ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By James Petras Mapping the emerging global economic, political and military configurations requires that we examine regions and countries along several dynamic policy axis: 1. Capitalist versus anti-capitalist 2. Neoliberal versus anti-neoliberal 3. Austerity versus anti-austerity 4. War command centers and war zones 5. Political change and socio-economic continuity 6. New Order and political decay Though many of these dimensions overlap, they also highlight the complexity and influence of local and national versus global power relations. We will first identify and classify the regimes and emerging movements, which fall into each of these categories, and then proceed to generalize about current ‘global’ trends and future perspectives based on approximations of the real correlation of forces. Capitalism versus Anti-Capitalism Capitalism is the only economic system throughout the world. However, it has and continues to experience periods of severe crisis, stagnation a...

By Andre Vltchek New sanctions, and once again, new US-ROK military exercises right next door; new intimidations and new insults. For no other reason than because the country that never attacked anyone, is still determined to defend itself against appalling military, economic and propaganda provocations. How much more can one country endure? More than 60 years ago, millions of people above the 38th parallel died, were literally slaughtered by the US-led coalition. After that, after its victory, the North Korea was never left in peace. The West has been provoking it, threatening it, imposing brutal sanctions and of course, manipulating global public opinion. Why? There are several answers. The simple one is: because it is Communist and because it wants to follow its own course! As Cuba has been doing for decades… As several Latin American countries were doing lately. But there is one more, much more complex answer: because the DPRK fought for its principles at home, and it fought agains...

By Finian Cunningham When the Ankara government carried out a brutal media crackdown at the weekend and then saw minimal Western protest as a result, President Erdogan knew he had the upper-hand – to leverage the refugee crisis. It seems more than strange that, only three days before a high-profile summit was to take place between European Union leaders and Turkey on Europe’s refugee crisis, the Ankara authorities carried out an audacious assault on democratic rights. The violent police seizure of Turkey’s biggest opposition newspaper, Zaman, and its immediate cowing into a tame pro-government publication represents the most brazen authoritarian move to date by the ruling AK party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish opposition politicians denounced the full-frontal assault on independent media as tantamount to a coup d’état by Erdogan. But the Western response to the draconian display of state power was more muted than ever. There was hardly any Western media coverage of the Z...