Road to Warsaw Security Forum (#Road2WSF)

A highly interesting ministerial conversation 'Assuring Security in the Black Sea Region' at the online conference 'Road to Warsaw Security Forum' #security #IR #Road2WSF

Richard Jewell

Clint Eastwood is the living embodiment not only of the American cinematography but of the American spirit as well. At least, the ideal I personally believe the American spirit is. He created many truly iconic characters as an actor and now we can enjoy another wonderful movie that he did as a director. 'Richard Jewell' is a movie based on the real events. It is a deeply psychological social drama. It is a story about modest hero, coming form the little people of America, the people that used to be called 'a silent majority'. He is everything that modern "progressive people" consider to be "not cool". He is white man with traditional views and deep respect for the law and order, with a figure of an officer of the law enforcement as a role model. He possesses guns, he shoots for the recreation with the NRA members, he hunts. He works honestly and he truly believes in the System. And the System fails him, the System uses him as a scapegoat, the System tears his life apart.This exact story ends well. But how many such richards were left unheard, alone with their despair? No wonder, that 'a silent majority' is no longer silent, that it rebelled against the establishment in the US - and we can see the same processes all over the world. Eastwood heard this story of the heartland of America. And he told it us masterfully. 

The Man in the High Castle

"One selfless act of love and hope. That's what I put my money on."

A brilliant adaptation of the famous novel by Philip K. Dick, which goes, at least in my opinion, far beyond the book itself, and in a good way. I think that the author himself would appreciate this reminder about the truth that even in the most perilous conditions it's crucial for us to stay the humans who draw their strength not in hatred but in Love. Merry Christmas, everyone!

P.S. Second season is even better than the first one. Looking forward for the third!

Berlin Station

Perhaps the best thing that has happened to a spy thriller since the first seasons of the Homeland and the Americans.

The series is good not only as a psychological game that keeps a viewer in suspense, and not only grâce à pleiad of excellent actors.

The central question of the series: how far can you go in an attempt to protect the state interests? And at what point does the pursuit of security become the source of this very danger?

This theme is consonant with the book I am currently reading: Save civil rights: freedom and safety by Gerhart Baum.

Baum is a German politician and lawyer. His tenure as a Federal Minister of the Interior coincided with the pick of activities of the infamous RAF, Rote Armee Fraktion. So he was obliged not in theory, but in practice to carry out the massive counter-terrorism campaign – and in the same time to guarde the constitutional rights of citizens, not to allow security measures to infringe civil freedom.

In the series, German workers of BfV (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution), as well as their American counterparts, very often violate the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable (to be fair, it is sometimes very blurred). And this leads to grave and unpredictable consequences.

So I recommend this series not only as entertainment, but also as a food for reflection.  It is especially relevant in our time, when the war on terror becomes more and more extensive.

old dog, same tricks

My observation: people are tired of political establishment. And this is a global trend. And people have every right for that attitude. Politicians are playing by the same old rules from 20th century. And we all live in absolutely new era already.

This public fatigue expresses itself in popularity of figures which would be the inhabitants of the political margin in any different circumstances.

A striking example of this is the election in the United States where the extreme right and extreme left (relatively speaking) voters are dissatisfied with the "swamp of establishment" both in the Republican and in the Democratic party and vote for independent candidates, causing such controversial feelings.

The same situation exists in Iceland where disgruntled voters put forward a new Pirate party in opposition to the old political organizations.
The political system is changing forever and those who cannot understand this do not have a future.

на зустріч святу

Роби те, що волієш - і хай це буде єдиний закон.

ещё одна злободневная карикатура

Отличный иллюстративный ответ приверженцам всех тоталитарных идеологий (не только исламистам).

Tired of multiculturalism: reasons for rise of the EU right-wing

Хорошая иллюстрация. События в Париже приведут к усилению ультра-правых Европы.

  Немного аналитики - писал после теракта в Charlie Hebdo. Сейчас ситуация только ухудшилась:

'For the fatherland, peace, German culture, against religious bigotry, against islamization and multiculture' - such slogan is proclaimed by poster in the hands of protesters at the recent PEGIDA demonstration (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes - Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West), which took place in Dresden, eastern Germany on January 12, 2015 after notorious Islamist terrorists attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The example given above is the best illustration of the fears of modern Western Europeans, especially average citizens of wealthy "locomotives of the EU" - Germany and France. Nationalist slogans are no longer the privilege of skinhead youth. Now respectable philistines are marching with them, too, swelling the ranks of the so-called “pinstriped Nazis”.
And these fears of the middle class are quite understandable. Obviously long-term efforts to integrate immigrants, especially Muslims, into European society did not bring the expected results. Europe is at a crossroads. It is not yet clear what strategic measures will be taken by leadership of the EU countries. One thing is certain: just to maintain the status quo and to do nothing is no longer an option. The electorate is expressing dissatisfaction increasingly, and politicians have to react somehow to these new challenges to European security - or they will be replaced.
Exactly this is the hope of the populist right-wing camp, which took recent events as a gift of fate, judging by its tireless activity on a wave of public indignation after the Islamists terrorist attacks in Paris. People are afraid, people feel insecure, people want to be protected, and it serves as an excellent basis for making the political capital of nationalist parties. As noted by Paul Sheehan: 'This is why France faces a potential political storm in the 2017 presidential elections. The front-runner is Marine Le Pen, head of the Front National, which for many years functioned as a far-right fringe party. It no longer inhabits the fringe.'
The situation is aggravated by an economic crisis, the symptoms of which, in particular an increase of the number of unemployed, has contributed to the exaltation of right-wing sentiments in society and growth of aggression against migrants, and not only immigrants from Asia and Africa, but even people from less successful EU countries (such as Romania, for example). Supranational EU structures must withstand this ordeal of economic difficulties, the results of which will show in practice, whether united Europe is able to create a new European identity, or our continent would return to the era of competing nations, each of which is inspired by its own myth of primordial national superiority. Yet the situation is disappointing and the growth of nationalist sentiment in the societies of the EU countries illustrates this quite clearly. As George Friedman writes in his recent article: 'That is precisely the question of the European Union. Can an entity, founded on nations of wildly different customs, expectations and economies long endure and share a common fate?'
Most nationalist parties of EU states practice the ideology of euroscepticism and answer this question with strong 'No'. The last disturbing signal of this political trend is the government of eurosceptics in Greece, where new prime minister Alexis Tsipras headed a coalition formed by the forces, combination of which was just impossible to imagine yesterday: left radicals Syriza and far-right Greek party Independent Greeks (known by its Greek acronym Anel), notable for its xenophobia, antisemitism and homophobia. This nationalist party made full use of enmity rhetoric against Germany, blamed for the debt problems of Greece. The situation is complicated by the fact that radical political forces that came to power in Greece, have a long association with Putin regime, in particular with Aleksandr Dugin, an infamous ideological inspirer of 'Russian Irredenta' (which is in fact a plain attack on the territory of a neighboring sovereign state much like Hitler's claim of Sudetes) and leader of Russian fascist 'Eurasianism movement'. Unfortunately, this is not the only case in which Russia uses the extreme right of the EU states in order to destroy European unity from within.
Deepening economic contradictions between EU countries contributed to the increasing popularity of nationalism, which is used by populists for taking political power. The right-wing parties in EU play on nationalist ideas, turning public resentment against both minorities inside the country and neighboring EU states. As George Friedman wrote in his last review: 'The question about Europe now is not whether it can retain its current form, but how radically that form will change.' The EU's ability to overcome these difficulties maintaining unity depends on the wisdom of its leaders and its citizens.

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

sad but true

Today if you see news headlines "terrorists launched rockets at civilian neighborhoods", you can never tell it's about Ukraine - or about Israel.


As well as hezbollah and hamas "donetsk republic" covers its crimes by political rhetoric. And as well as arab terrorists it uses supplies of russian weapons.

While Kremlin verbally accuses Ukrainians in "fascism", russian dictator himself in deeds follows the precepts of the nazis, including Goebbels, whom he admired so much publicly quite recently.

Why China Will Reclaim Siberia by Frank Jacobs

 http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/07/03/where-do-borders-need-to-be-redrawn/why-china-will-reclaim-siberia


as Albert Einstein once said: 'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.'

look at this map! can you see Crimea without squinting? I doubt this

can you compare peninsula with Siberia, this huge region, full of priceless mineral resources (the biggest source of russian income, actually)?

and still, russian ruler puts at risk guarantee of the very existence of russian state (in its todays emperial configuration) in feverish struggle for his personal power, for ratings, for fame of "reconnector of primordial russian lands"

it's worse than stupidity. it's the fatal mistake

Happy Birthday, America!

when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security

These words inspired me during our revolution

(and only gods know how I wish in my heart that my Homeland, my Ukraine was one of the states of this glorious Union, instead of EU)