Landmark China-Japan deal agreed

China and Japan inked a historic agreement and a “new starting point” for bilateral relations. The pledge, which comes after years of tense relations over wartime history and off-shore natural resources, establishes an annual summit between the nations.

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U.S.-Russia Nuclear Cooperation

Moscow and Washington signed a long-awaited nuclear cooperation agreement. The U.S. State Department said the deal will increase international joint venture opportunities in the civilian nuclear sector between Russia and the United States.

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Rising financial protectionism

The Wall Street Journal reports on how rising nationalism has provoked a trade backlash and may hinder global environmental negotiations.

“Some of the world’s biggest new investors are government-run investment funds. In the Middle East and Russia, sovereign wealth funds are powered by oil revenue; in Asia, they’re fed by other export earnings. In all, the funds have a total of $3 trillion in revenue and have used the money to buy stakes in Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and other battered Wall Street firms. While the infusions have been lauded by the U.S. Treasury and capital-short Wall Street firms, they also aroused suspicions here and internationally that the investors could have political agendas.

Now, many national governments are raising barriers against such foreign investment. The U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hungary and Greece are proposing or enacting restrictions on investment by state-owned firms from other countries, according to a forthcoming study by the Council of Foreign Relations. China and Russia, which have sovereign wealth funds, are staking out ’strategic sectors’ where foreign investment would be restricted, say the study’s authors, investment-law specialist David Marchick and Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter.”

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Oasis Economies

A new article from the journal strategy + business says Middle Eastern oil states, particularly in the Persian Gulf, are investing the proceeds of the recent oil boom more cleverly than they did the last time they reaped such windfalls.

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U.S. military expands role in West Africa

The Christian Science Monitor reports on a new U.S. military initiative called the Africa Partnership Station and U.S. efforts to train soldiers in western Africa.

“America now gets more than 15 percent of its oil from Africa, a figure expected to grow to one quarter by 2015, and West Africa is an oil-rich region. ‘We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t in US interests,’ concedes Nowell but he argues that oil is only one component part. Ninety percent of commerce is by sea so a stable and secure maritime environment is good for the US.”

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Swiss energy deal with Iran finances Terror

The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2007

In an effort to draw attention to Switzerland’s $30 billion energy deal with the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism - Iran - the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has taken out advertisements in major international newspapers and in leading Swiss dailies with a message to the Swiss government that, “When you finance a terrorist state, you finance terrorism.”

The series of ADL ads, appeared on April 8, 2008 in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal  and The New York Sun.  Additional ads will appear in Switzerland in Le Matin Bleu and Le Temps and Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

ADL is concerned that Iran’s profits from the energy deal could help the regime to accelerate and complete its nuclear weapons program and provide tens of thousands of additional missiles to Hezbollah and Hamas, two terrorist groups and sworn enemies of Israel who routinely benefit from Tehran’s largess.

These concerns about the Swiss-Iran energy deal, as well as Switzerland’s foreign policy record vis-à-vis Israel, are explained in the following op-ed by Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

Swiss Err on Iran, Israel

by Abraham H. Foxman
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
This article originally appeared in the JTA on April 7, 2008

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey’s visit to Tehran was billed as an opportunity to deliver a stern message about the need for Iran to end its human rights violations and its threats to destroy Israel. This was according to the government’s official announcement of her March 17 diplomatic visit.

As a secondary matter, the announcement noted, Calmy-Rey would attend the signing of a gas deal between Iran and a Swiss energy company.

But Calmy-Rey herself inadvertently exposed the flimsy human rights pretext when she acknowledged on the day of her departure that she was traveling to Tehran in response to Iran’s invitation.

It is highly unlikely that Iran invited Switzerland’s foreign minister to chat about Iran’s bleak record on human rights or its belligerent statements about Israel. The real purpose of the visit, which included photo ops with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was to raise the profile of a $28 billion energy deal, one that has consequences for Iran’s continued pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.

The Swiss are not alone in signing gas contracts with Iran, but the size of the deal and its timing so soon after the latest round of United Nations sanctions will surely encourage Iran on its march toward nuclear weapons and in its defiance of international demands to stop enriching uranium.

If Switzerland were committed to ending the Iranian nuclear threat, it would join with other responsible countries to reinforce the isolation of the ayatollahs’ regime. If Switzerland were serious about supporting an effective strategy, it would join the movement to target Iran’s energy industry.

This gas deal is just the latest example of Swiss actions that are out of step with the West’s determination to confront Iran and commitment to the security of Israel.

Switzerland joined Saudi Arabia, Cuba and other dictatorships in support of the U.N. Human Rights Council resolution that condemned Israel’s reaction to the rockets from Gaza while ignoring the actions of Iran’s terrorist client, Hamas. The resolution was so biased that Canada, an international leader in human rights promotion, voted against it, and every European Union member of the council abstained.

The Swiss ambassador feebly explained that the importance of condemning Israel’s alleged wrongdoing outweighed all other considerations.

That decision logically followed from Switzerland’s apparent policy of censuring all Israeli military operations, no matter how justified. In their condemnations, the Swiss invariably invoke international humanitarian law, with which they are closely associated as the depository for the four Geneva Conventions. Missing, though, is evidence of understanding the proper application of those laws of war.

In one egregious example, Israel’s 2006 raid on a Palestinian prison in Jericho was denounced for “violat[ing] the principle of proportionality.” In that incident, Israeli soldiers had surrounded the prison, in which armed terrorists, including the assassins of an Israeli government minister, were granted free reign and permitted to communicate with the outside world.

One prisoner and one prison guard were killed in an exchange of fire, but the terrorists and other Palestinian prisoners were convinced to surrender without any further hostilities. Even that successful operation the Swiss condemned as a disproportionate use of force.

Switzerland hasn’t been content to undermine Israel’s right to self-defense. Calmy-Rey has also tried to undercut Israel’s diplomacy. Brazenly disregarding Israel’s sovereignty and democratically elected government, Switzerland sponsored negotiations between private Israeli and Palestinian individuals, known as the Geneva Accord.

Unlike the Oslo negotiations, which were backed by the Israeli government after the first couple of private meetings, the Swiss project was officially rejected by Israel and the Swiss ambassador summoned to receive a protest.

Regardless of the content of the resulting document, the Swiss action represented an inexcusable intrusion by a foreign government in the peace process and an end run around the “road map” that reflected the will of the international community and demanded an end to Palestinian terrorism as a condition of further Israeli steps.

Some of the above examples of unfriendly behavior toward Israel could be explained away as soft-headed do-goodism. But one incident in particular punctures that theory.

In December 2006, Tehran hosted its infamous Holocaust denial conference, which responsible nations condemned unequivocally. Switzerland’s reaction was different. A week after the Tehran conference, Calmy-Rey met with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Said Jalili in Switzerland.

According to the Swiss government’s minutes of the meeting, subsequently leaked to the Swiss press, she proposed that “a seminar about different perceptions of the Holocaust could be organized in one of the Geneva centers.” Public outrage killed that idea, but the fact that Calmy-Rey made the proposal provided encouragement to the Holocaust deniers in Iran and elsewhere.

In the battles against the Nazi regime during World War II and communism during the Cold War, Switzerland pursued its narrow self-interest by professing neutrality.

Today the Swiss appear to be taking the same approach in the current global war against the radical Islamist threat, spearheaded by Iran, which menaces Israel’s existence and the security of the West. But neutrality isn’t an option. And for Switzerland, a country that takes pride in its liberal democracy and claims to have learned from its history, it shouldn’t even be considered.

***

Abraham H. Foxman is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control.”

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

The Top 10 Risks for Business

A new report from Ernst & Young surveys the top ten “strategic risks” for U.S. companies, including emerging market pressures, energy shocks, and cost inflation.

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Russian Energy and European Security

A report from the Nixon Center, a research organization focused on U.S. foreign policy, examines Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and its ramifications for the future of EU energy security.

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Asia’s Achilles Heel

In a article for Newsweek, David Victor argues that the big challenge in the coming century may not be the strength of Asia’s emerging economic powers but rather their weakness.

Victor shows how China’s recent power crisis was caused by the tensions between China’s burgeoning free-market sector and its residual state-owned and regulated industries. India faces a similar problem: Its state-owned power utilities are supposed to be run for a profit, but incessant political meddling with electricity prices has pushed most into bankruptcy. In both China and India, dynamic economic growth has masked these governance problems. But the power sector conveys a warning: Vestiges of the statist tradition can still obstruct progress.

“Market reforms are making Beijing less and less relevant to what’s really going on in the economy, threatening to turn China into a ‘weak state.’ And it’s not just China - India, too, is having trouble regulating its industry and economy. The phenomenon is a dark cloud on the Asian century.”

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Switzerland’s shabby deal with Iran

In an opinion piece, the president of the World Jewish Congress criticizes Switzerland’s recent gas deal with Iran.

Switzerland’s shabby deal with Iran

by Ronald S. Lauder

The ejection of the populist politician Christoph Blocher from the Swiss government in December 2007 gave rise to hope that Switzerland could restore its tainted image and that the country’s “splendid isolation” on the international stage might soon be over.

In an opinion piece for the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag on 30 December 2007 I wrote: “Switzerland will not have a glorious future by isolating itself from the European Union and the wider world. In our globalized world (…) you cannot isolate yourself if you want to be heard. Swiss diplomacy can only return to its former strength if the Federal Council and the parties supporting it once again represent an open-minded Switzerland.”

Who would have thought that this call would be heeded so quickly? Two weeks ago, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey appeared, veiled in a headscarf, at the side of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to seal an enormous deal with the National Iranian Gas Export Company. She did so on behalf of a private Swiss company, “to safeguard Switzerland’s own strategic interests,” as she put it.

Back home, Calmy-Rey said that she had pressed Tehran on issues such as human rights or the nuclear program. The Iranian newspaper Tehran Times phrased it somewhat differently: “Calmy-Rey appreciated Iran for its cooperation with the IAEA. She also called for the continued Iran-Switzerland dialogue on human rights.” It became clear immediately that the visit by the Swiss foreign minister was a propagandistic triumph for the mullahs.

A few days after the Iranian gas deal, Calmy-Rey’s Foreign Affairs Department secured the election of Jean Ziegler as special adviser of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Ziegler, a self-declared human rights activist, is best known as campaigner for dictators such as Colonel Khaddafi of Libya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Fidel Castro of Cuba.

Brushing aside all criticism leveled against Ziegler by respected international personalities and organizations, Calmy-Rey got her preferred candidate elected by forging alliances with the many Asians and Africans represented on the council - the same countries that rarely miss an opportunity to bash Israel for defending itself against the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah.

Incidentally, it was Jean Ziegler who in 2006 claimed that Hezbollah in Lebanon was not a terrorist group, but a “national resistance movement”. He even expressed understanding for the kidnapping by Hezbollah of the two Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who have not been released until this day.

In early March, Micheline Calmy-Rey personally appeared before the Human Rights Council to advocate a one-sided resolution, sponsored by Islamic countries, condemning Israel for its operations in the Palestinian territories - operations that are aimed at protecting Israel’s citizens from the constant rocket attacks by Hamas supporters. While all European Union countries on the council abstained, Switzerland voted in favor of the one-sided resolution, yet the Human Rights Council failed to condemn the deadly terrorist attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary which had occurred shortly before.

There is nothing wrong with governments defending their national interests, but such actions should be centered around certain basic principles, i.e. those of democracy, peace and human liberties.

There is nothing wrong with criticizing Israel, provided equal measures of judgment and criticism are being applied to all countries.

What is horribly wrong, though, is Mrs. Calmy-Rey’s flawed foreign policy. It makes Switzerland a hostage to countries that, rather than respect human rights, pay merely lip service to them. This is especially true of international bodies like the UN Human Rights Council that has lost its credibility in the record-breaking time of 18 months.

Only days after the manipulated parliamentary election in Iran, Mrs. Calmy-Rey chose to lend public support to the Islamist regime in Tehran, whose declared aim is the eradication of Israel, while at the same time strengthening Israel’s (hypo-)critics at the United Nations in Geneva. But beware: placating the mullahs in Tehran comes with a heavy political price tag.

Micheline Calmy-Rey has gravely undermined the efforts of the international community, in particular the five permanent members on the UN Security Council and Switzerland’s neighbor Germany, to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power eventually capable of wreaking havoc on Israel and the entire Middle East. How on earth can we expect the sanctions regime to achieve results if a UN member - host country to many UN bodies - makes a mockery of the United Nations?

The current Swiss government has chosen to reduce the country’s natural gas dependence on Russia by helping a Swiss company to clinch a deal with another (the Islamic Republic of Iran).

The Swiss Jewish Community Federation is right to point out that Mrs. Calmy-Rey’s trip to Tehran sends out all the wrong signals. The US government is correct in criticizing Switzerland for setting a bad example for the rest of Europe.

It would be naïve to believe that Micheline Calmy-Rey’s announcement of a “human rights dialogue” with the rulers in Tehran will lead to any concrete improvements of the situation in Iran. The hanging and stoning of dissidents, students, homosexuals and other regime critics; the rigging of elections; the anti-Israel campaign sponsored by Tehran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah that is violent both in words and in action; the denial of the Holocaust; the apparent quest for nuclear weapons: all that will continue, not only in spite of, but perhaps also because of the gas deal.

The concept of Swiss neutrality has a long tradition, but Switzerland’s credibility as an honest broker in international diplomacy has been badly bruised. Mrs. Calmy-Rey has sold out her government’s international credibility in return for 5.5 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas and perhaps for some new friends in the radical Muslim world - definitely not a good investment!

The next months will show if this Swiss diplomacy will be able to undo the damage that has been done.

CIA director believes Iran still pursuing nuclear bomb

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael V. Hayden, has said that he believes Iran is still pursuing nuclear weapons, even though a US intelligence report had reached a different assessment last year.

Asked on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ whether he thought Iran was trying to develop a nuclear weapon, Hayden answered “yes,” adding that his assessment was not based on “court-of-law stuff. . . . This is Mike Hayden looking at the body of evidence.”

He said his conviction stemmed largely from Iran’s willingness to endure international sanctions rather than comply with demands for nuclear inspections and abandon its efforts to develop technologies that can produce fissile material.

“Why would the Iranians be willing to pay the international tariff they appear willing to pay for what they’re doing now if they did not have, at a minimum … the desire to keep the option open to develop a nuclear weapon and, perhaps even more so, that they’ve already decided to do that?” he said.

A report last December by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), also signed off by the CIA, concluded that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons work in 2003, soon after the United States invaded Iraq, and appeared not to have restarted it. Hayden is the latest senior Bush administration official to question the findings of the NIE.

France’s Nuclear Diplomacy

Michelle Smith and Charles Ferguson evaluate Sarkozy’s nuclear deals in the Middle East, in the International Herald Tribune.

“The recent war games in the Gulf with France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are connected to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s nuclear diplomacy. Sarkozy has been leveraging France’s leading civilian nuclear technology to gain diplomatic, commercial and military advantages with countries in the Middle East, as well parts of Africa and Asia. In response, nonproliferation experts have voiced their unease at the idea of exporting potentially nuclear bomb-usable technologies to proliferation-prone regions.”

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Switzerland rejects criticism of gas deal with Iran

Switzerland’s foreign minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has rejected criticism of a multibillion-dollar gas deal with Iran, saying that her country did not need permission from the United States to advance its strategic interests.

The brusque remarks by Calmy-Rey, who has ruffled feathers in Washington and Jerusalem with her outspoken positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, threatened to escalate tensions over a 25-year natural gas contract between Swiss energy trading company EGL and the state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Company.

“Switzerland is an independent country that has its own strategic interests to defend,” Calmy-Rey told reporters after returning from a visit in Tehran.

The US government was quick to vent its displeasure over the development. “We have conveyed to the Swiss that major new oil and gas deals with Iran send precisely the wrong message at a time when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions,” the US Embassy in Bern said in a statement, according to AFP.

Calmy-Rey claimed the bilateral deal did not violate UN sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program and served only to secure energy supplies for Switzerland. She called the deal an example for successful cooperation between Swiss business and diplomacy. The foreign minister added her visit had allowed her to maintain a difficult dialogue on human rights with Tehran.

Made in Israel – Highlights der israelischen Sicherheitsindustrie

Der Heimatschutz hat in Israel schon vor der Staatsgründung höchste Priorität besessen. Israelische Sicherheitssysteme wurden für ein Land entwickelt, dass ständig um seine Existenz zu kämpfen und wachsam gegenüber andauernden Bedrohungen zu sein gezwungen gewesen ist. Aus dieser einzigartigen Perspektive heraus hat die israelische Sicherheitsindustrie eine beispiellose Fachkompetenz und eine weltweite Reputation in der Entwicklung von Spitzenprodukten erlangt.

Die Ereignisse des 11. September 2001 haben die globale Perspektive auf den Terrorismus verändert. Überall auf der Welt suchen Länder nun nach Mitteln, um der Bedrohung durch den Terrorismus zu begegnen, und viele der nötigen Technologien können von Israels Sicherheits- und Heimatschutzindustrie geliefert werden. Hunderte von israelischen Unternehmen bieten ausgeklügelte Sicherheitslösungen an - von automatischen Spracherkennungssystemen und Fernsensoren bis hin zu Videolokalisierung, Frühwarngeräten und taktischen Bildbearbeitungssystemen.

Gegenwärtig arbeiten in Israel 25 000 Menschen in 450 sicherheits- und heimatschutzbezogenen Unternehmen, von denen mehr als 300 ins Ausland exportieren. Die Exporte im nichtmilitärischen Bereich beliefen sich dabei im Jahr 2005 auf eine Milliarde Dollar und zwei Milliarden Dollar im IT-Sektor.

Über die Jahre hat sich Israel bei der Landesverteidigung auf seine eigenen Ressourcen verlassen müssen. Für ein kleines Land mit einer Bevölkerung von etwa sieben Millionen Menschen hat es eine unverhältnismäßig große Zahl von militärischen Projekten entwickelt und hergestellt, darunter Satelliten, die Kampfflugzeuge Kfir und Lavi, den Merkava-Panzer, die Maschinenpistole Uzi sowie die Sturmgewehre Galil und Tavor u.v.m.

Die israelische Sicherheits- und Heimatschutzindustrie umfasst ein weites Spektrum von Unternehmen. Dazu gehören große Rüstungsfirmen wie Elbit, Tadiran, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), RAFAEL, Elisra, ELTA und Israel Military Industries (IMI), aber auch Unternehmen aus der Telekommunikationsbranche wie Motorola, Comverse, Nice, Verint, Mer Group, Ness TSG u.a.

Einige Firmen haben sich allein auf die Entwicklung und Herstellung von Sicherheitsprodukten in Bereichen wie Eingangskontrolle oder Körperschutz spezialisiert. Einige der weltbekannten Unternehmen in diesem Zusammenhang sind ISDS, Magal Security Systems, Plasan Sas und Rabintex.

Zu den Kernbereichen der Branche gehören: Luft- und Seefahrt-Sicherheit, CBRN-Bereitschaft, Kommando- und Kontrollsysteme, Terrorismusbekämpfung, Krisen- und Notfallmanagement, Infrastrukturschutz, internationale Veranstaltungen, IT-Sicherheit und Betrugsbekämpfung, Körperschutz, öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit und Bereitschaft, Dienstleistungsanbieter.

Israelische Sicherheitsunternehmen sind in allen Regionen der Welt aktiv und bieten Lösungen und Technologien für staatliche und private Abnehmer. Die folgenden Beispiele veranschaulichen die globale Präsenz:

- Mehr als ein Dutzend israelischer Unternehmen waren bei der Sicherung der Olympischen Spiele in Athen beteiligt.

- Gegenwärtig sind israelische Unternehmen in Grenzschutzprojekte v.a. in den USA, Asien und Lateinamerika involviert.

- Israelische Schutzeinrichtungen für Fahrzeuge, Gebäude und Personen werden von den internationalen Truppen und Organisationen im Irak und anderen Konfliktzonen verwendet.

- Die Infrastruktur des Buckingham Palace, des Vatikan und des Eiffelturms werden mit israelischer Technologie gesichert; ebenso die Flughäfen JFK in New York, Heathrow in London, Hannover, Tel Aviv und Singapur u.a.

Ausführliche Informationen zur israelischen Sicherheitsindustrie findet man unter folgendem Link.

© The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute

Russian Capital Markets are better than ever

The Christian Science Monitor reports on Russian efforts to use a new sovereign wealth fund to expand Moscow’s role in global capital markets.

“Russian companies are increasingly investing abroad - a trend encouraged by Medvedev, who has pledged to make Russia ‘one of the world’s biggest financial centers’ once he takes over from his mentor, President Vladimir Putin.

Barely a decade ago, Russia’s economy was in tatters, best known for its astronomical rates of capital flight - up to $25 billion annually. But since Mr. Putin came to power eight years ago, a quiet turnaround has occurred that saw Russia take in a record $28 billion in direct foreign investment last year, according to state statistics.”

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North America’s Oil

The Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail examines the shifting North American power dynamic wrought by rising oil prices. The paper says the rise has served to boost Canada’s regional strength.

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Oil still passes $100

The price of crude oil closed a trading day above $100 a barrel for the first time.

The Wall Street Journal writes that soaring prices have increased political pressure on OPEC to keep production levels at current rates despite pressure from within the cartel to reduce output.

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Event: Iran’s nuclear file - What can Europe do?

The Transatlantic Institute and Jana Hybaskova, Member of the European Parliament, have the pleasure of inviting you to join us for an off-the-record briefing with:

Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi, director of the Transatlantic Institute

Jana Hybaskova, former Czech ambassador to Kuwait and Chairman of the Delegation for Relations with Israel of the European Parliament

IRAN’S NUCLEAR FILE: WHAT CAN THE EU DO?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 15:15 - 17:00

At the European Parliament - Room 5E3

To participate, please contact Jana Hybaskova’s office: Phone +32 473 743 803 or Email: jana.hybaskova-assistant@europarl.europa.eu

Iraq’s Oil

Al-Jazeera reports that more than seventy foreign firms have registered with the Iraqi government to compete for Iraq’s oil resources, despite the fact that the country has yet to settle on an oil revenue-sharing plan.

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Canada’s Fossil Energy Future

A report from the Canadian government’s agency focused on natural resources examines the country’s fossil energy reserves and outlines potential obstacles facing the country.

“Canada is experiencing a significant economic surge driven in large part by the natural resources sectors, in particular by the fossil fuel industries in Western Canada. Combined under the banner of fossil energy, Canada’s oil, natural gas, and coal resources make the country one of the world’s most attractive energy centres for continuing investment and development.

This economic opportunity comes with challenges, such as requirements to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and managing the impacts of climate change. Canadian GHG emissions are up more than 25 percent since 1990. There is growing public concern supported by consensus among the scientific community (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that global emissions growth will soon drive atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations to levels not seen in 10 million years, bringing a growing risk of rapid climate change.”

Read full report.

Threats to Britain’s national security

The British Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) has a new report that seeks to take a broad view of British national security and question how geopolitical risks like climate change, biosecurity, and global poverty affect stability within the United Kingdom.

Ian Kearns, ippr Deputy Director and report author, said:

“The world has changed and notions of security that helped protect us in the 20th century are no longer able to protect us in the 21st century. Terrorism is a very real threat but we must not allow it to dominate discussion about national security. The frontline in the battle for security today is more complex than ever before. How we deal with the threats posed by climate change, energy insecurity and infectious diseases must now be at the forefront of any national security strategy.”

Read full story.

Kosovo’s economic prospects

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports on Kosovo’s economic prospects should the Serbian province declare itself independent in the very near future, as it is widely expected to do. The article says Kosovo would have to rely heavily on coal deposits but questions whether that can sustain its population.

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Öko-Fanatiker und grüne Ideologen auf dem Vormarsch

In einem Essay erschienen in der heutigen Ausgabe der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitzung kritisiert der britische Philosoph John N. Gray, Professor an der London School of Economics, die Maßlosigkeit grüner Ideologen in Sachen Klimaschutz:

“Es gibt nur einen vernünftigen Weg: Wir müssen den Bedarf an fossilen Brennstoffen einschränken und, da niemand auf sie verzichten wird, sie sauberer machen. Also müssen wir Technologien einsetzen, die viele Umweltschützer mit abergläubischem Horror betrachten. Bei der Atomenergie gibt es bekanntlich Probleme mit der Sicherheit und der Müllentsorgung. Sie ist keineswegs das Allheilmittel, doch sie zu verteufeln ist schlimmste grüne Ideologie.”

Zum Artikel.

Big U.S-China Mining Venture

China’s Chinalco and the U.S. company Alcoa have teamed up to buy a 12 percent stake in Rio Tinto, a global mining company.

The Financial Times calls it “the largest ever Chinese outbound investment and the largest ever cross-border deal involving a Chinese company.”

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U.S. Federal Reserve writes a new economic script

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point yesterday and signaled it may cut rates further if that is necessary to stave off a recession.

The cuts come on the heels of emergency cuts of three-quarters of a point last week and represent a curtailment of the Fed’s “gradualist” policy, in which it had generally sought to make incremental adjustments of one-quarter point at a time.

The Economist deemed the measure “aggressive activism” and says it represents a new policy script for the Federal Reserve.

Asian markets responded tentatively to the rate cut in mixed trading this morning, uncertain whether lower interest rates would be enough to overcome lingering credit problems.

The Boston Globe reports the rate cuts could translate to “lower credit costs for consumers and businesses, relief for homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, and a better chance to halt the economy’s deterioration.”

But experts say a slew of problems remain and add that rate cuts aren’t a cure-all. One potential problem is inflation, which remains relatively low in the United States but could spike due to a combination of rate cuts, rising energy prices, and the falling dollar.

Oil and U.S. defense policy

A new report from the Stanley Foundation, a nonpartisan research institute, examines the role of energy security in U.S. defense policy.

The report argues “the time has already passed when oil was strategically important enough to require individual industrialized nations to be prepared to intervene militarily in oil-producing regions.”

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The new role of oil wealth in the world economy

The McKinsey Quarterly examines the new role oil wealth plays in the global economy, noting its impact on interest rates and the pricing of global assets.

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