Kosovo’s President Thaçi charged with war crimes

Peter Schwarz

Hashim Thaçi, who resigned this week as president of Kosovo, will appear before a special tribunal in The Hague on charges of war crimes. Together with nine other defendants, he is accused of hundreds of murders as well as persecution and torture during the war with Serbia between 1998 and 1999.

The prosecutor’s charges, which were presented in June, were confirmed this week by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. Thaçi, whose regime is dependent on the Western powers for financial and military support, responded by resigning his post. He rejected all accusations and denounced the prosecution, but declared his willingness to appear in court.

Hashim Thaçi [Credit: Wikimedia Commons]

The remarkable thing is not that Thaçi is being taken to court, but that it is only happening now. It has been long known that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which counted Thaçi as one of its leaders, was involved in political murders, ethnic cleansing and mafia-style criminality. Thaçi’s subsequent political career was also accompanied by criminal activities. But he enjoyed the support of the United States and European powers because he supported their efforts to subordinate the Balkans to their imperialist interests.

Therefore, along with Thaçi and his KLA accomplices, the Western politicians who used and promoted him also deserve to be in the dock. First place among these are Joschka Fischer and Madeleine Albright, the German foreign minister and US secretary of state at the time of the war, respectively. They also include presumptive president elect Joseph Biden, who praised Thaçi during a 2010 visit to the White House as the “George Washington of Kosovo.”

During the 1990s, the KLA, which organised attacks from exile on Serbian military units and police stations in Kosovo, was designated by the CIA as a terrorist organisation. But this rapidly changed when the US and Germany needed a pretext to attack Serbia, which was an obstacle to their drive to fully carve up Yugoslavia and subordinate the Balkans to their interests.

Thaçi, the political spokesperson of the KLA, was invited by Fischer and Albright in February 1998 to the Rambouillet talks as Kosovo’s representative. The conference issued an unacceptable ultimatum that served as the pretext for the bombardment of Yugoslavia. The KLA emerged as NATO’s official foot soldiers in the war against Yugoslavia and it was in this function that the crimes were committed for which Thaçi is now being held responsible.

After the violent partition of Kosovo from Serbia, several political parties emerged from the KLA. Thaçi became the dominant political figure in Kosovo: he served as foreign minister, prime minister on several occasions, and president from 2016. Under the protection of the United Nations’ UNIMIK mission, Thaçi and other former KLA commanders continued the forced displacement of Serbs, Roma and other minorities, spreading fear and terror. In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia with US and German support.

All attempts to uncover the KLA’s war crimes failed. Anyone who dared to testify paid with their life. Inexplicable car accidents, alleged suicides and deadly shootings were the result.

Ramush Haradinaj, a former KLA leader, was brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in 2005, when he was prime minister of Kosovo. He was charged with 37 war crimes, including crimes against humanity, murder and rape. But he was cleared of all charges in 2008 due to a lack of evidence, by which time only one of the original 10 witnesses was still alive. The final witness agreed to withdraw his testimony after narrowly surviving an attack.

Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia between 1999 and 2007, wrote in her memoirs published in 2008, “Witnesses were so afraid and intimidated that they even feared to talk about the presence of the KLA in certain areas, never mind actual crimes. … Those who wanted to testify had to be brought with their entire family to other countries, and many states were not prepared to accept them.” Even members of NATO’s Kfor force and judges at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague feared for their lives.

Del Ponte also reported the suspicion that the KLA kidnapped 300 Serbians in 1999 and removed their organs for sale, which the International Red Cross first heard about in 2000. Although sufficient evidence was available, an investigation by the International Criminal Court was “snuffed out.”

In April 2009, the BBC broadcast a documentary in which several witnesses spoke about the KLA’s bestial crimes, including the removal and trading of prisoners’ organs. The author, Michael Montgomery, had been researching the whereabouts of thousands of Albanians, Serbians and Roma who had disappeared in Kosovo without a trace and stumbled across unspeakable crimes.

In response to Del Ponte’s book, the European Council commissioned European Council deputy Dick Marty to conduct a two-year investigation. Marty’s report appeared in 2010. He described Kosovo as a country with “Mafia-like structures of organised crime” and accused former KLA leaders as well as Thaçi, who was prime minister at the time, of leading a criminal network involved in contract killings, drug dealing, prostitution and the illegal trade in organs.

The American jurist John C. Williamson, who jointly authored the charge sheet against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and was appointed as a special investigator by the European Union, came to the conclusion after a review lasting more than two years that the Marty report was based on solid evidence and would justify criminal proceedings. But nothing of the sort occurred and Thaçi was elected president in 2016.

However, one year earlier, Kosovo’s parliament decided under international pressure to establish a special tribunal financed by the EU. It is formally part of Kosovo’s judicial system but is based in the Netherlands and staffed by foreign judges and prosecutors.

The Europeans’ pursuit of Thaçi is bound up with mounting tensions between Europe and the United States. The charges were announced just a few days before a scheduled summit between Thaçi and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksander Vuči in Washington. The meeting was subsequently cancelled. Prior to this, Thaçi said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the US role was “indispensable” and criticised the EU. The Americans are showing “once again that they can act more quickly, accurately, and efficiently than the Europeans,” he added.

Even if Thaçi is convicted by the court, the EU will do everything it can to suppress the role of the NATO powers in the KLA’s war crimes. Given that the court cannot conduct its own investigations, it is dependent on witness testimony. In late September, internal court documents containing the secret names of witnesses appeared at the KLA veterans association in Pristina. They must now fear for their lives and those of their loved ones if they go ahead with their testimony.

Protests in Inner Mongolia over Chinese government language policy

Jerry Zhang

Protests have been underway in recent months in Inner Mongolia over the Chinese government’s new education policy, which mandates a transition to the use of the “national common language,” that is, Mandarin Chinese, in local schools that teach in the Mongolian language. The new policy, which commenced at the beginning of the new semester in September, has provoked considerable dissatisfaction in what is an autonomous region of China.

Map showing Inner Mongolia highlighted in red [Credit: Amicus.com]

On August 26, the Inner Mongolia Education Bureau issued anotice requesting that some subjects in elementary and middle schools (at present Chinese, politics, and history) be taught in Mandarin Chinese using Chinese textbooks. According to official reports, this policy was formulated in accordance with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s instructions that “minorities should learn the national common language.”

On August 31, a protest broke out in Tongliao City. The police responded with a notice stating that more than 100 participants were wanted, and warning that all crowds gathering in public places would be thoroughly investigated. The Associated Press quoted a participant as saying that similar protests occurred in many cities in Inner Mongolia. Citing other participants, Agence France-Presse reported that demonstrations of more than 10,000 people took place in some cities, making it the largest protest movement in the region since 2011.

Videos show students and parents taking part in school strikes. Some clashed with the police and guards. According to the BBC, a school with more than 1,000 students had less than ten students left in class. More recently, local governments and education bureaus in Inner Mongolia issued notices calling on students to return to school. The government reportedly is trying to force students on strike to return to school, including by threats and arrests.

Inner Mongolia is not a special case. Previously, similar policies have been implemented in Tibet and Xinjiang. After the change in Inner Mongolia, other regions have promulgated the same policy. Starting this year, all high school freshmen across the country are obligated to use Chinese textbooks, and minority schools are required to teach in Chinese, generating hostility among other ethnic minorities.

The Chinese Communist Party regime in Beijing is certainly riding roughshod over the democratic rights of ethnic majorities, further tightening longstanding policies that paid lip service to their cultural sensitivities. Since the restoration of capitalism in the 1980s, the government has increasingly relied on whipping up Chinese nationalism to divide the working class and consolidate its shaky social foundation. Like other capitalist regimes, China is being hit hard by the global capitalist crisis, leading to mounting unemployment and deteriorating wages and conditions, and brewing opposition among Chinese workers and youth.

Ethnic minorities are commonly found in economically underdeveloped areas. An influx of investment is often accompanied by the immigration of large numbers of Han Chinese workers, aggravating unemployment and the relative poverty of local ethnic minorities. Incapable of providing any progressive response to the discontent, the Stalinist CCP is resorting to police-state measures and the promotion of Han Chinese chauvinism. This only deepens the divide and plays into the hands of separatist tendencies among ethnic minorities, as well as US imperialism.

Just as it has latched onto “human rights” in Tibet and among the Uighur population in Xinjiang, so Washington has sought to exploit discontent in Inner Mongolia. The CCP regime, in turn, seizes on the activities of the US to justify its own crackdown, attributing all protests and opposition to “incitement by foreign forces,” and ignoring the genuine grievances among ethnic minorities over the trampling of their democratic rights.

While “human rights” in Inner Mongolia is not, as yet, as central to American propaganda as in Xinjiang for instance, the US media has seized on the protests. The reports frequently quote the dubious Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, which is based in New York. Its official webpage notes that it has been funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is notorious as a front for the CIA and US State Department. The NED is closely involved with exile Tibetan and Uighur organisations, as a means of promoting separatist groups inside China.

The Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center founder, Enghebatu Togochog, who is proclaimed in the Western media as “a representative figure,” accuses the Chinese government, without substantiation, of a “genocidal policy.” Since July, the organisation has given interviews to the right-wing, anti-communist journal Bitter Winter, which is notorious for its anti-Chinese propaganda and promotion of separatism.

As early as 2016, an organization calling itself the Southern Mongolian Congress was formed in Japan. In the same year, it participated in a leadership meeting sponsored by the Chinese exile and separatist groups in Dharamsala, India—the base of the so-called Tibetan government in exile. The Southern Mongolian Congress claims to be an organisation of independent activists and political parties, but it is a mouthpiece for US propaganda and has promoted rallies around the world to highlight the protests inside Inner Mongolia.

The use of the term “southern Mongolian” is significant. It is based on the idea that Inner Mongolia should separate from China and integrate into the existing country of Mongolia. The promotion of Mongolian nationalism does not serve the interests of the working people of Inner Mongolia or Mongolia but the ambitions of a small capitalist elite that seeks the “right” to exploit its own working class.

The efforts of these “Southern Mongolian” organisations also serve the strategic interests of US imperialism, which cynically and selectively exploits “human rights,” in this case to undermine the Chinese regime. For more than a decade, under presidents Obama and Trump, the US has recklessly ratcheted up its economic and military confrontation with China, seeking to prevent it from threatening American global hegemony. Its promotion of separatist organisations in Tibet, Xinjiang and now Inner Mongolia—all crucial strategic areas—is clearly aimed at weakening and ultimately fragmenting its rival.

At the same time, Washington is developing closer ties with Mongolia—on China’s sensitive northern border. In July last year, the Trump administration invited the president of Mongolia, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, to the US. In a bid to undermine China’s near monopoly of the world’s supply of rare earths, the US has signed an agreement for large investments in mining in Mongolia, which has rich reserves of rare earths. After the visit, the White House said the US and Mongolia shared a close security partnership, and reported that Mongolia has pledged to commit troops in Afghanistan, at least through 2021, and has supported US sanctions on North Korea.

Just weeks later, Donald Trump Jr. made a trip to Mongolia, supposedly “in his own name.” This “personal trip” was warmly welcomed by the Mongolian government with President Battulga warmly receiving the US President’s son. Mongolia refers to the US as its “third neighbour,” as it relies on American economic and security support.

Significantly, the US media and political establishment is increasingly vocal and strident about the Chinese government’s “human rights” abuses of Uighurs, Tibetans and now Mongolians, but rarely even mentions the repressive measures being used to suppress the opposition of the Chinese working class as a whole. Washington is clearly fearful of any movement of workers in China, as this would threaten the profits and investments of major American corporations. For all its crocodile tears in 1989, over the brutal crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests—directed above all against Chinese workers—the US political establishment saw these “human rights” abuses as vital to its economic interests.

The only way that the democratic rights of ethnic minorities in China can be defended is precisely by turning to the working class in China and internationally—in opposition both to the CCP regime in Beijing, and to the intrigues of US imperialism and the separatist organisations that it promotes.

US jobless rates falls but long-term unemployment up sharply as millions remain out of work

Shannon Jones

The US unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent in October, a one percentage point drop, even as the number of long term unemployed, those out of work 27 weeks or longer, increased by 1.2 million to 3.6 million.

More than seven months since the start of the pandemic, the economy has added only a little more than one half of the 22 million jobs that were initially lost. There were some 638,000 new jobs added in October, but that marks a decline in new jobs over previous months, indicating that the pace of the recovery is slowing. There were 672,000 new jobs in September, 1.5 million in August and 1.8 million in July.

While service industry jobs in areas like restaurants and retail trade rose in October, there was a sharp drop in government jobs as states and localities faced severe revenue and budget issues. Manufacturing gained just 38,000 jobs and is still down by 621,000 jobs since February. Health and social assistance added 79,000 jobs and is still down 950,000 since February. In another sign of distress, overall employment at small businesses is reported to be falling.

A store for rent sign hangs in the window of an empty storefront on Broadway in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan in New York [Credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer]

Reflecting the irrationality and anti-social character of the capitalist profit system, hospital employment is down nearly 2 percent since last year in the midst of the pandemic. It fell by nearly 4 percent between May and September. Employment at nursing and residential care fell by almost 88 percent in the same period.

At the same time, the labor force participation rate, a measure of the total population that is employed, rose only slightly, 0.3 percentage points, to 61.7 percent. The number of those working part time, rather than full time, rose 383,000, to 6.7 million. Total US output is down 3.5 percent since the end of last year.

As the pandemic resurges in the United States, setting new records for the number of daily new infections, job growth is sure to slow or reverse even without new lockdowns. Many of the new jobs being added have been restaurant or retail jobs, likely to be hammered as the winter season approaches and virus cases explode. While restaurant hiring represented one of the largest jobs gains last month, the end of outdoor dining throughout much of the country with the approach of the winter season could lead to more job cuts.

Adding to the hardship facing the unemployed or those on part time the US Congress has blocked the reinstatement of the $600 weekly supplemental that expired at the end of July or any aid to the unemployed or small business, with neither Republicans nor Democrats indicating any sense of urgency. Nor has Congress acted on an extension of the moratorium on evictions, set to expire at the end of the year.

At the same time, a $300 weekly supplement initiated by the Trump administration out of federal disaster relief funds has also been exhausted. Despite the rise in jobs, personal income in the third quarter fell $636.7 billion, or 13.2 percent, largely due to the ending of government social benefits.

There are indications that the Democrats will wait until the installation of a presumptive Biden administration in late January to consider any new relief measures.

There are still 21.5 million people collecting some form of government unemployment assistance compared to 1.44 million in a comparable week in 2019. Millions more have exhausted benefits and dropped out of the labor force and are not counted in official statistics. Some 54 million people are going hungry and millions more face evictions or utility shutoffs. Some 8 million have fallen into poverty since the start of the pandemic.

In Pennsylvania, tens of thousands face the threat of utility shutoffs as a statewide moratorium put into effect in March expired this week. According to data from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the money owed to utility companies in the state has gone from $432 million last year to $721 million as of September.

The financial aristocracy has utilized the pandemic to leverage a massive increase in its wealth, shifting the entire cost of the economic disaster precipitated by the pandemic onto the shoulders of the working population.

The stock market has continued to rise, celebrating death amidst the upsurge of the pandemic. Consequently, the wealth of the 643 US billionaires continues to increase, having already risen $845 billion in the period mid-March through September.

Many of the jobs destroyed by the pandemic are likely to never return as companies use the crisis to engineer major restructurings. Even if job growth continues at the current pace, which is unlikely, it would take 16 more months for employment to reach pre-pandemic levels. The leisure and hospitality industry, including restaurants, travel and entertainment, is still down 3.5 million jobs. Retail trade is down about 500,000 and health care and social assistance is down 950,000 since February.

There is currently a greater jobs deficit, 11 million, than at the worst point of every previous postwar recession, including the Great Recession of 2008. New weekly claims for unemployment are still at four times the pre-pandemic level.

An economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Kate Bahn, told the Washington Post that the modest job gains in sectors that were vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic was a concern.

“These gains are really limited as the pandemic is surging and we’re heading into winter,” she said. “It’s better than expected, but there’s a lot of evidence that it’s still a limited recovery, that is really uneven and has exacerbated a lot of inequality that existed before the crisis.”

Gregory Daco, the chief economist at Oxford Economics warned in the Wall Street Journal that a full recovery is long in the making. “In normal times getting 600,000 jobs on a monthly basis would be great,” Daco said. “But in this environment, you’re still looking at a recovery that’s going to take a couple of years to get us back out of this hole. If job growth moderates further then we’re talking about three or four years, and that’s a very long time.”

According to the Conference Board, one in ten employers plan to cut jobs during the final quarter of 2020. Eleven percent said they plan to reduce bonuses, eight percent say they plan to defer bonuses or raises, and eleven percent plan to freeze hiring.

Almost one third of industries have reduced hours since the start of the pandemic. Mining and logging are the worst impacted, showing a 2-hour per week decline. Construction work hours fell by nearly one hour per week while durable goods, wholesale trade and manufacturing also showed declines.

FBI seizes internet domain names it claims are part of Iranian influence campaign

Kevin Reed

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized 27 domain names the agency claimed were used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for the purpose of a “global covert influence campaign.”

Notice posted by the Department of Justice on website domains that were seized by the FBI on November 4

The DoJ public affairs statement said, “all 27 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC.” It also said that four of the domains “purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted audiences in the United States, to covertly influence United States policy and public opinion, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).”

The four domains specifically mentioned for violating FARA are “rpfront.com” (Real Progressive Front), “ahtribune.com” (American Herald Tribune), “awdnews.com” (Another Western Dawn News) and “criticalstudies.org” (Critical Studies) and each of these internet locations now hosts a graphic which displays the DoJ and FBI seals and a red headline that that states, “THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN SEIZED.” The latest seizures follow by less than one month an earlier seizure of 92 domains the FBI claimed were used by IRGC for similar purposes.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a US law passed in 1938 that requires agents representing the interests of foreign powers in a “political or quasi-political capacity,” to disclose their relationship and provide information about their activities and finances.

The DoJ statement says the FARA law establishes a “registration, reporting, and disclosure regime for agents … so that the U.S. government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information and the identity of persons attempting to influence US public opinion, policy, and law.”

While the DoJ lists the domain names, it does not name the individuals who allegedly violated the FARA registration and reporting requirements. The statements says that the four domains, “purported to be independent news outlets, but they were actually operated by or on behalf of the IRGC to target the United States with pro-Iranian propaganda in an attempt to covertly influence the American people to change United States policy concerning Iran and the Middle East.”

However, other than the above assertions of “covert influence” and “pro-Iranian propaganda,” no detailed evidence or examples of these activities have been presented by the DoJ. Neither was any evidence presented that the domains were controlled by Iranian officials, the Tehran regime in or the IRGC.

The DoJ statement also says that the domains were in violation of the International Emergency and Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR), which prohibit US persons from providing services to the Government of Iran without a license.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers revealed the geopolitical motivation behind the action when he explained the domain seizures were part of a broad initiative over the last month against, “Iran’s weapons, fuel, and covert influence infrastructure.” Speaking as a representative of US imperialism—the number one purveyor of foreign influence, information manipulation, torture and assassination in the world—Demers went on to accuse Iran of destabilizing the world “through state-sponsored terrorism and the taking of hostages.”

Significantly, FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair said that the agencies aggressive actions against “foreign influence” and “unlawful spread of disinformation by hostile nations” was carried out with the collaboration of the leading social media platforms. Fair said, “Thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Google, Facebook and Twitter, the FBI was able to disrupt this Iranian propaganda campaign and we will continue to pursue any attempts by foreign actors to spread disinformation in our country.”

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

The FBI’s warrant—provided as a PDF download by DoJ—was issued on election day November 3 and outlines the “probable cause” argument for the seizures. The 67-page affidavit submitted by Special Agent Aaron Stewart of the San Francisco Division of the FBI states that, “there is probable cause to believe that the Target Domains constitute property used, or intended to be used, to commit or facilitate violations” of several US laws “and are accordingly subject to seizure and forfeiture.”

The affidavit shows that the FBI worked with the cybersecurity firm FireEye and the social media companies to develop the justification for the seizure of the domains. The document contains some details of about the publishing activities by the four domains that were charged with violating FARA.

For example, the American Herald Tribune featured content on the US 2020 elections that “insinuates that particular candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President were pro-Zionist; that mail-in voting could lead to violence; and that the U.S. election is susceptible to foreign interference.”

The affidavit goes on, “The FBI assesses that these articles constitute political activities, as defined by FARA, as they are designed to influence any section of the public within the United States with reference to formulating, adopting or changing the domestic or foreign policies of the United States, or with reference to the political or public interests, policies, or relations of Iran.” A description such as this would place a majority of US-based news sites on the FBI’s seizure list.

The US charges of Iranian ties to the American Herald Tribune have been developing going back to 2018 when Facebook, in collaboration with FireEye, removed the website’s page from its platform. Google also took down the Gmail and advertising accounts associated with the publication based on FireEye’s assessment “with moderate confidence” that the website was an Iranian operation.

Twitter removed the account of the publication last January after it was contacted by CNN Business based on information provided by “independent researcher and social media sleuth” Josh Russell—who is also a regular talking head on NBC, NPR and CNN—of links with Iran.

The FBI affidavit contains a direct reference, without mentioning the source by name, to the CNN Business report that “genuine journalists that have contributed to American Herald Tribune may be unwitting and unaware of the true nature and origins of the inauthentic news site.” However, the CNN Business report contains an interview with a journalist who wrote for the publication and “is a critic of American foreign policy and US ally Saudi Arabia. He says that Iran is ‘misunderstood’ in the US.”

The latest seizure of domain names is reminiscent of previous allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns within the US that are devoid of any proof and assert that “foreign agents” are stoking unrest within the country which have been used to justify social media censorship. In this particular case, the actions of the DoJ and the FBI were taken on election day amidst an anticipated political crisis and potential for civil unrest within the US. This fact suggests that the seizure of domain names was something a trial balloon by the state apparatus to assert its ability to shut down all left-wing and socialist websites critical of US government policies.

Climate change and human evolution

Philip Guelpa

It has long been understood that the evolution of organisms involves dynamic, dialectical interaction between a species and its environment—both physical and biological. This applies to humans as well as all other species.

The very beginning of a distinct human lineage is linked to climate change marking the transition from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene, roughly 2.5 million years ago, during which a general drying trend in Africa caused forests to retreat and grasslands to expand. One group of apes, who as a whole are forest-dwelling, ventured or were driven from the forests into the grasslands. The radical shift in adaptation to this new environment initiated the evolutionary trajectory of a new ape lineage—the hominins of the genus Australopithecus—leading ultimately to modern humans.

New research, reported in the journal Science Advances, elucidates in detail the role played by another environmental change in a major transition in hominin biological and technological evolution, spanning the period from 500,000 to 300,000 years ago in Africa.

Data derived from a program of core drilling through sedimentary rock in the southern Kenyan Rift Valley documents changes in water availability, vegetation and other resources across the landscape that are chronologically correlated with a major technological shift in stone tools, from what are known as Acheulean industries, which had been in use for over a million years, to those of the Middle Stone Age (MSA).

This change is most clearly marked by the disappearance of large bifaces, known as handaxes, which dominated the tool assemblage, to a more diverse and sophisticated tool inventory. Other innovations which appear in the MSA are long-distance trade in lithic (derived from stone) raw materials and the use of coloring materials which may indicate the creation of symbolic representations (i.e., art).

Together, these technological and behavioral changes are taken to be representative of a significant cognitive advance among the humans in that region. Since cognitive abilities do not fossilize, they must be inferred based on material remains—artifacts and fossils. It is likely not a coincidence that the period in question also initiates the transition from the species Homo erectus, which had been in existence for over a million years, to a variety of new hominins, including the first appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens.

The evidence from the drill cores that significant environmental changes were taking place during the period in question comes in a variety of forms. The sedimentary sequence documented in the cores indicates relative environment stability from 1 million to half a million years ago, then a significant increase in episodes of drying after 500,000 years ago, marked by retreat of lake levels, reflecting a shift to a more unstable, frequently drier environment than had been the case previously. These drier episodes each lasted approximately 5,000 years.

Data from plant remains also indicate a shift from generally wetter to drier environments, including an increased presence of grasses (particularly short grasses), which are more drought-tolerant, as opposed to woody plants. This also suggests the development of a less varied array of plant resources. The cores document repeated, relatively rapid shifts in vegetation.

These vegetation shifts would be expected to affect the animal population that depend on them. Indeed, the fossil record indicates a massive, 85 percent replacement of large mammalian grazing herbivores (greater than 900 kg in body weight) with smaller mammals having a more varied, grazing/browsing herbivorous diet, who could survive in a drier environment. This suggests a less stable climate to which animals with more flexible adaptations and generally smaller body size were better suited. Larger animals also tend to have lower reproductive rates, making them more vulnerable to changing, unstable conditions.

Concurrent archaeological data suggests that humans living at that time also had to become more flexible, broadening their adaptive strategies to cope with a changing, less stable environment. One indication of the need to expand their range of resource procurement comes in the form of the exploitation of a wider range of lithic raw materials for stone tool manufacture.

In the region under study, raw materials used for making Acheulean tools typically came from a distance of no more than five kilometers. By contrast, MSA artifact assemblages include tools made of obsidian, a volcanic rock only available from sources 25 to 95 kilometers away. This may indicate not only a larger procurement/trade range, but also a greater sophistication in tool technology, both in manufacture and use, since obsidian, which is volcanic glass, can be used to make sharper, more delicate tools than coarser grained stones.

Acheulean and Middle Stone Age tools [Credit: Human Origins Program, Smithsonian]

One notable change in tool technology at this time is the appearance of smaller projectile (presumably spear) points, which is suggestive of the hunting of smaller animals, consistent with the observed change in the fauna.

The authors of the Science Advances paper cite ethnographic evidence from recent populations that humans with a hunter-gatherer economy “tend to increase their investment in technology, expand their range of resource acquisition, and rely on distant social alliances and exchange networks in situations of heightened resource unpredictability and risk.” They then postulate that environmental instability during the time range of 500,000 to 300,000 years ago, as documented in the core samples, would likely have prompted similar responses by humans at that time.

Human groups with hunter-gatherer economies are dependent on the natural spatial distribution, abundance, and seasonal availability of food resources as well as the distribution of lithic raw materials and other necessities such as potable water. To survive in a given environment, the group must develop a “seasonal round,” placing them at the right places and times across the landscape in order to effectively and efficiently exploit the available natural resources necessary to maintain a sustainable diet and obtain the needed raw materials for their technology.

If a particular locality provides sufficient reliable food and raw materials in a limited geographic range, the human inhabitants will be able to maintain a fairly small “home range.”

If, on the other hand, the necessary resources are spatially or temporally dispersed, and/or of limited quantity or quality at any given location, the group will have to travel more widely across the landscape to meet its needs.

If environmental conditions become less stable, altering the seasonality, spatial distribution, or abundance of food resources or sources of water on which a group relies, its economic adaptation will come under stress. This would necessitate a widening of the group’s home range and/or the establishment of trade/exchange networks with adjacent groups.

Another adaptive measure is to develop new technologies that would increase the effectiveness of exploitation of existing resources and/or open new resources for incorporation into the diet. The shift from Acheulean to the more complex MSA stone tool technology is consistent with such a change.

The need for wider, inter-regional interactions between human populations during the period in question than had previously been the case would likely have necessitated the development of social mechanisms to mediate relations between different groups, such as shared symbolic representations (possibly including the use of pigments, which have been found in archaeological sites in this area) and perhaps intermarriage. The expansion and increased complexity of intergroup social relations along with the adoption of more sophisticated stone tool technology imply an expanded mental capacity. The contemporary first appearance of the earliest Homo sapiens strongly suggests an evolutionary correlation.

While this study is based on data from one region of Africa, the authors suggest that the MSA cultural practices and technology documented in the Kenya Rift Valley would have provided adaptive advantages across other areas as well.

Converging Priorities: India, France and Germany in the Indo-Pacific

Siddharth Anil Nair

India’s maritime security has been increasingly threatened by China over the past decade. Beijing’s ‘nine-dash line’ claim in the South China Sea (SCS), its false claim of a historical "maritime silk road" to the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), along with its rise as the world’s largest naval power, have made it a disruptive force in the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR).

Beijing’s territorial expansionism and economic imperialism have also provoked a response from a growing number of regional and extra-regional actors. France and Germany are among the latest adoptees of the IPR concept. This commentary will explain how Paris and Berlin’s material and normative interests in the IPR overlap New Delhi’s.

Overlapping Values and Interests

India’s maritime security is ensured by the development of national capacity and the preservation of ‘regional multilateralism’ in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). These two priorities operate within New Delhi’s primary and secondary interest areas, i.e. areas that are closer (IOR) and farther away (IPR), respectively.

French “openness” to, and German “promotion” of, bilateral and multilateral capacity-building measures on climate change, digital technologies, human rights, military technology, etc. not only meet India’s growing capacity needs in the IOR, but also empower its predominance in the larger IPR. While Paris, Berlin, and New Delhi use different terminologies, the values they embody are by and large similar.

There appears to be continuing concern about the European Union’s (EU) economic dependence on China impairing truly effective responses. However, growing scepticism about the future of EU-China relations, a “strong need for an international mobilisation to counter” Beijing’s unilateralism in the China Seas, and determination to balance the economic relationship showcase France and Germany’s willingness to stand up to China.

Paris’ desire to “avoid hegemony” is similar to Berlin's desire to “avoid unilateral dependencies.” Both are matched by New Delhi’s emphasis on the respect for territorial sovereignty, developing collective security, and preserving equal economic opportunity in the region. All three appear to subscribe to the essence of a “free, fair, open and rules-based” Indo-Pacific.

Having said that, French and German interests in the region differ. France, unlike Germany, still retains a number of territories in the IPR. Approximately 94.25 per cent of its exclusive economic zone is in the IPR; 30 per cent it in the IOR. France—again, unlike Germany—has a significant military presence in the region. Besides the protection of its departménts to the west near the Mozambique Channel, and territories to the south near the Antarctic Shelf, French troops in the IOR are engaged in a number of multilateral commitments. As a result, India’s partnership with both countries will also be different.

Converging Priorities

New Delhi’s primary maritime security priorities in the IOR, particularly in the west, from the Arabian Sea to the Laccadive Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, are mirrored by Paris’ regional priorities. Sustained military cooperation with France would best fit India’s approach to its primary interests.

A joint security partnership, driven by India-France maritime cooperation in the western IOR, and focused on sea lines of communication (SLOC)-protection, surveillance, anti-piracy/terrorism, and humanitarian assistance (HA)/disaster relief (DR) missions will allow India to maintain its ‘net security’ provider status in the IOR. The 2018 logistics agreement lays the foundation for this synergy. Such a partnership will develop mutual capacity as well as set standards for collective regional security for other actors in the IOR, some of whom still retain traditional ties with France. The recently held India-France-Australia trilateral also signals Paris’ interest in enhancing involvement in the larger IOR.

While the Indo-German partnership may not be so muscular, Berlin’s normative, regulatory, and economic power, and its current position as president of the EU Council, makes it a critical partner in preserving and promoting a more multilateral spirit in the IOR and the wider IPR. The German Indo-Pacific guidelines and the joint French-German “Alliance for Multilateralism” offer a robust framework for longer-lasting ‘theme-based’ networks in the IPR. By moving beyond security to include issues such as human rights and climate change, the German approach to the IPR broadens the scope for multilateral cooperation.

Such networks will help foster greater geo-economic and geopolitical relationships with actors beyond India’s primary areas of interest in East Asia and West Africa. It will lend weight to counter-balancing Beijing’s disruptive global agenda. Given that the French and German visions are eventually expected to feed into a larger common EU vision for the IPR, the convergences with India will give New Delhi a springboard to build a long-term geostrategic partnership with the EU.

IPR: New Delhi’s Reorientation

India’s geo-strategic orientation is compelled by the ongoing standoff with China. It is also influenced by its relationships with Japan and the US. The concept of the IPR—its origins in the “confluence of the seas”—has guided New Delhi to take on a more Pacific-oriented approach, i.e. the Act East policy,  “Malacca Dilemma”, Andaman Nicobar Command, Quad, etc.

Partnering with France and Germany will provide India the opportunity to strengthen extant relationships in its primary and secondary interest areas (through collective security and regional multilateralism). It will also wean New Delhi away from its current Pacific-oriented approach to a more comprehensive view of maritime security in the IOR.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2021

Application Deadline: 10th November 2020

About the Award: The EP is a three-year program consisting of two 18-month assignments. It is aimed at talented, recent PhD graduates who are excited by the opportunity to gain operational experience and further develop their macroeconomics expertise, while making a direct and meaningful contribution on a global stage to fostering monetary cooperation, securing financial stability, facilitating international trade, promoting high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reducing poverty.

Type: PhD, Job

Eligibility: We are seeking between 20 and 30 top economists from around the world who:

• Have recently completed or are expected to complete a PhD within a year (or less) of joining in fields including macroeconomics, finance, public finance, monetary economics, international economics, trade, poverty issues, political economy, econometrics or related areas.
• Possess an excellent academic record.
• Have validated analytical, quantitative, and IT skills.
• Show an interest in, and aptitude for, working in an international organization, and contributing to economic policy issues.
• Be a national of one our member countries.
• Be below age 34 at entry to the program on September 13, 2021.
• Have strong written and oral English skills. Ideally, you will also be:

• Motivated by making significant contributions to the economic well-being of our members. 
• Able to demonstrate a sound understanding of macroeconomics (even if specialized in other areas during graduate school), able to utilize conceptual frameworks to commutate complex ideas, and be comfortable in navigating around the different sectors of an economy and the linkages between these sectors.
• Able to undertake a combination of operational, analytical, and research work.
• Versatile and flexible in learning about different areas while also possessing a strong field of relevant expertise.
• A natural collaborator, motivated by exchanging information and ideas with others to reach common goals and making a substantial contribution to the team’s work.
• Cultural agility and emotional intelligence to engage effectively internally and externally, develop relationships, and build strong networks.
• Willingness to travel (can vary based on assignment but typically one-two missions per 18-month EP rotation)
• Proficient in, or be willing to learn, foreign languages. (Languages other than English are useful but not a requirement.)

Selection Process: We will conduct an initial screening based on your application form and supporting documentation. If you are successful in meeting our initial criteria, you will receive an invitation for a preliminary interview by phone or by video. Following a successful preliminary stage (preliminary interview + transcript + references) we will invite you for a virtual panel interview. The preliminary and panel interview stage will take place through the end of the year and during January and the two steps may overlap.

We are keen to hear from adaptable, talented, and technically competent candidates who are curious and can find creative ways to address today’s global economic challenges. If you are interested in being part of a team that contributes to promoting economic stability on a global stage, we would welcome your application.

Eligible Countries: Any

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:

• Participants in the EP will apply their studies and research to policy work that impacts our 189 member countries and join a team of staff working to address the key global economic challenges. You will travel to countries where you will work closely with country authorities and carry out operational work related to the IMF’s mission. Depending on your assignments, EP participants will gain broad experience in regional and country-specific issues, as well as in fiscal, monetary, balance of payments, debt, or other related issues and contribute to our research and policy analysis agenda.
• In combination with your work assignments, you will be able to participate in a range of training and development activities and will be mentored, guided, and supported by seasoned economists, all with a view of ensuring a satisfying and exciting start to your career at the IMF. 

Duration of Award: The EP is a three-year program consisting of two 18-month assignments.

How to Apply: Apply below

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

VLIR-UOS Masters Scholarships (ICP) 2021/2022

Application Deadline: Application Deadlines depend on candidate’s chosen programme (See ‘How to Apply’ link below); deadlines generally Between 16 January and 1 March 2021.

Eligible Countries:

• Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Niger
• Asia: Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Palestinian Territories, Vietnam
• Latin America: Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru

To be taken at (country): Belgium

Accepted Subject Areas: Only the following English taught courses at Belgian Flemish universities or university colleges are eligible for scholarships:

One-year master programmes

• Master of Human Settlements – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Development Evaluation and Management – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Governance and Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Globalization and Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021

Two-year programmes

• Master of Science in Food Technology – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Science in Marine and Lacustrine Science and Management – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Aquaculture (IMAQUA) – Deadline for applications: 1 March 2021
• Master of Epidemiology – Deadline for applications: 1 March 2021
• Master of Agro-and Environmental Nematology – Deadline online copies: 3 January 2021. Please note you have to send a hard copy of your application and all requested documents to the programme coordinator before 16 January 2021!
• Master of Rural Development – Deadline online application: 21 February 2021– deadline hard copies: 28 Feb 2021
• Master of Statistics – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Water Resources Engineering – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Sustainable Development – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021
• Master of Transportation Sciences – Deadline for applications: 1 February 2021

About the Award: VLIR-UOS awards scholarships to students from developing countries to study for a master or training programme in Flanders, Belgium. VLIR-UOS funds and facilitates academic cooperation and exchange between higher education institutions in Flanders (Belgium) and those in developing countries, which aims at building capacity, knowledge and experience for a sustainable development.

The master programmes focus on specific problems of developing countries. These are designed to enable graduates to share and apply acquired knowledge in the home institution and country. In the shorter training programmes the focus is on transferring skills rather than knowledge, thus creating opportunities for cooperation and networking.

Selection Criteria: The following criteria will be taken into account for the selection of candidates for a scholarship:

• Motivation. The candidate who is not able to convincingly motivate his application, is unlikely to be selected for a scholarship.
• Professional experience: Preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate a higher possibility of implementing and/or transferring the newly gained knowledge upon return to the home country.
• Gender. In case of two equally qualified candidates of different sexes, preference will be given to the female candidate.
• Regional balance. The selection commission tries to ensure that 50% of a programme’s scholarships are granted to candidates from Sub-Saharan Africa, provided there is a sufficient number of qualifying candidates from this region.
• Social background. In case of two equally qualified candidates, preference will be given to candidates who can demonstrate that they belong to a disadvantaged group or area within their country or an ethnic or social minority group, especially when these candidates can provide proof of leadership potential.
• Previously awarded scholarships: Preference will be given to candidates who have never received a scholarship to study in a developed country (bachelor or master).

Eligibility: You can only apply for a scholarship if you meet the following requisites.

1. Fungibility with other VLIR-UOS funding: A scholarship within the VLIR-UOS scholarship programme is not compatible with financial support within an IUC- or TEAM-project. Candidates working in a university where such projects are being organized, should submit a declaration of the project leader stating that the department where the candidate is employed is not involved in the project.
2. Age: The maximum age for an ICP candidate is 35 years for an initial masters and 40 years for an advanced masters. The maximum age for an ITP candidate is 45 years. The candidate cannot succeed this age on January 1 of the intake year.
3. Nationality and Country of Residence: A candidate should be a national and resident of one of the 31 countries of the VLIR-UOS country list for scholarships (not necessarily the same country) at the time of application.
4. Professional background and experience: VLIR-UOS gives priority to candidates who are employed in academic institutions, research institutes, governments, social economy or NGO’s, or aim a career in one of these sectors. However, also candidates employed in the profit sector (ICP and ITP) or newly graduated candidates without any work experience (ICP) can be eligible for the scholarship. The ITP candidate should have relevant professional experience and a support letter confirming (re)integration in a professional context where the acquired knowledge and skills will be immediately applicable.
5. Former VLIR-UOS scholarship applications and previously awarded scholarships: A candidate can only submit one VLIR-UOS scholarship application per year, irrespectively of the scholarship type. As a consequence, a candidate can only be selected for one VLIR-UOS scholarship per year.
6. The ICP candidate has never received a scholarship from the Belgian government to attend a master programme or equivalent or was never enrolled in a Flemish higher education institution to attend a master programme or equivalent before January 1 of the intake year

Number of Awardees: VLIR-UOS will award up to 180 scholarships.

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship covers ALL related expenses (full cost).

Duration of Scholarship: The master programmes will last for one or two academic years.

How to Apply: 

• To apply for a scholarship, you first need to apply for the Master programme.
• To apply for the Masters programme, visit the website of the Master programme of your interest. Follow the guidelines for application for the programme as mentioned on its website.
• In the programme application, you can mention whether you wish to apply for a scholarship. In case you do,  the programme coordinator forwards your application to VLIR-UOS.
• Applications submitted by the candidates to VLIR-UOS directly will not be considered!

Visit Scholarship Webpage for more details