The BBC has run a story indicating that there is an emerging cooperative nuclear relationship between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Apparently this relationship is long-standing, but it is only being talked about because of Saudi Arabia’s desire to break free of its tight dependence on the US. A nuclear Saudi Arabia would practically assure a nuclear Iran–the Iranians would not easily accept Saudi hegemony in the Gulf region. Shifting alliances always contain high elements of instability. The US will attach great importance to preventing the Saudis from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Far-right protesters in Poland disrupted the country’s celebration of national independence. This year was the third straight year that the right-wing has protested, and each year it has attacked anything that smacked of liberal or left-wing views. This year the protesters burned a rainbow colored arch paying tribute to tolerance and diversity. The protests mirror similar demonstrations all across Europe in recent months.
We have a great deal about how the world is organized into nation-states. People, however, always have multiple identities no matter how hard the nation-state tries to establish citizenship as the primary identity. Social media does not fit easily into the citizenship framework–it can be far more flexible and nuanced (depending on the user). There is a new social media in the nation-state of Kazakhstan that organizes groups by tribal identity, a framework in Kazakhstan that is both ancient and deep. It will be interesting to see if members of the Kazakh tribes outside of Kazakhstan decide to organize themselves by tribe as well.
World Politics News 
Leave a comment