28 Feb 2017

Adelaide Scholarships International (ASI) Australia for Masters & Doctoral Studies 2017/2018

Application Deadlines:
  • Round 1: 31st of August 2016 (Passed)
  • Round 2: 31st January 2017
  • Round 330th April 2017
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Field of Study: Courses offered at the university.
About Scholarship: The University of Adelaide offers a scholarships scheme for international students undertaking postgraduate research study for Master’s and Doctoral degrees. The purpose of the financial award programme is to attract high quality overseas postgraduate students to areas of research strength in the University of Adelaide to support its research effort.
Type: Masters & Doctoral
Selection Criteria : The selection and ranking of applicants within the University of Adelaide is undertaken by the Graduate Scholarships Committee, using the criteria of academic merit and research potential.
Eligibility
  • In order to be eligible applicants are required to have successfully completed at least the equivalent of an Australian First Class Honours degree (this is a four year degree with a major research project in the final year). All qualifying programs of study must be successfully completed.
  • Scholarships will be awarded on academic merit and research potential. Extra-curricular achievements are not considered.
  • International applicants must not hold a research qualification regarded by the University of Adelaide to be equivalent to an Australian Research Doctorate degree or, if undertaking a Research Masters degree, not hold a research qualification regarded by the University of Adelaide to be equivalent to or higher than an Australian Research Masters degree.
  • International applicants who have not provided evidence of their meeting the minimum English language proficiency requirements for direct entry by the scholarship closing date, or who have completed a Pre-Enrolment English Program to meet the entry requirements for the intended program of study, are not eligible.
  • Candidates are required to enrol in the University of Adelaide as ‘international students’ and must maintain ‘international student’ status for the duration of their enrolment in the University.
  • International applicants are not eligible if they have already commenced the degree for which they are seeking an award, unless they can establish that they were unable to apply in the previous round.
  • Scholarships holders must commence study at the University of Adelaide in the semester the scholarship is offered.
  • Applicants who applied and were eligible for consideration in an international scholarship round, and were unsuccessful, will automatically be reconsidered in the following international scholarship round, assuming they hold a valid offer of candidature for that intake. An applicant who has been considered in 2 rounds cannot be reconsidered in any future scholarship rounds.
Number of Scholarships: Not specified
Value of Scholarship:
  • Course tuition fees for two years for a Masters degree by Research and three years for a Doctoral research degree (an extension is possible for doctoral programs only),
  • An annual living allowance ($26,288 in 2016) for two years for a Masters degree by Research and three years for a Doctoral research degree (an extension is possible for doctoral programs only), and
  • For Postgraduate Research (Subclass 574) visa holders the award provides compulsory standard Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) Worldcare policy for the student and their spouse and dependents (if any) for the standard duration of the student visa.  It does not cover the additional 6 month extended student visa period post thesis submission. If the award holder does not hold a subclass 574 visa then he/she is responsible for the cost of health insurance.
Duration of Scholarship: 2 years for Masters; 3 years for Doctoral
Eligible Countries: All countries except Australia and New Zealand
To be taken at (country): University of Adelaide, Australia
How to Apply
To apply, you have to submit a formal application for Admission and a Scholarship via an online application system. There is no application fee.
Visit scholarship webpage for details
Sponsors: University of Adelaide, Australia
Important Notes: The offer of a scholarship is contingent upon a student not being offered another award by the Commonwealth of Australia, the University of Adelaide, or an overseas sponsor. The University reserves the right to withdraw an offer of a scholarship at any time prior to enrolment if it is advised that an awardee has been offered a scholarship equal to or in excess of the financial value of the award offered by the University.

TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize in Economic Sciences for Developing Countries 2017

Application Deadline: 31st March 2017
Eligible Countries: Developing and other Countries
To be taken at (country): The prize will be presented on a special occasion, often coinciding with the General Meeting of TWAS.
About the Award: The prize reflects the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ strong support to TWAS and, more generally, seeks to build scientific capacity in the developing world. Bai Chunli, president of both the Chinese Academy and TWAS, played a central role in the creation of the TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize.
The TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize is named after the renowned Chinese economist Siwei Cheng (1935-2015), an economist, chemical engineer, and major political figure. He is most well-known for his work in modern Chinese economic development as a driving force behind the establishment of ChiNext, a stock exchange designed to provide venture capital in technology companies. His work has had a profound impact on both the Chinese and global economy.
Field of Study: Economic Sciences
Type:  Awards
Eligibility: Candidates for the TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize in Economic Sciences must be economic scientists who have been living and working in a developing country for at least ten years immediately before their nomination. They must meet at least one of the following qualifications:
  • Scientific research achievement in economic sciences of outstanding significance for the development of scientific thought.
  • Outstanding contribution to the application of economic sciences to sustainable development.
Members of TWAS and candidates for TWAS membership are not eligible for the prize.
Self-nominations will not be considered.
Nominations
  • TWAS is inviting nominations from all its members as well as science academies, national research councils, universities and scientific institutions in developing and developed countries.
  • Nominations can only be submitted electronically through the on-line nomination platform and clearly state the candidate’s contribution to understanding and addressing economic sciences.
  • Nominations of women social scientists and candidates from scientifically lagging countries are particularly encouraged.
Selection Criteria: Selection of the awardees is made on merit and on the recommendations of the selection committees composed of TWAS members.
Value of Award: 
  • From 2017 and for five years total, an annual prize of US$10,000 will be awarded in the field of Economic Sciences.
  • The prize is accompanied by a medal.
How to Apply: The TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize in Economic Sciences’ nominations can only be submitted electronically through the on-line platform by clicking on the “Nominate Now” link at the bottom of this page.
Award Provider: The World Academy of Sciences with funding from the Siwei Cheng Foundation.

UNESCO If I were… Global Youth Video/Photo Contest 2017

Application Deadline: 12th March 2017
To be taken at (country): UNESCO, in Paris, France
About the Contest: Through this contest, you can choose who you would like to be: you can choose to be anyone from your prime minister to your next door baker, and this only with a simple camera.
“If I were…” invites you to experiment with somebody else’s life through a video (1 minute maximum) or a powerful photo made by yourself to illustrate your feelings if you were this person. Change your perspective and express yourself differently. A life-experience that you will never forget!
Type: Contest
Eligibility: If you are between 21 and 30 years old, then you are eligible to participate.
Number of Awards: 10
Value of Contest: The 10 winners will get:
  • 1 mini iPad
  • 1 invitation to the “Second International Conference on Youth volunteering and dialogue: Preventing violent extremism and strengthening social inclusion” at UNESCO, in Paris, 12-14 April 2017 (travel and accommodation paid by UNESCO)
  • An international recognition and exposure of your work on UNESCO’s website
Win the contest and receive your award on stage during the exceptional prize-giving ceremony of the Conference.
Duration of Award:  12-14 April 2017
Apply in the Webpage Link below
Award Provider: UNESCO
Important Notes: All national or private institutions, organizations, and civil society networks working with Youth such as the UNESCO Associated Schools– ASPnet, UNESCO Clubs, UNITWIN and others, are welcome to encourage their members to participate in the Contest.

Tbilisi State University Masters Scholarships for International Students 2017/2018 – Georgia

Application Deadline: 27 thApril 2017
Eligible Countries: International
To be taken at (country): Georgia
About the Award: Graduates receive a Master of Arts in Economics diploma from ISET, which is recognized by the World Bank as one of five “centers of excellence” in economics education and research in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University is supported by BP, CERGE-EI Foundation, Governments of Georgia and Germany, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, OSI, Sida, USAID and the World Bank.
Field of Study: Economics
Type: Masters
Eligibility: To successfully complete the program, students must:
  • Pass all first year courses (a grade of D- or above).
  • In the second year, students must write a Master’s Project (15 credits) and complete and pass 15 elective courses (a total of 45 credits).
  • In the second year, if a student is enrolled in a concentration he/she has to satisfy all concentration requirements, as formulated by the concentration coordinator.
  • Write and successfully defend their Master’s Project.
  • Meet the minimum overall GPA requirement of 2.67 (B-).
Number of Awardees: 10
Value of Scholarship: 
  • Tuition Fee for the 2017-2018 academic year is 3,000 USD
  • Scholarships: ten scholarships are available for international students, covering up to 60% of tuition cost
  • Stipends: outstanding students are granted monthly stipends, depending on performance
  • Housing: International students will be considered for housing support in TSU dorms or ISET-rented
How to Apply: International Students: If you are unable to provide GRE or GMAT scores, you are eligible to take ISET’s admissions exams, in one of the following three locations: 1. Yerevan, Armenia; 2. Baku, Azerbaijan and 3. Tbilisi, Georgia. If you are unable to take exams at one of the three locations, the Admissions Committee may arrange a proctored online exam.
English Language Requirement:  Applicants whose first language is not English are usually required to provide evidence of proficiency in English at the higher level required by the University.
Applications are to be submitted online as follows:
  • Complete an application form.
  • Upload a statement of purpose – a one or two-page essay explaining your motivation to study economics and how a master’s degree in economics is related to your career goals and intellectual interests (in PDF format).
  • Upload diplomas and transcripts from previously attended educational programs (BA/MA Degrees or equivalent). If the documents are not in English, please provide translated versions. All documents should be scanned and attached in PDF format.
  • Upload your GRE or GMAT scores.
Award Provider: International School of Economics (ISET) at Tbilisi State University

Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) Scholarships for International Students 2017/2018 - Hungary

Application Deadline: 5th March 2017
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: See List below
To be taken at (country): Hungary
About the Award: Stipendium Hungaricum is a scholarship program for foreign students, founded by the Hungarian Government in 2013. The program aims to promote cultural understanding, economic and cultural relations between Hungary and other countries.
Fields of Study: 
  • Faculty of Education and Psychology
  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Faculty of Informatics
  • Faculty of Law
  • Faculty of Science
  • Faculty of Social Sciences
Type: 
  • BA/BSc
  • MA/MSc
  • PhD studies
  • one-cycle
Eligibility: 
  • The Stipendium Hungaricum Programme is based on effective bilateral educational cooperation agreements between the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary and the partner’s Ministry responsible for higher education.
  • Applications will be considered eligible if the applicant is nominated by the competent authorities of the Sending Partner.
Number of Awardees: Not specified
Value of Scholarship: 
  • no tuition fee
  • monthly stipend:
    • in case of non-degree, BA/BSc, MA/MSc and one-tier master level programs: HUF 40,460 /month (cca EUR 130) contribution to the living expenses in Hungary, for 12 months a year, until the completion of studies
    • in case of doctoral programs: HUF 140,000 /month (cca EUR 450) for the first phase of education (4 semesters) and HUF 180 000 (cca EUR 580) for the second phase (4 semesters), for 12 months a year, until completion of studies
  • dormitory place or additional contribution to accomodation costs: HUF 40,000 (EUR 130)
  • health care services according to the relevant Hungarian legislation (Act No. 80 of 1997, national health insurance card) and supplementary medical insurance for up to HUF 65 000 (cca EUR 205) a year/person
Duration of Scholarship: 
  • BA/BSc (undergraduate; 3 years)
  • MA/MSc (graduate; 2 years)
  • PhD studies (doctoral; 2+2 years)
  • one-cycle BA+MA (5 years)
List of Eligible Countries:  The scholarship can be awarded to citizens of the next countries:
  • For full time programs, students can apply from the following sending partners:
    Arab Republic of Egypt, Argentine Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Kingdom of Morocco, Kurdistan Regional Government/Iraq, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Palestine, People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, People’s Republic of China (including the Hudec scholarships), Republic of Albania, Republic of Angola, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Ecuador, Republic of Ghana, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iraq, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Korea, Republic of Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM is used at OSCE, UN, CoE, EU and NATO fora), Republic of Moldova, Republic of Namibia, Republic of Paraguay, Republic of Serbia, Republic of South Africa, Republic of the Philippines, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Yemen, Russian Federation, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, State of Israel, Syrian Arab Republic, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Tunisian Republic, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Mexican States
  • For part time programs, students can apply from the following sending partners: 
    Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Kingdom of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanese Republic, Mongolia, People’s Republic of China (only Hudec applicants), Republic of Albania, Republic of Belarus, Republic of India, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Republic of Turkey, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Russian Federation, Syrian Arab Republic, United Mexican States
How to Apply: You need to submit your application to Tempus Public Foundation (See in Scholarship Webpage link below) and to the responsible authority of the Sending Partner (See in Scholarship Webpage link below) of your country.
Award Provider:  Hungarian Government

University of the Arts London (UAL) Vice-Chancellor’s Postgraduate Scholarships for International Students 2017/2018

Application Deadline: 4pm BST on Wednesday 31st May 2017.
Applications for the UAL Vice-Chancellor’s International Postgraduate Scholarships for 2017/2018 entry will open in March 2017.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: International
To be taken at (country): UK
About the Award: There are two types of UAL Vice-Chancellor’s International Postgraduate Scholarships on offer, each with different eligibility criteria. One offers a £5,000 tuition fee remission, and the other a £25,000 award and accommodation generously provided by International Students House (ISH).
Type: Masters
Eligibility: 
  • Criteria 1: You must have applied to study a full-time taught masters course at one of UAL’s six Colleges starting in the academic year of 2017/18. Your course must offer either an M ARCH, MA, MFA, MRes or MSc qualification.The following courses do not qualify: Postgraduate Certificate (PgCert), Graduate Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma, Integrated Masters (or any similar course that qualifies for undergraduate support from UK student finance agencies), EMBA, MBA, distance learning, blended learning and online courses. Read our list of qualifying courses.In addition, you are not eligible to apply if you already hold a postgraduate taught qualification (or one at an equivalent level) from studies undertaken in the UK or abroad. Read our Previous Study page on the UAL website for details. Read our Previous Study page on the UAL website for details.
  • Criteria 2: You need to qualify for the Overseas category of tuition fee status.
Visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website to find out whether you are required to pay Home, EU or Overseas tuition fees. Visit our Postgraduate Tuition Fees page for further tuition fee information for University of the Arts London.
In your application you’ll be asked to evidence with documentation that you qualify for the Overseas category of tuition fees. For example you may be asked for a copy of your immigration documents, ID card or formal evidence of your address.
  • Criteria 3: You have achieved (or are predicted to achieve) an upper second class honours degree (or a recognised equivalent as specified by the UK Government) or above at undergraduate level.
You will be asked to provide evidence of your qualification by supplying a transcript.
If you are yet to receive your results but are predicted to achieve an upper second class honours degree or above you will be asked to provide evidence of your predicted results. Please note that whilst you can apply for a UAL Vice-Chancellor’s International Postgraduate Scholarship based on predicted results, if your scholarship application is successful, you will only be granted the award if you achieve the required result and can evidence this by supplying a transcript.
  • Criteria 4: Your household income must be £55,000 or less (or the equivalent exchange value in the currency of your country of residence) at the point of scholarship application. Visit the Oanda Trade Currency Exchange website for an up-to-date currency conversion.
Your household income is made up of your income plus the income of:
  • Your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) (or a parent/guardian and their partner), if you are under 25 years old and live with them or depend on them financially.
  • Your partner, if you are 25 years and over.
Number of Awardees: 25
Value of Scholarship:  £5,000 tuition fee remission
Duration of Scholarship: Full-time
How to Apply: As part of your online application you’ll be asked to upload supporting documents that evidence how you meet the eligibility criteria. We recommend that you have these files ready before starting your application, as once you’ve begun you won’t be able to save your progress and return later.
Award Provider: University  of the Arts

The Madness of U.S. Empire

Vincent Emanuele



“Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war, will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores. To provide resting places for them, where they can coal and repair, would be one of the first duties of a government proposing to itself the development of the power of the nation at sea.”
-Alfred Thayer Mahan
Trump’s pick for secretary of the Navy, private equity investor and former military intelligence officer Philip Bilden, has withdrawn his name from consideration.
Bilden said in a statement, “I have determined that I will not be able to satisfy the Office of Government Ethics requirements without undue disruption and materially adverse divestment of my family’s private financial interests.” Oh, those pesky financial interests.
Earlier this month, Trump’s pick for Army secretary, the former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Vincent Viola (a man worth close to $2 billion), withdrew his nomination as well. Viola, like Bilden, accumulated his obscene wealth in the world of casino capitalism. Without doubt, the merger of finance capital and the military industrial complex has never been more visible than during the Trump Era.
Bilden, the son of a naval officer, was valedictorian of his graduating class. In 1982, he was awarded an Army ROTC scholarship and attended Georgetown University, where he studied International Politics and graduated magna cum laude, a proper pedigree indeed.
In 1986, Bilden won Georgetown’s W. Coleman Nevils Award for U.S. Diplomatic History for his paper on Alfred Thayer Mahan, one of the most important military theorists of the 19th century.
Mahan, the son of a professor at the United States Military Academy, commanded several warships as an officer for the Union Army during the American Civil War, but his naval skills were sub-par, as several of his vessels were involved in crashes. In typical military fashion, as a result, Mahan was appointed as a lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island (where Bilden happens to own a $6.4 million mansion).
In 1890, Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, which, at the time, was widely considered to be the most influential book on military ideology, theory and strategy since Carl von Clausewitz’s 1832 work, On War.
The main thrust of Mahan’s work was the idea that supreme naval power was at the core of any “successful empire.” While Mahan admired the Roman Empire, it was the British Empire’s navy that served as the greatest influence for Mahan. Building on the British example, Mahan believed that “a strong navy and commercial fleet is a necessity.” He also believed that blockades and battleships were key to naval dominance.
Mahan’s influence was wide. Theodore Roosevelt, America’s unabashed imperialist, first met and befriended Mahan in 1888, when Mahan was President of the Naval War College. Teddy admired Mahan’s military strategies and expansionist ideologies. Mahan, a social darwinist and rabid racist, found a sympathetic ear and friend in Roosevelt.
Mahan’s vision of a U.S. Empire in the Pacific and Caribbean was realized by Teddy in the form of Pearl Harbor, a vital military outpost, and the Panama Canal, an essential development for U.S. business and military hegemony. By the early part of the 20th century, the intertwining of commercial and military interests, especially at sea, was finally complete.
Fast-forward 117 years: today, the President of the United States is a self-proclaimed “pussy-grabbing” billionaire who has surrounded himself with military generals and business executives. Bilden is just the latest in a long line of millionaires and billionaires who will frequent the Trump White House. According to many scholars, Trump’s cabinet is the wealthiest in U.S. history.
Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon Mobile, runs the State Department, which, in many ways, is nothing new. Oil interests have been essentially running the State Department for decades. General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, a war criminal, is the Secretary of Defense, which in many ways is also nothing new: war criminals have always frequented the halls of the Pentagon.
However, the fact that business executives and military generals no longer require middle-men to negotiate their interests should worry anyone interested in living in a quasi-democratic society.
Right-wing media figures such as Stephen Bannon and Alex Jones have a direct line to the White House and America’s version of the royal family jet-sets across the globe, entertaining world leaders and managing The Donald’s multi-billion dollar business empire, while Trump manages Uncle Sam’s crumbling empire.
Indeed, after 15 years of the War on Terror, including the longest war in U.S. history (Afghanistan), the elephant in the room remains U.S. Empire.
The U.S. will either follow the path of the Roman Empire, or the path of the British Empire after WWII. If the U.S. chooses to replicate the actions of the overly confident, extremely stratified and decadent Romans (which seems to be the case), it will collapse and the result will be global chaos on an unimaginable scale.
On the other hand, if the U.S. chooses the path of the British Empire, it may be able to maintain some level of democracy and decency. Without effective anti-imperialist movements, both at home and abroad, this option remains off the table.

Big Brother Capitalism Strikes Back

Paul Street

In classic capitalist fantasy, the “private” marketplace is a land of liberty and the state is a dungeon of oppression.  Modern social democrats have tended to invert the formula, upholding the state as a force for social protection against the tyranny of the capitalist market.
The truth is more complex than either narrative allows. As Marxists and other leftists have long known, “free market” relations and the state combine to impose class oppression on the working-class majority under capitalism.  Both the market and the state are under the interrelated and overlapping, mutually reinforcing control of capital. This is especially true in the United States, where government’s social-democratic functions – and the popular movements that have historically fought to install those functions – are much weaker than they are than in other “developed” capitalist nations.
The common worker and citizen faces a double whammy under the U.S. profit system. She must rent out her critical life energy – her labor power – and subject herself to the despotic, exploitative (surplus value-extracting) direction of “free” market-ruling capital to obtain the means of exchange required to obtain basic life necessities sold on the market by capital. To make matters worse, she must contend with a government that functions not so much to protect her and the broader community from capital (including capital as employer) as to deepen capital’s political, social, and market power over and against her, other workers, and the common good.
Real-Time Worker Surveillance: A Private-Public Sector Collaboration
Look, for one small but important example, at a recent report on the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) “Rap Back” program.  As Ava Kofman reported on The Intercept three weeks ago, the program is “quietly transforming the way employers conduct background checks.”  It is moving this criminal justice vetting of wage earners “from a routine process that gave employers “a one-time ‘snapshot’ of their employee’s past criminal history” to “ongoing, real-time notifications and updates about their employees’ run-ins with law enforcement, including arrests at protests and charges that do not end up in convictions.” The transformation has been underway for some time at the state level, but the FBI program is taking things to a whole new level in terms of federal partnership and technical capacity:
“A majority of states already have their own databases that they use for background checks and have accessed in-state Rap Back programs since at least 2007; states and agencies now partnering with the federal government will be entering their data into the FBI’s Next Generation Identification database. The NGI database, widely considered to be the world’s largest biometric database, allows federal and state agencies to search more than 70 million civil fingerprints submitted for background checks alongside over 50 million prints submitted for criminal purposes.”
“In typical federal background checks, the FBI expunges or returns the fingerprints it collects. But for the Rap Back system, the FBI retains the prints it collects on behalf of companies and agencies so that it can notify employers about their employee’s future encounters with law enforcement. The FBI has the license to retain all submitted fingerprints indefinitely — even after notice of death. Employers are even offered the option to purchase lifetime subscriptions to the program for the cost of $13 per person. The decision to participate in Rap Back is at employers’ discretion. Employees have no choice in the matter.”
Free Speech Isn’t Free
So, say you are an environmentally environmentalist – worried, perhaps, about heavily state-subsidized carbon capitalism’s project of Greenhouse Gassing life on Earth to the death – who happens to work or wages or a salary (wages calculated per year) in one of the many U.S. banks and financial institutions that have invested in the eco-cidal (water-endangering ad planet-cooking) Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – the 1,172 mile “black snake” built to carry fracked oil from North Dakota Bakken to southern Illinois.  Your opposition to the dire environmental threats posed by DAPL spark you to join protest actions leading to your arrest. Or perhaps the same thing happens while you are protesting racist police violence or Washington’s drone-bombing of some Muslim country – or as you march for workers’ collective bargaining rights or a $15-an-hour minimum wage or as you act to protect “illegal” immigrants from detection, arrest, and deportation.
Whatever the cause that leads to your “encounter with law enforcement” while attempting to exert your Free Speech rights, the arrest is reported to your employer by the governmental Rap Back program.  The state has just helped the “free market” boss class identify you as a “troublemaker.”  The word comes down to your supervisor[s), leading to bad things for you, possibly your discharge.  Bear in mind that in the United States, where health insurance in largely employment-based, getting fired can very easily lead to the loss of medical coverage for you and perhaps your family.
Backgrounds checks and Rap Back aside, what does free speech really mean in a society where one places not only one’s job but also one’s health care and often one’s family’s health care at risk by saying or doing anything deemed controversial by one’s employer? The “free market” isn’t free.
Right Handed Big Government
Of course, one way that the U.S. state functions on behalf of capitalists as employers and against workers is by NOT offering certain programs. Workers would be less afraid to fight their bosses and to speak out and resist oppression within and beyond the workplace if they knew the government had their back with universal national health insurance and a strong social welfare safety net.  U.S. Big Business has long opposed social democratic governance in no small part because it knows that such state policy would enhance the workplace, marketplace, and political power of the working-class majority.  Naturally enough, it has waged a long war against government rules that used to support workers right to organize unions and bargain collectively. Darkly enough, workers unifying to enhance their collective marketplace bargaining power does not qualify as legitimate “free market” behavior as far as capital is concerned.
Beneath all its “free market” talk, capital isn’t opposed to “big government” as such.  It’s opposed to what the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called “the left hand of the state” – the parts of the public sector that serve the social and democratic needs of the non-affluent majority. It celebrates and otherwise advances the “right hand of the state”: the portions of government that serve the opulent minority by distributing wealth and power upward, disciplining workers and the poor, and attacking those perceived as nefariously resisting capitalist and imperial order at home and abroad.
Under the rule of the nation’s unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money and militarism, government has plenty of money to spend when the right people want it. It is well fed when it comes to paying for an ever more militarized police state along with a vast global empire, a globally and historically unmatched mass incarceration system (a curious Orwellian attainment in the self-declared “land of liberty”), and the endless protection and subsidization of the wealthy corporate and financial Few (the Pentagon System being one of many key “public”/ state-capitalist subsidies). Government is starved and weak when it comes to meeting basic social and environmental needs, which is no small part of why “the world’s richest nation,” the United States, ranks abysmally low among “advanced” nations when it comes to things like infant mortality, life span, literacy, numeracy, poverty, infrastructure, drug addiction, violence, environmental protection. and social mobility.
And the weaker the left hand of the state becomes, the strong the right hand grows.  The less it reigns through the velvet, social-welfarist glove of amelioration and protection, the more capital must rule with the iron fist of repression.
Big Brother Bobby
I wonder what Bobby Kauffman thinks about all this. Kauffman is a Republican legislator in the Iowa State House. He is also the son of current Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kauffman. He calls himself a libertarian and a Teddy Roosevelt fan, seeing no contradiction in that self-description. He’s the guy who won right-wing applause by telling college students to “suck it up, buttercup” when they hit the streets in response to the trauma they felt over the “democratic election” of the nation’s first fascist president.  Buttercup Bobby is sponsoring a draft state bill that would specify enhanced criminal penalties for organizers of highway protests like the one that shut-down the eastbound side of Interstate 80 (I-80) north of Iowa City on the Friday after the orange-haired beast triumphed over horrible Hillary “basket of deplorables” Clinton. When I told Kauffman that the I-80 stoppage (which he accuses of “falsely imprisoning my constituents”) had no organizers that I knew of, that it seemed to have just happened (I was there), he claimed to know otherwise from a report from the Iowa City Police Department’s (ICPD “social media manager.”  The ICPD had infiltrated Facebook to purportedly identify specific “organizers” – Kauffman’s definition remains unclear (and could extend so far as to include someone mouthing off about blocking the Interstate again on Facebook) – of the highway stoppage.
How a self-described “libertarian” can in good conscience wield information (real or fake) from a police state Big Brother accessing people’s “social media” accounts in defense of a measure designed to target protest organizers for criminal prosecution is an instructive seeming paradox.  The inconsistency makes sense, however, when you factor in Bourdieu’s distinction and remember that “free market” capitalists aren’t really opposed to “big government.”  They’re only really opposed to left-handed, social-democratic government.   The real debate isn’t about big government as such.  It’s about big government in state-capitalist service to reigning wealth and power structures versus big government in service to the working-class majority and the common good.

A Paradigm Shift in the Middle East: Iran as the Solution, Not the Problem

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

A well-orchestrated alliance emerged against Iran during last week’s Munich Security Conference. The stage was set by Mike Pence after he called Tehran “the leading state sponsor terrorism,” and accused the Islamic Republic of continuing to “destabilize the Middle East.” Further, to reiterate Trump administration’s dissatisfaction with Obama’s policy toward Iran, he speculated that with “the end of nuclear-related sanctions, Iran now has additional resources to devote to these efforts.”
One after another, representatives of Saudi Arabia, Israel, and, surprisingly, Turkey added their warnings about the rise of the Iranian menace and called for a united front to combat Iranian regional and global ambitions.  The Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir told delegates at the conference “Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world.” Iran is, he said, “determined to upend the order in the Middle East.” In an act more reminiscent of a scene from a theater of the absurd, the Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, declared “Iran had an ultimate objective of undermining Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.” He called for a multilateral dialogue with Sunni Arab states to defeat Iran and its “radical” elements in the region. This was not the first time that the Saudi and Israeli positions on the Middle East security coincided, but the similarities in the way Lieberman and al-Jubeir articulated their grievances against Iran, using the exact same language in listing Iranian transgressions was unprecedented.
Rather bewildering was the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt ÇavuÅŸoÄŸlu, who added his voice of discontent with Iran and joined in the same vein to call for a concerted international effort against what he termed “an Iranian sectarian policy to undermine Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.” He told a friendly audience in Munich that Turkey will not tolerate divisive religious or sectarian policies and, he continued, “we are now normalizing our relations with Israel.” ÇavuÅŸoÄŸlu’s address was particularly baffling since it came following a complex series of negotiations and agreement that was reached earlier this month between Russia, Turkey and Iran for a cooperation to end Syrian bloody civil war.
Trump administration and a significant number of lawmakers, Republican and Democrats, will almost certainly use the display of unity among regional powers against the Islamic Republic to justify new sanctions on Iran. But why, despite the clear evidence to the contrary, are the U.S. and its allies in the region hold Iran solely responsible for destabilizing the Middle East? There are two, one geo-political and the other pure economic, reasons for such a flagrant distortion of realities on the ground.
From the early days of the Iranian revolution in 1979, the main strategic interest of the U.S. and its corrupt Arab allies have been to fend off the Iranian ambition of exporting its revolution. At the time, it was the stated purpose of the Islamic Republic to spread the message of what they believed to be the Islam of the downtrodden abroad. Almost four decades later, surviving an eight-year war with Saddam Hussein, which he fought on behalf of the foucaultiranconcerned Arab nations (with the exception of Syria) and their Western supporters, consolidating power by eliminating most opposition forces inside the country, and managing a beleaguered economy plagued with ongoing regimes of sanctions, the Islamic Republic has been transformed. At the end of the war with Iraq, it became evident that the mantra that the regime in Tehran now followed, as Henry Precht, the former head of the State Department’s Iran desk, once said, was not dominion abroad, but economic and political independence at home.  Rather than an irrational ideological fervor, the Islamic Republic’s policies are primarily motivated by domestic stability, security, and economic growth.  Iran has always been more sympathetic to the Christian Armenia than to Muslim Azerbaijan in their border disputes, more interested in closer ties with India than Pakistan, and in order to protect their trade relations with China, remained silent when the Chinese violently suppressed the grievances of their Muslims.
Domestically, Iran has also changed significantly since the brutal years of the 1980s reign of terror. There exists a vibrant and growing civil society, more than fifteen independent newspapers are published in Tehran, meaningful presidential and parliamentary elections with real participation and rivalries happen, unlike the a commonplace perception, women participate in social life despite patriarchal laws and cultures, more than 60% of university students are women. I do not intend to draws a rosy picture of Iran, the Islamic Republic is not a democratic regime, but in all cases it is certainly more democratic than all our allies in the region.
Oil is not the only rationale that defines our economic interest in the Middle East. Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. arms sales in the Middle East has been rising exponentially. As a recent report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows, more than half of the total American arms export goes to the Middle East. During the last four years the sales of arms to the Middle East has doubled. Saudi Arabia’s arms import has increased 212 percent from 2012 to 2016. During the same period Qatar’s import of weapons surged 245 percent. Saudi Arabia spends 25 percent of its budget, $85 billion a year, more than that of Russia, on defense.  Last year the Obama administration approved a $38 billion military aid package to Israel for the next ten years. One-third of the world’s arms deals happen in the Middle East. All this happens when Iran uses only 2.5 percent of its national budget on defense and relies mostly on domestic production of weapons rather than on a shopping spree in the global arms market.
A military industrial complex has taken American foreign policy hostage. It has colonized American foreign policy through a marketing strategy that perpetuates hostilities and generates animosity between different nations. It has promoted an arms race, particularly in the Middle East, that is draining the resources of nations around the world and is weighing heavily on the shoulders of American taxpayers. Military aid to our allies in the region is nothing but a transfer of wealth from ordinary Americans to defense contractors. None of these sales and aid packages would be justifiable if it were not for the existence of an enemy such as the Islamic Republic of Iran reproduced in Pence’s caricature, an irrational, ideological nemesis that does not respond to conventional deterrence and needs to be forced into submission to our demands.
Washington needs to transcend its old-age reliance on allies in the Middle East whose interests are increasingly becoming detrimental to peace and stability in the region. The problem in the Middle East is not about Sunni and Shi’ite rivalry, it is not even about Israeli and Palestinian existential animosity. What plagues the Middle East is the narrow-mindedness of its ruling elites, both elected and self-appointed, who have failed to represent and safeguard the interests of their own people. Since the end of WWII, Washington’s policy has been exclusively based on securing economic and geo-political interests of American energy and military industrial corporations. Time has come for the U.S. to rethink its alignment with old patriarchal powers and to look beyond its narrow economic interests in the rising arms race in the Middle East.  Extending and expanding sanctions against Iran would be an irreversible step toward opening a new war front, one with broader and more catastrophic consequences around the world.