Martes, 7 de marzo de 2017

A worker puts the final touches to a giant figure of Francois Fillon (C), former French prime minister, member of The Republicans political party and 2017 presidential candidate of the French centre-right, next to French National Front leader Marine Le Pen (R) and Emmanuel Macron (L), head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, during preparations for the carnival parade in Nice, France, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

EuropaUnión Europea,

Political corruption in France is common, and usually – if the politician is at or near the top of the political game – unpunished by law. Yet the 2017 presidential election may mark something of a revolt against a semi-aristocratic disdain for the public whose tax euros have long been plundered for private or party use.

Francois Fillon, who trained in the law, has been a politician since his late 20s. Now 63, he rose steadily through the ranks of the centre right until 2007, when he became prime minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He survived there for five years and was seen as a president-in-waiting: experienced, Catholic, with five children by his Welsh wife Penelope, professing a devotion to jolt the country out of its economic stasis.…  Seguir leyendo »

Berta Caceres, who was murdered, at the banks of the Gualcarque River in the Rio Blanco region of western Honduras where she, COPINH (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) and the people of Rio Blanco maintained a struggle to halt construction on the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric project, saying that it poses grave threats to local environment, river and indigenous Lenca people. Tim Russo

Internacional, ,

One year ago, we awoke to the shocking news of the murder in Honduras of Berta Cáceres, recipient of the 2015 Goldman environmental prize, in response to her campaign to stop the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam being built on indigenous Lenca territory.

Cáceres had received more than 30 death threats during her campaign. Foreign backers of the Agua Zarca dam have suspended lending. But threats to those opposing development projects have never been higher.
Over the past year, at least six more campaigners have been killed in Honduras including, just over two weeks ago, José de los Santos Sevilla, the leader of the indigenous Tolupán people.…  Seguir leyendo »

Children wave Albanian and Kosovar flags for Kosovo independence day, February 2016. Marko Djurica/Reuters

Europa, , ,

Tensions have been on the rise again between Serbia and Kosovo, prompting European Union High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini to visit the Western Balkans last week.

Her visit was timely: on March 2, a French court postponed the extradition of former prime minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj. He was arrested in France in January 2017 on an Interpol warrant issued by Serbia regarding war crimes committed during the Kosovo war (1998-1999).

These recent events have reopened the issue war crimes and the people who committed them – few of whom were ever prosecuted – on both sides.

The Kosovo War

From March to June 1999, NATO intervened in Kosovo and Serbia with air strikes to stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo’s Albanian population by the Serbs.…  Seguir leyendo »

An armed man walks with a woman inside an internally displaced refugee camp in northern Aleppo countryside, Syria October 10, 2016. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi - RTSRNWA

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

US President Donald Trump has issued a new version of his travel ban, which will prevent citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for a period of 90 days.

The original order banned citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen from entering the US, halted any refugees admissions for 120 days and banned Syrian refugees indefinitely. Iraq has been left off the new list, and Syrian refugees will be banned for the same 120 days as other refugees.

The new order follows a month of confusion after the initial ban – signed on January 27 with immediate effect – caused chaos and uncertainty in the US and around the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaInternacionalEconomía,

A few weeks after blaming Germany for keeping the euro artificially low against the dollar, Donald Trump turned to a more familiar economic sparring partner: China, which he accused of being the ‘grand champion’ of currency manipulation. Trump’s bombastic rhetoric is new, but tensions over currency between the US and China go back a long way. In 2005, in 2008, and again in April 2014, the US Treasury Department flirted with labelling China a currency manipulator. Why the renminbi – the people’s money – has become over the years a major source of irritation and a thorn in the relations between the US and China?…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Fifteen years ago, China acceded to membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and agreed to submit itself to compulsory adjudication by the organization’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). While in other areas, most notoriously the law of the sea, China has been reluctant to accept the decision-making power of international courts and tribunals, its WTO practice has shown that China can accept the jurisdiction of an international judicial body, accept its findings and embrace its procedures. It has become an enthusiastic member of the WTO, frequently using the DSM to resolve international trade disputes speedily and efficiently.

Membership of the WTO, and the strengthening of China’s economy, has encouraged China to look outwards – as evidenced in Xi Jinping’s measured enthusiasm about the liberal global economic order at Davos last month.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoÁfrica

Much has changed in Sierra Leone. New arrivals no longer need ride one of the rickety Russian helicopters that once shuttled between the airport on one side of the bay and Freetown, the capital, on the other. Their successor, a hovercraft, lies sadly deflated on the Atlantic Ocean’s edge. “It has a small problem”, says a passer-by. In their place, two high-speed launches buzz travellers across the water. One has Wi-Fi.

I soon arrive at the New Brookfields Hotel, an ultra-shiny establishment that makes good on its promise of “quality and comfort in the city”. Seeing it makes me realise how much of its violent past this West African state of six million people has left behind.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesSocial

The Swedes have a word, “asikstkorridor,” which translates as “opinion corridor” and describes all those things considered incorrect not only to say but to think. One of those taboos, as I discovered when I visited Sweden at the height of the refugee crisis in the fall of 2015, is the idea that refugees from conservative Muslim countries, especially poorly educated young men, may not integrate into Swedish society as well as, say, relatively secular and prosperous Iranians or Bosnians.

President Trump’s offhand comment last month about how dreadful things are in Sweden provoked an outraged reaction from Swedes rightly proud of the country’s longstanding commitment to accepting refugees from all over the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía

Why is America’s biggest carmaker, General Motors, suddenly quitting Europe, dumping the German Opel and British Vauxhall subsidiaries it has owned since the 1920s? To listen to G.M. tell it, offloading the brands in a fell swoop to PSA Group — a consortium whose owners include the French government, China’s Dongfeng Motors and the Peugeot family — makes simple, financial sense.

But any benefit of the $2.9 billion sale is worrisomely short-term, an unwelcome skid away from the passenger-car technology. Any gain for G.M. in selling off the divisions known for building some of its most sophisticated small- and medium-sized passenger cars is outweighed by the real hazard to the corporation’s longer-term health as well as that of the world’s population, who most clearly don’t benefit from greater emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants associated with larger, less fuel efficient cars.…  Seguir leyendo »

Abba Eban, center left, was Israel’s main contact with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the tense diplomacy that preceded the 1967 Middle East war. Credit Corbis, via Getty Images

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

On May 22, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson received alarming news from the Middle East. The government of Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran, the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea to Israel, to Israeli shipping. The move dramatically escalated Arab-Israeli tensions and pushed the region to the brink of war.

Johnson’s instinct was to act boldly to defuse the crisis. He proposed assembling an American-led naval force to escort Israeli ships through the straits and push Egypt to back down. But L.B.J. soon discovered problems.

For one, Congress, wary of new military commitments when nearly half a million Americans were fighting in Vietnam, seemed certain to oppose the idea.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea

El 9 de marzo, en una reunión de alto nivel, la dirigencia de la Unión Europea anunciará el nombre de la persona elegida para presidente del Consejo Europeo. Hasta hace muy poco, el ex primer ministro polaco Donald Tusk parecía tener su reelección en el cargo asegurada. Si bien el presidente francés saliente, François Hollande, el ex canciller austríaco, Werner Faymann, y el ministro de asuntos exteriores alemán, Sigmar Gabriel, tantearon las aguas, las encuestas preliminares indicaron que ninguno tenía chances.

Pero entonces, el 27 de febrero, el Financial Timesinformó que el gobierno polaco estaba sondeando la presentación de un candidato alternativo, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, un eurodiputado del partido Plataforma Cívica, fundado por Tusk.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalEconomíaEuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía, ,

Este es un golpe de realidad para los responsables de las políticas en Gran Bretaña y Estados Unidos, y para los muchos expertos que frecuentemente hacen comentarios sobre el comercio mundial sin entender sus realidades: los datos sobre las exportaciones e importaciones totales de Alemania en 2016 indican que su principal socio comercial ahora es China. Francia y Estados Unidos han sido relegados al segundo y tercer puesto.

Esta noticia no debería ser una sorpresa. Muchas veces he reflexionado que, en 2020, las empresas (y los responsables de las políticas) alemanes podrían preferir una unión monetaria con China que con Francia, considerando que el comercio germano-chino probablemente seguiría creciendo.…  Seguir leyendo »

En busca del tiempo perdido

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

"Tenemos que volver a ganar de nuevo guerras", ha proclamado Donald Trump. No me adentraré en lo que supone el incremento presupuestario prometido por el presidente de EEUU en materia de Defensa. No sé si realmente está envejecido el material del Ejército estadounidense respecto a quienes a ellos les preocupan -China y Rusia- y, por lo tanto, no emitiré un juicio sobre materia que desconozco, aunque he creído hasta hoy que su supremacía, en todos los aspectos a contemplar, era muy evidente. Me ocupa de su intervención el recurso a la nostalgia que realiza porque creo que es una característica que comparte con otros dirigentes políticos de ideologías bien distintas.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

La construcción del Mercado Único Digital Europeo de obras y contenidos no puede esperar, como la Penélope del maestro Serrat, a que llegue el próximo tren. Debe construirse con vías rápidas, de banda ancha y de alta portabilidad transfronteriza; debe romper con el atraso histórico digital europeo, modernizar los itinerarios y las sinergias entre las redes de la cultura, la educación, la ciencia, la economía, la comunicación, la tecnología y la investigación.

Un primer paso será abordar una reforma profunda del copyright y de los sistemas de gestión de derechos, mediante la armonización legislativa comunitaria y creando un copyright digital europeo; este multicopyright deberá conllevar para las nuevas modalidades de explotación en línea el establecimiento de licencias multiterritoriales bajo el principio de aplicación de neutralidad tecnológica y la creación de una agenda digital común de la propiedad intelectual e industrial.…  Seguir leyendo »

Solidaridad con la otra Turquía

Europa, ,

Si este periódico se publicara en Turquía, este artículo podría estar vacío, sin nada más que la fotografía del autor y las palabras “124 días privado de libertad”, en gran tamaño. Eso es lo que está publicando el periódico más importante que le queda a la oposición, Cumhuriyet,en nombre de sus columnistas encarcelados, con los días que llevan presos y que van aumentando. Uno de ellos, Kadri Gürsel, que es además miembro de la junta directiva del International Press Institute, envió recientemente una carta conmovedora que empieza: “Os saludo a todos afectuosamente desde la galería b, módulo 25, de la prisión número 9 de Silivri”.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOrden Mundial

El mundo occidental no tiene ni objetivos comunes, ni enemigos, por lo que se dispersa en un desbarajuste alarmante. En ausencia de esos dos cementos de unión, el positivo de los proyectos, y el negativo de los adversarios exteriores, los países industrializados han quedado al albur de la competición económica. El debate internacional ya no es político, como en su día anunció Fukuyama, ni estratégico, desde que Deng Xiaoping decidió que China jugaría con las reglas del orden mundial, sino que se ha convertido en una disputa puramente económica: cómo hacer mi país más rico que los otros. Ya no hay ilusiones de otro tipo.…  Seguir leyendo »

¿El fin del sueño europeo?

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate

La fábula de Europa, la doncella fenicia raptada por Zeus en forma de toro, se transformó en la leyenda de Asia, ansiosa de poseer su península más occidental, que a fin de cuentas es Europa. Y como todas las leyendas, ha resultado falsa: quien acabó poseyendo, no ya Asia sino todos los demás continentes, fue Europa, en los siglos del colonialismo. Pero, tras dos guerras civiles que se convirtieron en mundiales que la dejaron sin colonias, Europa ha vivido los años más hermosos de su historia, años de vino y de rosas, de besos y de abrazos, de sueños y realidades que desgraciadamente parecen llegar a su fin.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaJusticia,

¿Hasta qué punto es posible que una empresa utilice medios tecnológicos para realizar su actividad cuando está sometida a un proceso de huelga por sus trabajadores? El Tribunal Constitucional acaba de dar respuesta a esta pregunta en una reciente sentencia que pone de relieve un concepto, hasta ahora, poco conocido: el esquirolaje tecnológico.

El litigio se centraba, en lo que aquí interesa, en determinar si la retransmisión por Telemadrid durante una huelga de un partido de fútbol de la Champions League constituía una conducta quebrantadora del derecho fundamental de huelga, al haberse utilizado medios tecnológicos disponibles en la empresa, pero distintos de los habituales.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad
Tema

La reactivación de la seguridad europea se desarrolla entre el deseo de afrontar un contexto geopolítico convulso y la carencia de elementos esenciales para alcanzar su autonomía estratégica.

Resumen

En los últimos años, el contexto estratégico europeo se ha vuelto vulnerable debido al crecimiento de la inestabilidad en su vecindario y a la disminución de la cohesión interna. Para enfrentarse a ese contexto de naturaleza geopolítica, frágil, inestable y complejo, la UE trata de convertirse en un actor estratégico, con la consiguiente autonomía en Seguridad y Defensa. Sin embargo, la Defensa que sería necesaria para ello dista de la recogida en los Tratados y en la reciente Estrategia Global para la Política Exterior y de Seguridad de la UE (EUGS).…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz began a month-long trip to Asia last week that has taken him to Malaysia and Indonesia, with stops in Japan, China and the Maldives to follow. Coming after high-level visits between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Chinese government officials, the king’s trip is a further indication of the deepening of relations between Arab Gulf monarchies and East Asia. While trade is an important focus for the Saudi delegation, Asia’s growing role in Gulf security is going to be a major feature of the trip.

China and Saudi Arabia’s new military cooperation

The China-Saudi security relationship was emphasized during a visit to China by Deputy Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in August, when Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said, “China is willing to push military relations with Saudi Arabia to a new level”.…  Seguir leyendo »