EUROPE AND THE RISE OF THE FAR RIGHT

UROPE AND THE RISE OF THE FAR RIGHT

The war between Russia and Ukraine, since its inception, has shaken the European world in many aspects: social, economic and, above all, political. One of the most obvious consequences for the rest of the continent is the increase in prices as a direct consequence of the conflict.

Already from the first weeks it became evident with products such as bread, Ukraine being one of the largest exporters of the wheat that supplied Europe. However, this is not the only product or service with a considerable increase.

Because of these increases in the cost of living, many specialists in social policy do not hesitate to point out that a possible recession and deepening of socioeconomic inequalities could strengthen the far-right political arm for the future of the continent.

The recent resignation of Luigi Di Maio as leader of the 5 Star Movement is believed to be the first of many political consequences. Although he will remain as chancellor until the end of his term, there is no doubt that his decision marks a turning point in the political map of the boot-shaped country. After all

 

INFLATION AND CRISIS

As the war in Ukraine continues, the political and economic instability of its participants continues to affect the whole of Europe. A 35% increase in electricity prices, 20% in diesel and a growing increase in various foods in the Italian basic basket only make the crisis that is coming more evident, especially for the population.

Faced with this situation, it is inevitable to rescue the ideas of Iacopo Scaramuzzi, author of the famous book “God? The bottom right“. According to Scaramuzzi, since the economic crisis xxx is a motor for the political movement, it tends to favor nationalist and xenophobic movements.

 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF INEQUALITY

THE CONSEQUENCES OF INEQUALITY

However, what is this due to? When it comes to inequality, the vast majority tend to point to technocratic elites. An argument that continues to be present in the political discourse of those who militate towards the right and the populist left.

In this sense, Scaramuzzi affirms that this is not necessarily a negative thing. After all, a strong conviction or need to change paradigms works as the shake that is needed for politics to break away from what he calls “the story of like and ephemeral leadership.”

We would then speak of a policy whose actions were not entirely guided by a political ideology, but rather based on the search for solutions to real needs and problems.

The truth is that the elections of March 2023 are approaching, and with them, the moment for the left to take its opportunity to accumulate votes by criticizing NATO and assuming a pacifist discourse. Likewise, it creates the conditions for those who call themselves “Europeanists” to finally assume that only if the continent unites as one, will it be able to build a future for its people.

However, this is a task that must be executed against the clock. Only forceful and swiftly executed actions can prevent what is expected to become a global food crisis.

 

 

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Ukraine Conflict: What We Know About the Invasion

Ukraine Conflict: What We Know About the Invasion

Russia has recently launched a war in Ukraine that’s been described as “The worst military invasion in Europe.” Thanks to President Putin’s order, Russia spent several weeks creating a sizeable military force along Ukraine’s border. Eventually, the invasion is now on full-scale, marking the beginning of a significant expansion in the nation’s east that has already led to the loss of thousands of lives. 

The Genesis

Ukraine Conflict: What We Know About the Invasion
 

The invasion stems from a treaty made decades ago between the two countries. In the late 1700s, Ukraine fought for independence but lost and was forced to join the Soviet Union. However, it was always a separate entity from the beginning, and its people even spoke their language. During the 1930s, Ukrainian farmland was seized, leading to a famine that killed about four million people xnxx

When the Soviet Union crashed in 1991, Ukraine declared its independence. By this time, a large portion of the Soviet nuclear power was within Ukraine’s borders, and it agreed to give up its weapons to Russia. Ukraine’s democratically elected government has formed ties with Western Europe recently. This angered Putin and threatened his desire to reinstate the Russian empire. 

 

This Is Not the First Time

In 2014, Russia invaded Eastern Ukraine, which Putin described as an assault spiked by ethnic Russians residing in Ukraine’s eastern region. However, Putin used this invasion to claim part of Ukraine for Russia. He annexed the Crimean Peninsula, a decision not supported by the international community. 

 

What’s Putin’s End Goal?

The strongman leader believes that the ethnic ties between Ukraine and Russia would be weakened by Ukraine joining NATO. He was unhappy with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and is determined to restore the nation’s greatness. Since Putin took over the country in 2000, his sole mission was to make Russia great and restore its influence. He believes that no other leader will be willing to take such a risk, so the clock is ticking. 

Is Ukraine Part of NATO?

Man in Blue and Yellow Costume Standing on Street
 

Ukraine is not a NATO member. Although it has stated its quest to join the alliance, there haven’t been any discussions about its admission. Many Ukrainians, especially those in the country’s east, are pro-Russian, but they ousted their final pro-Russian president in 2014. After that, they have continued to lean towards the leadership of pro-Western politicians. 

Ukrainians seem to desire to join NATO, according to UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya. The number of Ukrainians who are pro-NATO has increased steadily since 2014, and today, over 50 percent are for the idea. They have realized that trying to protect their nation on their own is questionable from a military perspective but is also an expensive affair. 

Is the War a Problem for America?

Since Ukraine is not a NATO member, the US and many European countries are against the idea of sending troops into Ukraine to help protect its territory. Instead, they have offered diplomatic support, cash and military hardware. The US doesn’t benefit much from Ukraine as a trading partner, nor does its instability pose a direct threat to the US. 

Some of the world’s robust democracies have struggled for decades to keep Putin’s actions in check. As Putin hopes to strengthen ties with China, the US needs to return the apparent effort to bring a rife between NATO members. 

Comparing experiences of post-conflict state building in Asia and Europe. The cases of East Timor, Bosnia and Kosovo

This project aims at a better understanding of processes of post-conflict peace building through a comparative evaluation of efforts at state building in East Timor, Bosnia and Kosovo. Through research conducted by experts and practitioners in Europe and East Asia and a systematic comparison, we expect to be able to focus on lessons to be learned from experiences in the three case studies. Emphasis in the project will be on practical aspects of peace building through state building.

The project will be conducted from spring 2001 to spring 2002. A first workshop was held already in London in March; a second, larger workshop bringing together the researchers with outside experts, is scheduled for October 2001 in Indonesia. The findings will be integrated in a short, policy-oriented summary of the “lessons learned” and in a larger, book-length study. They will be published electronically and in print and distributed, through the network of affiliated institutions, in East Asia and Europe. The project is conducted in the context of the Council for Asia Europe Co-operation, a network of East Asian and European think tanks, and is being co-ordinated by Tadashi Yamamoto of the Japan Center for International Exchange in Tokyo and Prof. Dr. Hanns W. Maull, University of Trier. Funding has been secured from the Japanese government and from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Introduction

State-building has become a major new challenge to the international community. The often very bloody manifestations of processes of state failure or state disintegration have led the international community into a number of „humanitarian interventions“ and major revisions in international law regarding national sovereignty. In practice, the international community has also been obliged to assume (temporary) responsibility for entities and people whose sufferings the interventions sought to redress. The UN (and other international organisations) has thus become deeply involved in processes of „peace building through state building“.
This Task Force of the Council for Asia Europe Co-operation seeks to identify key aspects of state-building by comparing the cases of East Timor, Bosnia and Kosovo and then drawing lessons from this comparative analysis for future post-conflict efforts by the international community.
Project Outline

The project will focus on the following six areas of priorities for research:
1) Law and Order,
2) Political System,
3) Economic Development,
4) Administrative Capacity Building,
5) External/Military Security and the Military, and
6) Intervening Institutions.

The terms of reference for the Task Force work are summarised below:

(1) Law and Order
These papers (one for Europe and one for Asia) should assess, by analysing the experiences in the case studies, how law and order can be (re-) established after an intervention with the help of international institutions and the international community. The research should particularly focus on three aspects, namely:
§ Internal Security. How has it been ensured? Which were the specific constraints for the intervening institutions? How have they dealt with those constraints? Measures and specific problems concerning the prison system, the establishment, training and control of the police force, as well as measures against organised crime and corruption should also be discussed under this topic.
§ Legal and Judicial System. How has it been organised? What were the most effective means to deal with the specific difficulties in the country under analysis? Which were the main constraints for the intervening institutions when re-building the legal and judicial system? How have they dealt with them, and which lessons can been drawn from those experiences?
§ Dealing with the past. How has the past been addressed, in particular from the legal point of view (International Courts, truth commissions, other, not at all)? Which measures have been chosen to deal with war criminals and questions of guilt and repentance? How effective have they been, in the view of the authors?

(2) Political System
The papers dealing with the political system should contain analysis on the system of government, political participation and articulation and reconciliation.
§ Under the first topic, the formal established governmental system should be discussed rather briefly. More important are probably aspects of co-governance between the intervening institutions and constitutional or extra-constitutional local structures and actors. An essential issue in this context is the tension between “international tutelage” and leaving executive power to local institutions. Which were the main constraints confronting the intervening institutions when re-building the political system? How were they addressed? How effective have the programmes been? What can we learn from that experience?
§ With regard to issues of political participation, the following questions should be addressed: Which model of power-sharing underlies the political system? Which role do political parties play in the process of re-building the political system? What have the intervening institutions done to develop participation? Does the electoral system contribute to stable political majorities and which is the contribution of elections to the state-building process? The papers should also deal with the relationship between politics and society. How does civil society work, if at all (role of interest groups, media, NGOs, etc.)? Which avenues for political articulation exist? To which extent were the social structures destroyed and what measures have been taken to reconstruct the civil society and to support a democratic political culture?
§ The third aspect concerns the issue of “dealing with the losers” of civil strife. The authors should explain the patterns of co-existence or subjugation between the new rulers and those groups which they had replaced. The papers should also discuss measures taken by the intervening institutions to improve inter-ethnic relations.

(3) Economic Development
The papers on economic development should outline the approaches followed to establish working economical structures and explain the relevance of external assistance. Which measures have been taken to improve the infrastructure (education, health, etc.) and to reconstruct agriculture/industry? Which specific institutions have been built up and which policies have been launched? How do international organisations try to guarantee a fair distribution of the financial assistance? Which problems did arise from rigid bureaucratic structures, the shadow economy and black markets? Which means did prove suitable to cope with them? Which approaches to improve regional economic co-operation do exist? Authors should discuss progress achieved and give insights into the main problems of re-building successful economical structures. They should also reflect on future chances for sustainable economic development.

(4) Administrative Capacity Building
Authors dealing with this issue area should concentrate on the re-building of administrative structures. Apart from the formal establishment of institutions, measures concerning organisation and training of the civil service should be described. Questions like the following should be taken into consideration: How well-endowed is the country examined in human resources? How successful do international institutions work together with the local ones? Which were the main problems in setting up effective administration? How have the intervening institutions dealt with the problems?

(5) External/Military Security
Under this topic, measures taken to guarantee external and military security should be analysed. Authors should focus on three aspects: First, problems of dismantling remnants of violence should be taken into consideration. This concerns in particular questions of disarmament and the reintegration of former combatants and the proliferation of small arms. Second, authors should deal with confidence- and security building measures like disarmament and arms control, as well as with issues of restructuring armed forces and civilian control of military affairs. How did the intervening institutions contribute to these processes? Third, specific problems concerning military and external security should be described and analysed. What concepts, what principles inform external security policies? Who has been in charge? What have been the problems encountered? What are the perspectives for regional integration of the country?

(6) Intervening Institutions
In these papers the authors should identify key external actors and discuss their main strategies of state-building and their interactions. Who are the key external actors? How are the problems and their causes perceived by the them? Which approaches have been chosen to re-build the state? Which are the specific constraints confronting the intervening institutions? Which role do the international institutions play in relation to local ones (leader, mentor, etc.)? How are measures taken by various international actors (governments, International Organisations, NGOs) co-ordinated? Did they succeed in establishing a functional co-operation network? Do they follow a general road map and do they have an exit-strategy? What problems arose in the implementation of the intervention strategies, both concerning the measures on the ground and international co-operation? How were they addressed?
Project and Research Design

a) research papers:

Each individual paper should be about 10-20 pages in length. The analysis should be introduced by the author´s overall assessment of problems in the specific field of research (1 -3 pages). In the following section, the specific questions raised above (or others which the authors consider crucial or particularly pertinent in their respective field of analysis) should be discussed with regard to the specific situation in the country under study (7 – 15 pages). The analysis should conclude with broader reflections by the author on lessons to be drawn from the country under study, as well as – possibly – from other cases of international state building in the region (for example, the paper on East Timor might also draw on experiences from UNTAC in Cambodia to supplement the main body of analysis) (1 – 3 pages).

The scope of the individual papers and the issues seen as deserving particular attention are summarised in Annex I. Obviously, the authors should see these as guidelines, to be followed as closely as possible to ensure comparability, but also to be adjusted flexibly in the light of their superior experience and knowledge wherever necessary. The most important question that should be kept in mind throughout is the following: Which lessons for future state-building processes can be drawn from the experiences in the examined cases? Papers should be available by Sept.1 for review; the organisers will then provide comments to authors for possible amendments and revisions.

b) Conference
There will be a conference organised to review the findings of the research and discuss them in the light of practical experiences. To achieve maximum practical relevance, the conference will bring together a dozen experts and practitioners from Europe and Asia to comment and elaborate on the research papers, injecting their own experience into the process of reviewing the experiences. Thus, there will normally be, on each of the six topics, four participants, two each from Europe and Asia: two paper writers and two experts with practical experience, who will often have worked directly on the problems concerned.

c) Integrated policy paper:

The third step in the project will be the integration of the findings for dissemination and injection in the policy process. This will be done by the two project co-ordinators, Jusuf Wanandi and Hanns W. Maull. Their summary paper will identify the principal “lessons learned” and drawn conclusions from them.

Project Output

The integrated will serve as the basis for briefing relevant international institutions, and in particular the OSCE, the ARF and the DPKO at the United Nations, about the results of this study. Findings will also be published through the home pages of think tanks connected to this project, and as a booklength study (to be published by JCIE in Tokyo).

Project Finance

The total cost of this project is estimated at DM 131.400.-

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan has decided to provide financial support for this project in the order of $ 30.000. The German Foreign Ministry will support the project with a grant of DM 67.500.

Postmaterialism: the political ideology for the Postmaterialist Party and for an idealized postmaterial historic period

Welcome to the ideological foundations of postmaterialism—the political worldview for both the Postmaterialist Party and for the historical period that we associate with the full maturity of the party’s consciousness as the will of the masses. The postmaterial perspective distinguishes this party from all precedent political parties that have linked the worth of human beings to material attainments. The egalitarian dimension of this perspective obviates class divisions, arbitrary monetary delineations, and the associated system of wage slavery of which nine-tenths of our world are victims. Most importantly, the postmaterialist worldview is the only political ideology whose vision of reality transcends the ephemeral frivolities of materialism.

The party’s formation, then, is a response to a fleeting epoch of terrorist ideologies. Its foundations lie around the events of September 11, 2001. The necessity of a resurrected mass political organization and revolutionary actor was never more urgent as as a result of the renewal of the war for world hegemony produced by those events.

The violent and gruesome course of that war further compels the resuscitation of this party. And in the United States itself, the obvious pattern of making the vulnerability of entire nations subject to the vulnerability of the personal popularity of an American President is humanly unacceptable.
Consequently, the highest of all of our organizational ambitions is anchored on power. Power, in the political respect in which we apply it, refers to dominance over the infrastructural character of the world’s nations; averting the conflagration to which the war of terror would invariably carry those nations; and creating a revolutionary egalitarian world society that facilitates the needs and interests dictated to it by the people of those nations. Propaganda, the painless dispensation of truthful facts, stands aloft as the indespensible accompaniment to this ambition.

This accompaniment bears a threefold imperative relative to implementation: (1) imparting to the oppressed masses the deceptive implications of their poverty, powerlessness, and oppression; (2) revealing as the source for this deception the small political class of racist felons who enrich themselves at the expense of the terror of poverty; and (3) disclosing as the principal manifestation of such deception the aggravation and enslavement of over 90% of the world’s population.

This imperative is so critical to the growth and success of civilization that it should be composed as something of a mantra for those who struggle with us. What we are suggesting is that the world’s masses are powerless because they are socialized by the agents of the materialist enemy to perceive of that enemy as the irreplacable source of their security. The instruments of such socialization are the essential components of a stratified society: the family, school, church, media, and government. These institutions exist for but the one major purpose of fostering social class divisions that ensure as privileges to a small group of political miscreants the freedom to rape the masses of their dignity, and enslave them. Armed with these understandings as a political class, the masses will rise to hegemony in a strident thrust of anguish.

There, essentially, is but one means by which to arrive at this cherished plateau of the power of an empowered humanity: destroy the ill-conceived myths of the magic of money. The political precondition for ascending this plateau is world equality. The capacity required for surmounting it is the organizational strength with which to regulate monetary issues; the political clout with which to command the armed forces; and the technological capacity to destroy the armies of terrorists now frenzied to destroy us. The sole existing legitimate mechanism is the political party, and particularly, the Postmaterialist Party.

This egalitarian plateau awaits beyond the challenge of surmounting the high mountain of delusion now surrounded by the mimics of doom. Here, we refer to those who echo the self-destroying rhetoric of terror forced upon them by their enemies, and ours. The party’s imperative, then, would make the enlightening and transforming features of a civilization beyond conflagration into a massive people’s struggle.

As it should now be clear, we have little choice but to thrust ourselves into the current war; a confrontation that would be but a war of terror except for our party’s intervention. For we bring to this encounter the visions of a world of perfect equality; one of love, peacefulness, goodness, forgiveness, prosperity, and happiness, not merely for the neglected masses, but as well for their enemies.

As we have stated, the War for World Hegemony is a war for world dominance. The nature and character of this aspect of this war is rarely acknowledged, particularly by the terrorist nations that, paradoxically, pretend an engagement in a “war against terror.” The leaders of these nations, representing but a tiny minority of the earth’s population, prefer that it not become common knowledge that the real basis of their engagement is their own survival. Among them, we see a fragile coalition holding mixed opinions on the key issue of polarity, or the manner in which the nations of the world ought correctly be aligned. This issue surfaced with the events of September 11, 2001 when the unipolar system that the chronically self-interested United States of America had dominated since the early nineties was ended.

It is doubtful to us that, of the present operatives in that purported coalition, either would be content with the multipolar alignment they now claim to desire, e.g., each would spring to an opportunity to exalt itself to the helm of a new order in the batting of an eye. The unipolarity of the hegemony of the masses, on the other hand, is but the one, and firmly the one, alignment objective of this party.

But while the Postmaterialist Party was born of the certain visionary inevitabilities of such hegemony, its perspectives of the means to this objective are no less obscure. The clones of doom must grow to know a nature of reality that seizes at the roots and razes to the sea the mountain of falsely concocted perceptions of the racist enemy. Clearly, then, the secret to the uprising resides less within the bases for the arising than within the methods of its timing.

The light of this means, the highest “classified” of secrets, is unison. First and foremost, our propaganda as the voice of the masses must focus on the identification and preparation of organizers, developers, and facilitators, not for a local, state, or national constituency in the conventional respects, but for a universe. Chapters will be aware of their individual state of readiness relative to enunciated standards, and regional communications will impart a general gauge as to organizational progress and strength to members. Party actions are not necessarily limited to an electoral process, nor to chapter names that disclose the obvious association. The glue that unites this organization is political ideology, the culmination of whose composition will be a universal government—of, for, and by a society that stands alongside and equal to its leaders in privilege and freedom.

But the essence of this government must be visualized in a light unobscured of the material constraints of the antiquated materialistic past and present. First and necessarily, its leaders are women and men of wisdom—not in the sense that we know it, but in the respect that we see it. Our leadership perspectives are, accordingly, neither of the management or administration of tradition, but of research, information, and facilitation. For in the atmosphere of our vision, we are disarmed, militarily, and armed instead with respect for our selfless egalitarian leadership.
Such respect can be accorded to the leadership of our organization because the masses are empowered in the appreciation of their value. That is, the people are transformed in their respect for their fellow world citizens, in the acceptance of one another as equals, and in their conceptualizations of their commitments to the entire universe. Such conceptualizations are possible because we are all free to travel broadly, and to experience the diverse and enriching qualities of our aesthetic freedoms. Forgiveness reins with goodness in our social relations, for we came to power peaceably, and have no basis to punish nor to fear an adversary. We know not of poverty, nor of distrust. Our entire world abides in an abundant luxury. No clones of doom, no myths of money, no racists.

The specifications for an earth so spared of villainy are a dominion of the practical element of our party’s ideology. Party positions and actions will originate with party members: with those whose memberships have yet to mature as with those who already are party gladiators. Policy considerations will be placed before the members of the various channels and satellites for their appropriate evaluation, denunciation, or implementation as the case may dictate. Every profession by every member bears the potentiality as an international policy. Personal ideology may likewise be a basis for an invitation out of the organization. Neither silence nor idiocy is a character to be rewarded as a member of this seminal postmaterialist organization.

The Postmaterialist Party, then, is the mass political party—the world’s only political organization that looks beyond the present and past into millenniums into tomorrow. As the resurrected voice of the classless universe, it apparently is the only human organization that has the vision, motivation, or leadership to guide the human race beyond self-destruction. That is, this party is the only political entity that renders unattractive the temptations of human beings to join organizations and nations that would propel our earth to annihilation.

In our Vanguard Chapter, we are reviving the selfless perspectives of the nature of humanity, reinforcing the distinctions that we, ourselves, enjoy on this critical issue. Our enemies have misinterpreted this revival relative to our endeavors as postmaterialists. To them, for example, we breathe in order to covet their wealth; we covet in order to exalt their superiority; and we exalt in order to subordinate ourselves to their eternal supremacy. As intellectuals, our object is of course, to undermine, erode, and extinguish such primitive pathology. As revolutionaries, we must!
Our conceptions of human nature are, indeed, of an extreme contradistinction to such self-enslaving sicknesses as theirs. Our essence, as our purpose, resides but in the qualities we ascribe to them. Our motivation lives that we have of our future as the facilitators of an egalitarian world order. It is in such visions that we hold a perception of the human purpose of goodness. And in the character of this perception, we are but left to breathe, not to covet but to live; to live, not to exalt, but to prosper; nor subordinate an enemy, but free the earth.