10Aug08
posted by counsell at 10:43
Yesterday (Sat 09Aug08), the Georgian parliament approved a presidential decree declaring a state of war with Russia. Today, the Georgian government says it has withdrawn from South Ossetia and a Russian military representative claims otherwise.
There is, of course, a lot of news, analysis, and commentary on the Web. The Economist predicted the outbreak of war in an article written several days before open hostilities began and updatedландшафт on Friday when fighting began.
Edward Lucas in the (London) Times believes the Russian invasion was an inevitable result of prior Western weakness. Paul Anderson, writing on his Gauche blog, takes a cynical view of the political status of South Ossetia. The Fistful of Euros blog is in the region and has posted several times on the situation.
The BBC offers some background here.
Finally, Google News warns the people of the United States that the Russians have finally invaded their sovereign territory.
14Apr08
posted by counsell at 16:40
At 18:00 on Monday 21April08 in Committee Room 3a, The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament, London) there will be a discussion—including a question-and-answer session—of the future of progressive foreign policy to launch the publication of Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews, edited by Euston Manifesto co-author Alan Johnson, with preface by signatory Michael Walzer.
RSVP is to Julie Utting. All press enquiries, and questions aside from RSVP related to the launch should be addressed to Alan Johnson.
The speakers will include:
- Charlie Falconer [Chair]
- Alan Johnson [Democratiya.com, Editor of Global Politics After 9/11]
- Denis Macshane MP [Labour Foreign Office Minister 2001-2005]
- Michael Moore MP [Liberal Democrat Spokesman for International Development, (tbc)]
- John Lloyd [Financial Times and Reuters Institute, Oxford]
- Andrew Mitchell MP [Shadow Secretary of State for International Development]
- Ladan Boroumand [Research Director, The Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran]
Places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first to reply basis. Please give yourself time to get through security at Parliament.
Sponsors: The Foreign Policy Centre, The John Smith Memorial Trust, Democratiya.com, The Henry Jackson Society, Labour Friends of Iraq, Progress, Engage.
24Feb08
posted by Administrator at 23:15
Alan Johnson has edited a collection of discussions into a book, Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews, which has been published by The Foreign Policy Centre and Democratiya [ISBN-10: 1-905833-11-3].
(more…)
14Feb08
posted by counsell at 0:05
Eric Lee writes to draw attention to LabourStart’s global action day on 6 March 2000, which aims to:
express our solidarity with Iranian workers once again. We want Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi released immediately and unconditionally from prison. Their health conditions are deteriorating.
We also demand that fundamental workers’ rights be respected in Iran, in accordance with the ILO core conventions. The imprisonment of Osanloo and Salehi are not isolated cases in Iran. Nine education workers were sentenced to 91 days in prison recently. The Iranian authorities claim they are “threats to the national security” although in reality, it is genuine trade union activities they want to crush.
Oppression of the independent workers’ movement in Iran is escalating. That is why the global unions, together with human rights activists, wish to send a strong message to the Iranian government. 6 March falls two weeks prior to the Iranian New Year and the parliamentary elections.
Send your message! Spread the word and take part in the 6 March Action Day!
12Feb08
posted by Anthony at 10:03
David Milliband is speaking today in order to resist the retreat into right and left wing variants of isolationism:
In a speech in Oxford today entitled The Democratic Imperative, Miliband will say that he believes the debate about the Iraq war “has clouded the debate about promoting democracy around the world. I understand the doubts about Iraq and Afghanistan, and the deep concerns at the mistakes made.” But he will add: “My plea is not to let divisions over those conflicts obscure our national interest, never mind our moral impulse, in supporting movements for democracy.” Miliband, who is due to travel to China in a fortnight, will also argue that people inside China and outside are rightly concerned about the next stages in its political development.
Among a string of practical proposals to support democracy, the foreign secretary will suggest:
- encouraging economic openness as a means of tackling corruption and increasing transparency, including in China;
- a new round of provincial elections in Iraq, to help to bind in former insurgents who want proof of their local influence, and the chance to join the Iraqi security force;
- organisations like the UN or Nato should consider offering “security guarantees” to new but fragile governments, conditional on them abiding by democratic rules;
- support for “civilian surges” for democracy led by “literate, better-educated people able to access information and communicate with others”.
The foreign secretary will argue that fostering democracy in the Middle East “is the best long-term defence against global terrorism and conflict”.
He will also warn that the spread of democracy is far from guaranteed, and that since the millennium, “there has been a pause in democratic advance … countries with new democratic systems are struggling to establish roots.
“After the end of the cold war it was tempting to believe in the ‘end of history’ - the inevitable process of liberal democracy and capitalist economics. Now with the economic success of China, we can no longer take the forward march of democracy for granted.”
Miliband’s broad-ranging speech reflects his deep concern that a combination of factors, including widespread distaste for the American neo-conservative movement, disillusionment at the practical failures in Iraq, and a feeling that some underdeveloped countries, such as Kenya, are simply too tribal for democracy, is storing up a powerful isolationist mood in Britain.
The foreign secretary, who has just returned from Afghanistan and Bangladesh, believes there is an urgent need to restate the case for the universal value of democracy.
09Feb08
posted by Administrator at 10:36
Before this site was upgraded to the latest version of WordPress—our hosting company lags slightly behind the main upgrade path—it was compromised and a malicious link was inserted into one of our posts.
This link has been now removed and the vulnerability in WordPress fixed and I am requesting a review from Google, which was labelling this domain as harmful.
06Feb08
posted by counsell at 12:52
Alan Mendoza writes:
By kind invitation of Dr Denis MacShane MP, the Henry Jackson Society is delighted to welcome Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi, Executive Director of the Transatlantic Institute, Brussels to answer these questions and to provide a specific analysis of whether European countries—not affected by the particular relationship the USA has had with Iran since 1979—can do more to meet this threat to international security.
DATE: Wednesday 6th February 2008
TIME: 5pm
VENUE: Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, London
To attend, please RSVP to alan.mendoza
21Jan08
posted by counsell at 23:54
Nicolaus Mills, a member of the board of Dissent will be giving a talk next month [07Feb07] focusing on the Marshall Plan in the context of current foreign affairs—including the Iraq war and the continuing trouble in the Middle East. Mills’s new book, Winning the Peace: The Marshall Plan and America’s Coming of Age as a Superpower, explores the Marshall Plan and provides a valuable lesson in what America can and cannot do as a superpower.
Time and place: 07Feb07, 19:00 at at Borders, 461 Park Avenue, New York [corner of 57th & Park].
08Jan08
posted by counsell at 8:54
David Hirsh, Lecturer in Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London, will be speaking on this title at 19:00 on 30Jan08, at G2 SOAS. The respondents will include:
- Les Back, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Anthony Julius, Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London
- Jon Pike, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Open University
The meeting will be chaired by Charles Small, Director of YIISA and editor of the Working Paper series. You can download the paper here. Entry is by ticket only, but tickets are free. Please email: David Hirsh to reserve your. Visit David’s homepage for more details or listen to David Hirsh discuss the paper with Neil Denny here [MP3].
08Jan08
posted by counsell at 8:54
The Henry Jackson Society and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy are sponsoring an event: A Forward Strategy for Democracy Promotion in 2008 and Beyond at 16:00 on 21Jan08, in Committee Room 16, at the House of Commons. The speaker, by kind invitation of Bruce George MP will be Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy, USA. To attend email Alan Mendoza.
From the announcement:
‘Democracy Promotion’ is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the political and international relations world today. Frequently confused as consisting simply of military intervention in foreign countries, the reality is more prosaic, centred around the creation of civil societies where they do not exist and the strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. The central belief being that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realised through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values. But after two decades of upheaval following the collapse of Communism and its sphere of influence, and with more recent democratic transformations in the Middle East and Africa not running according to plan, what should the democracy promotion agenda consist of today? And how important should it be for Western foreign and overseas development policy?
