30 November 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation
Europe to Boost its Defence Potential
30.11.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
Seven EU countries have formed what France calls a «club» to produce military drones from 2020 onward. The accord was reached in Brussels on November 19 at a meeting of the European Defence Agency (EDA), the EU’s defence think tank, by France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain… France has taken a leading role in Europe since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president in May, 2007. By 2009 France had rejoined NATO’s military command, after a 40-year absence, and was soon led the NATO attack against Libya. Mr. Hollande continues the policy… Franco-British defence cooperation is growing stronger. The two are the EU’s leading military powers spending together €92 billion on defence last year (more than Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain put together)… No matter Europe faces tough economic times, military issues are very much on the agenda with plans to upkeep a potential going far beyond purely defensive requirements…
Why a Final Iran Deal is Feasible (II)
30.11.2013 | 00:00 | Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
The Economist magazine, which is not exactly known to be a friend of Iran, came out with an editorial in its latest issue backing the interim agreement worked out in Geneva. It called the deal a «keyhole» that «offers a tantalizing glimpse of a different, better Middle East». The editorial anticipates the possibility of «America and Iran cooperating more, or at least feuding less, in the world’s most troubled region». It adds, «The immediate test, and opportunity, will be Syria…
On the «bombshell» dropped by China on 20 November 2013 (I)
29.11.2013 | 00:00 | Valentin KATASONOV
Since 21 November, an article by well-known financial analyst and blogger Michael Snyder under the headline «China announces that it is going to stop stockpiling US dollars» has spread through the media like wildfire. We quote: «China just dropped an absolute bombshell, but it was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media. The central bank of China has decided that it is ‘no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves’». Michael Snyder’s article predicts that China’s decision will have serious consequences for the United States. According to Snyder, even if this bombshell does not destroy America, it will still cause the country enormous damage. Can it all really be as the American analyst claims?..
Why a Final Iran Deal is Feasible (I)
29.11.2013 | 00:00 | Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
The interim agreement struck in Geneva on Sunday at the P5+1 and Iran talks was a breakthrough document on modest sanctions relief for temporary curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities. Five days have passed and there is a singular lack of interest on the part of either Iran or the United States to resort to triumphalism. That must be taken as a positive sign…
Russia – Ukraine – EU Triangle: Latest Developments as Events Unfold
28.11.2013 | 00:00 | Boris NOVOSELTSEV (Ukraine)
…Now let’s make a conjecture that the European Union has committed a blunder on the way of trying to push Ukraine into the free trade zone and political association because it has completely ignored the interests of Russia. Not just keeping them out of consideration but rather writing Russia off as a non-existent geopolitical force. Somehow Brussels thought that Russia would not defend its vital interests in the post-Soviet space. The attempts by Brussels to influence Moscow calling on it «to stop exerting pressure on Ukraine» look very peculiar, the same way as if it would call on Russia to stop protecting its market and foot the bill for the European Union – Ukraine Association Agreement…
Europe Under Washington’s Order
28.11.2013 | 00:00 | Sergey MAXIMOV
The United States has sparked a real big fire in the Middle East. Now it has shifted its attention to Europe where the allies started to feel too free at the time of Russia-US «reset». Large-scale NATO exercises conducted in the vicinity of the borders with Russia and Belarus, directing money flows and arms supplies to Poland, the talks about the inevitability of Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – it all goes to show the White House is going to ultimately abandon the policy of «partnership with Russia» which it had to declare when its military forces «were fighting international terrorism»…
Behind the Scenes of the Geneva Accord with Iran
27.11.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai BOBKIN
…Not only in Israel, but among Arab allies of the U.S., the belief that America is no longer a reliable partner in the Middle East is gaining momentum. After the failures of American plans in Iraq and Afghanistan, the countries of the region have reason to doubt the ability of the U.S. to guarantee a predictable outcome in the Middle East. Now it is unclear how the situation in Egypt will play out, what awaits the region in connection with the nascent revival of relations between America and Iran, how Saudi Arabia will react, whether Turkey will be satisfied with its secondary role, and, most importantly, how to prevent Syria from becoming an «Arab Afghanistan»…
France Makes Virtue out of Vice to Exploit Central Africa Chaos
27.11.2013 | 00:00 | Finian CUNNINGHAM
Where Francois Hollande looks weak and beleaguered on the national stage, registering as the most unpopular French president ever, his fortunes seem to rise abroad with a strident interventionist foreign policy. We saw that in September when the French president unseated the British as America’s «special friend» by declaring his country’s readiness to join Washington in a military assault on Syria… This French activist tendency on foreign matters was on display again over the recent P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran… France’s old colonial stomping ground in Africa is also providing the Hollande government with a convenient counterfoil to domestic woes…
US to Stay in Afghanistan after 2014
26.11.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
On November 24 Afghan elders at a grand assembly in Kabul called for a security deal with the US to be signed this year… The document outlines a broad, long term relationship with Afghanistan that commits the United States to sustaining the Afghan security forces for years to come, and likely deploying thousands of American troops in the country to carry out that training and the limited counter-terrorism role… The draft also allows unfettered overflight rights of US military aircraft… Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held late September in Sochi Russian President Putin said the planned 2014 ISAF withdrawal from Afghanistan could pose a major threat to its neighbors…
The CIA’s plan for «Pan-Turania» to replace the USSR
26.11.2013 | 00:00 | Wayne MADSEN
The neo-conservatives and neo-Cold Warriors of Freedom House, Soros’s Open Society Institute, the CIA’s National Endowment for Democracy have dusted off the «Pan-Turania Idea», which was kept under lock and key by the CIA for over 50 years, in an attempt to split the Russian Federation and China into a mosaic of independent statelets all committed to a pan-Turania federation with its capital in Istanbul but its true masters in Washington, London, and New York…
Case of Arctic Sunrise
25.11.2013 | 00:00 | Alexander MEZYAEV
On November 22 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg handed down its verdict in the case «the Kingdom of Netherlands versus the Russian Federation». 1 On September 18 Greenpeace activists tried to board the Prirazlomnaya oil platform belonging to Gazprom-Neft-Shelf to stage an action of protest against oil production in the Arctic. The next day Russian border guards boarded the ship. The vessel under the Dutch flag was towed to Murmansk, where thirty activist were arrested under the charges of piracy (later the ruling was changed from to charge the activists with hooliganism)…
A Europe of Paupers
25.11.2013 | 00:00 | Vladimir NESTEROV
…In Brussels, they are hoping that their forced entry into the markets of the Eastern Partnership’s post-Soviet countries (primarily Ukraine), through the creation of free trade zones with these countries and a restriction of their economic sovereignty, will enable Europeans if not to save their worsening situation, then at least to postpone the social misfortunes drawing nearer the countries of the European Union…
Libya on Brink of Collapse: US, Allies Step Up Emergency Measures
24.11.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV
…An increase in crime in Libya, a destroyed economy and the lack of political control over different tribes makes Libya worse off than 2 years ago… The chances are great that step by step the US and its European allies may get embroiled in the quagmire of anarchy and chaos in an effort to make Libya remain a pro-Western state in the volatile region. The «no boots on the ground» policy may fail as «some boots» are already there while others happen to operate on Libyan soil off and on. It’s extremely hard to predict anything about the Middle East, but the task to improve things in Libya is a tall order, a real high mountain to climb. The West is paying for its own mistakes it had been warned about stepping on the same rake in Libya after the lessons it failed to learn in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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The New Dark Age 