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201. China A New Superpower? Dimensions of Power, Energy, and Security

Author:
George Friedman, Atilla Sandikli, Subhash Kapila, Zhang Zuqian, Jiang Yang, Cagdas Ungor, Marcin Zaborowski, Ghulam Ali, Kadir Ayhan, Ceren Ergenc, and Atilla Sandikli
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
BILGESAM (Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies)
Abstract:
The People's Republic of China with a visibly booming economy in the last decades created its own economic spheres of influence and came to affect the overall balances in the world. The consequences of its economic advance and ever growing energy consumption are emerging as significant variables capable of shaping international political developments. With the expanding military build-up, China is also generating concerns beyond its immediate neighborhood. Clarifying the rapid growth of China and worldwide implications of this process constitute the first major motivation b ehind p ublishing this study. Benefited of the opportunities of the globalization in the post- Cold War period, China has a progressively more integrated economy with the global markets. China with its increasing economic and military capacities is turning in to a robust power base in the eastern hemisphere. With a thriving position in world politic s and ability to influence events and to protect its own interests at global scale, Beijing has the potential to be a superpower. The other major motivation thus appeared from the necessity to question whether China will achieve to be a superpower in t he near future.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, Globalization, Power Politics, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
China and Asia

202. Davutoğlu Era in Turkish Foreign Policy

Author:
Bülent Aras
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
Ahmet Davutoğlu was appointed Foreign Minister of Turkey on May 1, 2009. Chief advisor to the Prime Minister since 2002, Davutoğlu is known as the intellectual architect of Turkish foreign policy under the AK Party. He articulated a novel foreign policy vision and succeeded, to a considerable extent, in changing the rhetoric and practice of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey's new dynamic and multidimensional foreign policy line is visible on the ground, most notably to date in the country's numerous and significant efforts to address chronic problems in the neighboring regions. Davutoğlu's duty will now shift from the intellectual design of policies to greater actual involvement in foreign policy, as he undertakes his new responsibilities as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Davutoğlu era in Turkish foreign policy will deepen Turkey's involvement in regional politics, international organizations, and world politics.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey and Asia

203. Averting Iranian Influence in Post-War Gaza: The Rehabilitation Issue

Author:
Shimon Shapira
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:
Immediately upon the end of the fighting in Gaza, the international community will enlist on behalf of an extensive rehabilitation project to enable the Palestinian population to return to their homes and get on with their civil and economic lives. It is of prime importance to prevent Iran from acquiring influence in post-war Gaza through any assistance programs. Following the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Iran and Hizbullah grasped the political and economic significance of the rehabilitation project in the Shiite areas of southern Lebanon damaged during the war. Hizbullah directed the rehabilitation work, while totally ignoring the central Lebanese government, and in this manner regained and even reinforced its influence within the Shiite community. Iran is already positioning itself for influence in post-war Gaza. On January 14, 2009, the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Ali Akbar Mohtashami, arrived in Lebanon heading a 40-man delegation in order to direct Iranian support for Hamas. The main objective for Israel and the international community should be to deny Iran the attainment of this objective and to transform the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, into the principal factor, along with Egypt, entrusted with the rehabilitation work in Gaza.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Foreign Policy, War, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, Middle East, Palestine, Gaza, and Lebanon

204. Looking for a New Strategic Identity: Is Turkey Emerging as an Independent Regional Power?

Author:
Igor Torbakov and Hanna Ojanen
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
Turkey is a country that appears destined to provoke debate. Ankara's recent foreign policy activism is a case in point. For quite some time, the Turkish top leadership has been tirelessly criss-crossing the globe – from Algeria to Saudi Arabia and from Russia to Azerbaijan. Everywhere they go, the Turks tend to air new diplomatic initiatives, offer mediation, advance blueprints for new regional security regimes and, last but not least, seek to boost trade ties. There is one feature, though, that cannot fail to catch the eye: almost all of Turkey's foreign policy moves over the last couple of years have a pronounced Eurasian and/or Middle Eastern bent.
Topic:
Power Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Central Asia, Turkey, Middle East, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia

205. Iran's Role and Power in the Region and the International System

Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Liechtenstein Institute in Vienna, Austria (LIVA) convened the colloquium, “Iran's Role and Power in the Region and the International System,” March 5-8, 2009 in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein. This colloquium was funded in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, by the SIBIL Foundation, Vaduz, and by the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein. It was organized by Miriam Schive, Resident Director of LIVA, and chaired by Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Director of LISD.
Topic:
International Relations, Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

206. Five years of illegality: Time to dismantle the Wall and respect the rights of Palestinians

Author:
Valérie Féron
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The Green Line: Term used following Israel's occupation of the West Bank and GazaStrip in 1967 to refer to the post-1948 war ceasefire line (Armistice Line of 1949). The demarcation line (laid down in the cease fire agreements of 1949) is the internationally recognised border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory (Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem).
Topic:
Imperialism, International Law, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Middle East, Palestine, Arabia, and Gaza

207. La misión rusa Arktika 2007 y sus implicaciones para el balance mundial de poder en el siglo XXI

Author:
José Miguel Alonso Trabanco
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
Hasta hace pocas décadas, el Círculo Polar Ártico era considerado como una zona planetaria condenada a ser inhóspita e inaccesible a causa de su lejanía y sus glaciales temperaturas. Tal región ha despertado fascinación en los exploradores, como es el caso de Ivan Papanin, quien, en 1937, emplazó la bandera de la Unión Soviética en el Polo Norte (“Europe: Ships, subs and missiles; Russia's new assertiveness” 2007), lo que atestigua que la presencia rusa en la zona no es del todo reciente, aunque, más de 70 años después, el interés nacional ruso se extiende más allá de la esfera científica y sus implicaciones son más complejas.
Topic:
International Relations, Energy Policy, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

208. Wal-Mart: The Panopticon of Time

Author:
Max Haiven and Scott Stoneman
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
At a moment when the future of global capitalism seems altogether uncertain, we want to take another look at Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation. Despite its importance to the American and global economy, surprisingly little critical scholarship has emerged on the “Beast from Bentonville.” In this working-paper we suggest that we can understand Wal-Mart as both a unique instance as well as a telling example of tendencies within the process of planetary social transformation that has come to be known as globalization. In particular, Wal-Mart strives to become what we will call a “panopticon of time”: a particularly acute and emblematic crystallization of social, economic and technological forces which express a new constellation of power under globalizing capitalism. Wal- Mart represents among the most advanced consolidations of corporate, financial, technological and managerial technologies which employees afford it unprecedented control over consumers, employees, sub-contractors, communities and even nations, as well as unprecedented profit. We argue its power stems in part from its ability to hinge various modes of power: the local and the global, spectacle and surveillance, the private and the public, the everyday and the exceptional. And it is driven as much by the need to intervene in the production of subjects and the shaping of networks as the need to generate profit; indeed, these two imperatives have become inseparable. Wal-Mart is a symptom and an agent of the depotentiation of time under corporate globalization, the confinement or incarceration of temporality within the neoliberal webs of technology, commerce and management.
Topic:
Globalization, Political Economy, Political Theory, and Power Politics

209. "The Media": A Crisis of Appearance

Author:
Nick Couldry
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
'Inaugural' – as often, a word's origins remind us of something we forget. The word denotes a beginning of course, but also the taking of 'auguries' at the start of an uncertain journey. The classical Mediterranean had various ways of taking omens or auguries (not all cruel) including the ancient method of reading the movement of birds of prey in the sky: in both Greek and Latin the words for omen and bird of prey are the same. I claim no special knowledge of the future, but the image of auguries remains apt because it registers the great uncertainty that these days attends any talk of media, both in the media industries and in media research. The signs of 'media culture' are increasingly difficult to read. It's those difficulties on which I want to reflect tonight.
Topic:
Civil Society, Politics, Mass Media, and Power Politics

210. An Israeli Strike on Iran

Author:
Steven Simon
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Successive Israeli governments have held that a nuclear weapons capability in the region, other than Israel's own, would pose an intolerable threat to Israel's survival as a state and society. Iran's nuclear program—widely regarded as an effort to obtain a nuclear weapon, or put Tehran a “turn of a screw” away from it—has triggered serious concern in Israel. Within the coming year, the Israeli government could decide, much as it did twenty-eight years ago with respect to Iraq and two years ago with respect to Syria, to attack Iran's nuclear installations in order to delay its acquisition of a weapons capability.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, War, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Power Politics
Political Geography:
Iraq, Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, and Syria