mwcnews%2FXrew+%28MWC+News+Alert%29
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/saudi-arabia-will-go-it-alone.html?hp&rref=opinion/international&_r=1&
3. http://www.nzz.ch/international/asien-und-pazifik/wir-opfern-uns-fuer-die-naechste-generation-1.18392757

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In the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s, and numerous other credible whistleblowers‘ irrefutable revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies are capturing and indefinitely storing millions of innocent Americans’ phone calls, emails, internet transactions, and even movements and whereabouts at any given time—Apple and other tech companies are rightfully responding to their customers’ demands for enhanced encryption to protect their privacy rights.

The concept of rights is apparently unknown to the nation’s top attorney, who wants the government to continue to be able to capture, store, and peruse at its leisure your private emails, phone calls, photos, etc. In a speech last week:

U.S. attorney general Eric Holder said on Tuesday he was worried that attempts by technology companies to increase privacy protections were thwarting attempts to crack down on child exploitation.

Speaking at the biannual Global Alliance Conference Against Child Sexual Abuse Online in Washington, Holder warned that encryption and other privacy technologies are being used by sexual predators to create “more opportunities to entice trusting minors to share explicit images of themselves.”

“Recent technological advances have the potential to greatly embolden online criminals, providing new methods for abusers to avoid detection,” he said. “When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.”

Government continually sets up strawmen boogie monsters to provide cover for violating our rights, and it’s time for us to act like adults, not scared little children who need the big strong men to keep us safe.

It’s not to protect us from “German [Japanese/Nazi/Communist] spies,” or “the War on Drugs” or “Terrorists who hate our freedoms,” or even “Sexual predators”: it’s for Big Brother.

Let’s just say No.

The post NSA Mission Creep: It’s For The Children – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The Texas hospital treating Ebola patient Thomas Duncan annoucned he has died.

Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, had been in critical condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

The hospital said in a statement that he died at 7:51 a.m. local time Wednesday.

Meanwhile, media reports say the United States will place agents at airports and other entry points to check travelers for signs of Ebola.

The Associated Press said Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that U.S. agents will be posted at major points of entry to the U.S.to look for symptoms and hand out information about the Ebola virus.

Mayorkas did not say when the new measures would go into effect.

Border Patrol fact sheets

He said U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will be handing out fact sheets listing symptoms and instructions on contacting health providers.

Earlier Wednesday, the United Nations mission in Liberia said a second member of its staff has contracted Ebola.

In a statement, the mission said the international medical official is undergoing treatment, but did not specify their nationality. The first infected staff member died last month.

And the World Bank said on Wednesday that the regional impact of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 if it spreads significantly beyond the worst-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

“The enormous economic cost of the current outbreak to the affected countries and the world could have been avoided by prudent ongoing investment in health systems-strengthening,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people – with most cases in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The post Texas Ebola Patient Dies appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Samir Saran and Will Poff-Webster

As the world prepares for the upcoming climate change negotiations in Lima in 2014 and Paris in 2015, there is an expectation that the talks be more decisive than previous attempts at consensus from Kyoto to Copenhagen. Yet the assumption that the undeniable science of climate change will by itself compel action on an issue that has thus far proved the mother of all collective action problems ignores the failures of past conferences. For Lima and Paris to succeed in achieving consensus, the issue of equitable response to the climate crisis must be creatively reimagined. Equity has been a challenge for climate consensus since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit first articulated that, “In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities.”1

In meeting this challenge of articulating responsibilities for a climate that all share but only some have impacted substantially, India’s challenge is increasingly the world’s challenge. How can India acknowledge and respond to existing trends—the increasing urgency of confronting climate change, the energy-intensive process of achieving a semblance of development, and widening wealth gaps between rich and poor—while maintaining its focus on bringing its hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty? In a larger sense, how can the world prevent climate degradation amid existing inequality and the aspiration of billions to rise out of poverty?

Maintaining equity between India and earlier developers

For India, the actualisation of differentiated responsibility remains central to any climate agreement. Developed countries and China have already undergone energy-intensive industrial development (and largely coal-fired electrification) to bring their people out of poverty, consuming much of the world’s carbon budget in the process. From Britain’s use of the steam engine in the early nineteenth century to China’s exponentially increasing coal capacity over the last decade, carbon-polluting energy has been essential to providing jobs for the millions who seek them in each successive industrial revolution.2 India’s coming industrial revolution and necessary shift to manufacturing, with twelve million new workers entering the workforce each year, cannot be avoided lest those millions lose the possibility of a better life.3 India’s economic transition, coming at a time when the world is finally moving toward a collective response to climate change, represents a great challenge to maintaining economic equity between India and previously industrializing powers. After all, the cost of access to prosperity must not be the highest for latecomers to industrialization. In other words, poverty cannot be frozen by a dateline.

India has acted to engage these contrasting priorities, by committing to a 20-25 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2020—a natural consequence of increasing efficiency in the energy sector, but also a step to ensure the government’s promise that India’s per capita emissions will not go above those of wealthy countries.4 But equity suggests that India resist any effort to tie its energy intensity reduction to China’s, as the two countries have vastly different existing energy consumption and generation footprints. India starts from a lower polluting baseline compared to China and even to developed economies that have shed manufacturing—India’s use of energy per purchasing power parity dollar of economic output is 0.33 kg CO2, compared to China at 0.60 and developed countries like the United States at 0.48.5 The tendency to see China and India in hyphenated terms as large economies with growing emissions ignores the fundamental differences in their current contribution to climate change and to their vastly different economic and development landscapes.

Toward an Indian strategy

The need for global action against climate change has prompted diplomats in the developed world to speak of “win- win” situations—that transitioning to renewable energy will allow economies to reap the benefits of green jobs growth while reducing emissions. At least in India, this rhetoric rings false. Barring as-yet-insufficient technology, stuttering monetary transfer, or commercial funding from the developed world, coal will remain significantly cheaper than all other sources of energy through 2030 and perhaps beyond.6 Renewables suffer from high variability in supply and base load restrictions on Indian power grids. Renewable energy development, which would be appealing from a simplistic “first, do no harm” perspective, collapses upon closer scrutiny: how should India assess the harm of more of its citizens remaining in poverty for every increase in marginal energy cost? The ethical aspect has a political dimension as well: India’s parliament will not countenance ratifying the Paris proposal unless it allows maximal focus on poverty alleviation. And even if it does, democracies have other ways to negate bad agreements, federalism being chief among them. While this is a matter for another study in itself, it must be noted that in the Indian context, the country must be viewed as a collection of thirty nations in a union. The Paris proposal must work for Indian states, or it will fail the ultimate test of implementation.

To negotiate action on climate change despite these challenges, India should promote a more fine-tuned form of differentiated responsibility — not just between countries, but within them as well. International debate thus far has been dominated by equity between countries, yet recent globalisation has caused increasing intra-national inequality as global inequality decreases.7 Even proposals for differentiated responsibility within federal systems, whether EU members, Chinese provinces, or American or Indian states, suffer from inadequate consideration of the far greater inequality within each of these smaller entities.8 India should solve this problem by introducing international emissions standards for large corporations. For instance, all corporations valued above $1 billion (or another suitable cut-off) should be subject to internationally binding efficiency standards, regardless of national origin. By decoupling protection of the poor from protection of wealthy corporations that reside within the same borders, India will focus its negotiating power on protecting its most vulnerable citizens, while also addressing large multinational corporations often unconstrained by state power. Allegations that India’s wealthy corporations hide behind its government’s focus on poverty would be allayed, and the world would be able to address climate change with differentiation and therefore equity—targeting those able to pay rather than the global poor. This would also compel the “rich” countries to act against the “carbon gaming” of their transnational corporations.

Market-oriented change

Such a negotiation strategy would enshrine an expanded differentiated responsibility, helping to solve equity concerns. Corporate emissions standards would nonetheless face several practical obstacles—balancing mandatory and transparent compliance with national sovereignty; preventing economic distortions that might inefficiently incentivize corporations to remain below $1 billion valuation or break into subsidiaries; and solving the larger challenge of corporate tax havens that would be ripe for exploitation under any international standards. As these are important issues for global governance to solve regardless, an equitable response to climate change can provide the impetus.

India can supplement this new proposal with more traditional methods of reducing emissions. India is leading the way in developing countries’ efforts on energy efficiency, a key opportunity for the eventual low-carbon transition—and one that remains truly “win-win” because energy saved from low-cost sources further reduces cost. In the latter part of the last decade alone, India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) doubled its energy savings in avoided generation capacity each year.9 New economic instruments like demand-side management hold the potential to reduce energy use by up to 25 percent, and the Bombay Stock Exchange’s GREENEX Index on energy-efficient stocks shows that the private sector is already taking action through market mechanisms to improve its energy efficiency.10 Lima and Paris can capitalize on such early beginnings to turn India’s ideas and experimentation into global systemic change.

Summing up

India’s challenge at the upcoming global climate talks is twofold. First, it is now time to look beyond the India-China hyphenation; it is unhelpful to India’s cause and situation. It is time to walk alone and seek specific exemptions or exceptions for India’s scale and diversity of realities.

Second, India needs to take leadership and identify constructive ways to move forward on climate change mitigation while not sacrificing the imperative of poverty alleviation. By the same token, the world’s challenge is to develop a holistic global framework that can manage the climate change threat in a world of differentiated responsibility.

By introducing intra-national differentiation between wealthy corporations and impoverished populations, Indian negotiators can help move the upcoming talks beyond past failures. These big corporations also account for a large carbon treasury and can be a low hanging fruit for both emissions reduction imperatives and to fashion a new sustainable business paradigm. Through leadership on this and other issues like energy efficiency, India can ensure its commitment both to the development of its citizens and the maintenance of the ecosystem.

1. “Rio Declaration on Climate and Environment,” The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?documentid=78&articleid=1163.

2. “China Approves Massive New Coal Capacity Despite Pollution Fears,” Reuters, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/07/china-coal-idUKL3N0K90H720140107.

3. “Why India Must Revive Its Manufacturing Sector,” The Diplomat, http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/why-india-must-revive-its-

4. “India Vows 20-25% Carbon Intensity Cuts,” The Times of India, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-vows-20-25- carbon-intensity-cuts/articleshow/5298030.cms; “India to Reduce Carbon Intensity by 24% by 2020,” The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/02/india-carbon-intensity-target.

5. “An Assessment of India’s 2020 Carbon Intensity Target,” Grantham Institute for Climate Change, https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange/Public/pdfs/Grantham%20Report/India_2020_Grantham%20Report%20GR4. pdf.

6. “Energy in India: The Future is Black,” The Economist, http://www.economist.com/node/21543138.

7. “Global Income Distribution: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession,” Centre for Economic Policy Research, http://www.voxeu.org/article/global-income-distribution-1988.

8. “New Players on the World Stage: Chinese Provinces and Indian States,” The Brookings Institute, http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2013/new-players-on-the-world-stage.

9. “Verified Energy Savings with the Activities of Bureau of Energy Efficiency for the year 2009-10,” National Productivity Council, http://220.156.189.23/miscellaneous/documents/energy_saving_achieved/document/Verified%20Savings%20Report%20for%202009-10.doc.

10. “BSE S&P-Greenex,” Bombay Stock Exchange, http://www.bseindia.com/indices/DispIndex.aspx?iname=GREENX&index_Code=75&page=19D7C1A5 -BE2B-43EC-AD77- CE539070D72F; “Calibrating India’s Climate Change Response,” Courier, http://www.stanleyfoundation.org/articles.cfm?id=797.

(The writers are with Observer Research Foundation, Delhi. This paper was presented at the Council of Councils Sixth Regional Conference, September 28-30, 2014)

Courtesy : Council of Councils Sixth Regional Conference (Conference Papers: Council of Councils Ottawa Regional Conference) http://www.cfr.org/councilofcouncils/events/p33386

The post India’s Climate Change Strategy: Expanding Differentiated Responsibility – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Peaceful protests against IS in Syria and Iraq organized by Kurdish nationals in several German cities ended with serious clashes with pro-jihadist Muslims in Hamburg and Celle. Police had to request reinforcements to restore order.

Police in Hamburg, a port city of 1.8 million people, used water cannons, batons and pepper spray late Tuesday to disperse crowds of warring Kurds and pro-jihadist Muslims, armed with knives and brass-knuckles, following a protest against Islamic State militants who are attacking the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria near the Turkish border.

At first, on Tuesday afternoon about 80 Kurdish protesters occupied Hamburg’s central train station for an hour, NDR.de reported. The Kurdish protesters left the railways voluntarily after 6pm, a police spokesman said.

A bigger group of about 500 Kurdish demonstrators marched through downtown Hamburg. On their way, they damaged several cars and Turkish snack bars, breaking panes of glass and throwing around plastic chairs. Police detained 14 rioters.

Later, several hundred Kurdish protesters gathered near the Al Nour Mosque on Steindamm Street near the city’s train station. At about 11:30pm local time (21:30 GMT), the Kurds were attacked by a group of approximately 40 armed supporters of the Islamic State (IS), RT’s Ruptly video news agency reported.

The violent clashes that followed the attack resulted in four people being hospitalized with stab wounds.

Anti-IS demonstrations of Kurds in northern Germany began Monday and were supported by hundreds of protesters in the cities of Bremen, Celle, Göttingen, Hannover, Kiel and Oldenburg.

In most of the cities, protests went off peacefully and were virtually trouble-free, but in Celle police failed to prevent clashes.

The first brawl between about 100 Kurds and Muslims on each side took place Monday, but police in Celle, a town of 71,000, with the help of colleagues from Hannover, Oldenburg and Wolfsburg, prevented serious clashes between the two groups.

On Tuesday, however, the two sides, armed with stones and bottles, attempted to break through police lines to attack each other.

Police in full anti-riot gear used pepper spray and batons to repel the attackers and prevent violence. Though the situation calmed down and no officers were injured, a large police force remains in the city to prevent a possible escalation.

Some of the Muslims taking part in the clashes in Celle were “Chechen nationals” who came there from all over Germany, Cellesche Zeitung reported.

A wave of anti-IS protests organized by Kurdish activists has rocked many European capitals, including London, Brussels, The Hague and in Sweden’s Gothenburg.

The Kurdish diaspora in Europe is protesting that the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria are attacking Kurdish communities with impunity, without meeting any serious opposition on the ground apart from Kurdish peshmerga militias. The assault of jihadists on the Kurdish settlement of Kabani in Syria, near the Turkish border has already claimed over 400 lives, while airstrikes by the US and its allies against IS fighters in Syria are not focused on protecting Kobani.

Kristofer Lundberg, an activist with the Socialist Justice Party in Sweden’s Gothenburg who organized and spoke at a 1,000-strong rally in support of Kurdish people in Kobani on Tuesday, told RT: “We demand that Turkey open its border and let the refugees there flee ISIS terror, and also to let the fighters who are waiting at the border go to Kobani to defend the city. Thousands of Kurds are ready to defend Kobani.”

The post Pro-ISIS Radicals With Machetes, Knives Attack Kurds In Germany appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Tuva Julie Engebrethsen Smith

The prolonged fighting in Middle Eastern countries have attracted numerous European Muslims to partake in them. Although estimations of exact figures vary, approximately 2,000-5,500 foreign fighters (FFs) have joined the Middle Eastern battlefield.

The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) estimates that 18 per cent of the total number of FFs is from Europe: France (63-412); Britain (43-366); Germany (43-240); Belgium (76-296); and the Netherlands (29-152) have most recruits. However, the most heavily affected countries according to population size (per million) are Belgium (27), Denmark (15), the Netherlands (9), Sweden (9), and Norway (8).

The understanding of who these FFs are, and their motivations behind participating in the various ‘jihads’ is obscure. This article, presented from an European research perspective, aims to widen the understanding of this phenomenon by taking into account the patterns of joining and motivating factors.

Patterns of Joining

The radicalisation of individuals and the distinct characteristics of radicalised people depend on complex factors. The general assumptions of poverty and lack of education admitted as core socio-economic reasoning for radicalisation does not always comply with statements of European researchers.

The socio-economic perspective reveals a diverse group, although rather violent in character acting on a private volunteering basis. Most commonly, they are young well-educated men and women in their twenties, either Muslim-born or Muslim converts enjoying good socio-economic footing. Many cases are similar to that of the teenager, Jejoen Bontinck, (BBC News) from Belgium, a Muslim-convert who decided to travel to Syria despite his education, sporting activities, etc. at home. Another example is that of 25-year old Abu Anwar (CNN news) from the southern England. He grew up in a middle-class household and enjoyed an easy life in Britain, but chose to leave citing the inability to practice Islam.

Furthermore, the European point of convergence tends to draw a line at this group’s experience of feeling left behind in the mainstream society. There has been a tendency among some youth who lack a sense of belongingness to becoming more willing to embrace challenges more than what they already may be facing by joining the violent radical groups. According to Lars Gule, a Norwegian researcher on Extreme Islam at University College in Oslo and Akershus, some of these youths come across as inharmonious and already religiously alienated and frustrated before they join.

Moreover, European research reveals that having established a personal relationship to a central figure in a radical environment, such as a charismatic opinion leader, seems to be important when influencing people to support or carry out politically motivated attacks. More importantly, these leaders, or `recruiters´, are skilled in the sense of persuading young Muslims into believing that their religion is under attack, and as Muslims, they are obligated to defend fellow Muslims.

Identity, Revenge, Status or all Combined?

There are a variety of motivations that lead these individuals to travel and partake in jihdas in far off lands. Some, the so-called identity seekers, travel with an unfulfilled need to define themselves. Raffaello Pantucci, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London, argues that European FFs are drawn to join by virtue of dissatisfaction at home and the desire to find one’s identity.

Alternately, for some, the motivation to travel is the desire of power and status, given how participating as a FF equals high status among extreme Islamist groups in Europe. For instance, posting pictures of themselves with heavy weaponry in Syria provides reputation and acknowledgement among similar groups back home.

Additionally, some Europeans travel for legitimate purposes, such as for visiting their families or for education, but find themselves affected by violent situations. The recruiters then provide guidance, justification and encouragement for partaking in jihad.

Lastly, those upset over gruesome videos and images of destruction and suffering, and thus, seeking revenge for the lack of contribution and empathy from Western governments, as practicing Muslims, feel compelled to join. For instance, Abu Saif (NBC News), a 31-year old chef left Belgium to fight the US and Shiite Muslims in Syria after watching a YouTube video depicting the massacre of children. Social media is a significant platform with an undeniable power. It incorporates a source of information as well as inspiration. Its ability to mobilise has been deftly taken advantage of by groups such as the Islamic State.

Given the aforementioned phenomena, European FFs cannot be characterised under one monotypic umbrella. They are young well-educated men and women in their mid-twenties, who voluntarily partake in violent struggles they otherwise have no pre-given predisposition towards. Their motivations for jihad vary. Some are based on conscious choices of revenge, their ability to do more than just participate in demonstrations, whereas others join out of frustration, lack of belonging or rebellion. Additionally, people appear to unite as a result of horrifying images presented to them daily by media outlets. Thus, whether it is an act of revenge, status or identity seeking, they all combine, and, not surprisingly, it seems that their active use of social media represents the key source of their motivation for joining the wars as FFs.

Tuva Julie Engebrethsen Smith
Research Intern, IPCS
E-mail: tuva.engebrethsen@gmail.com

The post Foreign Fighters In The Middle East: European Perspectives On Motivations – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

ON THE PATH OF GLOBAL E-GOVERNMENT FORUM: ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN, OCTOBER 2014

We bring you parts of two interviews given to us on the side of some of the main key-speakers of the Global E-Government Forum (stay tuned for a complete recording of the main Press conference of the Forum and for the questions from Eurasia Review and answers from the key-speakers in behalf Republic of Kazakhstan and United Nations.

I

Mr. Ali bin Saleh Al-Soma, Director General of the e-Government Program YESSER, Saudi Arabia. As director general of the Saudi e-Government Program (Yesser), Mr. Al Soma is responsible for a national organization that enables and facilitates the Kingdom’s advancements in e-government, including: operation of central infrastructure, development of national strategies and plans, consultative support for agency e-government needs, and e-government transformation measurements. He participated in developing both the first and second Saudi e-government strategy and action plans, and also serves an adviser to H.E. the Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

…..

Q: E-governance and future world of science and technology. Are we talking about human advantages and technological disadvantages or vice versa in a sense of creating a society of better tomorrow having in mind different political processes in different countries and cultures?

ASAS: E-Government is the new concept of life. The trends are going towards making people capable to manage their lives through their mobiles. Your government will be your mobile. Your school will be your mobile. Your doctor will be your mobile. Your bank will be your mobile. People will have better control of their lives and they will be able to get service on a click of fingers. That is the future. We will expect to reach that within the coming ten years. As yu can see, the life is changing, the way of having life will be changing plus young generations are coming, internet generations. They are going as it is becomes default. We should be prepared for that.

Q: To be served instead to be servant?

ASAS: Will be served according to our preferences, according to our convenience, choice. That is the concept of E-Government. The goal is to make it easier to people and their time and also to make it easier to the government. So, that would require a lot of changes – habits, patterns, government process, culture…everything.

Q: Revolution, but we will not call it revolution?

ASAS: Exactly- revolution. It is accumulated, gradual..because the people when they faced with something new they wonder around that and after a while they believe in that and it is becoming default. And it is not happening at once – it happens gradually. We do not feel that at the beginning, but this is the way how it is going to be.

II

Ms. Jacqueline Poh has been the Managing Director of Singapore Infocomm Development Authority since June 10, 2013. Ms. Poh leads IDA’s policy and regulatory functions, including developing infocomm policy, telecoms regulation and information security, as well as guide the strategic Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) function. She served as the Divisional Director, Workplace Policy and Strategy Division, Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Prior to MOM, Ms. Poh served in other ministries including the Ministry of Finance.

…

Q: We already left behind a Gutenberg galaxy and we are entering Holographic galaxy. How the computer illiterate people as well as their souls and tradition feels related to the growth of E-Government public service on everyday manner.

JP: This is very interesting point that you raised in regards aging populations. That means a a lot of people in Singapore were before the Internet. The are not digital natives and in the same time we have a lot of young people who are using their mobile phones. So we have actually to deal with both groups of people. Some of the things we have done in terms of our citizens connect centers are very similar to Kazakhstan citizens services centers. There are places where people who are not so comfortable going online van actually come and see familiar face and have a chance to learn. We also have things such as Silver Infocomm initiative which encouraged older Singaporeans, sixty – seventy years old to use technology more, to act within e-services.

We recently had Silver Infocomm Day and there were hundreds of them who came for courses, than even some of them gave presentations. We had a 76 year-old man who had no ICT information and the gave presentation on Google glass and cloud security and that is from nothing. So, I think in the same time we should not underestimate old people and I think that in the same time we should not underestimate the ability of applications that exists today to tab into the human soul. So, for example, many things that Apple design tabs very deeply into humans soul.

The post Global E-Government Forum: Digital Natives As Pro-Active Foreigners – Interviews appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Docendo discimus

(Astana, KAZAKHSTAN) — Yes, those words of Seneca’s (“We learn by teaching“) has found a fertile ground within Smart Governance in the sense of increasing the knowledge of emerging issues and trends in E-Government development, as well as the identification of innovative policies and practices.

But how do we actually “learn by teaching?” I dare say that during the first day of the Global E-Government Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan (October 7, 2014), through different sessions, “learning by teaching” has started.

The Forum kicked off with a Plenary Session that involved the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. Karim Massimov; Mr. Wu Hongbo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs; Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU; Park Kyung Kuk, First vice minister of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration of Republic of Korea; Asset Issekeshev, Minister of Investment and Development and Stephen Tull, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan.

To be more precise and concrete, in a methodological way, presentations from the key speakers were focused on Smart-Government: Science and Technology through the achieving of the main goal of the International Scientific –Practical Conference by determining the significance and role of new information and communications technology (ICT) trends and their adoption in the public sector to build Smart governments.

Three different sessions focused on:

1. Use of architectural approach in the public sector;
2. Smart convergence technologies
3. Data Science for Smart Government

This was followed by a workshop that centered on the Capacity Development for E-Participation: citizen engagement in policy development and decision making through information and communication technologies (ICT).

After the Nomination of the UN Awards on developing E-Government — that were spread all around the world, from Singapore to Bahrain, including Kazakhstan —  a round table of ministers was conducted and after that more and more sessions ….

It was remarkable to see that this same issue of E-Government has been recognized by Governments from around the World — but that said, there is a very important problem, one that does exist regardless of cultural, historical and/or political issues within the various counties.

What is it?

The answer is simple, and visible, and rests on how to actually implement E-Government practices. As a matter of fact, since Plato’s time, the State has always placed pressure on its people, but we should now, instead, focus on a way to make that pressure less painful, if not in a ‘kinder’ way. That is the role of E-Government.

Frankly, I could not simply see within the first day of the Forum a proper way of integrating the excellent “know how“ that was espoused by all the presenters and key speakers and a practical, interacted way of how a Pro-Society works that will make people of each country of the World:

1. Capable to organize their lives in a way that will benefit both, the country and them – It is either one or the other.

2. Capable to be free of any kind of controlling influence of the paperwork. Who are the controllers of the controllers? Who will and might that be? Where are the independent people’s commissions and/or institutions free of influence of any state and/or party decision making that are dealing with E-governance? Yes, we have “independent“ public institutions within the countries, but…what does independence mean within the sense of influence feed-back within a society?

3. Capable for people to feel released not just from standing in long lines, but to make them to be more useful for the society and themselves.

4. Capable to make decisions which will improve their countries regardless of the ruling party(ies) and/or any kind of institutions that might be “above“ them.

We will wait for the second day of the Forum and see if it really is hard to be ‘human’ within human society — or is there another way around? — while at the same time trying to :learn through teaching” within the E-Government sessions.

The post On The Path Of Global E-Government Forum: Innovation Challenging Practice appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Brazil’s defence industry is experiencing a mini-comeback. However, it faces tough decisions in creating an economically and technologically competitive arms-producing capability.

By Richard A. Bitzinger

Brazil’s arms industry is re-emerging from the doldrums and may soon join other upstart weapons producers in giving traditional arms suppliers some serious competition in the global arms market, at least in certain areas.

It used to be said of Brazil that it was “the country of the future and it always will be”. This snide but depressingly true observation was particularly accurate when it came to the country’s outsized ambitions for its defence industry, as many armament programmes were brashly instigated and, in due course, came to naught.

Expansion and collapse

Beginning in the 1960s, Brazil plowed billions of dollars into creating a domestic arms industry. Under the rallying cry of “security and development,” the country pursued an aggressive defence industrialisation strategy, establishing companies like Embraer (to produce military aircraft), and producing a wide range of armaments. In particular, these weapons were produced not only to meet the needs of the Brazilian military, but to be sold overseas as well.

Initially, this export-led strategy paid off. Brazil exported hundreds of its Tucano turboprop primary trainer aircraft, as well as its ASTROS-II multiple rocket launcher (MRL). In particular, by the late 1980s Brazil had emerged as the world’s largest exporter of wheeled armoured vehicles. At one point in the 1980s, Brazil was the sixth largest arms exporter in the world.

By the early 1990s, however, Brazil’s defence industry was in shambles. The end of the Iran-Iraq War meant the loss of two of its biggest customers. More critically, Brazil’s arms producers, buoyed by their earlier successes, expanded into areas where their expertise was lacking and the competition was much stiffer; this included jet aircraft (the AMX strike fighter), tanks, missiles, and space-launch vehicles.

Few of these ambitious programmes ever amounted to much, however. Democratisation, demilitarisation, and economic recession forced cuts in Brazilian defence spending, leading to slashed procurement. At the same time, arms exports sagged. By the turn of the century, much of the country’s arms industry was bankrupt, and defence-industrial output was a fraction of its peak.

Rebirth of the Brazilian arms industry

Fast forward 20 years and Brazil’s defence industry appears to be booming again. Embraer is one of the most successful aerospace companies in the world – admittedly, mostly based on sales of its highly popular commercial jets, but its military division has been flourishing as well.

Its Super Tucano ground attack aircraft has been acquired by at least ten air forces, including the US Air Force (which also wants to use it to equip Afghan forces for counter-insurgency operations).

In addition, Embraer has begun development of a medium-size military transport plane, the KC-390; several South American countries are partnering on the KC-390, and the first prototype is expected to fly within a year.

Other defence sectors are also roaring back. Brazil recently completed sales of its ASTROS-II to Malaysia and Indonesia, and it has supplied air-to-air missiles to several air forces. Brazil’s arms industries are also developing additional weapons systems for export, including a land-attack cruise missile, a GPS-guided artillery rocket, and antiship and anti-radiation missiles. Overall, Brazil’s defence industry is increasingly sophisticated, boosting its arms-export potential.

Tough decisions ahead

Nevertheless, despite some recent successes, Brazil still faces considerable hurdles to crafting a technologically adroit and economically sustainable arms industry that can battle it out in the global arms market. The competition is fierce, especially from large, well-established arms producers in the United States and Western Europe. Vying head-to-head with these giants is probably not the way to go.

Rather, Brazil might take a cue from smaller arms-producing states – such as Singapore or Israel – and attempt to occupy a few high-tech niches where the competition is not great and where a smaller state can leverage its comparative advantage, i.e., cost, availability, etc.

In this regard, Brazil may choose to continue to build on its successes when it comes to military aircraft, artillery rocket systems, and a few other types of weaponry, but accept that other sectors, such as the global missile business, saturated as it is with competing suppliers, not might be a good sector to enter.

The country also has to decide whether its arms industry is going to be primarily for domestic use – i.e., meeting the needs of Brazil’s military – or oriented mainly toward export. Even if it is the former, the country still needs to think seriously about picking winners and losers in the armaments game. In particular, Brazil – like other countries in its situation – needs to seriously link its arms-production goals to its most pressing requirements. In other words, it should ask itself, is it building the weapons it needs, or the weapons it can?

Brazil is not alone in facing these challenges, of course. Many other smaller arms-producing states – such as Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea – face similar problems with finding their forte in the global arms business. As the global arms market becomes more competitive, however, these countries will face increasingly tough decisions when it comes to creating economically and technologically competitive defence industries.

Richard A. Bitzinger is Senior Fellow and Programme Coordinator of the Military Transformation Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. Formerly with the RAND Corp. and the Defence Budget Project, he has been writing on defence issues for more than 20 years.

The post Brazil’s Re-emerging Arms Industry: The Challenges Ahead – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Debalina Ghoshal

As the issue pertaining to violations of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia heats up, Russia is pointing its finger at the United States in its plans to deploy MK 41 Vertical Missile Launch Systems (VLS) in Romania and Poland.

Under the INF treaty, both the US and Russia are prohibited from developing ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles with ranges 500-5500km. The launch system in question is employed by US Navy warships for storing and launching naval missiles and is claimed to be the “worldwide standard in ship-borne missile launching systems.”

At present, this system launches Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is also reported to be able to launch SM-3 interceptors. According to the Federation of American Scientists, this VLS is a canister launching system “which provides a rapid-fire launch capability against hostile threats.” The launch system is further reported to be capable of firing anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles, therefore strengthening both the offensive and defensive capabilities of the US Navy. What’s more, according to Lockheed Martin, the MK41 can also accommodate surface to surface missiles along with weapon control systems and missiles simultaneously. The MK 41 has already been battle tested and was used in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

At present, the plan to deploy this VLS is a part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach of the United States. However, what the Russians fear is that the US could use these launchers to fire land- based intermediate range cruise missiles, seeing that such systems have the capability of launching such a category of missile systems. That the system would be able to launch these intermediate range cruise missiles from Poland and Romania has concerned Russia as targets falling within its territory could easily be reached. Coupled with this is Russia’s concern over US drones, which it claims fall under the land-based cruise missile systems category and are not allowed under the INF Treaty. Russia has also claimed that the US violated the treaty by testing missile defence target missiles which could be used to develop missiles that are prohibited by the INF.

Allegations made by both the United States and Russia that one or the other has violated the treaty have been of recent concern when considering the possibility that either of the parties could withdraw from the treaty. Indeed, the Russians have time and again threatened to withdraw from the INF treaty. Yet in turn, Russia has also been accused of violating the INF Treaty.

In fact, according to Hans Kristensen, Russia is developing an INF category ground-launched cruise missile, the R-500, which is a replica of the submarine-launched cruise missile SS-N-21.The blame game regarding INF Treaty violations has continued and Russians have claimed that the US accusations are “ungrounded.” However, if the news on Russia’s cruise missile development is true, and if the Russian concerns that the US could develop INF category cruise missiles are justified, then there could very well be a new INF cruise missile race likely to start between Russia and the United States. However, Russia is of the view that these allegations it faces are a “tendentious and provocative” effort to create a “smokescreen” and draw attention away from US’s own violations of the treaty in addition to aiding in its effort to “dismantle” the “global strategic stability system.”

Russia’s suspicion that the US could develop intermediate range cruise missiles grows stronger as the United States continues its Prompt Global Strike program, an effort which foresees the development of conventional weapon systems that can reach any part of the globein less than an hour. Thus, in the near future, the United States could develop intermediate range ground-launched cruise missiles and deploy them in its umbrella states. This would be a violation of the INF Treaty because even though the strategy adopted by the US in its Prompt Global Strike program relies on conventional weapons, the INF Treaty prohibits the development of even conventionally capable ground-launched missiles with ranges from 500-5500km.

In a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal, John Bolton, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and John Yoo, a visiting scholar also at the AEI, had suggested that theUS withdrawal from the INF Treaty and fund the development of new intermediate range weapon systems, “thereby countering Russian testing and deployment of the RS-26.”

However, on September 11, 2011, both the United States and Russia discussed this key arms control treaty and pledged to abide thereby. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia has yet to receive a “satisfactory” response to its concerns that the United States is not true to its assurance that it will abide by the treaty. Both the United States and Russia must solve such trivial issues pertaining to violations of the agreement in order to make this nuclear arms control treaty a successful one.

The post US Plans To Deploy MK 41 Launchers In Romania And Poland: Implications For INF Treaty – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Former US President Jimmy Carter says current President Barack Obama “waited too long” to address the rise of extremist group Islamic State, adding that to be successful in Iraq, Obama should send “ground troops to follow up when we do our bombing.”

Carter chided his fellow Democrat in the White House while admitting that the situation is fluid in Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) has come to control large territories after building up strength during the Syrian civil war.

“First of all, we waited too long. We let the Islamic state build up its money, capability and strength and weapons while it was still in Syria,” Carter told the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas. “Then when [ISIS] moved into Iraq, the Sunni Muslims didn’t object to their being there and about a third of the territory in Iraq was abandoned.”

Carter, not exactly known these days for advocating militarism, said if the US, along with coalition partners, want to see success from their current Islamic State policy – to “destroy and degrade” the jihadist group’s operations in Syria and Iraq through consistent airstrikes – there must be ground troops involved.

“If we keep on working in Iraq and have some ground troops to follow up when we do our bombing, there is a possibility of success,” he said.

“You have to have somebody on the ground to direct our missiles and to be sure you have the right target,” Carter added. “Then you have to have somebody to move in and be willing to fight ISIS after the strikes.”

President Obama has said he will not order combat troops to fight on the ground in Iraq or Syria, though top US military officials have said that they are willing to suggest that path. The US has several hundred military “advisers” aiding security forces in Iraq.

Carter did not address the role of the US in building up a variety of rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria, nor the funding that flows to jihadist groups from sources in nations the United States calls allies.

Carter, in north Texas volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, said Obama’s strategy in the Middle East is difficult to pinpoint.

“It changes from time to time,” Carter said. “I noticed that two of his secretaries of defense, after they got out of office, were very critical of the lack of positive action on the part of the president.”

Both of Obama’s past Department of Defense secretaries, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, have criticized Obama’s handling of Middle East policy in their respective tell-all memoirs, as RT has previously reported.

Carter also criticized the Obama administration’s use of lethal unmanned drone strikes in areas like Pakistan and Yemen. The former president said he was especially concerned over extrajudicial killings of American citizens.

“I really object to the killing of people, particularly Americans overseas who haven’t been brought to justice and put on trial,” he said. “We’ve killed four Americans overseas with American drones. To me that violates our Constitution and human rights.”

In May 2013, the United States admitted to killing four Americans with such drone strikes. The acknowledgement was a rare moment of candor for US officials who prefer to avoid disclosure of unmanned drone bombings.

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Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci was given garlic sweets and told to “breathe in the faces” of Roma players, it has been revealed.

The two Serie A giants met in Turin on Sunday, with Juventus snatching a 3-2 win after Bonucci’s thunderous strike in the 86th minute.

The inspiration for his wonder-goal may have come from an unexpected source, however: garlic sweets.

Alberto Ferrarini, Bonucci’s motivational coach, revealed after the match that he had given the Italy defender the sweets before the match and instructed him to breathe on Roma’s Francesco Totti and Gervinho.

“On Saturday night we spent three hours in the hotel to prepare for the game,” Ferrarini told Italian newspaper Tuttosport.

“Any new secrets? When we finished our work I gave Leonardo some garlic sweets. Natural products, inedible.

“The soldiers of hundreds of years ago ate garlic to remain strong, healthy and lucid in battle.

“Leo is a soldier and eating the sweets is as if he is returning to those origins.

“I told him to breathe in the face of Gervinho and Totti… the most important thing was to achieve the objective, to win.”

The post Juventus Players Chewed Garlic Prior To Roma Match appeared first on Eurasia Review.

While the fragile month-long ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is a welcome step towards ending the conflict, armed groups continue to terrorize the population in areas under their control, pursuing killings, abductions, torture, ill-treatment and other serious abuses, the United Nations Human Rights Office said today as it released its latest report on the situation in the country.

“Further prolongation of this crisis will make the situation untenable for the millions of people whose daily lives have been seriously disrupted,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement from his Office on the release of the report.

“For almost half a year, residents of the areas affected by the armed conflict have been deprived of their fundamental rights to education, to adequate healthcare, to housing and to opportunities to earn a living.”

The 6th monthly report of the 35-strong UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine covers the period from 18 August to 16 September. It notes that between 24 August and 5 September, armed groups of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ and ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ were bolstered by an increasing number of foreign fighters, including citizens believed to be from Russia.

The report also found that while there has been an absence of large-scale offensive actions since the ceasefire was announced on 5 September, in some areas, artillery, tank and small arms exchanges have continued on an almost daily basis. Armed groups also destroyed housing and seized property. There have also been continued allegations of human rights violations committed by some volunteer battalions under Government control.

From mid-April to 6 October, at least 3,660 people were killed and 8,756 wounded in eastern Ukraine. Since the ceasefire began, between 6 September and 6 October, at least 331 fatalities were recorded, although some of the individuals may have been killed prior to the ceasefire, with the data only recorded later.

Between 24 August and 5 September, there was also a sharp increase in detentions by the armed groups, and there were alarming reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including mock executions and sexual violence. There were also reports of ill-treatment of those detained by Ukrainian armed forces and police.

“With the shift in control of territory during the reporting period between Government forces and the armed groups, the risk of reprisals against individuals for collaborating with ‘the enemy’ or for such perceived collaboration has increased,” the report notes.

High Commissioner Zeid stressed that all violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law must be scrupulously investigated and prosecuted, including the indiscriminate shelling of civilians, killings, allegations of sexual violence, the illegal seizure of property and the ill-treatment of detainees.

“This is a call for justice, not retribution. All parties must ensure that there are no reprisals for perceived collaboration or affiliation with an opposing camp,” the High Commissioner said, referring to the report’s documentation of increased tensions between residents and IDPs.

Meanwhile, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the human rights situation continued to be marked by multiple and ongoing violations, the report notes, including the curtailment of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and of religion or belief, and increasing intimidation of Crimean Tatars under the pretext of combating extremism.

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A study of the removal of two dams in Oregon suggests that rivers can return surprisingly fast to a condition close to their natural state, both physically and biologically, and that the biological recovery might outpace the physical recovery.

The analysis, published by researchers from Oregon State University in the journal PLOS One, examined portions of two rivers – the Calapooia River and Rogue River. It illustrated how rapidly rivers can recover, both from the long-term impact of the dam and from the short-term impact of releasing stored sediment when the dam is removed.

Most dams have decades of accumulated sediment behind them, and a primary concern has been whether the sudden release of all that sediment could cause significant damage to river ecology or infrastructure.

However, this study concluded that the continued presence of a dam on the river constituted more of a sustained and significant alteration of river status than did the sediment pulse caused by dam removal.

“The processes of ecological and physical recovery of river systems following dam removal are important, because thousands of dams are being removed all over the world,” said Desirée Tullos, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering.

“Dams are a significant element in our nation’s aging infrastructure,” she said. “In many cases, the dams haven’t been adequately maintained and they are literally falling apart. Depending on the benefits provided by the dam, it’s often cheaper to remove them than to repair them.”

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the United States has 84,000 dams with an average age of 52 years. Almost 2,000 are now considered both deficient and “high hazard,” and it would take $21 billion to repair them. Rehabilitating all dams would cost $57 billion. Thus, the removal of older dams that generate only modest benefits is happening at an increasing rate.

In this study, the scientists examined the two rivers both before and after removal of the Brownsville Dam on the Calapooia River and the Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River. Within about one year after dam removal, the river ecology at both sites, as assessed by aquatic insect populations, was similar to the conditions upstream where there had been no dam impact.

Recovery of the physical structure of the river took a little longer. Following dam removal, some river pools downstream weren’t as deep as they used to be, some bars became thicker and larger, and the grain size of river beds changed. But those geomorphic changes diminished quickly as periodic floods flushed the river system, scientists said.

Within about two years, surveys indicated that the river was returning to the pre-removal structure, indicating that the impacts of the sediment released with dam removal were temporary and didn’t appear to do any long-term damage.

Instead, it was the presence of the dam that appeared to have the most persistent impact on the river biology and structure – what scientists call a “press” disturbance that will remain in place so long as the dam is there.

This press disturbance of dams can increase water temperatures, change sediment flow, and alter the types of fish, plants and insects that live in portions of rivers. But the river also recovered rapidly from those impacts once the dam was gone.

It’s likely, the researchers said, that the rapid recovery found at these sites will mirror recovery on rivers with much larger dams, but more studies are needed.

For example, large scale and rapid changes are now taking place on the Elwha River in Washington state, following the largest dam removal project in the world. The ecological recovery there appears to be occurring rapidly as well. In 2014, Chinook salmon were observed in the area formerly occupied by one of the reservoirs, the first salmon to see that spot in 102 years.

“Disturbance is a natural river process,” Tullos said. “In the end, most of these large pulses of sediment aren’t that big of a deal, and there’s often no need to panic. The most surprising finding to us was that indicators of the biological recovery appeared to happen faster than our indicators of the physical recovery.”

The rates of recovery will vary across sites, though. Rivers with steeper gradients, more energetic flow patterns, and non-cohesive sediments will recover more quickly than flatter rivers with cohesive sediments, researchers said.

This research was supported by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the National Marine Fisheries Service. It was a collaboration of researchers from the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Engineering, and College of Science.

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By Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy1

The new Chinese leadership seems fairly optimistic in its effort to reshape the country’s global posture in a bold and creative way, a key element of which is to build an economic system through external cooperation. Undoubtedly, the proposal of reviving the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) reflects this innovative approach. Indeed, the success of the MSR initiative will be of much significance to regional stability and global peace. The oceans provide the most important medium for both peacetime and wartime activities, from trade to national conflict. Also, “the maritime strategies of the Asian powers are designed primarily to defend their homelands and associated vital national security interests on the oceans and seas”.2 It is little wonder then that this proposal has attracted enormous interest among policy makers and scholars. Is there a confluence of maritime interests or is the idea to revive the Silk Road of the Sea an instrument of Chinese grand strategy?

Origin and Development of the MSR

The origin of the earliest silk roads was rooted in the complicated relationships between urban-agricultural China and pastoral peoples from the Eurasian steppe. Liu and Shaffer in Connections Across Eurasia, have discussed the emergence of the Silk Road of the Sea. Around the middle of the first century CE there were two separate but simultaneous expansions of communities known for their interest in trade. One movement involved the Yuezhi-Kushan nomads. Almost two centuries earlier they had moved from east to west, from the steppe on China’s northwest frontier to a region that was northwest of the Indian subcontinent in present-day Afghanistan. Then, they crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains and expanded towards the southeast, extending their rule over a large part of the Indian subcontinent.

The other expansion, which was solely commercial in nature, was carried out by maritime traders from the eastern end of the Mediterranean whose homelands had been conquered during the eastward expansion of the Roman Empire. In the middle of the first century CE they went eastward from Egypt to India by sea. The people involved in these two expansions met at the Arabian Sea ports on the Indian subcontinent’s western coast, in present day Pakistan and north-western India. Thus, the Yuezhi-Kushan pastoralists and the Mediterranean sailors together created a new, maritime branch of the silk roads.3

China has a very long and successful history as a maritime power.4 The decline of the Silk Road drove the Chinese and their trading partners to the seas in search of an alternative highway of exchange.5 The Roman Empire traded with Iran and India by sea, for the profit was tenfold, and the emperor wanted to send emissaries to China. Since Iran tried to monopolise the silk trade, it prevented the overland Silk Road from being opened to traffic, forcing China and Rome to open up sea traffic. Iran’s continuous monopoly made Rome anxious to bypass the overland route and establish a direct sea route to China. In 166 CE, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius succeeded in dispatching an envoy to China via Vietnam with ivory, rhinoceros horns, and hawk’s-bill tortoises, initiating direct trade between the two sides.6

Recent archaeological research on the MSR indicates that ancient Asian ships carried people and goods quickly and safely.8 Indeed, the Asian ships were a major force in early history, carrying both commerce and culture to new heights. The MSR had reached its maximum extent, linking the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to China by the first century CE. Much of Eurasia witnessed remarkable prosperity and cultural progress at this time. Asia enjoyed a significant advantage in the balance of trade with the West.9 The oldest surviving texts suggest that commercial practices had already become standardised along the MSR by the time of the Roman Empire.10

In remote antiquity, the Chinese began to look for sea routes over which to export silk, and these routes in turn increased China’s friendly contacts with the outside world. Early in the Western Zhou Dynasty, sea routes were opened leading to Japan to the east and Vietnam to the south. During the Han Dynasty Chinese merchants often engaged in business with merchants who had travelled by sea from Guangzhou, turning the city into a trade centre for pearls, rhinoceros horns, elephant tusks, and hawk’s-bill tortoises.

In the days of the Western Han Dynasty, Chinese seagoing vessels sailed from the Leizhou Peninsula via Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar to distant Kanchipuram in southern India, and brought huge quantities of gold and silk goods in exchange for pearls, precious stones, and other specialties of those countries. The ships would then sail back from Sri Lanka. This route was opened along the South China Sea both for the silk trade and for the trunk line of traffic on the Maritime Silk Road.

Chinese silk was a great attraction to the rest of the world. Envoys from countries in Southeast, South, and West Asia, and Europe were dispatched to establish good relations with China. They brought gifts in exchange for silk and opened up trade. Historical records reveal that envoys from South and Southeast Asian countries as well as from Rome were among the earliest to come by sea to China seeking diplomatic relations. They brought “treasures” to China as gifts, while their Chinese hosts presented them with coloured silk in return.

In reality, these polite exchanges were nothing but a disguised form of trade, and Chinese silk began to be treated as a symbol of peace and friendship. The ruling classes of early China almost always bestowed silk on “tributary states”. Such exchanges gradually became more frequent, and the value of silk rose, becoming in some cases equal to or greater than that of gold. The MSR developed into a route for envoys of friendship, with far greater significance than a purely mercantile road.

Further, there were other reasons behind developing the MSR. Transport by land was fraught with problems. The route was vulnerable to attack and control by foreign powers. Moreover, the route passed only through the west, whereas China’s main export commodities, such as silk, porcelain, and tea, were produced on the southeastern coast. The Silk Road passed through mountains and deserts with atrocious weather, making transport of heavy or fragile merchandise expensive and inconvenient. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, when Turkey seized Central Asia, and Tibet occupied Hexi, the overland Silk Road went into decline. Sea transport, on the other hand, looked very attractive.11

China has more than 18,000 kilometers of coastline and a good number of ports open all year round, and the country was a world leader in shipbuilding and navigation. The sea route was more accessible to manufacturers of export products, and ships could carry more than pack animals, at less expense and with fewer hazards. Navigation was by this time fairly advanced, and Chinese navigators had some ability to predict monsoons. Indeed, people living in the coastal areas were “persistent in creativity and innovations while accruing valuable experiences, resulting in improved navigation capabilities in water.”12 Thus the Silk Road turned to the sea and flourished.

The MSR was divided into two main sectors: lands “above the wind” (ports in the Indian Ocean), and lands “below the wind” or (the straits of Malacca, South China Sea, Java Sea, and further east). These terms referred to season of sailing. Long-distance voyaging along these routes became possible once seafarers discovered the rhythm of wind, which provide reliable power for sailing ships.13

What is really remarkable about the Silk Road, however, is the fact that, by and large, it remained a peaceful means of inter-state commercial activity and inter-ethnic cultural exchange. The ancient Silk Road did not lead to wars and strife, much less colonialism and imperialism.14 The MSR was not only a trading route but also a course for preaching the ways of the Buddha.15

Reviving the MSR

China has proposed to revive the centuries-old ‘Silk Road of the Sea’ into a 21st century Maritime Silk Road. The curiosity all around is how this could be used as a means of diplomacy, helping Chinese leaders to meet their idea of ‘national revival’. This proposal has attracted enormous interest among policy makers and scholars. Is there a confluence of maritime interest or is the idea to revive the Silk Road of the Sea an instrument of Chinese ‘grand strategy’? It would, however, be useful to understand the concept of ‘grand strategy’ before going into details of the MSR.

Grand strategy denotes “a country’s broadest approach to the pursuit of its national objectives in the international system”.16 The state seeks to pursue its national objectives in the international system. Understanding this international environment “is essential to the formulation of any sensible strategic policy”.17 It needs to be understood as the ends that a state seeks as well as the means it employs to meet these ends. A state’s grand strategy provides an understanding of its long-term foreign and security policy goals. One may ask a question: what are the key elements of China’s grand strategy? The key elements of China’s grand strategy may be elaborated as follows:18

• Acquire “comprehensive national power” (CNP)19 essential to achieving the status of a “global great power that is second to none”;
• Gain access to global natural resources, raw materials, and overseas markets to sustain China’s economic expansion;
• Pursue “three Ms”: military build-up (including a naval presence along the vital sea lanes of communication and maritime chokepoints), multilateralism, and multipolarity; and
• Build a worldwide network of friends and allies through “soft power” diplomacy, trade and economic dependencies via free trade agreements, mutual security pacts, intelligence cooperation, and arms sales.

One important aspect of China’s grand strategy is ‘strategic access’.20 China is going out in search of natural resources and developing overland transport networks in pursuit of its national interest. As part of its strategy, China is developing roads, railways, ports, and energy corridors through its western region, across South Asia and beyond.21 The idea of reviving the MSR manifests Chinese innovative approach and its grand strategy. Why are routes so important to China? What is this politics of routes?

The Politics of Routes

The politics of routes in Southern Asia has played a key role in the region’s military affairs, in political development, economic growth, and cultural change. It enhances an understanding of the nexus between security and development issues. Routes create access, and lie at the heart of people’s relations to the environment, and it is as much political as it is geographical.22 Access in space has been “organised at all times in history to serve political ends, and one of the major aims of politics is to regulate conditions of access”.23 Consideration of security often plays a major role in matters of development. In fact, insecurity (real or perceived) often fosters development in peripheral regions considerably.

Routes are “the means for the movement of ideas, the dominant culture and ideology of the political centre, to its peripheries”.24 Routes (land, sea, air) can define the territorial reach and physical capabilities of the state and are integral to the achievement of its political, economic, and military potential. “Transport infrastructure defines, in a sense, the material conditions for a state’s internal and external capabilities”.25

Control over and expansions of routes are important to obtain optimum economic benefits from trade with other states. To increase their economic productivity, security, and market size, states may also form integrated regional groupings in which conditions of access are eased for member-states relative to non-members. Such regional integration policies often involve the joint expansion of physical channels of communication and transport. Mahnaz Z. Ispahani, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a South Asia expert, notes, “In decisions on foreign infrastructural aid, economic, political, strategic and geographical concerns intersect. The infrastructure of access is also “dual-use”: depending on its location and specifications, it can be an instrument of economic development or a tool of internal security or external defence”.26 States may be characterised by their “circulation” systems, or systems of transport and communication which permit the movement of men, goods, and ideas within the state and between it and other parts of the world.27 Further, maritime access plays a significant role in the formation of strategic alliances and security ties. The proposal to reopen the MSR by the Chinese leaders should be seen in this light.

Chinese President Xi Jinping updates the spirit of the ancient Silk Road by calling for the joint development of an economic belt along the Silk Road and a Maritime Silk Road of the 21st century. This is clearly a reflection of Chinese grand strategy. These two initiatives of overland and maritime Silk Roads aim to seize the opportunity of transforming Asia and to create strategic space for China. The question, therefore, is that how could such initiatives be suitable to advance strategic objectives.

There are various ways to advance strategic objectives through such initiatives, for example, by supporting friends and clients, by pressurising enemies, by neutralising similar activities by other naval powers, by exerting a more diffuse influence in politically ambiguous situation in which even one’s own objectives may be uncertain, or merely by advertising one’s nautical power. Indeed, maritime power has certain advantages as an instrument of diplomacy. First, naval forces are more resilient. Second, naval forces have greater visibility. Being seen on the high seas or in foreign ports a navy can act as a deterrent, provide reassurance, or earn prestige. Third, and more importantly, sea allows naval ships to reach distant countries and makes a state possessed of sea power the neighbour of every other country that is accessible by sea. 28 Thus, proposed initiative of the MSR has clear strategic purpose and is a helpful channel for Chinese grand strategy.

21st  Century Maritime Silk Road

China is experiencing a “Deng Xiaoping Moment 2.0”. 29 The new Chinese leaders seem fairly optimistic in their efforts to reshape the country’s global posture in a bold and creative way. One key element of this is to build an economic system with upgraded opening-up and external cooperation. Undoubtedly, the proposal of reviving the MSR demonstrates this innovative approach. Figure 4 gives a glimpse of proposed Silk Road. According to this Figure, the MSR will begin in Fujian province, and will pass by Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan before heading south to the Malacca Strait. From Kuala Lumpur, the MSR heads to Kolkata, then crosses the rest of the Indian Ocean to Nairobi. From Nairobi, it goes north around the Horn of Africa and moves through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, with a stop in Athens before meeting the land-based Silk Road in Venice.

Indeed, the success of the MSR initiative will be very consequential to regional stability and global peace. Today, China is in the process of remaking history at sea, and some scholars see it as ‘China’s maritime renaissance’. Indeed, “A ‘Great Leap Outward’ onto the world’s ocean is visible in China’s growing merchant marine; rise in the global shipbuilding market; increasing reach in building and managing off-shore ports and port facilities; and efforts to develop a modern ‘blue-water’ navy”.30

Thrust on reviving the ancient maritime route is the first global strategy, for enhancing trade and fostering peace, proposed by the new Chinese leaders. The MSR borrows and inherits the ancient metaphor of friendly philosophy to build a new one in the 21st century. It emphasises improving connectivity with Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and even Africa, by building a network of port cities along the Silk Route, linking the economic hinterland in China. More importantly, it aspires to improve the Chinese geo-strategic position in the world.

Aims and Objectives of Reviving the MSR

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, the reason why China proposed the building of the Maritime Silk Road is to explore the unique values and ideas of the ancient Silk Road, namely mutually learning from each other, and to add new content of the current era, thus to achieve common development and common prosperity of all countries in the region.

“China proposed to build the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st century with the aim of realizing harmonious co-existence, mutual benefit and common development with relevant countries by carrying out practical cooperation in various fields, such as maritime connectivity, marine economy, technically-advanced environmental protection, disaster prevention and reduction as well as social and cultural exchanges in the spirit of peace, friendship, cooperation and development”.31

In fact, since the Tang Dynasty, the MSR had been a major channel of communication, through which ancient China made contacts with the outside world. Chinese leadership has promised to transform China through a national rejuvenation in order to realise “Chinese dream”. The MSR initiative, in fact, is an attempt to create a favourable international environment conducive to China’s continuing development, and thus, it manifests an important element of Chinese grand strategy.

The idea of the MSR was outlined during Li Keqiang’s speech at the 16th ASEAN-China summit in Brunei,32 and Xi Jinping’s speech in the Indonesian Parliament33 in October 2013. Chinese leaders underlined the need to re-establish the centuries-old seaway as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, while celebrating the 10th anniversary of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership. The main emphasis was placed on stronger economic cooperation, closer cooperation on joint infrastructure projects, the enhancement of security cooperation, and the strengthening of maritime economy, environment technical and scientific cooperation.

The new leaders put forward the “2+7” formula of cooperation — consensus on two issues: deepening strategic trust and exploring neighbourly friendship, and economic development based on mutual benefits and win-win outcomes. They also put forward seven proposals — signing the China-ASEAN good neighbour treaty; more effective use of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and intensive Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership negotiations; acceleration of joint infrastructure projects; stronger regional financial and risk-prevention cooperation; closer maritime cooperation; enhanced collaboration on security; and more intensive people-to-people contacts along with increased cultural, scientific and environmental protection cooperation.34

China aims to accelerate the establishment of an Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB), which could provide a strong investment and financing platform for multimodal connectivity, like building high-speed rail, ports, airports, within related countries. AIIB is Beijing’s brainchild to steer development along the proposed Silk Road. According to news reports, twenty two countries have so far shown interest in China’s bold push to establish the AIIB, with a registered capital of US$ 100 billion. The fund is sizeable enough to compete with the ADB, which runs on a capital of US$ 165 billion and is dominated by Japan and the United States. In fact, China has invited India to participate in the AIIB as a founding member.35 Meanwhile, in order to get wider support, China may consider establishing the bank headquarters in one of the capitals along the MSR, possibly Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore and other capitals deemed friendly.36 This new financial structure could also be helpful in reducing dependence on the US dollar and move towards trade in the respective national currencies.

Indeed, China is taking decisive steps to improve its overall geopolitical position by developing extensive transport networks, building roads, railways, ports, and energy corridors through such initiatives. The MSR could be a symbol of unity among nations and a commitment to cooperation. Further, this initiative could contribute to greater connectivity and complementarities for the entire Asia. Cooperative mechanisms and innovative approach through this scheme could help to develop and improve supply chain, industrial chain, and value chain, and would, thus, strengthen regional cooperation.37

This initiative is aimed to boost infrastructure development and structural innovation, to improve business environment of the region, to facilitate an orderly and unimpeded flow of production factors and their efficient distribution, to accelerate development of landlocked countries and the remote areas, to lower costs and barriers of trade and investment, and to drive greater reform and opening-up by regional countries. Through its ‘silk diplomacy’ Beijing aims to strengthen exchanges among people of different nations, regions, classes and religions; to explore the potential of the “soft” aspect of exchanges and cooperation; to consolidate the foundation of friendship among people; and to contribute positively to peace and development in Asia. 38

As discussed above, the MSR will also be helpful in promoting certain strategic objectives — for example, in supporting friends and clients, neutralising similar activities by other naval powers, or merely by showcasing one’s maritime power. Indeed, naval power has certain advantages as an instrument of diplomacy. Naval forces are more resilient, and they have greater visibility. Thus, the proposed MSR has clear strategic objectives, and India and many other countries are studying the implications of this bold policy statement carefully.

Amidst the ‘irresistible shift’ from the West to the East, Beijing is concerned about the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific region. Also, the MSR could be an attempt to counter the “string of pearls” argument. China’s ‘acrimonious’ relations with some states in Southeast Asia due to maritime disputes have created complex circumstances for itself in building better relations with its neighbours. Through their vision of reviving the MSR, Chinese leaders aim to impart a new lease of life to China’s peripheral policy, and to diffuse the tension with neighbours. Chinese leaders want to reassure their commitment to the path of peaceful development, emphasising that “a stronger China will add to the force for world peace and the positive energy for friendship, and will present development opportunities to Asia and the world, rather than posing a threat”. The main elements of the proposed Maritime Silk Road are policy coordination; connectivity; trade and investment; people-to-people links; and financing development.

Converging Interests and Regional Responses

Chinese President, in his speech on “Carrying Forward the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ and Promoting Common Development” at the SCO Summit on 13 September 2013, put forward a four-point proposal: first, to promote mutual trust, mutual benefits, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity, and seek the “Shanghai Spirit” for common development; second, to jointly safeguard regional security and stability; third, to focus on the development of pragmatic cooperation; and fourth, strengthen people-to-people communications and non-governmental exchanges by laying solid public opinion and social foundations for development.39 The proposed Maritime Silk Road offers a number of opportunities for ASEAN countries and India. Though, the idea of rebuilding the MSR is still evolving, it would be useful to see preliminary responses of ASEAN countries and India to this Chinese proposal.

ASEAN Interests and Responses

As discussed above, the MSR initiative is a manifestation of China’s growing significance in the global arena, economically, politically, as well as strategically. By promoting port and other forms of infrastructure cooperation, China seeks to ease its territorial disputes with other ASEAN claimant states, and strengthen mutual trust. On the economic front, the MSR proposal will boost maritime connectivity, port and harbour cooperation, and maritime commerce. It also provides a channel of overseas investment for Chinese companies and capital, either in infrastructure construction, or in manufacturing and foreign commodity trade and service sectors. The cooperation will also narrow the huge infrastructure development gap among ASEAN members. For China, such outward infrastructure investment is important for boosting its manufacturing sectors, addressing its domestic production overcapacity and stimulating domestic economic growth.40

Recently, ASEAN Community Affairs Development Director Danny Lee remarked that the creation of the new Maritime Silk Road is a very good concept and will bring new opportunities for China and ASEAN to cooperate in many sectors, such as trade, infrastructure and cultural exchange. ASEAN member-states welcome China’s initiative of building the new Maritime Silk Road.41 Notably, ASEAN is currently China’s third-biggest trading partner with annual US$ 443.6 billion bilateral trade, and most of the traded goods are transported via shipping lanes.42 China has strong experience and technology in infrastructure construction as well as the capital. The MSR could spur the economic development of ASEAN. Besides, it could also promote the people-to-people contact and enhance understanding between China and ASEAN as well as among ASEAN countries.43

There is, however, some anxiety within ASEAN states over Chinese actions on the ground that were contradictory to China’s stated intentions of goodwill and peaceful cooperation. For example, China’s recent move to station one of its oil rigs in the disputed territory in the South China Sea flared up tensions in the Asia-Pacific. Further, it ruptured relationships, and cast doubts among some of the ASEAN countries about Beijing’s recent announcements of friendship and good neighbourliness. The deployment of the rig has further fuelled the “China threat” discourse in Asia.44 The Philippines is apprehensive of Chinese activities and some officials in Manila feel that China was actively seeking “to re-establish a China- dominated regional order in South-east Asia”.45 It is difficult, given such acts of assertiveness on the part of China, for the region’s small states not to feel suspicious about any goodwill gesture from it. It will be difficult for China to build a friendly neighbourhood if each move it makes is met with distrust and fear of its intentions. China forgets that, because of its sheer size, any move it makes that seems insignificant to it could have large implications for its small neighbours.46 Hence, China needs to address the trust deficit that exists among some of its ASEAN neighbours while taking such initiatives.

India’s Interests and Responses

Formal proposal to induct India into the MSR was made during the 17th round of talks between special representatives in New Delhi. So far, India has been quiet in its response primarily owing to lack of clarity about the Chinese strategy of reviving the MSR. According to official sources conceptually the upgrading of maritime connectivity between Indo-Pacific and extending it further to East Africa and on to Mediterranean are in tune with India’s own broader maritime economic vision. However, there is a lack of clarity on “how and what” of the Chinese proposal. There are also concerns about what this implies for broader regional strategic partnerships.47 Another view is that the MSR initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to revive erstwhile Asian trade routes could open door for significant expansion of maritime engagement and cooperation.48
India has begun to recognise the importance of its sea lines of communication beyond its geographical proximity including in the Western Pacific. India’s then Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai in a speech at the National Defence College said, “The entire Indian Ocean region stretching from East African coast to the South China Sea remains crucial to our foreign trade, energy and national security interests”. He added:

“The Asia Pacific region is witnessing evolution of a regional economic and security architecture. We are participating in the process of East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum, ADMM Plus and other forums. An open, balanced and inclusive regional architecture is in the long-term interest of the region as a whole. Our strategic partnerships with Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK) and other Asia Pacific countries also serve our long-term economic, developmental and security interests”.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs Annual Report notes, “India’s relations with the countries in South East Asia and Pacific regions have witnessed a significant transformation in recent years. The expansion and deepening of our Look East Policy, the steady trend of economic growth and stability in the region and the continuing geopolitical shift towards Asia have imparted new momentum to our engagement, both bilaterally with individual countries as well as regionally”.49 Therefore, it would be in India’s interest to respond positively to the Chinese invitation to join the MSR. The proposed Maritime Silk Road offers a number of opportunities for India.

China and India are important players in global security. Their combined efforts could be useful to combat non-traditional security threats. Given the fact that navies of both the countries would be operating in the same region increasingly, it would be crucial for them to harmonise their activities and to create interoperability by evolving confidence-building measures, including conducting joint anti-piracy and disaster-relief exercises and maybe even complementing each other. There could be many other convergences between India and China in the maritime domain.

Besides, India badly needs infrastructure and connectivity and, despite much rhetoric on the subject, Delhi has made little advance in recent years. On the contrary, China has developed a sophisticated concept of marine economy that has been facilitated by its long coastline. The coastal provinces have contributed substantially to the overall national strength in terms of economic growth and play an important role in developing an export-oriented economy. Over past few decades, China has emerged as a major maritime power of the world and is offering to develop maritime infrastructure in friendly countries. India needs to make major policy changes to develop maritime infrastructure, offshore resources and exploit these on a sustainable basis. Therefore, the MSR should be seen as a welcome opportunity for India. 50 Some Indian scholars, however, perceive the MSR as a “challenge to India’s authority” in the Indian Ocean region.51

Moreover, India can also harness Chinese capabilities to improve its maritime infrastructure, including the construction of high-quality ships and world-class ports. More importantly, it will also help India-ASEAN maritime connectivity that has been languishing due to the lack of infrastructure. India and China can also work together on the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR), with the Indian Navy and the PLA Navy cooperating and developing best operational practices for HADR operations. 52

Conclusions

While the MSR proposal is an innovative idea and aims to create opportunities and bring peace and stability, it is still an unfolding idea. China’s maritime renaissance, however, is being led by its dynamic commercial sector, with maritime business leading the way. Naval development is following the merchant marine development. China’s path to the sea is different, distinguished by seaborne commerce leading the way, trailed by naval development.53

As China rises, and the sea becomes its main highway for incoming investment and technology and outgoing exports, China is studying the past and thinking about the future. The MSR places China in the ‘middle’ of the “Middle Kingdom” and is an effort in initiating a ‘grand strategy’ with global implications. The MSR, which served more for trade and establishing friendly relations, offers several opportunities for ASEAN states and India, in its avatar. As discussed, there are many converging interests among various states in the region. The MSR initiative could be very helpful in reinforcing cooperation and raising it to a new level of maritime partnership. Nevertheless, China has yet to cultivate the much-needed political and strategic trust.

Source:
This article was published by ISAS as Working Paper 197, October 8, 2014, which may be accessed here (PDF).

Notes:
1. Mr Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy is Research Associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), an autonomous research institute at the National University of Singapore. He can be contacted at isasrrc@nus.edu.sg. Opinions expressed in this paper, based on research by the author, do not necessarily reflect the views of ISAS.
2. Bernard D. Cole, Asian Maritime Strategies: Navigating Troubled Waters, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013, p.1.
3. Xinru Liu and Lynda Norene Shaffer, Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads, New York: McGraw Hill, 2007, p. 44.
4. F. W. Mote, Imperial China 900 – 1800, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999, p.717.
5. Zheng Yangwen, China on the Sea: How the Maritime World Shaped Modern China, Leiden: BRILL, 2012, p. 23.
6. Bin Yang, Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE), New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, p. 55.
8. Li Jiao, “Unprecedented Excavation Brings Maritime Silk Road to Life”, Science, 23 April 2010, Vol. 328, No. 5977, pp.424-425.
9. John N. Miksic, Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea 1300 – 1800, Singapore: NUS Press, 2013, pp.32-33. 10. John N. Miksic, Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, p. 35.
11. See, Sun Yifu (Ed.), The Silk Road on Land and Sea, Beijing: The China Pictorial Publishing Co., 1989.
12. Li Qingxin, Maritime Silk Road, Shanghai: China Intercontinental Press, 2006, Translated by William W. Wang, p. 7.
13. John N. Miksic, Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea, p. 37.
14. John Wong, “Reviving the ancient Silk Road: China’s new economic diplomacy”, The Straits Times, 9 July 2014, also available at http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/invitation/story/reviving-the-ancient-silk- road-chinas-new-economic-diplomacy-20140709#sthash.L3ivwxYQ.dpuf.
15. Li Qingxin, Maritime Silk Road, p. 34.
16. Robert H. Dorff, “A Primer in Strategy Development”, in Joseph R. Cerami and James F Holcomb, Jr. (eds.),
U.S. Army War College Guide to Strategy, Carlisle Barracks, P.A., Strategic Studies Institute, 2001, p. 12.
17. Williamson Murray and Mark Grimsley, “Introduction: On Strategy”, in Williamson Murray, Macgregor Knox and Alvin Bernstein, The Making of Strategy: Rulers, States, and War, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999, p. 5.
18. J. Mohan Malik, “India’s Response to China’s Rise” in Kevin J. Cooney and Yoichiro Sato (eds.), The Rise
of China and International Security: America and Asia Respond, (New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 178.
19. China has been focussing on economic development in its pursuit of CNP. The various elements of CNP include resources, manpower, economy, science and technology, education, defence, and politics. For a detailed analysis on this, see Jian Yang, “The Rise of China: Chinese Perspectives” in Kevin J. Cooney and Yoichiro Sato (eds.), The Rise of China and International Security: America and Asia Respond, New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 16-19.
20. The term ‘access’ normally subsumes all types of bases and facilities (including technical installations), aircraft over flight rights, port visit privileges, and use of offshore anchorages within sovereign maritime limits. The term strategic access is used more broadly to include, for instance, access to markets, raw material sources, and/or investments, penetration by radio and television broadcasts, and access for intelligence operations. See Robert E. Harkavy, Great Power Competition for Overseas Bases: The Geopolitics of Access Diplomacy, Canada: Pergamon Policy Studies on Security Affairs, Pergamon Press Canada Ltd, 1982, pp. 14-43.
21. See Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy & Guy M. Snodgrass, “The Geopolitics of Chinese Access Diplomacy”, German Marshall Fund of the United States Policy Brief, 29 May 2012.
22. Mahnaz Z. Ispahani, Roads and Rivals: The Politics of Access in the Borderlands of Asia, London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. Publishers, 1989, p. 2.
23. Jean Gottmann, The Significance of Territory, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1973, p. 27.
24. Jean Gottmann, “The Political Partitioning of Our World: An Attempt at Analysis”, World Politics, Vol. 4, July 1952, p. 515.
25. Mahnaz Z. Ispahani, Roads and Rivals, p.2.
26. Mahnaz Z. Ispahani, p. 10.
27. Richard Hartshorne, “The Functional Approach in Political Geography”. Annals of the Association of
American Geographers, Vol. 40, June 1950, p. 104.
28. Hedley Bull, “Sea Power and Political Influence”, The Adelphi Papers, Volume 16, Issue 122, pp.1-9.
29. Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, “Reviving the Maritime Silk Route”, The Hindu, 11 April 2014, available at

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/reviving-the-maritime-silk-route/article5896989.ece.

30. Howard J Dooley, “The Great Leap Outward: China’s Maritime Renaissance”, The Journal of East Asian
Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 1(spring/summer 2012), p. 55.
31. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on 13 February 2014, available at http://sc.china-embassy.org/eng/fyrth/t1128254.htm.
32. “Premier Li Keqiang Attends the 16th ASEAN-China Summit, Stressing to Push for Wide-ranging, In-depth, High-level, All-dimensional Cooperation between China and ASEAN and Continue to Write New Chapter of Bilateral Relations”, 10 Oct 2013, available at http://www.chinaembassy.org.nz/eng/zgyw/t1088098.htm.
33. Wu Jiao, “President Xi gives speech to Indonesia’s parliament”, China Daily, 2 Oct 2013, available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013xiapec/2013-10/02/content_17007915.htm.
34. Justyna Szczudlik-Tatar, “China’s New Silk Diplomacy”, PISM Policy Paper, No. 34 (82), December 2013, pp.3-4.
35. Atul Aneja, “China invites India to join Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank”, The Hindu, 30 June 2014. Also see, Ananth Krishnan, “China shows economic clout with push for new banks”, The Hindu, 16 July 2014.
36. Author discussed this issue with Chinese scholars and some officials during his recent visit to Sichuan from 28 July to 2 August 2014.
37. It is based on author’s discussion with Chinese scholars and officials in Sichuan from 28 July to 2 August 2014, including at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Sichuan University and at the China West Normal University.
38. Wei Wei, “Silk Route: The way to prosperity for India, China and the Entire Asia”, The Economic Times, 14 April 2014, also available at http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-04- 14/news/49126193_1_silk-route-maritime-silk-road-indian-ocean.
39. Xi Jinping Delivers Speech at SCO Summit, and Raises Four-Point Proposal, 13 September 2013, available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/xjpfwzysiesgjtfhshzzfh_665686/t1077762.shtml.
40. Yu Hong, “China’s “Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century” Initiative”, EAI Background Brief, No. 941, 30 July 2014, available at http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB941.pdf. Also see, “ASEAN welcomes China’s new Maritime Silk Road initiatives”, China Daily, 15 August 2014, available at http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-08/15/content_18322921.htm.
41. see, “ASEAN welcomes China’s new Maritime Silk Road initiatives”, China Daily, 15 August 2014, available at http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-08/15/content_18322921.htm.
42. “Key Indicators on ASEAN-China Relations (2013): Trade”, available at http://www.asean-china- center.org/english/2014-03/06/c_133164797.htm.
43. Goh Sui Noi, “China can try walking in ASEAN states’ shoes”, The Straits Times, 8 Sept 2014, available at http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/china-can-try-walking-asean-states- shoes-20140908.
44. See Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, “Deciphering China’s Oil-Rig Move in South China Sea”, ISAS Brief, No. 330, 4 June 2014, available at http://www.isas.nus.edu.sg/Attachments/PublisherAttachment/ISAS_ Brief_330-Deciphering_Chinas_Oil_Rig_Move_in_South_China_Sea_05062014054455.pdf.
45. Author’s interaction with a senior researcher at the Foreign Service Institute, Department of Foreign Affairs, Manila on 25 July 2014.
46. Goh Sui Noi, “China can try walking in ASEAN states’ shoes”, The Straits Times, 8 Sept 2014.
47. Arun Sahgal, “China’s Proposed Maritime Silk Road (MSR): Impact on Indian Foreign and Security Policies”, July 2014, http://ccasindia.org/issue_policy.php?ipid=21.
48. “China’s MSR plan throws up positive opportunities: Raja Mohan”, The Business Standard, 9 September 2014, available at http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/china-s-msr-plan-throws-up-positive- opportunities-raja-mohan-114032200553_1.html.
49. Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), Annual Report 2012-13, New Delhi: Policy Planning and Research Division, Ministry of External Affairs, available at http://www.mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/21385_Annual_Report_2012-2013_English.pdf.
50. Vijay Sakhuja, “Maritime Silk Road: Can India Leverage It?”, #4635, 1 September 2014, available at http://www.ipcs.org/article/navy/maritime-silk-road-can-india-leverage-it-4635.html. Also see, Vijay Sakhuja, “The Maritime Silk Route and the Chinese Charm Offensive”, in IPCS Special Focus: The Maritime Great Game India, China, US & The Indian Ocean, p. 6, available at www.ipcs.org/pdf…/SR150- IPCSSpecialFocus-MaritimeGreatGame.pdf.
51. Jagannath Panda, “Maritime Silk Road and the India-China Conundrum: From the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean”, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, January-March 2014, p. 28.
52. Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, “Xi Jinping’s visit should mark new era in Indo-China relations”, The Economic Times, 10 September 2014.. Chinese state councillor Yang Jeichi proposed a dialogue between the two naives on freedom of navigation and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) at the 17th Annual Dialogue of the Special Representatives of India and China in New Delhi. See, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Press Release, “17th Round of Talks between the Special Representatives of India and China on the Boundary Question”, New Delhi, 11 February 2014, available at http://mea.gov.in/press- releases.htm?dtl/22861/17th+Round+of+Talks+between+the+Special+Representatives+of+India+and+China+on+the+Bound ary+Question.
53. Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and Carnes Lord (Eds.), China Goes to Sea: Maritime Transformation in Comparative Historical Perspective, Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2009, p.345.

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