Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Jean Lievens: Self-Determination as Anti-Extractivism – Indigenous Resistance is Changing World Politics (and Countering Predatory Capitalism)

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Self-Determination as Anti-Extractivism: How Indigenous Resistance Challenges World Politics

Written by Manuela Picq

Monday, 02 June 2014 19:46

Indigeneity is an unusual way to think about International Relations (IR). Most studies of world politics ignore Indigenous perspectives, which are rarely treated as relevant to thinking about the international (Shaw 2008; Beier 2009).

 

Unconquerable Peoples
Unconquerable Peoples

Yet Indigenous peoples are engaging in world politics with a dynamism and creativity that defies the silences of our discipline (Morgan 2011). In Latin America, Indigenous politics has gained international legitimacy, influencing policy for over two decades (Cott 2008; Madrid 2012). Now, Indigenous political movements are focused on resisting extractive projects on autonomous territory from the Arctic to the Amazon (Banerjee 2012; Sawyer and Gómez 2012). Resistance has led to large mobilized protests, invoked international law, and enabled alternative mechanisms of authority.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Self-Determination as Anti-Extractivism – Indigenous Resistance is Changing World Politics (and Countering Predatory Capitalism)”

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Eagle: Practical Guide to Collapse and Revolution

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse

David Graeber

[from The Baffler No. 22, 2013]

What is a revolution? We used to think we knew. Revolutions were seizures of power by popular forces aiming to transform the very nature of the political, social, and economic system in the country in which the revolution took place, usually according to some visionary dream of a just society. Nowadays, we live in an age when, if rebel armies do come sweeping into a city, or mass uprisings overthrow a dictator, it’s unlikely to have any such implications; when profound social transformation does occur—as with, say, the rise of feminism—it’s likely to take an entirely different form. It’s not that revolutionary dreams aren’t out there. But contemporary revolutionaries rarely think they can bring them into being by some modern-day equivalent of storming the Bastille.

At moments like this, it generally pays to go back to the history one already knows and ask: Were revolutions ever really what we thought them to be? For me, the person who has asked this most effectively is the great world historian Immanuel Wallerstein. He argues that for the last quarter millennium or so, revolutions have consisted above all of planetwide transformations of political common sense.

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Bojan Radej: Social Complexity as Threat

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Bojan Radej
Bojan Radej

Abstract: Society is complex ‘mesocosm’ (Plato). Concept of social complexity is developed from a cross comparison between simple, systemic, chaotic and evolutionary thinking. The most rudimentary category of social complexity is incommensurability of social issues because of their incompatible valuations in vertical and horizontal direction. These two orthogonally organised axes obtain us with Cartesian frame which is further reworked into Leontief’s input-output matrix as each axis is internally differentiated on (at least) three integral domains. These provide a middle ground or meso level where domains are correlated which is fundamental for studying them. To apply mesoscopic logic on social processes one needs first to develop specific set of hybrid or bi-modal categories with dual horizon which are capable of bridging oppositions between pairs of incommensurable comparisons. Hybrid categories radically reinterpret society as a complex and deantagonised. Three practical examples are addressed to illustrate the mesoscopic transcendence of idea of totality as well as of fragmentation. Their conclusions suggest that our common destiny increasingly depends on individual and collective capacity to take a broad insight and constitute as globally responsible, self-restraining but also rigorously autonomous agents.

Key words: Social complexity, Incommensurability of values, Mesoscopic rationality, Hybrid categories, Mutuality.

PDF (54 Pages): Radej, Social Complexity ( JUN 2014)

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Robert Young Pelton: Hamid Gul Endorses Abdullah — Does This Make Ghani’s Victory Certain? UPDATE Adds Poll Showing 49 to 41

Cultural Intelligence
Robert Young Pelton
Robert Young Pelton

Given how Afghans feel about Pakistan, this endorsement will probably have the opposite effect and reinforce Ghani's bid.

UPDATE: Just in from Telegraph on 11 June:

Economist may lead Afghanistan after forming alliance with warlord in presidential elections

ORIGINAL POST:

Afghan Election: Endorsement From Pakistan’s Ex-Spy Chief Causes Stir

Fred Bezhan

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 11 June 2014

Hamid Gul
Hamid Gul

KABUL — In Afghanistan, perhaps no foreign institution is loathed as much as Pakistan's notorious spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The ISI trained, armed, and funded Afghan resistance fighters against the Soviet Union. It was credited with forming the Taliban. And to this day Afghanistan accuses the powerful agency of providing safe haven on Pakistani soil to a number of extremist insurgent groups bent on overthrowing the government in Kabul.

So it comes as no surprise that Afghans are venting their anger after former ISI chief Hamid Gul gave a ringing endorsement of Abdullah Abdullah, the front-runner in Afghanistan's runoff presidential election on June 14.

Continue reading “Robert Young Pelton: Hamid Gul Endorses Abdullah — Does This Make Ghani's Victory Certain? UPDATE Adds Poll Showing 49 to 41”

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Andrew Garfield: Afghan Government Indicted for Fraud – Ghani Wins Unless International Community Fails to Run Polls and Contest Massive Fraud by Abdullah and Karzai

08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Peace Intelligence
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield

Afghanistan On The Brink – The Last Chance For A “Correction”

By Andrew Garfield

Foreign Policy Research Institute, June 10, 2014 – 10:03am

PBI Executive Summary: Significant fraud in first round (at least one seventh of the total votes); 3,000 election staff fired, Afghan government indicted for forbidding polls (the major fraud detection measure) and allowing repeat of massive fraud. New polls indicate Ghani wins easily on demographics alone. If normally standard measures do not counter fraud, election will be polarizing, civil war the outcome, and all investment to date made moot.

Continue reading “Andrew Garfield: Afghan Government Indicted for Fraud – Ghani Wins Unless International Community Fails to Run Polls and Contest Massive Fraud by Abdullah and Karzai”

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Penguin: Russia Zeros Out Petrodollar

05 Energy, 06 Russia, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government
Who, Me?
Who, Me?

Russia turns its back on the petrodollar

The Russians are actually making a move against the petrodollar. It appears that they are quite serious about their de-dollarization strategy. The largest natural gas producer on the planet, Gazprom, has signed agreements with some of their biggest customers to switch payments for natural gas from U.S. dollars to euros. And Gazprom would have never done this without the full approval of the Russian government, because the Russian government holds a majority stake in Gazprom. There hasn't been a word about this from the big mainstream news networks in the United States, but this is huge. When you are talking about Gazprom, you are talking about a company that is absolutely massive. It is one of the largest companies in the entire world and it makes up 8 percent of Russian GDP all by itself. It holds 18 percent of the natural gas reserves of the entire planet, and it is also a very large oil producer. So for Gazprom to make a move like this is extremely significant.

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