Frictions between China and the United States have proved persistent and apparently structural. In response, the Barack Obama administration has chosen to interpret its doctrine of "strategic reassurance" as the simple and emotionally satisfying strategy of rollback - attacking Chinese interests instead of trying to accommodate them.
Peter Lee
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The different explanations given for Africa’s current food crisis seem to miss the real causes of the problem. Mamadou Goita does not believe that the crisis is of an economic nature. Rather, it is the endpoint of the dismantling of Africa’s agricultural sector and its linking to the international market and brutal liberalism. Based on an analysis of the political choices that have contributed to the current situation, notably the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, Goita proposes solutions and decisions that need to be taken to achieve food sovereignty in Africa.
Mamadou Goita
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We are in the midst of the most explosive development in all of human history. Humanity is experiencing a simultaneously opposing and conflicting geopolitical transition, the likes of which has never before been anticipated or experienced. Historically, the story of humanity has been the struggle between the free-thinking individual and structures of power controlled by elites that seek to dominate land, resources and people. The greatest threat to elites at any time – historically and presently – is an awakened, critically thinking and politically stimulated populace. This threat has manifested itself throughout history, in different places and at different times. Ideas of freedom, democracy, civil and human rights, liberty and equality have emerged in reaction and opposition to power structures and elite systems of control.
Andrew Gavin Marshall
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Spy stories are never quite what they seem. Having dealt with India-Pakistan relations for donkeys years as a career diplomat, I can tell you that
M K Bhadrakumar
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The USA today wants to control the flow of oil & gas from Central Asian regions through its pipelines and the ports of its choice. It will not want to sell all to Western nations, but depending on good and "reciprocal" behaviour to Russia and China too. But the control of the gas will be vested with USA. Russia and China have other plans.
www.defenceforum.in
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Rising and Declining Economic Powers: The Sino-US Conflict Deepens
Prof James Petras
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Two million people took to the streets of Athens last week in the countrys second general strike this month, protesting the austerity measures proposed by their socialist government. All of Greece came to a 24-hour standstill and the airport was closed as a result of the action. The only public transport was the commuter train so that protesters could reach the demonstration.
Eric Walberg
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The people have been lulled into a false sense of safety under the ruse of a perceived “economic recovery.”
Andrew Gavin Marshall
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For the post-Soviet application of this cruel experiment, the idea was to give Western banks, financial investors, and ostensibly “free market” economists (so-called because they gave away public property freely, untaxed it, and gave new meaning to the term “free lunch”) were given a free hand in much of the Soviet bloc to design entire economies. And as matters turned out, every design was the same. The names of individuals were different, but most were linked to and financed by Washington, the World Bank and European Union. And sponsored by the West’s financial institutions, one hardly should be surprised that they came up with a design in their own financial interest.
Prof Michael Hudson and Prof. Jeffrey Sommers
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The Obama administration is seeking to increase the obscenely bloated U.S. Defense Department budget to a whopping $708 billion for fiscal year 2011, 3.4% above 2010s record level, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Tom Burghardt
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The inflationary depression still dominates and probably will continue to do so. In time the stimulus will fail to work and the world will slip into total insolvency and deflationary depression. The old M3 is about 3%, but we still have $23.7 trillion floating around. Not only is the US bankrupt, but also so is the rest of the world. It is now only a question of when the dominos will fall. It looks like the first wave in the collapse of the bear market rally is underway. Bonds will follow with higher interest rates and eventually commodities will be hit. Only gold and silver will survive, as the bankers and Wall Street complete their destruction of the world economy.
Bob Chapman
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As is custom at the beginning of each year, the different US agencies publish their famous annual reports on topics ranging from human rights, trafficking in persons, terrorism, threats, drug-trafficking, and other issues that indicate who will be this year’s target of US agression. Yesterday, it was the intelligence community’s turn. Admiral Dennis Blair, National Director of Intelligence, presented the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Eva Golinger
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A tipping point comes when confusion arises about the identity of the adversary on the battlefield. Who is the United States number one enemy in the Hindu Kush: the Taliban and al-Qaeda or Afghan President Hamid Karzai?
M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times Online
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Last year, it was fashionable to talk of an emerging “G2”. The US, the world’s largest economy, and China, its rising rival, would come together to resolve global problems—in particular, the international economic crisis wracking capitalism.
John Chan
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The counter-demonstrations on November 4 (officially dubbed as the national day against global arrogance) showed that Iran′s political crisis - sparked by allegations of vote-rigging in June′s presidential elections - is far from over. The political developments of the past five months have been unprecedented and a close examination of the strategic forces at play will go a long way in understanding this crisis.
Mahan Abedin, Asia Times Online
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