In the Israeli Democracy Protests, the Flag Has Become the Contentious Topic – The Occupation Is Not.

Posted by and & filed under Middle East, Regions and Powers

For the past few months Israel has experienced mass demonstrations both for and against the attempted judicial “reforms” by the current right-wing government.

A striking visual theme of the protests have been the ubiquity of the Israeli flag. Photo from Jerusalem in July: Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

A striking visual theme of these protests have been the ubiquity of the Israeli flag. The use of national symbols like the Israeli flag is nothing unusual for Israel’s right-wing movements, indeed it has long been associated with the nationalist right-wing manifestations like the flag march through Jerusalem’s Palestinian parts.

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The Two-State Solution Vacuum

Posted by & filed under Middle East, Peacebuilding, Regions and Powers

In Israel/Palestine, it is an established truism that there is no alternative to the two-state solution. When the Oslo Accord was signed in September 1993, this solution was its central premise.

Developments over the past 30 years, however, have rendered it impossible. This is something we must talk about.

Rabin and Arafat shake hands at The White House in 1993. Photo: Mark Reinstein (Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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China’s Digital Silk Road and Malaysia’s Technological Neutrality

Posted by and & filed under Regions and Powers

Like other nations in Asia and Africa, Malaysia has shown considerable agency in navigating the tech war between the United States and China.

The ongoing tech war between the United States and China is increasingly driven by ideological, normative, and political tensions. The development of 5G technologies and the strategic hedging of third countries represent a perfect case in point.

Photo: Huawei

In May of this year, the news broke that American and European Union diplomats had warned the Malaysian government about possible national security risks should the Chinese firm Huawei be involved in building the country’s second 5G network.

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Oppenheimer, Ukraine and Cluster Bombs

Posted by & filed under Law and Ethics, Security, Ukraine War

In desperate situations, it is essential that ethics are not sacrificed, as happened in practice in Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Poster for the Oppenheimer film. Universal Pictures

At the cinema, currently we can follow the United States’ development of the atom bomb, headed by the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

At the same time, Nazi Germany was in the process of developing its own weapon of mass destruction.

To defend themselves against the victory of barbarism, the Americans decided that it was necessary to steal a march on the Nazis – and if necessary use the bomb. In this way, they could halt the enemy once and for all and bring an end to the destructive war.

I myself have lectured many times about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, about the fire bombings of Dresden and Tokyo, and about other war crimes committed by the “good” side. I’m shocked by the suffering inflicted on hundreds of thousands of civilians. I search for solutions that could realistically have been substituted for the most brutal and egregious breaches of international law.Read More

Hard Georgian Lessons for Ending the War in Ukraine

Posted by & filed under Peacebuilding, Regions and Powers, Ukraine War

Russia’s all-out aggression against Ukraine, which will pass the 18-month mark next week, is indirectly but strongly connected to the Russo-Georgian war of 15 years ago.

In the first week of August 2008, Georgian villages in South Ossetia, a separatist enclave controlled by Russia since 1992, came under heavy artillery fire; on August 14, Russian tanks reached the outskirts of Tbilisi, before retreating to Tskhinvali a week later.

Russian soldiers travel on a tank in the province of South Ossetia following the conflict with Russia in August 2008. Photo: Igor Gavrilov/Laski Diffusion/Getty Images

The ceasefire was negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who rushed to Moscow to persuade Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to roll back the invasion, and it was United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who convinced Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to sign the deal, which prompted the Kremlin to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “independent states” (Rossiiskaya gazeta; Svoboda, August 8).Read More

Hallucinations and Existential Threats — Yet More Power to AI

Posted by & filed under Law and Ethics

Every so often, we observe debates around the threats of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Not least from fictional movies and some skeptics.

‘Hold My Hand’ by Cash Macanaya. Unsplash

But this debate around promises and perils of AI has, as of late, taken a pivotal turn — with the emergence of AI chatbots such as Chat GPT or Google’s Bard. The model underpinning these systems has gained a central stage in those debates. On the one hand, the model is constantly empowering AI technology. And, on the other hand, it is inviting more resistance against AI — even by its staunch proponents.Read More

Ukraine’s ‘Counteroffensive’ in the Global South

Posted by & filed under Peacebuilding, Regions and Powers, Ukraine War

The low-profile and high-impact meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on August 5 and 6 was never intended to produce a road map for ending the war in Ukraine; neither was it a summit, since the invitations sent to some 40 countries specified the level of representation as national security advisers.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Jeddah at a previous occasion in May. Photo: Saudi Foreign Ministry / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

It can, nevertheless, be called a peace conference, following up on the meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 24, and preparing the ground for a wider peace summit proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Manipur Tragedy

Posted by & filed under Non-state Conflict Actors, Security, Violent Organizations

The porous border between India and Myanmar. Photo credit: Åshild Kolås

Manipur, one of the states of Northeast India, has been the site of so-called ‘ethnic violence’ since early May, forcing more than 60,000 people out of their homes, while at least 160 people have been killed. But is this really an ‘ethnic conflict’ or ‘ethnic violence’ between Meiteis and Kukis?

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Unraveling China’s Strategic Re-engagement in Myanmar

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers

As the international community ponders how to approach the Myanmar crisis, China has revamped its engagement in hopes of strengthening China-Myanmar relations.

Photo: Thomas De Cian / NurPhoto via Getty Images

As Myanmar enters its third year of civil unrest since the 2021 military coup, international players are still developing strategies for how to address the growing crisis in Myanmar.

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Hollow Words and Apparent Setbacks at the Russia-Africa Summit

Posted by & filed under Regions and Powers, Ukraine War

Concerted diplomatic efforts were invested during preparations for the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, formally held on July 27 and 28, and President Vladimir Putin was grandstanding, networking and entertaining his guests non-stop from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday evening.

Putin greets Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traore during the Russia-Africa Summit in July 2023 in Saint Petersburg. Photo: Getty Images

His main intention was to demonstrate the width and depth of Russia’s ties with the continent. And as a result, the first major setback was that only 17 heads of state and 10 prime ministers (out of 54 African states) attended the event (The Moscow Times, July 25).

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