The 2010 Failed States Index | Foreign Policy

On the day that seven European banks failed the stress test of a possible double dip recession, Foreign Policy published its The 2010 Failed States Index | Foreign Policy. Is the European Union on its way to being a failed experiment or is it too simplistic an analysis? There is however, a distinct model that is being tried in Europe to deal with the Financial Crisis, than the stimulus approach of the Obama administration and by what Paul Krugman has been demanding to Redo the Voodoo.

It's all about Branding

I remember the first time, I noticed the new BP logo, being fully aware of the history and the marketing of British Petroleum from its influential role in the geopolitics in Iran and the Caspian since 1908, the new logo of the green energy sun with the new "Beyond Petroleum" tagline was indicative of the importance of branding and rebranding in our flattened world. The oil leak in Gulf of Mexico has sensitized our consumerist environmental concerns and blemishes the green and yellow sun of the logo. However, the logo of 2001 attempts to whitewash the history of a corporate giant that has mixed state and corporate interests in imperial geopolitical games. It is our value added perceptions of corporations and imperial games that necessitate marketing rebranding to make consumption palatable for us. Whitewash can only cover so much; inevitably the darker past comes through. The leak in the Gulf is not unusual in oil exploration; there are leaks that last months until they can be tapped. One has to look to the frantic drilling in the Caspian Sea since 1989 and the environmental degradation that has resulted from it. So advertisers get ready BP is about to put out a new RFP for a new branding campaign as the 2001 logo is washing away.

In case you thought BP's PR problems couldn't get any worse... - By Steve LeVine | The Oil and the Glory

Glocal Politics

Some months ago, while I was reading the New York Times, I saw the word glocal for the first time. My immediate suspicion that it sounded like a marketing term conjured up for a focus group by a PR firm was confirmed a couple of days later when I heard it on one of the Sunday morning news shows. In today's New York Times, (July 6, 2010) David Barboza in his technology column reviews the Supply Chain for iphone in order to highlight the costs in China, but in the process provides ample information of the interconnection of the world. (Never mind the profit margin for Apple)

While Roger Cohen in his column (NYT, July 6, 2010) A World of Hope uses the backdrop of the World Cup in South Africa to give another angle of this international system which appears to be less state-centric arguing that states " are as obsolete as my old Olivetti? Networks outstrip nations that are left playing catch-up, like those long-haired Argentines chasing trim German shadows. Networks are hopeful. They’re where the coming generations live and love."

Are we in the age of Glocal Politics, where it is the networks and not the distinct boundaries of the states that determine and separate domestic from international.

Actually, It's Mountains - By Robert D. Kaplan | Foreign Policy

Actually, It's Mountains - By Robert D. Kaplan | Foreign Policy,

I recently finished reading "A Bend in the River" by V.S. Naipaul in which he describes the importance of the river in the function of society. Rivers and bodies of water such as the Euphrates, the Nile and the Mississippi have been considered the geographic highways that have contributed the formation of great empires. Kaplan's geographic argument and the contribution of mountains to failed states has merit in the Balkans and the Andes as well.

The Runaway General | Rolling Stone Politics

The Runaway General | Rolling Stone Politics This article is another example of how a failed policy in Afghanistan can not be undone simply by electoral politics. Foreign policy has a memory and stems from domestic conditions as well as the actions of individuals.

The Larger Struggle

Last week, on June 14, David Brooks wrote a column to describe the struggle between democratic capitalism and state capitalism as to deflect the incovenient truth of the larger struggle around us. Although for David Brooks the larger struggle is about the type of capitalism, as he conveniently places together in the "evil" state capitalist systems those of Iran, China, Venezuela, and every other evil doer that he can remember. Surprise, surprise, he places BP and the Obama administration on the democratic side. By using some Shumpeter and "creative destruction" or by saying that Mobil Exxon is not as big and bad as we think, because there are worse out there as the state-owned energy companies. Brooks is really stretching in his argument because what the untappable hole in the middle of the ocean point to is the uncontrollable greed that drives capitalism and now threatens to drown all of us in oil. How ironic after a century of expansion, political intimidation and war over fossil fuels, we are about to be drowned in oil.

However, Brooks is right, there is a larger struggle over the loss of power and legitimacy of government everywhere: from the inability of the US government to stem this global environmental disaster, to the European governments being helpless to deal with the rating houses of Moodys and Standard & Poors, to the government of Kyrgyzstan, which fires live bullets upon its own people. The larger struggle Mr. Brooks is over governance in a global world where the imperative of the market is greater than imperative of regulation.

Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future

I just recently finished the book by Stephen Kinzer, Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future, which I found to be an interesting historical read, especially as it is filled with anecdotal evidence of American foreign policy exchanges. His retelling of the US-Iran story is a must read for anyone that's interested in understanding the divisions and apprehensions that define the current state of affairs between these two states. Narrow American interests that were tied to fighting the cold war and at the same time acting as a protector of business created a blind spot among American policy makers toward the abusive and dictatorial regime of the Shah, which made the US accomplices in the eyes of the Iranian people.

Beyond the historical anecdotes, Kinzer rushes through the story to very quickly suggest that the US should follow Turkey's lead in the region as "American have come to realize that they lack some of the historical and cultural tools necessary to navigate effectivel through the Middle East and surrounding regions. They need a guide. Turkey is the best choice." (pg. 201)

Although I like the historical story telling, I am not convinced of the conclusion as he doesn't make a good case. Kinzer was on OnPoint this week and here is the interview: Turkey's Moves