A prelude to the discussion herein, is the understanding of liberal democracy for those who don’t understand what liberal and illiberal democracy means. Adopting the definition of Berend (2015), “liberal democracy is understood as a political system marked not only by free and fair elections, but also by the rule of law, the separation of…

Against all anomalies in the contemporary period, there have been conscious attempts of African leaders to wake up to their challenges. Before now, African continent is seen and perceived by some people who are not Africans as a place where nothing “good” thrives. It should be borne in mind that a lot of factors contributed towards the…

Vietnamese ink has been all over this year’s free trade agreements – from South Korea and the European Union (EU) to the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The last two present immense interest due to a strong political fleur around them. Does this mean Vietnam is getting…

A final deal has been signed in Paris last Saturday. After two weeks of negotiations, the almost 200 countries present at the conference have reached an agreement. Historical, it has been called by several commenters, while a broad range of different reactions, coming from political leaders, diplomats and entrepreneurs have already made the news. …

In the wake of Turkey’s downing of a Russian military jet that violated its airspace and Russia’s resulting casualties, tensions are certainly on the rise.  Despite the fact that these tensions should not be overblown, important questions about Putin’s aims need to be addressed. Yet in the end, the saddest thing is how avoidable…

We are almost there. After yesterday’s version of the agreement, and after two sleepless nights that saw our heroes engaging in endless negotiations, another day  and night of intense working has started in Paris.  The final outcome is expected for tomorrow, but, at least on their public stands, countries still look pretty divided over…

A new draft agreement, shorter than the previous one, has been released yesterday. The most critical divergences still persist, as countries’ coalitions are still far from deciding, for example how many degrees world temperature should be allowed to rise (whether by 1,5 or 2 degrees). In this sense the United States have been playing a curious…

 

 

 

 

 

 


 





                            Dr.  Richard Pipes, doyed on American historians of Russia

 

NORTHERN…

We in Asia have been oppressed by some of the Western nations for over 500 years. Colonised by force, had our assets stolen and were basically the “Coolies” of these Western nations – primarily some of the EU nations like United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Spanish and Portugal.  Then, after World War II came the big…

What has been going on in Paris during the last weekend?
On Monday the COP conference entered its second and last week with little agreement between the parts. Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister and COP 21 president, Friday declared that what has been done so far “it’s not enough”.
And in fact, reading the draft treaty that…

American Decline: Chinese forces head to Syria to join with Russia in filling Obama's power vacuum and purportedly fight the Islamic State. A false move involving NATO member Turkey could mean world war. Russian and Chinese military sources now confirm that Chinese warships are en route to the Middle East to get in on some of the action of…

Disagreement about success and failure, and about learning and not learning from mistakes, far from being peculiar to debates about socialism, is endemic to all kinds of political debates. Debates about socialism have, however, been much complicated by the problem that it has never been clear whether socialism is to be regarded as a purely utopian…