Diplomacy & Crisis News

Demonstrators hold signs at a Black Lives Matter protest in Birmingham, England, on June 4, 2020. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

In recent days, headlines in America have been dominated by pundits raising awareness about the widespread racial inequality in America following the brutal murder of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks by white police officers and the subsequent race riots that have occurred across the nation.  Both murders were horrific and unjustifiable.  However, it is pivotal to note that in our quest for equality and justice, not only African Americans have suffered from racist prejudice and other instances of bigotry should not be neglected at this critical hour.

Jews, Hindus, Maronite Christians, Muslims, and other groups have also suffered from religious prejudice and their struggle for justice should not be neglected merely because they have not taken to the streets in protest.  Indeed, if the recent protests in America have taught us anything, it is that we should all be fighting against all forms of racism.

During the recent race riots in America, a Maronite Church was defaced with hateful graffiti.  Around the same period of time, five synagogues and three Jewish schools fell victim to hate crimes.  One of the synagogues was defaced with graffiti that read “f_ck Israel.”  Another Moroccan Jewish synagogue had graffiti reading “f_ck pigs” written on it as well.   A statue of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis, was smeared with anti-Semitic slogans.

Jewish owned businesses and buildings were also looted and targeted with anti-Semitic graffiti. In fact, according to Yeshiva World News, nearly 75% of the Jewish-owned stores in an Orthodox enclave in Beverly Hills were looted. Closer to home in the Washington, DC area, the windows of Chai Bar, a Kosher restaurant, were smashed.  Another kosher restaurant, Shouk, was looted and set on fire.

More recently, the Anti-Defamation League reported than an anti-Semitic flier has been circulated, which proclaims, “If Jewish Americans make up two percent of the population, why do they get a special privilege when it comes to top universities?   Ending white privilege intersects ending Jewish privilege.”

This flier has been circulated at a time when there are many tweets speculating that George Soros, a Jewish billionaire, stands behind the recent race riots in America.   Such incitement will do nothing but encourage more violence against Jews in America, at a time when anti-Semitic hate crimes are at an all time high.  Yet sadly, the anti-Semitism that has come to the fore during these race riots is not being widely covered by mainstream American media outlets.

As Mendi Safadi, who heads the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights noted, there are different types of racism, including racism based on skin color, ethnic racism and religiously based racism.   Racism based on skin color is what existed in the Jim Crow South, while the Kurds experience ethnically based racism in countries like Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

According to Safadi, religiously based racism is what Jews and the Hindus of Bangladesh and other religious minorities in places like Syria experience: “A mixture of different religions is considered unacceptable to such people.” As a consequence Syria and Bangladesh have seen the horrors of ethnic cleansing.

Shipan Kumer Basu, who heads the World Hindu Struggle Committee, proclaimed, “The percentage of Hindus living in Bangladesh has gone down from more than 30% of the total population in 1947 to a mere 7% today. The heinous crimes that have been committed against the Hindus are physical assault, rape, murder and forced conversions.  These crimes take place on a daily basis in Bangladesh.”

Basu himself was imprisoned for his work advocating for persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh and he called upon other members of the international community to take a stand against anti-Hindu racism: “We have been striving for the rights of all Hindus in the Indian subcontinent for the last twenty years and have been able to convey our message on behalf of the Hindu community to different human rights groups such as the United Nations and other international groups about the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Historically, Hindus were oppressed in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan”

“Our struggle for peaceful coexistence for the Hindu Community along with other religious sects will continue until we obtain equality,” he declared.  “Like the protesters in America, we seek for racism to come to an end.  As the Americans fight against racial inequality, Hindus are still getting murdered in Bangladesh merely due to the racism against them  One African American man was killed and the American people are on strike, and they are doing many things to stop racial inequality.  But in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hindus are killed and nothing happens.  As we are facing the coronavirus pandemic, we feel frustrated and depressed that the persecution of Hindus has increased exponentially.  Hindu lands are being taken away by force.  Hindu girls are getting abducted and forced into marriages.  It is time to break the silence on this.”

The post Op-Ed: Do not neglect the struggle against other forms of racism appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2020). Dominique David, rédacteur en chef de la revue, propose une analyse de l’ouvrage de Philippe Moreau Defarges, Une histoire mondiale de la paix (Odile Jacob, 2020, 224 pages).

À vrai dire, il s’agit là moins d’une histoire de la paix – quelle chronologie établir d’une multiplicité de phénomènes mal définissables ? –, que d’un démontage des conditions de paix correspondant à chaque temps de l’histoire des sociétés humaines.

Regrettera-t‑on les empires ? Sans doute, si l’on en croit Philippe Moreau Defarges, qui voit dans la paix impériale le produit, instable mais appréciable, du croisement de la force, d’un équilibre passager entre l’aspiration à l’ordre et l’aspiration à l’autonomie, et d’une certaine poursuite de l’universel. La paix impériale a ainsi sa grandeur et son efficacité, au-delà d’incarnations très diverses.

Dernier avatar de la paix impériale, la domination oligarchique qui a marqué le temps de la guerre froide a sombré avec la liquidation des empires coloniaux et l’effondrement de l’empire soviétique. Le survivant américain semble lui-même condamné avec la fin d’un système qu’il dominait. Et son déclin n’adoube nul successeur. La puissance chinoise est impressionnante, mais son intégration au monde soulève trop de problèmes, son universalisme est trop contestable, pour qu’elle puisse prétendre à un rapide imperium.

Force est donc d’imaginer un autre montage que celui d’une paix d’empire, un montage contemporain correspondant à l’état d’ouverture du monde actuel – un monde que l’auteur caractérise surtout par la fin d’une multiséculaire sédentarisation. La mondialisation instaure et encourage la circulation de tous partout, le défi symbolique de la migration venant remplacer celui de l’affrontement entre territoires définis et fermés. Le temps s’ouvrirait donc de la paix par consentement, basée sur une culture universellement partagée, sur l’égalité formelle entre États, sur un système de pactes liant ces derniers, et sur un entrecroisement de coopérations entre sociétés civiles.

Et pourtant, relève l’auteur, le spectre de la guerre n’a pas disparu. Il peut revenir, produit d’un progrès technologique qui stimule les courses aux armements, ou d’emballements immaîtrisés entre puissances : on croit contrôler les crises, puis elles échappent à qui se croyait démiurge. L’affrontement Chine/États-Unis revêt pour l’heure des formes non guerrières, mais qui peut jurer qu’il ne dérapera pas ? Contre le risque mortel, plaide Moreau Defarges, une seule issue : un « contrat planétaire interétatique, transétatique, infra-étatique » garantissant la paix.

On objectera à l’auteur que sa vision d’un monde déjà unifié, qui relèverait de solutions elles-mêmes globales, sent fort son occidentalo-centrisme. Qu’en pensent les puissances montantes d’Asie, les populations d’Afrique, le Moyen-Orient divisé ? L’espoir de l’auteur est que les États soient terrassés par une vision des biens communs de l’humanité, et qu’ils produisent ensemble une sorte de légitimité universelle porteuse de paix. N’est-ce pas là ignorer la têtue diversité du monde ? Le rapport à l’État, au territoire, à la guerre, est‑il universel, la mondialisation a-t‑elle gommé la diversité des sociétés humaines ?

La complexité de la réflexion sur la « gouvernance mondiale » découle de cette diversité. À croire que la paix, ou plutôt les paix de demain, seront toujours produites d’équilibres précaires plus que de systèmes ? Ce qui ne dissuade pas de s’organiser. Le sommet est très loin, mais « il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux »…

Dominique David

>> S’abonner à Politique étrangère <<

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Decoupling from China isn't just perilous—it’s impossible.

Hong Kong: Lawmakers carried out during parliament mayhem – May 18 2020

With the sudden shock of Covid-19, almost all economic activity locally and globally had ceased after February 2020. Only now towards the end of May 2020 have some countries decided to carefully open up businesses, economies and society in returning to normalcy. Much of the idea of a return to normal is linked to the views of how some believe the post pandemic world can and will operate. The reality is that this pandemic was not the first, and will not be the last. In many parts of the world, economic collapse and crisis is almost a generational plague, with each new generation facing their own dilemma and recovery over many years. What many in regions like Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe have experienced may come to pass in Western nations, that is, if they ignore the experiences of these other regions since the end of the Second World War.

The post war German economy survived the near total destruction of German infrastructure and society with intense aid for allied countries in order to build a strong Germany as a bulwark against the Iron Curtain. The progress of Germany since the 1950s has been remarkable, even though the country was left in ruins post 1945. Regions like Latin America that never received a sustained and focused bail out after the Great Depression in 1929 were plagued with generations of debt, accompanying corruption and even government sponsored terror. In the early part of the 20th Century, countries like Brazil and Argentina received as much immigration from the South of Europe as did New York. Some of the reasons for this was that Argentina was in better shape economically than Italy was at the beginning of the era. With the arrival of the Great Depression, the recovery of Argentina and much of Latin America never enabled Argentina to become more prosperous than any Western European country ever again. Much of the regions was plagued by debt, low growth, overspending and corruption, problems that have existed for generations.

With many Western countries now being challenged by a possible era of Depression and massive debt, it is important that the lessons of these other regions ring loudly in the application of policies to get all countries out of this economic crisis. Support for citizens require funds to be used liberally, but for a set period of time. Political advantages should not be taken in the middle of a Depression, and using absolute powers given to many governments to push their agendas will absolutely corrupt any democracy. Hiding or blurring information about how much money has been used should be considered criminal, as it will hurt the lives of average citizens and disadvantage the poor and middle class. The absurdity of giving raises for politicians or public sector employees, or adding additional taxes during a Depression is also cruel, and a clear sign of a government that represents the 1%, the takers, and not the producers in a society. Any actions that may limit PPE, medicine, food and general health for citizens should be strictly addressed. Without foresight and the diminishing of congressional or parliamentary powers, generations of debt and corruption will absorb otherwise healthy democracies. Hundreds of years of civilization gave us divided power and full rights, it can all be lost within a few years. A charter enshrining these values is likely needed, with no caveats or preferences given to any group in society. Weak societies who do not take actions now to preserve their representatives and democracy will surely lose it.

The post The Plagues of Debt and Deficits appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

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