World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

In a stunning victory for ignorance, the US House of Representatives voted today to dig our collective heads in the sand.  It passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill that reads:

None of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to implement the U.S. Global Change Research Program National Climate Assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report, the United Nation’s Agenda 21 sustainable development plan, or the May 2013 Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive Order 12866.

If we don’t study it, it will go away.

Jaha Dukureh, a 24-year-old survivor of female genital mutilation, started a petition some time ago to demand that the US start a commission that would keep more accurate statistics on the practice in the US  in the hope that the data would force a change in global attitudes.   On Friday, the petition received its 100,000th signature.  The practice has been illegal in the US since 1996, but studies indicate that there are hundreds of thousands of girls in the US who have endured the ritual.

A new alliance is being formed in Southeast Asia:  the Philippines and Vietnam are moving closer together in an attempt to offset Chinese power in the South China Sea.  The alliance is just being formed, so it is difficult to say how far it will go.  But Vietnam and the Philippines have often been on opposite sides on many issues so the mutual overtures are unusual.  Balance of power theory suggests that two countries do not need to be highly compatible when faced by a strong mutual opponent.  The Chinese are not pleased by the alliance, but they could have hardly expected something different given their recent behavior in the sea.

On Sunday Ukraine will hold its presidential election to replace the government of former President Yanukovich.  There are many contenders for the position and it is difficult to predict the outcome.  But Russian President Putin said that Russia would respect the vote.  No matter who is elected, it is going to be very difficult to deal with the separatists in eastern Ukraine.  There has been a sharp uptick in violence prior to the election, and the new government will have a difficult task in stabilizing the economy and the political situation.

Stephanie Shanler is a Mount Holyoke College alumna and has been working in Kenya for many years.  She is currently working at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, helping refugees from the violence in South Sudan.  Her report on the conditions in the refugee camp is heartbreaking.  Stephanie works for the United Nation’s Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which is now headed by a former Mount Holyoke College faculty member, Anthony Lake.

There has been another act of violence in the city of Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang province.  As many as 31 people were killed in a bomb explosion in an open air market in the city.  Suspicion immediately fell on Uighur separatists who are demanding greater autonomy for their people from the central government in Beijing.  The number of violent incidents in Xinjiang has risen dramatically in recent months and the central government has yet to figure out an effective response to the autonomy movement. 

Russia and China vetoed the UN Security Council Resolution calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.  The decision signals the impotence of the UN in the face of one of the worst crises in the 21st century.  The Russian statement explaining its veto exposes the many hypocrisies of previous diplomatic efforts, both in Syria and in other places, but fails to speak to the innocents in Syria who have had their lives destroyed.

Switzerland is circulating a resolution in the UN Security Council to refer the war crimes and crimes against humanity of the Syrian government to the International Criminal Court.  The evidence of the crimes seems to be quite substantial and the resolution has received support from nearly 60 countries.  Russia however, has said that it will veto the resolution, and China has indicated that it, too, will use its veto.  Both countries have opposed using the UN to force a resolution of the civil war.

The US CIA has finally admitted that it used the cover of a polio vaccination program to track down Osama bin Laden.  The consequences of that action has led to a virtual suspension of vaccination efforts in Pakistan and a subsequent outbreak of the horrible disease in the country.  The CIA has announced that it will no longer use vaccination programs as a cover, but it is highly unlikely that people outside the US will believe that the US will honor that promise.  The US decision to use humanitarian measures as a cover for its intelligence operations was a reprehensible decision.

There were two bomb blasts in the Nigerian city of Jos that killed more than 100 people.  The suspicion is that Boko Haram is responsible for the attacks, but it has yet to take responsibility.  The city of Jos is half Muslim and half Christian, and representative of the tensions that exist in the country.  Thus far, the Nigerian government has not proven to be at all effective in its efforts to prevent these attacks, and the credibility of the government on security matters is non-existent.

Thailand’s military has declared martial law after six months of protests and the removal of the Prime Minister on corruption charges.  The Thai military has often intervened in domestic politics, but this move came as a complete surprise.  The army insists that the invocation of martial law was not a prelude to a coup d’etat, but the way forward is unclear. It was provoked by the refusal of the caretaker government in Thailand to step down in the face of widespread protests.

The Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, has pleaded guilty to helping US citizens evade taxes by facilitating disguising money in offshore accounts. The bank destroyed documents in order to hide the identity of the tax evaders, and many are certain that the practice is widespread.  Legal action has long been overdue on this matter–the amount of money hidden from the Internal Revenue Service is likely in the tens of trillions of dollars.  The action will likely send shivers through the international banking community.

Russia is close to signing a 10-year, $400 billion deal with China for natural gas.  The move is in response to the likelihood that Europe, Russia’s current gas trade partner, will try to find alternative sources of energy because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine.  There are many obstacles to implementing the deal, but both Russia and China have strong national interests to make it work.   It will be interesting to see how closely the two sides will be able to cooperate.

China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its citizens from Vietnam after last week’s violent anti-China protests.  The protests were triggered by China’s decision to place an oil rig in disputed territory in the South China Sea.  The protests had initially been approved by the Vietnamese government (an unusual decision by the government), but they spiraled out of control and many factories were burned and several people were killed.

The scale of the BJP’s victory in the Indian elections has still not been precisely determined, but it appears to be a stunning defeat for the Congress Party.  In the map below, the orange districts went for the BJP, and the blue districts went for Congress.  Indian voters certainly made their wish for change apparent in a dramatic fashion.

Claire Jones, “Economics: Change of Course,” Financial Times, 16 May 2014

When Yuan Yang began her economics course in autumn 2008, she was shocked that within the cloisters of Balliol College, little attention was paid to the world outside. As Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy left markets reeling, her lectures at Oxford university offered little to help her understand how the failure of a single US investment bank could cause global pandemonium.

Only when she voiced her disquiet to her tutor did she encounter theories that offered explanations for what was happening. “The crisis exposed how disconnected the teaching of economics is from helping students understand real-world events,” says Ms Yang, now a 23-year-old student at the University of Beijing. “When I discovered that, within economics, there was an alternative to what I was being taught, it was such a relief. I had felt like I was part of an intellectual enclave that had no consideration for what could be learnt from psychology, philosophy or anything else in the social sciences.”

…..

In 2012 Ms Yang helped found the Rethinking Economics network, aimed at changing what she describes as the subject’s isolation from public debate. The network has branches around the world, which are among the 42 student organisations that this month signed an open letter calling for the standard curriculum to be overthrown.

The students, who are scattered over 19 countries on four continents, are demanding professors scrap their focus on a single way of analysing the economy. The signatories, mostly in their twenties and early thirties, want more discussion of alternative theories and methods. Rather than just prepare them for a career in finance, they want their courses to grapple with the big problems of the economy.

“Most economics models we’re taught consider just one thing: profit. There’s little consideration of sustainability or equity,” says Nicolò Fraccaroli, the founder of one of the groups – Rethinking Economics Italia – and a student at Luiss Guido Carli in Rome. “Universities need to teach you how to do a job. But first we need to be sure that people who are going to move massive amounts of capital are conscious of what they’re doing.”

Lena Kaiser said her interest in economics was piqued by wanting to understand inequality, the theme of Thomas Piketty’s bestseller, Capital in the 21st century . Her studies at the University of Mannheim left her disappointed. “The questions I wanted to discuss weren’t discussed at all. There was no critical thought whatsoever.”

…

But over the past three decades, undergraduate courses have been increasingly dominated by the quantitative methods of the neoclassical school. Almost six years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the standard university course has barely changed. A study by Peps-Economie, a group of students who came together in 2009, found that just 1.7 per cent of modules in French universities covered economic history and there was just one course at a single university devoted to the epistemology of economics.

Eric Beinhocker, head of the Oxford Martin School’s wing of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, an organisation founded in 2009 by billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros, says: “The world has changed a lot. Economics has changed a lot, too. But the curriculum hasn’t.”

Reformers accept that policies with their roots in mainstream neoclassical economics helped contribute to the Great Moderation, the era of stability and prosperity in the decades running up to the crisis. Yet they view as myopic the focus on just one school of thought. Louison Cahen-Fourot, a member of Peps-Economie, says: “We’re not anti-neoclassical, or anti-maths. We just see it as one part of something much bigger.”

The turmoil since 2008 has provided a fresh catalyst for change. Camilla Cea, who was involved in student protests in Chile between 2011 and 2013, says: “The critics to today’s curriculum have long existed. [But] the financial crisis has acted as a trigger.”

…

Critics of the students’ demands point to the work of economists they view as mainstream, whom they argue explain the crisis. They also contend that the methodologies used by other schools lack rigour.

Yet student frustration – fuelled and disseminated by social media – remains clear. Mr Cahen-Fourot, active in the Peps-Economie group since moving to Paris in 2011, says: “Without any co-ordination, students around the world had all had the same feelings about their economics education. We started to think it was a global problem.”

Last December he sent Facebook messages and emails, eventually arranging a Skype call in late January. Mr Fraccaroli says: “We speak around 10 different languages and a lot of us – like me – are not native English speakers. But we shared the same feelings. We had some arguments but we solved them and the way we have co-ordinated our campaign around the world is proof of it.”

…

Partly inspired by the letter, a branch of Rethinking Economics has been founded in Beijing.

Some worry that renewed global growth could muffle calls for reform. “The crisis has been very important. Economic recovery helps people to pretend there is nothing wrong,” says Joe Earle, a member of the Post-Crash Economics Society. “Student life is very transient and curriculum change only happens with a lag so we need to keep the pressure up.”

Others are more positive. “The letter was very thoughtfully done. Now it’s up to faculties to listen and be as constructive,” Mr Beinhocker said. “I’m quite optimistic you will start to see change.”

Student protests have come and gone, and the question remains whether the mooted curriculum reforms would have mass appeal. Mr Vass is confident. He says his old classmates no longer view him as a time-waster. “Those people [who told me to be quiet] come up to me and say: ‘Now I understand why you were so critical’. There’s a completely different attitude.”

Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have won a resounding victory in India, with the prospect of a ruling majority that will not require a coalition government.  The election was the largest in human history and brought to an end the almost continuous rule of the Congress Party in India since its independence in 1947.   Modi rode a huge wave of resentment against the deteriorating economic situation in India, and his platform promised significant changes in policies.  Many in India worry, however, about the degree of Hindu nationalism a Modi government will endorse.

Mike Dorning of Bloomberg press has written a succinct article on hos the American public regards US engagement in world affairs.   The evidence suggests that President Obama is being led by public sentiment in his foreign policy, and that the gradual disengagement is generally supported, even within the Republican Party even as some of its leaders argue for a more forceful position on a variety of issues.  How the rest of the world responds to this disengagement remains to be seen.

At least ten people were killed in twin bomb blasts in Kenya.  Suspicion immediately fell upon the group, al Shabab, that took responsibility for earlier violent attacks in Kenya.  The group claims to be retaliating for Kenyan attacks on nearby Somalia.    Foreign governments have warned their citizens to be on the higghest alert in Kenya, in anticipation of similar attacks.

Beina Xu has written a short, but very comprehensive, review of the issues in the disputes in the South China Sea.  For those who wish a good, substantive primer on the diputes, and how they touch upon a variety of nations and a variety of other issues, I recommend the essay.

The political situation in Turkey has become even more unstable because of the government’s handling of a major tragedy in the nation’s coal mines.   There has been significant discontent in Turkey over the growing authoritarianism of the Erdogan government, but photos of one of his aides assaulting a protester have amplified the concerns.  The political instability is having a serious effect on the economic health of the country as well, as concerns over slow growth and inflation have reduced economic activity significantly.

Protests have erupted in several Brazilian cities as citizens vent their anger over the money being spent by the state on 12 World Cup tournament.   The protests have actually been going on for quite some time, but as the date for the tournament nears, the anger against the government has bubbled closer to the surface.  Instead of spotlighting the country’s development over the last few years, the tournament may actually create serious problems for Brazil.

Thousands of Vietnamese citizens attacked what they believed to be Chinese factories in Vietnam in protests over China’s decision to place an oil rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea.  Some of the factories were owned by Taiwanese businesses, but the protesters mistook them for Chinese-owned facilities.  The degree of anger over the territorial dispute is likely something precipitated by the government, but it also reflects a long-standing animosity between Vietnam and China.  The oil rig is scheduled to stay in place until August so this protest may signal only the beginning of the unrest.  In another area of the South China Sea, the Spratley Island group, the Philippines have accused China of building an airstrip on Johnson Reef.  The map below gives an idea of the competing claims to the Spratley Islands.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have begun to explore the possibility of better relations.  The hostility between the two states is deep and long-standing, but the current negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 have opened up different configurations of power in the Middle East.   The two states are aware that their current postures are contributing to greater violence in the region, and have apparently decided that talking with each other offers the possibility of at least avoiding a larger confrontation.

The diplomatic language on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has taken a dramatic turn since the collapse of the most recent negotiations.  After comments by Secretary of State Kerry and chief negotiator, Martin Indyk, there are more who are concerned about the future of Israel.  It does appear as if the right-wing in Israel, actually a small percentage of the Israeli population, has decided that there should not be a Palestinian state.  How the dispute can be resolved without a two-state solution is not at all clear.