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2014: Two Events that Shook the World
The year 2014 has been a sensational year. It is the year that some hasten to bookmark as the year World War III began unobtrusively, stealthily, inexorably – involving as-yet indeterminate contestants. The tumultuous arrival of the Islamic Caliphate spearheaded by the Islamic State, the outbreak of the Ebola virus, kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram – the year has had its fair share of blood-curdling events. It has been the year that the US economy showed credible signs of recovery, but in which the US also admitted defeat in a half-century old campaign to bring the Cuban revolution down on its knees... However, it is two major international developments that form a cluster by itself because of their profound impact on the future trajectory of world order. They are: the crisis in Ukraine and the emergence of China as the world’s largest economy...
Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR 31.12.2014
U.S. Citizens Continue to Infiltrate Eastern European Governments
The recent appointment of the austerity-loving U.S. citizen and investment firm chief Natalie Jaresko as Ukraine’s Finance Minister continues a trend that has seen one Eastern European country after another appointing or electing U.S. citizens as major government officials... The current leader of the Polish parliament (Sejm) is former Foreign and Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, a former U.S. resident and British citizen. Sikorski is married to the neocon columnist Anne Applebaum, a member of the editorial board of The Washington Post... The bow-tied President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, grew up in New Jersey and attended Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania... Valdas Adamkus served two terms as President of Lithuania. Adamkus was a U.S. citizen and a Ronald Reagan–appointed senior official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and served as a non-commissioned officer for the U.S. Fifth Army Military Intelligence unit... Other Americans who have embedded in Eastern European governments and political organizations include Ljubica Acevska, who became Macedonia’s first ambassador to the United States; Ukrainian anti-Russian politician Ivan Lozowy; Roman Zvarych, who became Minister of Justice in the Yushchenko government; and Peter Zwack, who became Hungarian ambassador to the United States and chairman of the Hungarian Entrepreneurs’ Party...
Wayne MADSEN 30.12.2014
Colonial Reparations: Initiative of Caribbean States
In the XX century the developing countries tried to change the trend with the help of the USSR. The Group of 77 (the Non-Aligned Movement - NAM) applied efforts to overcome the legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism. The Declaration for the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) on May 1, 1974 meant to be a revision of the international economic system in favour of Third World countries... Today there are some signs signaling the revival of attempts to establish a new world order in the interests of the countries that belong to the periphery of world capitalism. The establishment of BRICS and the consolidation of the periphery countries within the framework of G20 are the examples of such activities... One more initiative to repay the damage inflicted on the poor South by the rich North was put forward in 2013 by the members of CARICOM... 14 Caribbean countries coalescing under the CARICOM banner took a unanimous decision to join forces and demand compensations from former colonies «for the lingering effects of slavery»...
Valentin KATASONOV 30.12.2014
Washington Has Shaped 2015 to Be a Year of Conflict. The Conflict Could Be Intense
...In my view, Russia and China owe it to the world to prevent the nuclear war that the neoconservatives who control US policy intend by simply replying in kind to Washington’s economic warfare. Russia and China hold all the cards. Not Washington. Russia and China should give no warning. They should just act. Indeed, instead of step by step, they should just let loose all barrels at once. With four US banks holding derivatives totaling many times world GDP, the financial explosion would be the equivalent to a nuclear one. The US would be finished, and the world would be saved... 2015 could be a very good year.
Paul Craig ROBERTS 29.12.2014
Iran Ready for New Round of Confrontation with US if There is No Other Option
...Iran is serious about delivering precision strikes targeting the detected weak points in the US-created system of international relations which turns the terrorist groups flying the banner of Islam into the main driving force of global destabilization. On the one hand, the United States uses aviation to strike the Islamic State while, on the other hand, it applies great efforts to clear all the obstacles on the way of Islamist advance. The mutual understanding between Iran, Russia and China stopped the offensive the United States was prepared to launch against Syria in 2013. The refusal of Tehran to give up its nuclear program in exchange for US empty promises is a proof of the fact that Iranians have drawn right conclusions as they look back at the fates of Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. 
Arkady DZIUBA 29.12.2014
US Thought-Control Goes into Loop over Sony Hollywood Hack
...A crime story at Sony carried out by hackers for extortion or just kicks is transformed into a major national security threat posed by North Korea purely on the basis of innuendo and baseless assertion. Is that not the most audacious manifestation of thought-control and manufacturing of perception? Obama and his ilk in Washington and the American mainstream media are so deluded with their own self-righteous sense of freedom and «exceptionalism». Thought-control is exactly what America is about, as is all too plain to see from the hysteria over the Sony hack and the demonisation of North Korea...
Finian CUNNINGHAM 28.12.2014
Will World Oil Prices Be Affected By Major US Set Back in Middle East?
The situation in the Middle East has aggravated recently. No doubt the things have gone bad for the United States, no matter this fact has been largely ignored by Western media. The further development of events may lead to drastic changes in the region giving an impetus to a new hike of oil prices. According to DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence website, Syrian rebel militia Al Yarmouk Shuhada Brigades, the most capable 2,000-strong anti-Assad force based in Jordan and areas adjacent to Syria, has abruptly joined up with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria headed by al-Baghdadi. Yarmouk is a special unit backed and trained for two years by US officers, mostly CIA experts, in Jordan, and supported by the Israeli army (Tsahal)... Perhaps Barack Obama jumped the gun when he announced himself to be the winner in the chess game with President Putin. The grand geopolitical chess board pattern offers a great choice of moves and combinations. Unlike in case of ordinary chess board, this pattern allows many pieces be inclined to choose their own moves with no orders given by master. 
Dmitry MININ 27.12.2014
Italy – Russia: Peace Geopolitics in Eurasia
The international conference «The Great Infrastructure of Eurasia: New Industrialization and Geopolitics of Peace» (Le Grandi Infrastrutture Euro-Asiatiche: Nuova Industrializzazione e Geopolitica Della Pace) took place in Rome on November 27-28, 2014. It leaves the impression that Europe has begun to mull its future relationship with Russia. Pepe Escobar, a well-known international relations analyst, has said that Russia is wired for «playing the long game with the West» with tangible results to appear on «the grand chessboard» after some time. That is something to agree with. At that there is something more important in question than just a game to play or, perhaps, this is a game with a win-win outcome...
Andrei VOLODIN 27.12.2014
From Energy War to Currency War: America’s Attack on the Russian Ruble
A multi-spectrum war is being waged against Moscow by Washington. If there are any doubts about this, they should be put to rest. Geopolitics, science and technology, speculation, financial markets, information streams, large business conglomerates, intelligentsia, mass communication, social media, the internet, popular culture, news networks, international institutions, sanctions, audiences, public opinion, nationalism, different governmental bodies and agencies, identity politics, proxy wars, diplomacy, countervailing international alliances, major business agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights, prestige, military personnel, capital, and psychological tactics are all involved in this multi-spectrum war. On a daily basis this struggle can be seen playing out on the airwaves, in the war theaters in Ukraine and the Middle East, through the statements and accusations of diplomats, and in the economic sphere... 
Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA 26.12.2014
A Clean Break is Needed (III)
...Without doubt, the Peshawar school attack is a defining moment. Pakistan cannot afford to carry on as before. Perhaps, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could be given the benefit of doubt when he insists that Pakistan will no more differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. In immediate terms, Sharif’s handling of the Indian demand for continued detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, operations commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who was a key operative in masterminding the Mumbai terrorist strike in November 2008, becomes a test case...
Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR 25.12.2014
Is Oil Price Weapon Really Effective against Russia?
The US is engaged in rather dubious activities as it attempts to damage the Russia’s economy by making fall down the world oil prices... Concentrated on hurting Russia Americans fail to see what’s happening in their own backyard... There is ground to believe that while openly supporting the United States Saudi Arabia plays its own game aimed at squeezing the competitors away, including America, from the market. Some time ago Riyadh used to say that OPEC members will not cut production even if the price plunges to $40 dollars a barrel. With oil prices plummeting traditional oil producers have enough reserves to make it through a period of frugality while the US shale industry will be delivered a deadly blow to make it never bounce back. The negative economic trends are already visible in the US while Russia has not even started to take counter measures as the economic war unleashed against it is raging on...
Olga SHEDROVA 25.12.2014
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