The Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

 

Members of the SCO, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The twelfth summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) took place on 6-7 June in Beijing. The summit was attended by the presidents of the organisation’s member states: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and also by the presidents of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

A further development of co-operation in the area of security (for example, the development of SCO’s anti-terrorist structures) and economic co-operation (including work on the establishment of the SCO Development Bank; China offered a capital contribution at US$ 10 billion) was discussed during the meeting. On the occasion of this summit, China signed bilateral loan agreements with Kazakhstan (1 billion USD) and Tajikistan (1 billion USD).

Other issues which were raised during the summit included the situation in Afghanistan and the role of the SCO in the region after the ISAF mission ends (2014). The escalating tension imputed to the US over Iran and Syria was criticised. Afghanistan was accepted into the SCO with observer status, and Turkey was recognised as a “partner in dialogue”.

Saudi Arabia Moves Closer to A New Generation of Leaders

The death Saturday (June 16) of Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz is likely to have little short-term impact on the economic or political life of the kingdom or on its international relations. But it does accelerate the inevitable transition to a new generation of rulers who may have very different ideas about how the al-Saud should rule their people, deal with their neighbors and manage the critical relationship with the United States.

Nayef was born in 1933 or 1934, before the discovery of oil, in an era when Saudi Arabia was an impoverished backwater important to outsiders only because of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. He had no formal education, but with his brothers and half-brothers, he managed the kingdom’s transformation into a computerized, air-conditioned modern state that is a powerful force in the global economy.

There is no way to know what kind of king Nayef would have been. Before being designated heir apparent, he was the country’s no-nonsense top cop, who controlled the police and border security forces and the secret tribunals that have prosecuted thousands of suspected al-Qaeda members and sympathizers over the past decade.

US Ambassadors: Local Powerbrokers in the Balkans

Image by Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush was not very popular at home when he visited Albania in June 2007. In fact, everywhere he traveled in Europe at the time, he faced protests, some of them violent. Protestors taunted him from the Czech Republic to Germany to Italy. The dramatic confrontations in Rome paralyzed parts of the city.

However, when Air Force One landed in Tirana’s Mother Teresa Airport, Bush was hailed by a 21-gun salute, while cheering locals swarmed the heavily cordoned streets, branding slogans, such as “proud to be partners.”

In the small town of Fushe Kruja, where Bush stopped briefly to discuss a U.S.-funded microloan programme with a baker, a barber, a tailor, and a shepherd, he received a rock-star welcome. Today a 2.85-meter statue of the 43rd U.S. president adorns the town’s main square.

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A Weak African Union for 53 Member States

Equatoguinean Teodoro President Obiang and African Union Chairman Jean Ping at the African Union Summit in Malabo. Photo from Embassy of Equatorial Guinea

2011 was a tumultuous year for the African continent with revolutions, attempted coups and violent political crises. Unfortunately the union of 53 African states that has as its mission to help strengthen regional peace and development has proved its own shortcomings in dealing with these situations.

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Israel: Defense Budget vs. Social Justice

The Defense Budget by Amitai SandyCartoon of The Defense Budget by Amitai Sandy. Used with permission. Text from right-to-left: A-You, B-Me, C-the next war. 

 

One of the major results of the social justice protests in Israel in the last year has been a renewed debate about the budgetary priorities of the state. The social justice movement (also known as #j14) demanded a more equal distribution of wealth in Israel, including funneling a greater share of the budget to welfare services for the population such as subsidized housing, free education, and better medical services, at the expense of current budgetary priorities – namely, the defense budget.