Here's another instalment of Weird Things I Come Across on the Internets. I dunno why I was shown a banner ad for Political Tours--maybe it's a sign that I should visit fewer international affairs sites--but its pitch sure is interesting (if gimmicky):Political Tours is a revolutionary concept for travellers passionate about politics and current affairs. We offer group tours and tailor-made itineraries in destinations around the globe.Georgia, North Korea, Northern Ireland [relive the Troubles?], Bosnia & Serbia, Kosovo, Ethiopia, the Kurdish region of Turkey...the list goes on and on of various now-lukewarm hotspots--and I don't mean Wi-Fi. Still, I'd like to ask these folks where's Iran (which I've actually visited recently), Libya, Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, Honduras, the US-Mexico border and other places where the black hawk has a convincingly higher chance of going down if you know what I mean. I've heard much about ecotourism, but this niche market strikes me as a bit...morbid.Moreover,...
21st Century USA ≈ 17th Century Polish Empire?
Tis perhaps appropriate that my fondness for historically informed performances (HIP) of classical music ties into international political economy for two obvious reasons. First, with most music commissioned for religious rather than secular purposes during past eras, it highlights how music played a role in then-common agglomerations of church and state. Second, music was often commissioned for momentous occasions such as feting nobility for obviously political purposes.So, instead of boring you with a roundup of opinions on whether the impending US technical default matters or not--you can do that yourselves and I can't...
US "Foreign Aid," AmeriBankruptcy Victim
To be sure, the United States used to actually aid developing countries a long time ago. Sure, the country still doles out cash and kind to exemplars of freedom 'n' growth such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, but it appears those times may not last for much longer. "Strengthening fragile states" and "supporting US geostrategic interests," they call it. But, the honest explanation of where the cash for "American aid" comes from is neither from the goodness of their hearts--witness the star donor list above--nor from America per se. Given the size of its external obligations, think of the United States as running a debt-for-aid...
New Labour* on Restoring Faith in Globalization
You will have noticed that I have placed an asterisk after New Labour. For, today's mea culpa on the shortcomings of New Labour in hindsight are largely courtesy of Lord Mandelson--formerly the EU trade commissioner and the de facto prime minister during the last days of the ill-fated Gordon Brown. This I got wind of while watching the BBC's Newsnight programme. With jobs still scarce in the north of the UK, there is much at stake in political economy terms.Mandelson has been collaborating with the left-centre Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) to investigate how real the perceived de-industrialization of Britain has been, particularly in terms of eliminating manufacturing jobs and its effects on communities in higher latitudes of the UK. To summarize his thoughts from the BBC feature: there was too much emphasis on financial services, not enough emphasis on engineering and manufacturing and, oh yeah, a lack of industrial policy. (He calls it "industrial activism.")So,...
WTO Heresy: D-G Pascal Lamy Warms to PTAs
♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Economic Diplomacy,Trade
at 7/25/2011 12:04:00 AM
Let's get the obvious out of the way: the WTO Doha Development Agenda still looks as unsalvageable as it did at the start of this year. Being the guy who inherited the stillborn negotiations, failed to get them done during his first term, and likely will pass it on to someone else the way things are going in his second term, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy is a fellow very much in need of a face-saving exercise. It's only human nature. Aside from say, Charlie Brown and Rodney Dangerfield, few have parlayed repeated failure into career success.Probably having spent more than a few sleepless nights tossing and turning about...
HMS Ark Royal: Floating PRC 'Disco of Doom'?
When at anchor here I ride, my bosom swells with pride,And I snap my fingers at a foeman's taunts--And so do his sisters and his cousins and his aunts!They say the truth is stranger than fiction, and I surely couldn't have made up a dafter story: "China buying the [decommissioned] Ark Royal" is the punch line to "What do you get when you cross eBay [sic], HMS Pinafore and Blood On the Dance Floor? Unusual, I know, but do read on for another bit of geopolitical machinations purportedly involving the Chinese.It is not a big secret that the Chinese are keen on upgrading their military capabilities--though the same can probably...
IMF Harps on PRC Yuan Undervaluation (Again)
Here we go again: with China being the country with the world's largest external surplus, its role in the resolution of global economic imbalances is always going to loom large. Given the past and continuing Western dominance of international financial institutions alike the IMF-witness the Christine Lagarde appointment to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn--it is no real surprise that China's economic practices have been in its crosshairs. Namely, the IMF has done next to everything but declare the yuan undervalued. This together with many other attempts to use the IMF for clubbing China over currency valuation and sovereign...
Vatican vs. China or the Excommunication Blues
Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10)Aside from the increasingly tenuous connection between today's rather bourgeois "Chinese Communist Party" and Marxist-Leninist thought, two other relationships that give budding Sinologists pause are those (1) between Chairman Mao and his successors and (2) between nominal godlessness and religious tolerance. Both uncertainties have an important bearing on today's feature. Strict-form Marxist-Leninist doctrine would of course disavow the "opiate of the masses." While it's true that the modern CCP allows for religious freedoms,...
Karamoja, UN's Grand Experiment in Weaning Off Aid
Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetimeThe terrible drought situation in East Africa is once again causing a reappraisal of modern aid along the contours of the oft-quoted line above. Having been asked by our local parish to contribute towards famine relief, I was obliged to do so. However, to say that the development community is very much riven by the debate on whether to give aid unconditionally is an understatement.Traditionally, the United Nations has been perceived as the kinder-hearted aid-giving counterpart to the World Bank and IMF even if the latter...
Detours on Yuan's Road to Global Currency Status
Or so the folks at the Wall Street Journal say, at least. In principle, there is much to be said about the Chinese yuan becoming a global currency. After all, isn't it odd that trading which involves the currency of the world's second largest economy is a mere rounding error in global foreign exchange? Although this situation is largely by design--the yuan is neither freely traded nor widely available--Chinese authorities have begun experimenting with making the RMB a vehicle currency in its own right. To achieve this status, it needs to be more widely accepted in the three functions of money as per international terms. The...
Study a BA in Football Business [!] at Burnley FC [!!]
The best way to make a small fortune in football (soccer) is to start with a big oneI must confess having taken my share of fluff courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. You've probably come across those: academically lightweight elective subjects typically offered during the summer term when hard work isn't on the top of the agenda for either students or instructors. Aside from the lighter work, they had the added attraction of being offered by lecturers who gave generally higher marks to bolster one's grade point average. From an instrumental sense, I am thus somewhat befuddled by the appearance of what appears...
Indonesia and the Ultimate Tobacco Ban Protest
Just look at the size of that sucker. Philip Morris, eat your heart out! I am genuinely of two minds over cigarette smoking bans being imposed throughout the world. The Emmanuel that wants to live a reasonably healthy lifestyle abhors the practice and the many diseases it gives rise to. But, the relatively live and let live me grants that persons have a genuine right to severely impair their health under certain conditions. Truth be told, I have no problems with requiring tobacco firms to place graphic warnings on the dangers of their products--see the recent US FDA graphics (and I do mean graphic). If adults still persist...
40 Years Ago: Ping-Pong Diplomacy & China's Rise
Regard a ping-pong ball as the head of your capitalist enemy. Hit it with your socialist bat and you have won the point for the fatherland - Mao ZedongHere's a timely scenario for you given the fortieth anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy between the US and China: What if the Cold War never ended, the Iron Curtain never fell, and the US failed to exploit the growing ideological divide between China and Russia? In general, international relations scholars treat counterfactual ("what might have been") research the same way Vogue magazine treats those with normal body weight: with complete and utter contempt. Still, prominent...
Of Currency Wars and Capital Controls
♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Currencies,Development
at 7/13/2011 12:01:00 AM
As a student of South-South cooperation--no matter how its ambitious goals are often negligible or even contradictory in practice--international bodies promoting such cooperation are of interest to me. One of these happens to be the South Centre, which sends me newsletters every so often either because I subscribed sometime ago or they discovered my research interests in third world issues. It describes itself as an "intergovernmental policy think tank of developing countries" and its HQ is in, er, Geneva. I'd like to think of the location as a manifestation of many important international organizations being based there such...
Become Filthy Steenkin' Rich...in the Falklands
♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Agriculture,Travel
at 7/12/2011 12:01:00 AM
To say British tabloids have output of variable quality is an understatement--witness Rupert Murdoch's fine mess--but the Daily Mail recently ran an interesting feature on the British Falklands. Ever since the 1982 Falklands War between the UK and Argentina put this remaining piece of Empire in the world's consciousness, I've kept tabs on developments there.Aside from its jingoistic/quasi-strategic value, the Falklands are not quite as barren as certain pop entertainers make it out to be. Indeed, as the article notes, the Falklands are doing quite well, thank you--arguably better than Britain itself. While oil finds may see...