North Korea has announced a new time zone: “Pyongyang Time”. It moved its clocks by 30 minutes so that it would have its own time zone. The move was coordinated with the anniversary of the end of Japanese occupation and was made with the following announcement by the official news agency: “The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land.” Time zones are not regulated by any international body so every country has the right to manage its time zones according to its own interests.
The fourth blogger in six months was assassinated in Bangladesh. Niloy Chatterjee was hacked to death for his criticism of religious extremism and his defense of secularism in Bangladesh. The bloggers have been demanding justice for those killed in Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971. The UN, Amnesty International, and the The Committee to Protect Journalists have all demanded that the government investigate these deaths and prosecute those responsible. It is not likely that the government will take these demands very seriously.
The American Psychological Association has voted to prohibit its members from cooperating with the US government in torture practices on foreign soil. The vote was a victory for those psychologists who believe that the Association was morally derelict in colluding with “enhanced interrogation techniques” during the Bush Administration. The Association had been singled out in a report by David Hoffman who published a lengthy critique of the practices of the Association in supporting torture. This step is overdue, as is the prosecution of Bush-era officials who ordered and condoned the practices.
From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
Russia has laid claim to a substantial part of the Arctic based upon its interpretation of how its continental shelf extends into the region. Russia has submitted an incredible amount of scientific data which it claims proves that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea interprets national territory in a manner which supports its claim of ownership. The UN will investigate the evidence which will undoubtedly be contested by other states who dispute the claim such as Canada, Denmark, and the United States.
Andrzej Duda has been sworn in as Poland’s new President. Duda is a member of the right-wing Law and Justice Party which is currently an opposition party in the Parliament, although Parliamentary elections are scheduled for October. Duda’s election signals a shift to the right: Duda favors stronger action against Russia’s activities in Ukraine and supports more robust moves by NATO to counter what he regards as a growing threat form Russia to east and central European countries. Duda is also a strong supporter for the continued use of coal in energy production since Poland has ample supplies of the fuel. Those positions are less consistent with the western members of the EU such as Germany and France.
There is an ongoing crackdown against liberal academics in China. According to some, over 200 academics have been detained or interrogated in recent months. Those academics who support enlarging the realm of choice in politics–suggesting avenues to power other than through the Communist Party–have been harassed by authorities, and many of them have left the country. It seems clear that President Xi is intent on retaining complete authority within the Party and regards liberal democracy as illegitimate.
Tomorrow will mark the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the US. That bombing was followed three days later by an atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Americans believe that these explosions ended the war begun by Japan on 7 December 1941. That conclusion is far from certain as some analysts believe that it was the threat of Soviet intervention that led to the Japanese surrender (see Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, Belknap Press, 2006). At the time, the bombings were considered just another phase of a bloody war that completely ignored the prohibitions against killing civilians. We now know that the atomic bombs introduced a completely different level of horror to war.
The analysis of the changing balance of power in Asia has mostly focused on the US-China naval competition. However, that framework ignores the growing cooperation between India, Japan, and Australia–three countries which, for different reasons, have kept a relatively low naval profile. That profile is rapidly changing, and these three rising powers changes the power configurations quite dramatically. The difficulty comes in trying to assess how cooperative these countries will be with each other.
If one is a supporter of liberal thought, here are some things to worry about:
Freedom is taking a real hit in the world.
John Richardson has written an article for Esquire magazine that investigates the mind set of climate scientists. Their task is formidable: modeling the process of climate change is extraordinarily difficult. But these scientists have an additional burden–the organized attempts by some very rich institutions that have dedicated themselves to attacking the scientists and their conclusions. Richardson does an excellent job of plumbing the issues that these scientists have to confront, not the least of which is the idea that they are studying a process that could change human civilization profoundly.
The German prosecutor who sought to bring treason charges against journalists who wrote articles about German government intentions to increase surveillance capabilities on German citizens has been fired. The move is an important step in protecting freedom of the press in Germany. The question of government surveillance is an especially sensitive one to the German people who experienced horrific surveillance under Nazi rule and by the secret police in East Germany under communist rule.
Graham Allison has been writing about US foreign policy as long as I have been alive. He has written a piece for The Atlantic entitled “9 Reasons to Support the Iran Deal.” It is a short and concise list of reasons to support the deal–a good antidote to much of the shoddy analysis that is flying around right now.
Under a new plan announced by the Obama Administration, the US intends to reduce overall carbon emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. The plan is ambitious and is certain to provoke an angry backlash among the producers of energy in the country. But President Obama declared that “[w}e are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.” The President clearly wishes to set up a high threshold for the UN climate talks scheduled to be held in Paris in December.
Many high-ranking former members of the Israeli military and security forces have signed a petition urging Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept the nuclear agreement with Iran. According to the Daily Star:
“Signatories include former heads of the Shin Bet security agency, Ami Ayalon and Carmi Gillon; a former deputy director of theMossad intelligence agency, Amiram Levin; the ex-chief of the Atomic Energy Commission Uzi Eilmann; and dozens of former generals and senior officers.”
The petition emphasizes the dangers of possible damage to the US-Israeli alliance by continuing to oppose the deal by pressure on the US Congress.
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was responsible for initiating a peace process with the Kurds early on in his Administration. Recently, however, Erdogan has been playing a double game of fighting both the Islamic State and the Kurds, who are also the enemy of the Islamic State. Erdogan’s policies are fraying the domestic politics of the country, and there are reasons to believe that Turkish civil society is not capable of accommodating these internal pressures for much longer. Civil strife in Turkey would only rattle the regional politics of the Middle East even more.
The Changying Precision Technology Company in Dongguan City, China, has set up a factory that is almost fully roboticized. The factory produces parts for cell phones and once employed 650 people. The factory managers believe that the factory could run on perhaps 20 people. According to TechRepublic:
“The robots have produced almost three times as many pieces as were produced before. According to the People’s Daily, production per person has increased from 8,000 pieces to 21,000 pieces. That’s a 162.5% increase.
“The increased production rate hasn’t come at the cost of quality either. In fact, quality has improved. Before the robots, the product defect rate was 25%, now it is below 5%”
Many other Chinese companies, including Foxconn, which makes most Apple product components, have announced similar initiatives. One can only wonder how this movement will affect workers in China.
German prosecutors are considering treason charges against reporters for an online news service call Netzpolitik. The online service published confidential information about attempts in the German government to increase online surveillance. Those activities hardly seem serious enough to threaten the national security of the Republic, so many are interpreting the move as an attempt to stifle freedom of the press in Germany. Protests against the charges are scheduled for today in Germany,
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager who was protesting against the death of a toddler at the hands of Jewish extremists. There have been about 120 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in 2015 as the issue of settlements is being pushed to the forefront. The Palestinians are not likely to be protected by the Israeli government. According to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization:
“Only 7.4% of SJ (Samaria and Judea) District Police investigations following complaints from Palestinian victims of offenses committed against them or their property by Israeli civilians result in indictments.”
The Palestinian Authority is referring the matter to the International Criminal Court.
It is difficult to appreciate how powerful some private companies are. We tend to overlook the powerful connections between economic and political power. One way to think about economic power is to compare how many economic resources are available to a political agent. For example, how the size of a corporation compares with the stock market of a state:
An experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus has been tested in Guinea and it appears as if the vaccine is 100% effective. If these tests are valid, then the development of the vaccine would be a tremendous breakthrough against one of the most virulent viruses to affect humans. One can only hope that the resources will be made available so that the vaccine can be widely distributed across affected areas: vaccinations are difficult and expensive in many areas of Africa and the local governments lack the money to conduct such protocols.
A Yale University study has found that about 40% of the world’s population is completely unaware of the problem of climate change. The finding should not be surprising, but it does suggest how far the world is away from reaching a consensus on effective measures to address the issue. Interestingly, people in Latin America seem to be the most aware of the problem of all the regions polled. The variations across regions should provide insights into how best to communicate the dangers of climate change based upon cultural differences.
The Greek debt crisis has highlighted German economic power in stark relief. For many in Europe, Germany has pursued its own interests using the standard of European integration as a cover. The reality is far more complex than a simple replay of “the German problem.” Brendan Simms is Professor in the History of International Relations at Cambridge and has written a very thoughtful essay on what the crisis revealed about the flaws in the integration experiment that allowed German power to increase so dramatically. He concludes by posing scenarios in which the power of Germany can be reconciled to the idea of a united Europe.
The IMF has made it clear that it will not participate in a third Greek bail-out unless there is an “explicit and concrete agreement” to reduce Greece’s total debt burden. It is unlikely that the European Commission and the European Central Bank could find enough money to offer Greece meaningful help without IMF contributions. But those two institutions are adamantly opposed to any debt forgiveness. Given that Greece is also having a difficult time coming up with an acceptable plan, the likelihood of any resolution to the debt situation any time soon is remote. But Greece needs to pay the European Central Bank 3.2 billion euro on 20 August.
Turkey has been launching heavy air strikes against Kurds in Iraq after some initial strikes against the Islamic State. The air strikes end a shaky two-year truce between the Kurds and the Turks, and seems to be an attempt by Prime Minister Erdogan to shore up domestic political support. The Turks claim to make a distinction between Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, but the distinction is largely spurious. By attacking the Kurds the Turks are seriously compromising the US-Kurdish alliance against the Islamic State.
Greece is far from the only debt-troubled state in the system. Puerto Rico, officially a Commonwealth Territory of the United States, has announced that it cannot repay about $72 billion of debt. Interestingly, even though it has borrowed any money from the IMF or any of the insitutions associated with Greece, the solutions offered for its debt crisis are remarkably similar to the austerity program of the troika. The Centennial Group, a private think-tank partially composed of many hedge funds that own Puerto Rico’s debt, has issued a report entitled “For Puerto Rico, There is a Better Way.” Their advice? Lay off teachers and close schools so that the debt can be repaid.
Mullah Mohammad Omar was the leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 when the government of that country refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the United Nations and the United States after the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001. He was an elusive leader and all US attempts to apprehend or kill him during the long war in Afghanistan were futile. We have found out today that Mullah Mohammad Omar died in 2013. His death has led to a split within the Taliban which has complicated attempts to forge a peace agreement in Afghanistan.
Migrants eager to enter Great Britain have stormed the Channel Tunnel leading to increased security in both France and Great Britain in an effort to stem the dangerous flight route. There are thousands of migrants camped out near Calais, France who wish to go to Great Britain since the British do not have national identity cards and it is easier to blend into the British economy. The migrants try to jump on trucks and trains as they pass through the tunnel and many have died. The crisis in the tunnel is the extension of the crisis that exists in the dangerous route across the Mediterranean into Italy.
There is a part of the global economy about which we know very little: the offshore economy that disguises wealth in order to avoid national taxes. There are a large number of sovereign states that have banking laws that defend almost complete secrecy. Because of those laws it is very difficult to estimate the size of this offshore economy. But a new report suggests that this untaxed wealth ranges between $21 and $32 trillion (for comparison purposes, the US economy is about $18 trillion). The loss of the tax revenues associated with the offshore economy is simply staggering.
The existence of the offshore economy has an interesting dynamic on politics. Recent studies have attempted to assess the impact of donor contributions to public policy. The evidence suggests that wealthy donors assess national problems in pretty much the same manner as non-wealthy donors. But wealthy donors favor remedies to those problems which differ a great deal from the policies supported by the non-wealthy. Not surprisingly, the policies favored by the wealthy are usually the ones that are implemented. The chart below shows the fascinating disparity:
Note that the wealthy and the general public are in broad agreement that income inequality is not a prerequisite for America’s prosperity and that current income inequality is too great (the columns on the right). But the wealthy and the general public do not agree that the government should take action to reduce that inequality. A fascinating conclusion.
US President Obama became the first American President to address the meeting of the African Union. The meeting was in Ethiopia and Obama gave a speech that both praised African leaders for the substantial progress their countries have made in recent years but was also highly critical of the corruption that seems to pervade many African politics and economies. He received the most applause when he criticized leaders who stayed too long in office–a pointed reference to the President of Burundi.
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