Teaching Comparative

What makes a nation state sovereign?

In a letter read out to the conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, by Communist Party publicity chief Huang Kunming, Xi said developments online were raising many new challenges to sovereignty and security, and China was “willing to work with the international community to respect cyberspace sovereignty and promote partnerships”.

The letter underscores Xi’s previous cyber sovereignty calls to the conference in which he has promoted the idea that all countries have the right to regulate the internet within their own borders…

Xi’s presidency has coincided with extraordinary growth and tighter censorship online in China. Tencent and Alibaba are now among the world’s most valued internet companies…

The growth has been in large part due to the widespread use of internet applications in China, making the country a leader in services from cashless payments to bike sharing…

The idea that each country has the right to censor and regulate the internet is taking root elsewhere. For example, Russia temporarily blocked Tencent’s social media app WeChat in May because it did not comply with local regulations…

China was also last in terms of internet freedom in a survey last month by Freedom House, a US pro-democracy group that lists Google among its funders…

Labels: concepts, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

More ways that Brexit is complex and ambiguous

Since the UK voted to leave the EU, Theresa May has tried to boil down arguments over Brexit to simple soundbites. One of the favourite phrases deployed by the prime minister… is that the UK will “take back control” from Europe – over money, over borders and over laws…

PM May

May was clear… Brexit would see the UK making a clear break from the jurisdiction of the European court of justice (ECJ), the Luxembourg-based guardian and interpreter of EU law, as it leaves the single market and customs union.

“We will not have truly left the European Union if we are not in control of our own laws,” she said…

Nothing delights hardcore Brexiters in the Tory party more than promises to end what is often referred to as the “meddling” of EU judges in the British legal system and way of life.

In popular eurosceptic mythology the ECJ has come to be seen as the ultimate symbol of supranational authority, of power seeping away from these shores to Brussels as the EU tries to become a state in its own right…

[A]mong anti-EU purists at Westminster the issue of legal sovereignty and the role of the ECJ… has long been the most totemic in the Conservative party. Breaking away from the court is the eurosceptics’ holy grail…

Legal experts see real problems ahead – a stark incompatibility between the desire to stay close to the EU in trade and customs, while breaking free from European rules and regulations that govern the single market and customs union.

Sir Paul Jenkins, who for eight years before 2014 was head of the government legal department and its most senior legal official, told the Observer: “If the UK is to be part of something close enough to a customs union or the single market to remove the need for hard borders, it will only work if the rules are identical to the EU’s own internal rules. Not only must they be the same, but there must be consistent policing of those rules.”…

Writing for the Observer, Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at Trinity College, Cambridge, says May may well find that escaping the court’s jurisdiction is impossible.

But it could be worse than that, because while failing to escape its reach, the UK will also lose influence at the court, which will no longer contain a British judge after Brexit. According to Barnard, contrary to the impression that the ECJ has always tended to make judgments against the UK national interest, it has often done the reverse.

On crucial legal issues, as with so much else in the Brexit debate, ministers are finding that breaking free from the EU while remaining closely involved – and retaining its benefits – is not an easy balancing act to pull off.

Labels: EU, legal systems, politics, rule of law, sovereignty, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

One complication of many

The British government’s plan to “take back control” of its waters after leaving the EU is about to be challenged by a claim from Denmark that its fishermen have a historical right to access to the seas around Britain dating back to the 1400s.

Officials in Copenhagen have mined the archives to build a legal case that could potentially be fought in the international court of justice in The Hague, although officials hasten to say that this is not their intention.

Denmark is seeking a Brexit deal that recognises the right of its fleet to continue to exploit a hundred shared stocks of species such as cod, herring, mackerel, plaice and sand eel…

The development suggests that leaving the EU will not reap the dividends promised by prominent leave campaigners, including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, who has claimed that the union’s “crazy” common fisheries policy has halved UK employment in the industry…

Denmark’s foreign affairs minister, Anders Samuelsen, told the Guardian the issue was crucial to many communities in Denmark and that they would be making their case through the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

“Danish fishermen have historically been fishing across the North Sea. The common fisheries policy in the EU has regulated this, based on historical rights and preserving our common stocks that don’t follow economic zones,” he said…

The Danish MEP Ole Christensen, who sits on the committee, said: “If, and I am really not hoping for this, UK and EU27 does not reach an agreement, it would be terrible for both parties.

“If we are not able to fish in UK waters and the UK cannot export their catch to the EU27, it will hurt everyone, not least the people who make their living in the sector. For the sake of everyone, we need to keep an open mind and work on getting a fair deal.” …

Labels: EU, international trade, sovereignty, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Extending sovereignty

When President Xi Jinping of China meets foreign leaders, he tends to recite talking points in a dutiful monotone, diplomats say. But when challenges to China’s sovereignty come up — like protests in Hong Kong — he roars to life.

“He read flatly from the script,” one Western official said of such a meeting. “But when it got to China’s core interests, these disputes, he put down his notes and spoke passionately.”

For anyone puzzling over why China reacted so swiftly and severely to block two pro-independence politicians from taking their seats in Hong Kong’s legislature, Mr. Xi’s expansive idea of sovereignty is a good place to start…

Yau Wai-china

The politicians, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, were elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in September on a pro-independence platform. In taking their oaths last month, they substituted a word for China that is widely seen as derogatory, and Ms. Yau added a common obscenity…

A punitive response was in character for Mr. Xi, who has waged a blistering campaign against corruption that has jailed thousands of officials…

[U]nder the agreement that returned Hong Kong to China from Britain in 1997, Beijing agreed to allow Hong Kong to maintain its separate system for 50 years.

Beijing has long treated Hong Kong as a worrisome bridgehead that allows politically toxic ideas, books and people to seep into the adjoining mainland. But until Mr. Xi took office, China’s leaders were less inclined to intervene in the city…

That reticence has evaporated over the last two years…

[D]efenders of China’s position said its leaders would not back down as they have done before.

“Some people have said the People’s Congress should exercise self-restraint, that we shouldn’t use powers to their utmost,” Li Fei, a deputy secretary general of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, told reporters on Monday. “We say that the powers must be used.”

Labels: China, rule of law, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:13 AM 0 comments

Can a nation state just claim sovereignty?

A new law reasserting the power of UK Parliament law over the EU could be passed, David Cameron has said, once his reform talks are concluded…

The prime minister has said he wants the UK to stay in a reformed European Union, but he has not ruled out campaigning to leave if he cannot secure the changes he wants…

It has been reported that the UK government will amend domestic law to make clear that Parliament is sovereign and that Britain's courts are not bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights - a legally binding charter which set out a range of civil, political and social rights enjoyed by the bloc's citizens.

Mr Cameron said Parliament's sovereignty was "already asserted" in the Referendum Act - the legislation paving the way for the in-out vote - which prevents "significant" powers being passed to Brussels without UK voters being consulted in a referendum.

But he added: "If it's necessary to do that again, in more detail, to make it even clearer to people that our Parliament is sovereign... I think there's a good case for it and so we'll look very carefully at it."

Labels: EU, International Organizations, sovereignty, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Staffing the writers union

A Hong Kong-based editor, who specializes in gossipy books about Chinese leaders, vanishes. His wife files a missing persons report with the police. She abruptly withdraws it after a faxed letter surfaces, apparently in her husband’s calligraphy, stating that he is in mainland China of his own volition, helping with an investigation. Hong Kong border officials have no record of his ever leaving.

The case of Lee Bo… and his four missing colleagues has [called]… into question the legal guarantee that people here would be shielded until midcentury from Beijing’s reach under an arrangement known as one country, two systems…

To legal scholars and human rights groups, Mr. Lee’s case, and those of his four colleagues at the publishing house Mighty Current Media, is the latest example of the ever-lengthening arm of the Chinese state, which, as its economy grows, appears to be increasingly willing to reach beyond its own legal jurisdiction to apprehend people…

Labels: censorship, China, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

What is the extent of the reach of EU regulations?

A senior EU official has threatened legal action against Poland's new conservative government over its controversial media law.

The EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Guenther Oettinger, said: "There are solid grounds for us to activate the rule of law mechanism and put Warsaw under monitoring."

Polish MPs have approved a law giving the government direct control over top appointments in public broadcasting.

Poland's public television HQ

It undermines free speech, critics say…

Under the EU's rule of law mechanism, adopted last year, the Commission can escalate pressure on a member state to amend any measure that is considered a "systemic threat" to fundamental EU values.

In the last resort, a state's voting rights in the EU Council… can be suspended. The Commission is the EU's top regulator, enforcing EU treaties.

Media watchdogs in Europe have voiced alarm about the media shake-up. It will put TVP and Polish Radio - which have a huge audience - under the control of a new national media council close to the ruling PiS…

Comparisons have been made with Hungary, whose conservative Fidesz government also clashed with the EU Commission over human rights…

Labels: EU, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Whose Internet?

China's President Xi Jinping has called on countries to respect one another's "cyber sovereignty" and different internet governance models.

Mr Xi said countries had the right to choose how to develop and regulate their internet…

China has been criticised for its strict internet regulations where it blocks major sites and censors posts…

His message is that China, with 650 million internet users, should have a say in drawing up the global rules and that they should include the right to decide what to censor and block…

The idealistic internet pioneers - most of them American - saw the internet as a global community without borders, a space for free exchange of ideas untrammelled by national laws.

But whether it is China determined to shore up its Great Firewall, the US wanting to curb communications between terror groups, or indeed Europe debating at what age children should be allowed online, local politicians are asserting their right to bend the internet to their will…

Mr Xi also reiterated a call for countries to work together on internet security.

He said no country should pursue "cyber hegemony" or engage in activities that undermine others' national security…

Labels: censorship, China, Internet, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:45 AM 0 comments

Soft power or hard power?

China, the country that perfected breaking the Internet, has of late been on a campaign to convince the rest of the world that its approach to digital networks is worth spreading. It’s an effort led by Lu Wei, the man whose chief responsibilities include overseeing the Great Firewall of China, whose heavy veil of censorship is responsible for the damage China has done to the Internet inside its borders.

In November, Mr. Lu was among the headline speakers at China’s first-ever World Internet Conference… In December, he flew to Silicon Valley… He appeared at a Washington Internet forum… A few days later, he published an article in the Huffington Post that, in a tidy 1,397 words, laid out China’s vision for what the Internet should look like.

Mr. Lu… is on a new mission to convert others to his vision of how the Internet should be run: that digital networks should not allow the unimpeded flow of information, but should instead fall under the “cybersovereignty” of individual nations.

Asked whether he would consider allowing Facebook in, he was more direct: “I can choose who will be a guest in my home.” He wants others to assert the same power.

It’s a controversial notion, since China has used its control of the Internet to silence dissent, spread propaganda and delete chapters of history . It has also exported its firewall technology to others, notably to African regimes looking for their own god-like powers over online content…

In a recent column in state media, Fang Xingdong noted that China increasingly has the “hard power” to exert its will.

“China boasts the largest number of Internet users and also world famous companies like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. The Chinese market will be critical in reshaping the cyberlandscape in the next decade,” wrote Mr. Fang, director of the Centre for Internet and Society at Zhejiang University of Media and Communications…

Many nations are also newly skeptical of U.S. leadership in cyberspace, following the Edward Snowden revelations of rampant spying. “The U.S. is no longer seen as a benevolent steward of the Internet system,” said Mr. Creemers.

“The whole idea that Cisco routers, which power the Chinese Internet, might have CIA backdoors installed is a huge concern in Chinese policy circles.” China appears to be taking swift action, saying it wants home-grown technology to supplant foreign-sourced goods in sensitive banking, military and other applications by 2020.

That action underscores the risk to western corporations of China’s new Internet assertiveness…

Labels: China, soft power, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

It's all about sovereignty

Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party toughened its stance on Europe on Friday, announcing a pre-election plan to quit the European Court of Human Rights unless it agrees that Britain’s parliament has the final say over its rulings.

Cameron, who is seeking to counter a growing threat from the anti-European Union U.K. Independence Party in May’s national election, has said rulings by the European rights court had prevented Britain deporting suspected militants…

The Conservatives are trying to bolster their support ahead of a probably close election next year, and the announcement received a warm welcome from Britain’s right-leaning newspapers…

Under the proposal announced on Friday, a victorious Conservative Party would draw up a Bill of Rights that would set out the application of human rights law in Britain.

The proposed changes would mean the European court’s rulings would no longer be binding over the Supreme Court and that Britain’s parliament would have the right to veto its judgments…

The plan by the Conservatives depends on the party winning an outright majority in May’s election. Its minority coalition partners in the current government, the Liberal Democrats, are opposed to limiting the powers of the court in Britain…

Labels: elections, human rights, politics, sovereignty, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Shutting down for safety

The Nigerian government has slapped a massive security cordon on Abuja in response to a deadly car bomb Thursday, ordering the closure of all public schools and offices from Wednesday when the capital will be hosting the World Economic Forum on Africa.

The economic meeting is scheduled to hold from Wednesday to Friday, and will be attended by world leaders and business executives around the world…

The government said the measure is to ease the flow of traffic within the city and enable those attending the forum carry out their assigned roles…

Nigeria's government is to shut schools and government offices across the capital Abuja, while a World Economic Forum conference takes place next week.

A big security operation is being promised to protect more than 1,000 delegates at the three-day meeting, after two deadly bomb attacks in Abuja.

An explosion late on Thursday killed 19 people, two weeks after a nearby bombing left 75 dead.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is being blamed for the violence…

President Goodluck Jonathan's government says 5,000 police and soldiers will be deployed for the World Economic Forum on Africa, which begins on Wednesday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the presidents of Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya will be among international as well as African figures at the forum.

While the official reason for closing all schools and government offices in Abuja is to ensure traffic flows smoothly, tightening security is also a likely reason, the BBC's Will Ross reports from the Nigerian capital.

Fewer vehicles on the roads should enable stricter searches and cut the number of potential targets for further bomb attacks, he adds.

"The government has taken the strongest measures to ensure a safe forum. We ask participants not to let terror win," Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement…

Labels: Nigeria, sovereignty, terrorism

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Ceding Sovereignty

Today [a] scenario may appear... unlikely: a Norwegian government agency managing Algeria’s sovereign-wealth fund [or] German police overseeing security in the streets of Mumbai… Ever more governments are trading with each other, from advising lawmakers to managing entire services. They are following businesses, which have long outsourced much of what they do. Is this the dawn of the government-to-government era?

Such “G2G” trade is not new, though the name may be…

One reason G2G trade is growing is that it is a natural extension of the trend for governments to pinch policies from each other. “Policymaking now routinely occurs in comparative terms,” says Jamie Peck of the University of British Columbia…

When China realised in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics that it needed to improve its air-safety regulations, it could just have looked around for the best examples and come up with its own version. Instead it asked America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to write a new rule book and to train Chinese pilots. The FAA now has full-time offices in Beijing and Shanghai…

Dispute resolution is a particularly lively part of the G2G market. Britain will soon play host to an arbitration court for Saudi Arabian disputes, helping to allay investors’ concerns about the Gulf state’s legal system…

The most radical form of G2G is the delegation agreement: the government of one country providing a public service in another, which in effect cedes part of its sovereignty. In 2003 the government of the Solomon Islands, concerned at rising violence and falling tax revenues caused by corruption, asked the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) to take over law enforcement. RAMSI brought in more than 2,000 soldiers and other personnel and succeeded in establishing the rule of law.

No one knows the size of the G2G market. Governments rarely publicise deals, not least because they fear looking weak. And there are formidable barriers to trade. The biggest is the “Westphalian” view of sovereignty, says Stephen Krasner of Stanford University: that states should run their own affairs without foreign interference….

Local governments, however, both have greater incentives to trade and face fewer barriers. Rapid urbanisation creates urgent practical problems for cities: in 2009 the urban population in developing countries stood at 2.5 billion, a number expected to double by 2050. And, unlike countries, cities are not hobbled by issues of sovereignty…

Weak government services are the main reason poor countries fail to catch up with rich ones, says  Paul Romer of New York University (NYU)… In a recent paper with Brandon Fuller, also of NYU, Mr Romer argues [for]… further lowering the barriers to trade in privately provided goods and services. Firms have long outsourced activities, even core ones, to others that do them better. It is time governments followed suit.

Labels: concepts, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 11:30 AM 0 comments

What is a country?

How many countries are there? Easy: just grab a map and start counting, yes? No…

Go to the United Nations, find the room where the countries sit — each one with a little name tag — start counting and get an answer…

Labels: concepts, nation state, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Sovereign parliament in the UK

Commons in session

There are several significant angles to [the] Commons vote on Syria…

[E]asily obscured by the more obvious issues of the day, is a seismic shift in the British constitution, an evolution that has crept up quietly but which serves to empower Parliament and constrain the executive.

While the Prime Minister officially retains the Royal Prerogative to declare war, it is clear that this power is now tempered by the convention that Parliament must vote on the matter beforehand.

The fact that Cameron… has now changed course so dramatically – while retaining the right to declare war - shows that votes like this are not simply rubber stamps but have become a binding convention that can change the foreign policy of a government.

Ironically, by calling an unprecedented vote on Iraq, Tony Blair, the most presidential of prime ministers, set in place an innovation that created a precedent largely devolving 'war powers' from the executive to the legislature.

Frustrating for many, our uncodified constitution is nevertheless pragmatic and far from conventions being ignored (as many fear has increasingly happened) a new one that curtails government power has clearly entrenched itself…

Whether one agrees with the outcome or not, the vote was a reassertion of Parliamentary sovereignty – a message to the executive, but also to the United States, that in the United Kingdom it is with Parliament, not the Prime Minister, that ultimate power resides…

Cameron's… deference to the Commons and his claim to have listened further entrenches the precedent that any future Prime Minister would have to call a similar vote on military action…

The British constitution is something that has grown organically over the last thousand years. It has survived because it has evolved; its imperfections have been mitigated by its flexibility. This latest stage in its evolution has something to say of our present and of our past. It speaks to a country disillusioned with foreign interventions, war-weary and cautious of unknown consequences. But fundamentally it also reasserts an ancient British principle: Parliament is sovereign.

Labels: constitution, legislature, regime, sovereignty, UK

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 0 comments

Legitimacy

Public confidence in the European Union has fallen to historically low levels in the six biggest EU countries, raising fundamental questions about its democratic legitimacy more than three years into the union's worst ever crisis, new data shows.

After financial, currency and debt crises, wrenching budget and spending cuts, rich nations' bailouts of the poor, and surrenders of sovereign powers over policymaking to international technocrats, Euroscepticism is soaring to a degree that is likely to feed populist anti-EU politics and frustrate European leaders' efforts to arrest the collapse in support for their project…

The findings… represent a nightmare for Europe's leaders, whether in the wealthy north or in the bailout-battered south, suggesting a much bigger crisis of political and democratic legitimacy…

EU leaders are aware of the problem, utterly at odds over what to do about it, and have yet to come up with any coherent policy proposals addressing the mismatch between the pooling of economic and fiscal powers and the democratic mandate deemed necessary to underpin such radical policy shifts.

José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, said… the European "dream" was under threat from a "resurgence of populism and nationalism" across the EU…

Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk… [said] "We can't escape this dilemma: how do you get a new model of sovereignty so that limited national sovereignty in the EU is not dominated by the biggest countries like Germany… "

Labels: concepts, democratization, EU, federalism, International Organizations, legitimacy, nationalism, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:30 AM 3 comments

Supranational organizations and sovereignty

Denmark, part of the Schengen border-free zone, has deployed extra customs officers on its frontiers in a move causing concern among EU neighbours…

Denmark's government is under pressure to curb illegal immigration…

But many have questioned the legality of the Danish move under the 1995 Schengen Agreement, which abolished internal borders, enabling passport-free movement inside much of western Europe.

Juerg-Uwe Hahn, justice minister of Germany's Hessen region, told Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that Denmark had "ostracised itself"…

The European Commission says it is not convinced that Denmark's reimposition of border controls is justified.

The Commission, which monitors compliance with EU treaties, suspects that Denmark's move violates the Schengen Agreement on open borders.

Denmark must "demonstrate factually that the gravity of the situation justifies putting in place controls" on its borders, the Commission said…

The Commission sent a team to assess the Danish measures and their conclusion was that "the risk assessment required to justify the controls was not sufficient and there were no clear instructions to border control officers on how to carry out controls"…

Politicians in Germany and elsewhere have questioned the Danish move, pointing out Denmark's obligations under the 1995 Schengen Agreement, which abolished internal borders, enabling passport-free movement across most of western Europe.

Before the Danish move both France and Italy also raised new questions about Schengen, as an influx of illegal migrants from North Africa fuelled demands for extra passport checks.

The European Union needs to safeguard the Schengen area, as Denmark's recent move to strengthen its borders has shown how vulnerable the zone is, said Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, at a meeting of ministers Monday in Poland.

'I think the last month (of) challenges to Schengen has shown everyone how vulnerable we are,' Malmstrom said, adding that the commission will make a proposal in September that will aim to outline how to assist states with border difficulties…

Labels: concepts, International Organizations, sovereignty, theory

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:03 AM 0 comments

Who is in charge?

With a… death toll of more than 30 victims… the Mexican resort city of Acapulco is facing its most gruesome levels of drug-related violence since the start of the drug war in 2006…

If Sinaloa hit men are indeed active in the Acapulco area, it would suggest a likely escalation in future violence…

The violence currently gripping Acapulco is now due to a turf war among three groups, two of which have emerged only in the last year, according to the weekly news magazine Proceso…

At stake is control over Acapulco's port, on Mexico's southern Pacific coast…

Residents and officials quoted in the Proceso story described terrifying tactics on the part of the organized-crime groups battling over control of Acapulco. Pedestrians and motorists have been stopped or pulled from their vehicles at gunpoint by masked men. Extortion is rampant in the tourism-dependent city…

Labels: legitimacy, Mexico, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:41 AM 0 comments

Commercial infiltration of government

The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and were unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles…

Cables from Nigeria show how Ann Pickard, then Shell's vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, sought to share intelligence with the US government on militant activity and business competition in the contested Niger Delta – and how, with some prescience, she seemed reluctant to open up because of a suspicion the US government was "leaky"…

Celestine AkpoBari, programme officer for Social Action Nigeria [said], "Shell is everywhere. They have an eye and an ear in every ministry of Nigeria. They have people on the payroll in every community, which is why they get away with everything. They are more powerful than the Nigerian government."…

Nigeria… strenuously denied the claim. Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said: "Shell does not control the government of Nigeria and has never controlled the government of Nigeria. This cable is the mere interpretation of one individual. It is absolutely untrue, an absolute falsehood and utterly misleading. It is an attempt to demean the government and we will not stand for that. I don't think anybody will lose sleep over it."…

Labels: corruption, Nigeria, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:54 AM 0 comments

Sovereignty and sanctions

SANCTIONS imposed by the United States have long made it a bother to use credit cards in Iran…

That neat trick has now grown trickier. Complying with recently tightened international sanctions, financial regulators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which includes Dubai, have frozen dozens of Iranian bank accounts and clamped strict controls on currency transfers to the Islamic Republic…

[O]rdinary Iranians are increasingly worried and indeed hurt by sanctions. These now take many forms, from an outright ban on the import of Persian carpets to America that took effect last month to the targeting of individual officials for alleged human-rights abuses, the stopping of Iranian operations by big multinational firms and a growing reluctance by shipping and insurance companies to service Iran-bound cargoes.

Even taken together, the sanctions are unlikely to bring the world’s fifth-biggest crude-oil exporter to its knees. The loopholes remain big enough, and the attraction of Iran’s 75m-strong market strong enough, to keep goods and money flowing…

Yet the sanctions… are inexorably adding to the cost and hassle of doing business…

The sanctions have also stemmed the flow of much-needed foreign investment and skills, particularly to the energy sector that accounts for 80% of Iran’s export earnings…

None of this has dented the exuberance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, who recently repeated his prediction that capitalism is doomed. Instead he has trumpeted minor achievements...

Perhaps the president is right to believe that foreign challenges are not Iran’s biggest worry. After crushing its reformist opponents, his conservative faction has broken out in increasingly rancorous internal wrangling. The biggest looming issue is Mr Ahmadinejad’s plan to slash consumer subsidies that cost his government $70 billion-100 billion a year, a quarter of GDP. Already lumbered with feeble economic growth and high unemployment, Iranians now face the prospect of sharp rises in prices of food, fuel and transport. The coming winter looks set to be harsh.

Labels: Iran, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:30 AM 0 comments

Politics of technology

When three Chinese scientists plunged to the bottom of the South China Sea in a tiny submarine early this summer, they did more than simply plant their nation’s flag on the dark seabed.

The men, who descended more than two miles in a craft the size of a small truck, also signaled Beijing’s intention to take the lead in exploring remote and inaccessible parts of the ocean floor, which are rich in oil, minerals and other resources that the Chinese would like to mine. And many of those resources happen to lie in areas where China has clashed repeatedly with its neighbors over territorial claims.

“It is a great achievement,” Liu Feng, director of the dives, was quoted as saying by China Daily, an English-language newspaper, which telegraphs government positions to the outside world.

The global seabed is littered with what experts say is trillions of dollars’ worth of mineral nodules as well as many objects of intelligence value: undersea cables carrying diplomatic communications, lost nuclear arms, sunken submarines and hundreds of warheads left over from missile tests.

While a single small craft cannot reel in all these treasures, it does put China in an excellent position to go after them…

Labels: capacity, China, economics, sovereignty

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:39 AM 0 comments