Germany’s federal election campaign and the danger of global nuclear war

Johannes Stern 

The media and political parties have long sought to keep the issues of war and militarism out of Germany’s federal election campaign. But reality is now catching up with them. US imperialism’s aggressiveness towards North Korea, Russia and China, and the Pyongyang regime’s testing of a nuclear weapon have brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war, which calls into question the very survival of humanity. A danger which the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) and International Committee of the Fourth International has been warning of for some time is now being openly discussed.

On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres drew parallels to the situation in 1914 and declared, “If you look at the history of the First World War, it was on a step-by-step basis, one party doing one thing, the other party doing another, and then an escalation taking place.”

In an article headlined “The firebrands,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung posed the troubling question, “Who knows whether in such a situation, things will happen in the end that at the outset nobody wanted. It is no coincidence that the sleepwalkers, who led Europe into the First World War in the summer of 1914, are being discussed once again.”

The last session of Germany’s parliament (Bundestag) prior to the election was overshadowed by the danger of nuclear war. Even before Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democrats, CDU) opened the session with a speech, deputy leader of the Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentary group on foreign and defence affairs, Rolf Mützenich, stated, “A nuclear shadow once again lies over the world—from North Korea, but also due to a careless, ranting US president, who is expanding the nuclear shadow. Mrs. Chancellor, I think you would deserve all honours if you sharply contradict such an American president in your remaining period in office.”

SPD Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned in his speech of “a phase in which we not only talk about conventional rearmament, but about a return to the darkest hours of the Cold War.” Globally, “all the talk is about rearmament … In China, India, Latin America, the US, Russia, Europe, Africa, everywhere we are talking about rearmament, nothing else is being discussed anywhere.”

“The political symbol, the political action that must come from Germany cannot be that we will join in with this arms race,” proclaimed the foreign minister. “Germany’s signal, regardless of who has governed this country, has always been that Germany wants to be a voice for peace and a power for peace in the world and will not participate in rearmament.” Gabriel described NATO’s decision that member states should spend 2 percent of their GDP on defence as an “error”—“Even though Social Democrats supported this compromise at the time.”

In November 1933, Leon Trotsky wrote the article “The pacifist Hitler.” He described how even Hitler pledged himself to “peace” and “international understanding” at the beginning of Nazi rule. The Third Reich, Trotsky noted, was at the end of 1933 still too weak “to be able in the next period to speak any other language than that of pacifism.” However, in the course of a few years, after it had rearmed, it would transition from “‘my peace’ to ‘my struggle’ and even to ‘my war’.”

Gabriel required less than five minutes in the Bundestag to transition from the phrases about peace and disarmament to call for the build-up of Germany’s armed forces. “Of course we must improve the armed forces’ armaments, because, by the way, cuts have been made to the armed forces for 12 years,” raged the Social Democrat. Gabriel identified the right-wing Christian Social Union (CSU) politician Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, who was defence minister from 2009 to 2011 and is currently attempting a political comeback, as the individual chiefly responsible for this.

The direction of Gabriel’s criticism of the NATO 2 percent target is clear. Germany is rearming and preparing, along with the other great powers, for war, but on its own terms.

The “main issue at stake must not be how much we spend, but rather the issue is what we spend it on,” Gabriel declared to the deputies. What is at stake is “the right strategy.” And he has been told by “every soldier who returns from a foreign deployment”: “Yes, we need the military. But dear Mr. Gabriel, don’t believe that simply through more defence and military spending you can secure peace and stability, and combat the movement of refugees. You have to fight hunger, poverty, hopelessness and the lack of a future. You have to do that.”

This is a barely concealed criticism of the US-led wars in the Middle East, to which Gabriel wants to counterpose an allegedly more “humane” European interventionist policy, dominated by Berlin.

“Europe bears responsibility for Europe’s security,” Gabriel wrote in his latest book with the revealing title “Remeasuring.” “In foreign and security policy, we have to be capable of strategic awareness and taking action, because we are not yet good enough. This includes defining our European interests and articulating them independently of the US. This obstinacy to some extent requires an emancipation from adopting positions developed in Washington.”

Gabriel’s declared goal is the establishment of a European army capable of enforcing its global interests independently of NATO and the US, and, if necessary, in opposition to the latter. It’s “not merely about purchasing new weapons. it’s about more strongly integrating Europe’s arms industry and to pool resources. It’s about the creation of a joint European security identity, which through increasingly integrated structures clears the path to a European army.”

Gabriel knows very well that US plans to strengthen its nuclear arsenal endangers this policy. A “return to the darkest hours of the Cold War” would increase Germany and Europe’s dependence on the US, and undermine Berlin’s economic and geopolitical interests, which stand in ever deepening contradiction to those of the US. He intends to utilise the remainder of the election campaign to transform the widespread fear of a US-incited nuclear war into support for German militarism.

The Left Party and Greens, who are striving to establish a government with Martin Schulz, the SPD chancellor candidate, after the election are working towards the same goal. They introduced a motion in the Bundestag on Tuesday calling on the German government to “withdraw” its support for NATO’s 2 percent target and “immediately initiate talks with the US aimed at withdrawing the US nuclear weapons stationed at Büchel from the Federal Republic as soon as possible.”

Jan Korte, who spoke in favour of the Left Party’s ultimately defeated motion, left no doubt that it was not motivated by pacifist goals, but the strengthening of German imperialism against Washington. The motion also noted “that we are independent and sovereign—including from the United States of America—and make our own policies here.”

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei is the only party that opposes the US nuclear war plans, no less than European and German rearmament, and fights from the standpoint of the international working class against the growing war danger. In our election statement: “Against militarism and war! For socialism!” we state:

“The danger of a third world war cannot be prevented through appeals for peace to the ruling class. The struggle against war is inseparably bound up with the fight for socialism. The SGP calls for the building of an international anti-war movement based on the following principles:

“The struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population. “The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war.

“The new anti-war movement must therefore, of necessity, be completely and unequivocally independent of, and hostile to, all political parties and organizations of the capitalist class.

“The new anti-war movement must, above all, be international, mobilizing the vast power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism. The permanent war of the bourgeoisie must be answered with the perspective of permanent revolution by the working class, the strategic goal of which is the abolition of the nation-state system and the establishment of a world socialist federation. This will make possible the rational, planned development of global resources and, on this basis, the eradication of poverty and the raising of human culture to new heights.”

Strong earthquake shakes Mexico and Central America, killing at least 61

Rafael Azul 

The most intense earthquake to hit the area in one hundred years, measuring 8.2 in the Richter scale, shook Southwest Mexico and Central America on Thursday. At last count, at least 61 were dead in Mexico and at least 200 have been injured, mostly in the State of Oaxaca. The death toll is expected to rise.

The epicenter of the earthquake was forty miles (69 kilometers) under the surface of the Pacific Ocean and parallel to the to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec that separates North from Central America, sixty miles (100km) from the city of Tonalá, in the State of Chiapas. Tsunami warnings were issued for the coasts of Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The earthquake struck at around midnight Thursday; some 50 million people felt it across Southern and Central Mexico. In Mexico City, the swaying buildings were reminiscent of the 1985 quake that killed well over ten thousand of its inhabitants.

While there were scenes of panic in Mexico City, there were only two casualties of people hit by falling debris. Following the 1985 earthquake, the government tightened earthquake regulations for that city and installed alarms that woke citizens up and gave them time escape.

However, given Mexico’s endemic corruption and cronyism, it is not completely possible to determine how effective the new codes are, since the epicenter of this latest earthquake was two times the distance from Mexico City relative to the one in 1985.

Power lines fell, buildings collapsed and walls fell in the eastern part of the sprawling metropolis of twenty million inhabitants. Throughout Mexico, nearly two million people were left without electricity.

The citizens of Morelia, Puebla, and Guadalajara also felt the earthquake, which triggered tsunami waves one meter high (3.3 feet), near the Oaxaca port of Salinas Cruz. The Mexican Navy evacuated eight thousand people from low-lying areas along the coast.

The earthquake also affected El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras resulting in injuries, power outages and the widespread destruction of poorly built buildings and roads. In northwest Guatemala the earthquake took a heavy toll in the impoverished communities surrounding the municipality of Tacaná, along the border with Chiapas; homes were demolished, as was the public school in Sujchay.

Both in Oaxaca and in Chiapas, and on the Guatemalan border, many homes built of adobe clay and palm leaves quickly collapsed. Many residents were rescued by neighbors but more victims may still be trapped beneath the rubble.

The destruction was not limited to adobe buildings, however, also affected where apartment and other buildings in cities across Chiapas and Oaxaca, despite higher earthquake standards that were established after the 1985 quake.

Oaxaca authorities reported damages in most of the municipalities in that state. In Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas the walls of the city hall cracked, also damaged were the two towers the Church of Saint Lucia. A historic monument was knocked over in the Chiapas capital city of Tuxla Guerrero. In the same city, the Church of San Vicente Ferrer, a sixteenth century structure, was destroyed.

In the city of Oaxaca, capital of state of Oaxaca, the city hall was partially destroyed. A hotel collapsed in Matis Romero, Oaxaca.

By far the most damage was concentrated in Juchitan de Zaragoza, a city of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants and third largest in the state of Oaxaca. A reporting team touring the city discovered many collapsed buildings and homes. There is no electricity and only intermittent Wi-Fi.

The only public hospital was heavily damaged; the injured were being treated out of doors. Also in ruins is the city’s government house, schools, churches, bridges and roads. As news reporters travelled the city, neighbors informed them of people trapped in the rubble, including in the government building.

The Juchitan Fire Department, which even before the quake was insufficient for a city of its size, was unable to fully respond to all the calls for help. Many of those that were transported to clinics outside Juchitan did so in vehicles volunteered by residents of the city, since there are not enough ambulances. Juchitan’s suburbs are in the same sad shape.

The near destruction of Juchitan is an indictment of the of authorities’ criminal neglect of public safety and the failure to implement proper infrastructure and emergency measures in anticipation of major earthquakes, particularly in an area where three major seismic faults coincide.

While Mexico City residents benefited from early warning systems, and perhaps from updated building codes, this was not the case for the residents of Oaxaca and Chiapas. The Juchitan earthquake building codes proved woefully inadequate, as did the size of its fire department, search and rescue system and the number of available emergency vehicles, leaving residents on their own.

Hurricanes Irma and Harvey: Natural disaster and political breakdown

Patrick Martin

The catastrophic impact of Hurricane Harvey in southeast Texas and the unfolding disaster of Hurricane Irma in south Florida are ruthlessly objective tests of the ability of America’s ruling elite to manage the affairs of society. By any reasonable standard, the capitalist class has failed, and failed miserably.

Two weeks after the Texas Gulf Coast was devastated by Harvey, millions of people are seeking to rebuild their lives with minimal social assistance. Hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, one million cars rendered inoperable, countless schools and other public facilities flooded and likely ruined beyond repair. At least twenty-two people are missing, most now presumed dead, on top of the more than 70 deaths officially acknowledged.

To address the costliest natural disaster in American history—at least until the toll of Hurricane Irma is tallied—with damage estimates approaching $200 billion, the Trump administration and Congress have approved a derisory $15 billion in federal assistance, ratified by the House of Representatives Friday.

The bulk of this money goes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which doles out funds limited to $30,000 per family, through a nearly impenetrable bureaucratic process in which the victims of the storm will be treated like criminals or con-men. Other funding is routed through the Small Business Administration, in the form of loans that those driven from their homes by the hurricane will be hard-pressed to repay.

Hurricane Irma is even more powerful than Harvey. The storm has already laid waste to several of the Lesser Antilles and to the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as battering Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Irma began passing the Bahamas on Friday and is scheduled to make landfall somewhere in south Florida on Sunday afternoon.

Hurricane Irma is the most powerful storm ever recorded on this planet, with the most “accumulated cyclone energy,” one measure of overall intensity. It has sustained maximum wind speeds of at least 180 miles per hour for 37 hours, longer than any previous storm. Its size is vast: twice the extent of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated south Florida in 1992. The storm is so large that it is wider than the Florida peninsula itself, raising the possibility of simultaneous storm surges on both the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast, an unheard-of phenomenon.

A lethal threat faces one of the most densely populated areas in the United States. But the response of local, state and federal officials has been to tell the potential victims of Irma: “You’re on your own.” This was the theme of several press conferences and briefings on Friday, as government officials told some six million people in south Florida to leave the region if possible, or else go to hurricane shelters.

These shelters are entirely inadequate—some sizeable cities, like Ft. Myers on the Gulf coast, have none. They are unavailable to many poor and working-class residents. The Coalition for Racial Justice complained that Miami-Dade’s shelters are open only in wealthy areas, a more than 30-minute drive from the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for the Florida Keys, for Miami Beach and much of Miami-Dade, the state’s largest metropolitan area, as well as portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties and much of the southwestern corner of the state as well. Combined, they are the largest mandatory evacuation in US history, leaving all highways north completely jammed with traffic. Most gas stations have run out of supplies, leaving many residents stranded in their cars as the hurricane approaches.

The most basic measures to ensure that people can leave have not been taken, such as a mass coordination of free rail, bus and airplane transportation. Many of those leaving have no idea where they will stay, as hundreds of thousands attempt to find accommodations on the route north. Many are stuck at the airport, with no open flights and all shelters filled.

The Trump administration “prepared” for the one-two punch of Harvey and Irma by proposing to slash spending on FEMA and other relief and disaster management agencies, to say nothing of its war against climate science, waged on behalf of the oil, gas and coal producers and other big industrial polluters.

Even the succession of hurricanes—with Jose and Katia lined up to follow Harvey and Irma, four giant storms in only three weeks, fueled by ocean waters now at an unprecedented temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit—has not produced any rethinking by the know-nothings of the Trump administration. The unending stream of disasters proving the reality of climate change—to which one must add the fires raging on the US West Coast and the floods that have devastated South Asia—demonstrating the inability of the ruling classes of all countries to take any serious measures to address the growing threat.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, a notorious global warming denier, denounced any discussion of climate change as “very, very insensitive” to the people of Florida. “To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm, versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,” he argued.

By the same logic, any discussion of plate tectonics or seismic faults should be banned during an earthquake, nor should there be any analysis of El Nino wind effects during wildfire season. Nuclear physics would be off-limits during a reactor meltdown. And, we might add, there could be no discussion of the economic laws of capitalism during a meltdown of the financial markets.

There is a distinct class content to this rejection of science, or, indeed, any serious thought. The US ruling elite, at every level, refused to plan seriously for natural disasters which were both predictable and inevitable. Once the disasters unfolded, the representatives of big business could barely conceal their indifference and annoyance at the plight of what one of Trump’s real estate colleagues, Leona Helmsley, sneered at as “the little people.”

Natural disasters have a way of exposing social and political reality. The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, which destroyed much of the Portuguese city, was a significant event in the development of Enlightenment thought in Europe in the decades that preceded the French Revolution. It was proof, Voltaire noted in his Candide, of the absurdity of the claim of the philosopher Leibniz that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.”

Who could follow Leibniz in making such an argument today? American and world capitalism is rotten to the core. The ruling class presides over unprecedented social inequality and unending war, in which resources are dedicated to greed and plunder but the most basic requirements of modern society go unmet and ignored.

Such a society is ripe, indeed overripe, for revolution. The task is to fight unceasingly to develop the political consciousness of the working class, so that it can fulfill its historical mission to become the ruling and directing force.

Nelson Mandela’s African Leaders of Tomorrow Fully-funded Scholarship 2018/2019 – Canada

Application Timeline: 

• Deadline to complete the Preliminary Questionnaire: 13th October, 2017
• Selection process: 16th October to 31st December, 2018
• Pre-selected candidates notified by email: January-February 9 2018
• Admission to universities: January to March 2018
• Pre-departure process (visa, accommodation, pre-departure orientation): February to July 2018
• All other candidates notified of results: May 2018
• Orientation session in Canada: Mid- August 2018
• Start of study programs: End of August/beginning of September 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Countries in sub-Saharan Africa

To be taken at (country): Canada

Fields of Study: Public Administration, Public Policy or Public Finances

About the Award: The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) administers the International Scholarships Program (ISP) of Global Affairs Canada. The ALT Scholarship Program by the CBIE grants full scholarships based on merit to women and men from sub-Saharan Africa to pursue a Master’s degree in public administration, public policy or public finances in Canada. 

The African Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Programme has two components:

• An academic component
• A professional component

Offered Since: 2015

Type: Masters

Eligibility: You must meet ALL the requirements to be eligible:

• Be a citizen AND resident of sub-Saharan Africa;
• Be between 22 and 35 years old (at the beginning of the study program);
• Have completed a university degree meeting the minimum academic requirements for admission into a Master’s degree in Canada;
• Have a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years of full-time work experience in the public sector, civil society sector or a research institute in Africa;
• Be fluent in  French or English;
• Meet all the academic requirements of the study program of choice.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident or you have applied for permanent residency in Canada.
• You are already enrolled in a degree or any program of study at a Canadian university.
• You are currently employed by the Government of Canada.

Selection Criteria: Eligible candidates with complete files will be assessed against the following criteria by a national selection committee:

• Academic merit;
• Professional experience;
• Relevance and merit of the case study;
• Recommendation letters;
• Demonstrated leadership capacity; and
• Potential contribution to public administration and public policy upon the candidate’s return to his/her home country.

In awarding the scholarships, considerations will be given to gender equity and equitable representation from across sub-Saharan Africa

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Fully-funded

Duration of Scholarship: The African Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Programme funds studies in a Master’s degree programme in public administration, public policy or public finance for a maximum period of two years (24 months). There are no other eligible programs.

How to Apply: 

• Eligible candidates must click here to complete the Preliminary Inquiry Questionnaire.
• You will need to provide information about your GPA from your undergraduate degree and any post-graduate programs (if applicable).

It is important to go through the Application requirements on the Scholarship Webpage (see link below) before applying.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) manages the ALT Scholarship Program in partnership with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and in collaboration with the African Association of Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) and the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA).

Important Notes: During the application process you select three choices of universities and programs. You should consult the admission requirements and the program description to ensure that it meets your interest and qualifications.  At this time, you do not need to apply to the university separately.

Swedish Institute She Entrepreneurs Program for Women in MENA Region 2018

Application Timeline:

• Application opens: 8th September, 2017
• Application closes: 4h October 2017.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine*, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia or Yemen

To be taken at (country): Sweden

About the Award: She Entrepreneurs is a recognised leadership programme for young emerging women social entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and Sweden. Intended for women who have already started to build a social business, She Entrepreneurs offers participants a chance to take their social business initiative to a whole new level.

The She Entrepreneurs programme is an intensive programme with a full-day schedule and many evening activities and all selected participants have to commit to participating in all activities of both module 1 and 2.

Type: Entrepreneurship

Offered Since: 2011

Eligibility: To apply to She Entrepreneurs you have to:

• have the drive, ambition and interest to use social entrepreneurship to implement a social business initiative that you have already started working on
• your social business initiative should be based and implemented in your country of citizenship or in one of the countries of the She Entrepreneurs programme listed above
• be between 20 and 36 years old
• have a good working knowledge of both written and spoken English.

Selection Criteria: A selection committee consisting of staff from the Swedish Institute as well as representatives from partner organisations and field experts evaluates the applications according to the following criteria:

• applicant’s social business initiative that will be the focus of the programme
• applicant’s drive, motivation and commitment, as well as her answers to the questions of the She Entrepreneurs application form
• assessment of the applicant’s CV.

Selection Process: Around 60 shortlisted applicants are called for interviews as a second step in the selection process. The interviews are conducted through Skype. This offer is valid only under the condition that the participant obtains a visa to travel to Sweden. SI will facilitate the visa application process, but cannot guarantee a visa. In recent years, applicants living in conflict-ridden areas have in a few cases seen their visa applications rejected.

She entrepreneurs will accept references who speak English, Arabic and French.

Number of Awardees: Around 28

Value of Programme: She Entrepreneurs participants will build on their knowledge of business elements, from branding to risk-taking. The programme offers a competitive advantage as participants develop their own social business initiative and acquire personal skills and innovative tools.

The programme also allows women entrepreneurs to meet, inspire each other and share experiences on common challenges. Participants will emerge with a strong and active network of likeminded women who support each other in driving important changes in society.

Duration of Programme: A total of two and a half weeks

How to Apply: Follow these steps to submit your application:

• DOWNLOAD and fill out our She Entrepreneurs Application Form 2018
• GO TO our application portal
• UPLOAD the completed application form in English, including your contact details and the contact details of two reference persons*
• UPLOAD an updated CV in English
• UPLOAD a photo (not compulsory).

It is important to go through the Application instructions on the Program Webpage before applying.

Visit Program Webpage for details

Award Provider: Swedish Institute

Important Notes: Please note that there are no exceptions to the eligibility requirements. Only completed applications will be considered.

Andela Nigeria Paid Fellowship (Cycle XXVIII) for Nigerian Tech Students 2017

Application Deadline: 22nd September, 2017

Eligible Countries: Nigeria

To be taken at (country): Nigeria

About the Award: The Andela Fellowship is a four-year paid technical leadership program designed to shape you into an exceptional software engineer. The program requires that you dedicate yourself to the broader Andela community and requires that you apply yourself and challenge yourself to constantly improve personally and professionally throughout the four years of the Fellowship.

Andela’s four-year Technical Leadership Program is a blend of personalized instruction, supported self-study and hands-on experience building real products. Instead of paying tuition, as you would for a traditional academic program, you’ll earn a competitive salary and benefits throughout your four years with Andela.

After successfully completing the initial training period, you’ll be fully prepared to start working with one of our clients as a full-time, distributed team member. During the remaining 3.5 years, you’ll apply your knowledge to client work, while receiving ongoing professional and technical development, coaching and mentorship.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 

• You must be 18 or older
• Andela does not have any degree or diploma requirements. (Nigeria only: However, if you have completed university or have a Higher National Diploma from a Polytechnic, and have not been formally exempted, you must complete your one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) before applying to Andela)
• Andela is a full-time, four-year commitment, so if you have any major commitment such as school or work, we recommend applying when you have graduated, stopped school or ended other commitments
• Most importantly, you must embody Andela’s values: Excellence, Passion, Integrity and Collaboration

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Fellowship: Through extensive training and work experience with top global technology companies, you’ll master the professional and technical skills needed to become a technology leader, both on the African continent and around the world.

Competitive monthly salaryWe are training future leaders committed to helping others succeed. As you advance in the program, you’ll mentor and support the next generation of Andela fellows. The Technical Leadership Program prepares you for endless career paths, including founding your own company, moving into management positions at Andela, and taking leadership roles at local and global tech companies. Graduates become a part of an exclusive alumni network and have access to career support, advice and opportunities.

• High speed fibre internet
• Financing plans for accommodations and a Macbook Pro
• Breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday
• Healthcare coverage
• Savings account ($5,000 USD upon completion of Fellowship)
• A community of excellence
• A chance to change the world

Duration of Fellowship: 4 years

How to Apply: Join the Andela movement by applying via Fellowship Webpage link below

It is important to go through the Application Procedure and FAQs before applying.

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Andela

Skoll Scholarships at Said Business School for International Students 2018/2019 – UK

Application Deadline: 5th January 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: International students from all countries

To be taken at (country): Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK

Subject Areas: MBA, Management Studies in Social Entrepreneurship

About Scholarship: The Skoll Scholarship is a competitive scholarship for incoming MBA students who pursue entrepreneurial solutions for urgent social and environmental challenges. The Scholarship provides funding and exclusive opportunities to meet with world-renowned entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and investors. Once selected, these students are known as Skoll Skollars.

The Skoll Scholarship provides tuition for entrepreneurs who have set up or have been working in entrepreneurial ventures with a social purpose, and who wish to improve their knowledge of market-oriented practices so they can be more effective in their subsequent social change pursuits.

The Scholarship is given in recognition that the MBA may represent a significant financial burden, particularly for those who have chosen to work in social ventures rather than the commercial or public sectors.

Selection Criteria

• All the candidates are required to take the GMAT test for entry to Oxford’s MBA programme.
• Candidates whose first language is not English or who have not studied at an English speaking University are required to take either the TOEFL or IELTS tests.
• Demonstrate evidence of need for financial support.

Who is qualified to apply?: To be considered, you need to meet the following criteria:

1. By the time the candidates apply for the MBA, they must have spent preferably at least 3 years either:
   • • starting and growing a social venture;
     • OR leading a major expansion of an existing social venture or programme within an organisation;
     • OR pursuing positive change as an impact career professional, i.e. someone who has used entrepreneurial approaches to address the same social/environmental issue, with a clear core thread that unites his/her work.
   In each of these 3 cases, candidates should be able to describe the outcomes/impact that has been created as a result of their work.

2. Candidates will have used entrepreneurial approaches to identify opportunities, taken action to positively shift the status quo, and produced proven impact that contributes to rectifying unjust systems and practices in their chosen area of work.

3. Candidates must demonstrate evidence of personal qualities strongly resonating with entrepreneurial leadership, and illustrate how these have influenced their career path thus far. These qualities include:
   • Single-mindedness and persistence in pursuit of a social/environmental benefit goal, including a willingness to face failure and start again;
   • A bias towards action rather than reflection on an issue and a willingness to apprentice with a problem* if they are tackling a challenge they didn’t personally live;
   • A tendency to explore the environment for opportunities and resources;
   • A willingness to take personal, and sometimes financial, risks;
   • A propensity to develop networks and draw upon their members to pursue mutual goals.

4. Candidates must demonstrate how a business education can contribute to the wider development of their work. They will need to illustrate why a business degree at this stage of their career trajectory can help them amplify their impact.

5. Candidates must demonstrate some evidence of their need for the Scholarship. This may be exhibited, for example, in previous work experiences or personal backgrounds which make self-funding the MBA a significant financial burden.

Number of Scholarships: No more than five scholarships will be awarded in any year.

What are the benefits? The Scholarship is intended to cover the Oxford Saïd MBA course and college fees, which in 2018-19 will be £55,000. Additional funds of up to £8,000 are provided as a contribution towards living expenses, totaling an award of £63,000.

Duration: Scholarship will last for the duration of the program

How to Apply

In order to apply for the Skoll Scholarship you first need to apply and be accepted onto the Saïd Business School’s MBA program. To be formally considered for a Skoll Scholarship, you need to state your interest in the “Scholarships” section of the MBA application form. Do this by checking the box next to “Skoll”.

When your MBA application is submitted, the MBA admissions team will first assess your application to ensure that you meet the academic requirements sought by the school. If you are accepted onto the programme, you will be sent an essay question that needs to be completed.

The Skoll Centre will then consider your candidacy for the scholarship. A final decision will be made after a phone interview.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details

Sponsors: Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Saïd Business School Diploma in Strategic Management Scholarships for Women 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 23rd October 2017

Offered Annually?

To Be Taken At (Country): University of Oxford, UK

About the Award: The aim of these scholarships is to support female candidates of merit and to encourage an increase in women considering senior leadership roles.

Type: MBA

Eligibility: Scholarships are awarded to outstanding female candidates based on the breadth and depth of work experience, past academic and professional qualification performance, and potential career impact.

Number of Awards: 3

Value of Award: The Saïd Business School provides three scholarships on this programme. One scholarship covers 50% of the programme fee and a further two awards provide £5,000 towards the programme fee.

How to Apply: 

• Candidates submitting a completed application, including references, before the scholarship deadline will automatically be considered.
• Early application is advisable.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

The Future of Women Award 2017

Application Deadline: 15th September 2017

Eligible Countries: African countries

To Be Taken At (Country): New York, USA

About the Award: The 2017 award will recognize three rising African women leaders in the areas of Tech, Social Impact and Creative Entrepreneurship. Award winners will be announced via Facebook Live from the The Future of Women event in New York on 21 September 2017 in front of a live audience of African First Ladies and Women Leaders.

Type: Contests/Awards

Eligibility: The 2017 #TheFutureOfWomen Award is open to rising African women leaders of all ages, working in technology, social impact, or creative entrepreneurship; doing impactful work in Africa, primarily based on the continent.

Selection Criteria: Award selection will be based upon the following criteria:

• Innovation
• Creativity
• Sustainability
• Long term impact of the work on the future of women
• Public support on Instagram + Facebook via likes, shares, and comments
• How this award could benefit the work of the nominee

Nominations will be judged by a committee of four, comprised of one representative from Global First Ladies Alliance, Facebook, MAC AIDS Fund and OkayAfrica.

Number of Awards: 3

Value of Award:

How to Apply: Nominate yourself or someone else in two simple steps:

1. Post your nomination on Instagram or Facebook:
2. Fill out the nomination form online

If posting on Facebook:
1. Follow and post to the @gflaorg Facebook page and tag your nominee.
2. Describe the impactful work the nominee is doing for #thefutureofwomen using the hashtag.

If posting on Instagram:
1. Follow and tag @gflaorg and tag your nominee.
2. Describe the impactful work the nominee is doing for #thefutureofwomen using the hashtag.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: The award is supported by Global First Ladies Alliance, Facebook, MAC AIDS Fund, and OkayAfrica.

Sixth Grade Recess

Winslow Myers

How close are we today to nuclear war between the United States and North Korea? As close as somebody in the military on either side making a mistake that looks to the other side like an escalation from mere words, however heated, to actual intent to kill. As close as a group of military hawks egged on rather than restrained by civilian authority (See John and Robert Kennedy versus the chief of the Strategic Air Command, Curtis Lemay, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Lemay was hell-bent to attack Cuba, which we now know would almost certainly have resulted in holocaust.)

Hot words are all about credibility. But nuclear credibility contains a tragic paradox. Nuclear weapons are not intended for actual use, but to deter adversaries, while at the same time nuclear weapons, in order to deter adversaries credibly, must be ready for instant use—and so must conventional weapons for that matter. So everyone is rehearsing madly—madly in both senses of the word. Rehearsals take the form of joint military exercises on the part of South Korea and the U.S., and test firings of missiles and warheads on the part of the North, accompanied by fiery contests of macho rhetoric from leaders who really, really ought to know better.

When nuclear war gets this close, the situation begs examination beyond the level of right and wrong, of sides, of positions, of causes, of who was the first to violate agreements. It needs to be observed systemically as a planetary event, in terms of interests and probable results. What we find is that (setting aside momentary differences in tactics between the Presidents of the U.S. and South Korea) the U.S. is locked into its pledge to support its ally, and locked into credibility generally, just as North Korea is locked into its nuclear program as a reliable way to maintain the regime’s power in spite of being regarded as an international pariah.

Working backward from a war that went nuclear without anyone wanting it, what would have been resolved as a result of mass death on both sides of the 38th parallel? “The North Koreans begged for war; they brought it on themselves” would ring pretty hollow as a rationale. The United States would instantly join North Korea, what was left of it, in the pariah role. There would be a fission-level increase in the plotting of all those anywhere who wish America ill to make the United States suffer as they have made others suffer. The Korean peninsula would be united after fifty years of tension—united in a horrendous agony and chaos beyond description. The earth would endure yet more poisoning of the total life system by radioactive clouds of soot. This is resolution?

The question is, as realists, are we trapped? Are all parties, not just the U.S., constrained by the pitiless demands of credibility to keep escalating their chest-thumping, as war-abetting pundits make what seem like reasonable arguments to justify each further step into the abyss?

As a system, nuclear chicken is completely nuts—and not less so because our representatives and their day-by-day pronouncements, lines in the sand, threats, ultimatums, sound so reasonable to the patriotic ear—that is until everything spirals out of control.

One hundred and twenty-two nations recently signed a U.N. treaty outlawing nuclear weapons, but the nine nuclear nations still haven’t gotten the message. If humans can acquire the immensely complex technological expertise to build these no-win weapons, we can also figure out how to make a gradual transition to a security system that does not rely upon them, knowing that security with them is a technological fantasy.

The United States, with its clear superiority in conventional forces, becomes the indispensable nuclear nation to lead the other eight beyond nukes. Without any loss of security we can pledge no first use. We can promise not to pursue regime change in North Korea as long as South Korea is not threatened. We can take measured diplomatic de-escalating and confidence-building steps. We can acknowledge, as President Reagan inevitably had to, that a nuclear war cannot be won and thus must never be fought. We can rely upon our experience of containing the Soviet Union for 50 years to contain North Korea, while an international conference implementing mutual, reciprocal, verifiable reduction and final elimination of all nuclear weapons goes forward, prodded and encouraged by those 122 nations who have already decided against deterrence by mutual assured destruction in favor of mutually assured survival.

Meanwhile we in the United States could use a good long look at ourselves—at a political system that allows a person of this level of inexperience, poor judgment, and impulsive temperament to get so close to nuclear decision-making that could affect the fate of millions.

If we get past the present acute crisis unscathed, someday North Koreans, South Koreans and Americans are going to meet and build relationship on post-nuclear ground, the common ground of a shared desire to survive and flourish. They will look back and see just how deeply irrational and silly this moment was, when humans possessing and possessed by immense, world-destroying powers threatened each other like sixth graders challenging each other to a recess brawl.

Pius XII, European Fascism, and the Vatican’s WWII Records

Ezra Kronfeld

As a young man, Benito Mussolini referred to Catholic priests with the utmost disdain, and his family did not want the Church to be as powerful and influential as it was. In 1922, he had been elected as Italy’s Prime Minister after founding and leading the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party). Initially, Mussolini’s violent Black Shirt squads had beat up Catholics in Italy, but in his late 30s, he decided to give in and work alongside the Church. He had his whole family baptized, and began to try and persuade the leaders of the Catholic faith to support fascism by advocating for the traditional Catholic lifestyle and pushing laws against “sinful” behavior, such as cursing, drinking, and divorce. The Vatican city-state was eventually created from 109 acres of land in Rome, and millions of Euros from fascist Italy.

Soon Catholicism was being taught in Italian schools, and the Church had fully aligned itself with Mussolini’s fascist government. Pope Pius XI, to his credit, publicly opposed authoritarian Communism, Nazism, and Italian fascism the year before the outbreak of World War II. That said, the facts clearly indicate that the Church had few reservations about associating with Mussolini’s brutal government in order to expand the Church and build their small country. The succeeding Pope Pius XII was notorious in his failure to support the Jewish people during the Holocaust. To this day, the Vatican restricts public access to a lot of their archives from World War II. Gee, I wonder why that might be?

While Pope Pius XI delivered a series of encyclicals challenging totalitarianism across the world at the end of his life and pontificate, Pius XII concerned himself almost exclusively with the rise of atheistic Communism, and seemed to harbor some sympathy for Hitler’s regime.

Many detractors of the popular sentiment that Pius XII claim that through encouraging Catholics to aid Jews fleeing Germany and other Nazi-occupied lands, he saved the lives of thousands. While this may have a modicum of truth, as it is recorded that he directed the Church to do this, history presents a solid case for the theory that he did this for selfish reasons. Pius XII was only really against ethnic antisemitism. He stood against the racial components of the Nazis’ rhetoric, but unless Jews actually converted to Catholicism, he didn’t care much for them. This is why he wanted the Church to aid the Jews: he hoped he’d get a few new Catholics out of it.

He referred to Jews with an underlying disgust, and according to John Cornwell, British academic and author of Hitler’s Pope, in response to a request from a German rabbi for Pope Benedict XV to assist the Jews in having some palm fronds exported from Italy for their upcoming Festival of Tabernacles, he told fellow diplomat Pietro Gasparri that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the Vatican to assist them in “the exercise of their Jewish cult”. This is just one piece of evidence that Pius XII held antisemetic beliefs, and none of this is to mention the volumes upon volumes upon volumes of evidence that he remained silent when faced with the threat of Nazism. He let the world down.

Many may say that none of this is too worrying, since the Vatican clearly doesn’t display legitimate antisemitism in these times, and they’d be right on the latter front. But until the Vatican willingly makes their entire World War II archive public, the Church can not be considered innocent, and they certainly can’t be considered honest. It is only when the wrongs of an institution, nation, or people are made wholly accessible to us all, under the direction of the perpetrator, can any sense of redemption occur.

As ISIS Shrinks, Al Qaeda Expands

Patrick Cockburn

Al-Qaeda is creating its most powerful stronghold ever in north-west Syria at a time when world attention is almost entirely focused on the impending defeat of Isis in the east of the country. It has established full control of Idlib province and of a vital Syrian-Turkish border crossing since July. “Idlib Province is the largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11,” says Brett McGurk, the senior US envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis.

The al-Qaeda-linked movement, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which used to be called Jabhat al-Nusra, has long been the most powerful rebel group in western Syria. After the capture of east Aleppo by the Syrian army last December, it moved to eliminate its rivals in Idlib, including its powerful former Turkish-backed ally Ahrar al-Sham. HTS is estimated to have 30,000 experienced fighters whose numbers will grow as it integrates brigades from other defeated rebel groups and recruits young men from the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have sought refuge in Idlib from President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Al-Qaeda is growing in strength in and around Idlib province just as Isis is suffering defeat after defeat in eastern Syria and Iraq. Its latest setback was its failure on Tuesday to stop the Syrian army linking up with its enclave at Deir Ezzor, where Isis has been besieging the government held part of the city for three years. Divided by the Euphrates, the city is the largest in eastern Syria and its complete recapture opens the way to the al-Omar oilfields that once provided half of Syria’s crude production.

The end of the siege, supposing encircling Isis forces are permanently driven back, frees up a Syrian army garrison of 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers as well as the 93,000 civilians trapped in the government-held zone who had been supplied with food by airdrops. Deir Ezzor is only the latest Isis urban centre to be lost on the Syrian portion of the Euphrates valley which was the heartland of its territories in Syria. Isis is everywhere on the retreat. Upriver from Deir Ezzor at Raqqa, the American-backed and Kurdish-run Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting their way into the city and has captured its old city quarter in the last few days.

Despite its proven fighting prowess, Isis is collapsing under the impact of ground attacks launched by different parties on multiple fronts in Iraq and Syria. What tips the balance against it in all cases is the massive firepower of the Russian and US air forces in support of ground assaults. Isis’s defeat in eastern Syria will accelerate as local tribes, previously won over or intimidated by Isis, join the winning side. The US and the Syrian Kurds may not like the return of Syrian government authority in eastern Syria, south of Raqqa, but they do not look as if they are prepared to fight hard to stop it. President Trump’s priority is to eradicate Isis and al-Qaeda, regardless of who rules Syria in future.

Bad news for Isis is good news for HTS and al-Qaeda. Its defeat preoccupies its myriad enemies and largely monopolises their military efforts. Short of combat troops, the Syrian army is only really capable of making a maximum effort on one front at a time. The Syrian Kurds have an interest in fighting Isis but not necessarily defeating it so decisively that the US would no longer need a Kurdish alliance and could return to the embrace of its old Nato ally Turkey.

HTS stands to benefit politically and militarily from the decline of Isis, the original creator and mentor of Jabhat al-Nusra, as the earliest of al-Qaeda’s incarnations in Syria was known. Under the name of al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of the movement split off in 2013 and the two sides fought a bloody inter-jihadi civil war. If Isis is destroyed or rendered a marginal force, Sunni Arab jihadis refusing to surrender to Mr Assad’s army and intelligence service will have no alternative but to join HTS. Moreover, Sunni Arabs in eastern Syria may soon be looking for any effective vehicle for resistance, if Syrian government armed forces behave with their traditional mix of brutality and corruption.

HTS will expect the many states now attacking Isis, and battering to pieces its three-year-old caliphate, to turn on them next. But they will hope to delay the confrontation for as long as possible while they strengthen their movement. Ideologically similar but politically more astute than Isis, they will seek to avoid provoking a final territorial battle which they are bound to lose. Some Syrian specialists warn against waiting too long. “The international community must seek urgently to counter-attack HTS, which grows stronger by the day, without waiting for the complete destruction of the Islamic State,” writes Fabrice Balanche in a study published by the Washington Institute for Near East Studies called Preventing a Jihadist Factory in Idlib. He says that HTS wants to dominate the whole Syrian rebellion and is close to succeeding.

The open dominance of an extreme Islamic jihadi movement like HTS creates a problem for foreign powers, notably the US, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, previous funders and suppliers of the Syrian rebels. HTS, whose attempt to distinguish itself from al-Qaeda has convinced few, is listed in many countries as a terrorist organisation, unlike its former ally, the Ahrar al-Sham. It will be difficult for foreign powers to do business with it, though the armed opposition to Mr Assad has long been dominated by extreme Islamist jihadi groups. The difference is that today there are no longer any nominally independent groups through which anti-Assad states and private donors can channel arms, money and aid while still pretending that they were not supporting terrorism.

Isis declared war against the whole world in 2014 and inevitably paid the price of creating a multitude of enemies who are now crushing it in Syria and Iraq. Many of the members of this de facto alliance always disliked each other almost as much as they hated Isis. It was only fear of the latter that forced them to cooperate, or at least not fight each other. It may not be possible to recreate the same unity of purpose against al-Qaeda.