Ukrainian President Zelensky adopts Steinmeier formula amid mass far-right protests

Clara Weiss

On October 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a document affirming that Ukraine will follow the so-called “Steinmeier formula,” which calls for elections in eastern Ukraine. The formula is named after the current German president and former foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who devised it in 2016 after having played a critical role in the US- and German-backed far-right coup in Kiev in February 2014.

The resulting civil war in eastern Ukraine has claimed the lives of at least 13,000 people and wounded as many as 30,000 more. It has displaced millions.

The Steinmeier formula proposes a series of steps to realize the 2015 Minsk agreement. It is extremely vague and ambiguous, stipulating nothing clearly except elections in the Donbass that could result in a semi-autonomous status for the eastern Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhanks, which are now ruled by pro-Russian separatists. Steinmeier himself has repeatedly emphasized that virtually every aspect of his “formula” is subject to further negotiation. Polls indicate that over two thirds of Ukrainians do not know what to make of the formula, with about 23 percent opposing and 18 percent supporting it.

The terms for the elections will be set by the so-called Normandy Format, which includes Germany, France and Russia, but not the United States.

Thousands of far-right nationalists, who were heavily involved in the 2014 coup and the ensuing civil war, protested on October 3 and October 14 against the Zelensky government on Kiev’s Independence Square. Officials of the former Poroshenko government joined the rallies, where the Steinmeier formula was denounced as a “concession” and “capitulation” to Russia.

Former president Poroshenko openly backed the demonstrations, stating, “We feel solidarity with the present actions and calls heard from among veterans, and we will not allow the ruin of the Ukrainian state.”

Zelensky felt compelled to give a press conference lasting 14 hours to defend his adoption of the formula. He emphasized that elections in the Donbass would be held only after Russian troops had withdrawn. Russia continues to deny that it has any troops in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has welcomed the support by Kiev for the Steinmeier formula, describing it as a “step in the right direction,” but has remained notably low key about the negotiations, with very limited coverage in the Russian press and few official statements. After five years of economic warfare and military encirclement by the imperialist powers, Russia’s economic and political position has been dramatically weakened, a fact Zelensky is no doubt trying to exploit.

Zelensky’s move comes shortly after a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, which was heavily supported by Berlin and Paris. It also takes place amid a dramatic intensification of the political crisis in Washington, where the CIA and the Democratic Party are using a call between Trump and Zelensky in July as the basis for an impeachment inquiry.

The adoption of the Steinmeier formula is part of Kiev’s maneuvers between US imperialism, on the one hand, and Berlin and Paris, on the other. Especially since 2014, Ukraine has become heavily reliant on US military support, forming a bulwark in Washington’s build-up for war against Russia. At the same time, Ukraine has extensive economic ties with the EU, and especially with Germany. Speaking to Foreign Policy magazine, a source close to Zelensky said that the Ukrainian president regarded the adoption of the Steinmeier formula as a political concession to France and Germany.

While the representatives of German and French imperialism like to present themselves as the “peace makers” in Ukraine, there is, in fact, nothing benign about their increasingly heavy involvement in the affairs of the country.

The involvement of Berlin stands in the tradition of the attempts by German imperialism to control the region as part of its drive to dominate Europe. Germany has occupied Ukraine and Eastern Europe in two world wars. In collaboration with local fascist forces, the Nazis murdered up to 7 million people in Ukraine, including roughly one million Ukrainian Jews.

Following the coup in February 2014, the then-German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had his picture taken alongside the Ukrainian neo-fascist Oleh Tyahnybok from the Svoboda party. Speaking as the president of Germany, Steinmeier omitted any reference to the Holocaust in his speeches in Poland on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in September of this year.

If Berlin is now pushing for a settlement of the conflict in the east of Ukraine under its own supervision, this is bound up with, first, the economic interests of the German bourgeoisie, which sees its business harmed by the ongoing war, and second, the growing conflict with US imperialism.

Since the coup in February 2014, the German bourgeoisie has aggressively expanded its involvement in the Ukrainian economy and politics. According to the German government, the number of those employed in Kiev at the Society for International Development (GiZ) and the KfW bank, both arms of the German government, has grown sevenfold since 2014. In 2016, Germany founded a separate chapter of its Foreign Chamber of Commerce (AHK) to represent the interests of German businesses in Kiev.

Some 1,000 German firms are now active in Ukraine. Nevertheless, business representatives and politicians have complained that they have not been as successful economically as expected under Poroshenko. Earlier this year, the German carmaker Volkswagen (VW) announced it would relocate one of its factories in Ukraine to Slovakia, amid an almost complete collapse of Ukrainian auto production.

The trade war between the EU and the US and the economic crisis Europe have heightened the significance of the markets in Eastern Europe for Germany. Trade with Eastern Europe recently surpassed that with both China and the US. Numerous German political commentators have stressed the need for Germany to defend its interests in the region to offset the economic impact of the trade war as well as the Brexit crisis.

Beyond these economic interests, Ukraine is at the center of the growing conflict between the imperialist powers over strategy vis-à-vis Russia. While Germany has played a central role in the EU and NATO military build-up against Russia, sections of the German bourgeoisie have watched with apprehension as their close business ties with Russia have been undermined by economic sanctions. The US sanctions, in particular, have hit not only Russian companies, but also their international, and especially German, partners.

Germany is also pushing the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would expand direct gas flows from Russia to Germany. The project is bitterly opposed by the US, Ukraine and most East European countries, and the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on companies involved in it.

France, which similarly has seen its relations with the US worsen significantly, has also played a major role in the latest moves by Zelensky. The Financial Times assessed Macron’s push for the Russian-Ukrainian prisoner swap in August as part of his attempts “to strengthen European ties to Russia to secure Moscow’s cooperation in other international crises, in particular the dangerous dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions,“ where France and Germany have clashed with the US.

The Zelensky government is trying to exploit these divisions between the imperialist powers to somehow improve the bargaining position of Ukraine. While appealing to Germany and France for negotiations on eastern Ukraine, Zelensky has doubled down on the criticism he made of Merkel and Macron in his July 25 phone call with Trump. In the call, Zelensky denounced Merkel and Macron for not doing enough for Ukraine. Last week, he added that he had “spoken a lot with [Merkel and Macron] about“ Nord Stream 2, and that he could not agree with their positions on the project.

Zelensky is also motivated by domestic considerations. His government just announced the most comprehensive privatization program since the restoration of capitalism in the 1990s, and he is trying to free his hands to implement this escalation of the Ukrainian oligarchy’s class war on the working class. The planned factory closures would result in the layoff of potentially tens of thousands of workers in a situation where most of the population is already living in dire poverty.

German defence minister visits Niger and Mali in preparation for massive combat operation in the Sahel

Gregor Link

The German government is preparing to expand its Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) mission in Mali and Niger into a massive combat operation and to extend it indefinitely. This was made clear by Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) during her first visit to the region last week.

“We must be prepared to stay here longer,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told the troops in Gao, northern Mali. The “changed security situation” required that the “self-protection” of the Bundeswehr troops be “appropriately taken into account” in the future “continuation of mandates.”

The minister’s programme included a demonstration of Germany’s Heron drone, the arming of which has been under consideration in government circles for months.

Germany needed “structures” in Mali to “stabilise” the government of the impoverished and war-torn country. For this, it was “necessary” to continue the deployment of the German military for as long as it took to “really train the local forces.” In addition, the various economic and military missions—above all France’s brutal combat mission “Barkhane”—are to be more closely interlinked with the mandates of the Bundeswehr in future.

The defence minister also intends to further strengthen the alliance with the regime in Niger, which has been armed to the highest standards by Germany. According to a report by Die Welt, Kramp-Karrenbauer is concerned with “developing bilateral relations,, “training” Nigerian forces and supplying further “military equipment.”

The Nigerien government is closely allied with Germany and has been taking extremely tough action against migrants for years. Even today, the “poorest country in the world”—measured by the UN Development Index—spends an unprecedented 18 percent of its national budget every year on investments in increasing state powers.

The Bundeswehr military base in Niamey, the capital of Niger, serves German troops as an indispensable logistics centre for deployments in Mali and other countries. The French army also maintains a command post in the city from which it controls its drone strikes against alleged “terrorists” in Mali. Here, the minister visited elite soldiers of the Special Forces Command of the Navy (KSM), who for months have been training special units of the Nigerien army in an unmandated mission.

The day before their appearance in Gao, Kramp-Karrenbauer had visited the EU programme EUTM in Koulikoro in central Mali. The “showcase for cooperation with European forces,” as the minister calls the military mission, trains proxy troops of the Malian government and in February became the target of a large-scale vehicle bomb attack. Only a week ago, at least 38 government soldiers, 15 rebels and 2 civilians died in an attack on two Malian army camps in the region.

Between November 2018 and March 2019 alone, 547 civilians lost their lives in Mali, and as of May 2019, nearly 200 UN soldiers had been killed. The war, which has lasted for more than six years, has cost the lives of at least 6,000 people and triggered a refugee crisis in the course of which tens of thousands have been displaced from their homelands.

At the same time, the neo-colonial campaigns of France and Germany in the country create the conditions for an escalating wave of ethnic violence. Hardly a month has passed without a massacre between the population groups. The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, which supports the military operation, reports that the regime in Bamako, supported by Germany and France, is cooperating with militias that “terrorise the population in order to assert their influence in contested regions.”

The UN report on Mali published last Monday also states that the government troops trained by the West are committing bloody crimes. “Security forces and national defence forces” were responsible for the “extrajudicial killing of four Mondoro district men” and for at least one case of “torture that led to the death of the victim detained in Gao,” it said. In at least three cases, the “state authorities did not investigate or prosecute.”

Given the sharp tensions between the regime and large sections of the population, it can be assumed that the real extent of state violence is even greater. Only at the beginning of the year, the government had to resign as a result of mass protests and strikes in the capital.

In Mali, the Bundeswehr in turn supports the hated Bamako regime and is itself becoming more and more involved militarily. As the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports, the soldiers of the occupying powers will in future appear side by side with the troops of the Malian government. Already, the Bundeswehr is combing its huge operational area “day and night” with patrols from “eleven armoured vehicles” equipped “with machine guns and grenade launchers.”

Germany and France are pursuing imperialist interests in Mali. The West African country is geo-strategically important and rich in raw materials. It contains at least three large deposits of uranium—in Falea, 200 miles west of Bamako, and in the city of Samit in the north of the country. Mali is now the third largest gold producer on the African continent after Ghana and South Africa. Industry analysts of the South African Public Investment Corp. (PIC) expect another “gold rush in West Africa” due to “low investment costs in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.”

With its neo-colonial occupation of Mali and the comprehensive militarisation of the entire Sahel region, the German government can rely on the support of the media and all parties in the Bundestag (parliament)—including the Left Party and the Greens.

Kramp-Karrenbauer was accompanied by a delegation that included various journalists from the major newspapers and several members of the Bundestag. Criticism from this entourage came exclusively from the right. Business daily Handelsblatt, for example, complained of an alleged “sluggish provision” of supplies to the Bundeswehr in Mali. According to the newspaper, Tobias Lindner, security spokesman for the Greens, “explained” to the defence minister that the federal government “had to change the framework agreements.”

Tobias Pflüger, defence spokesman for the Left Party, who cynically calls himself a “peace researcher” although he regularly visits German troops in areas of deployment, criticised Kramp-Karrenbauer for not having coordinated the trip closely enough with the soldiers on the ground. “The minister, or at least her team, must have known that the trip was being planned at the same time as a troop rotation,” he told newsweekly Der Spiegel, “Anyone who overlooks or ignores something like this is rightly drawing the troops’ ire.”

Pflüger and the Left Party are particularly disturbed by the fact that the military operation in Niger has so far been conducted without an official mandate. “We criticise the fact that the Gazelle mission in Niger, although it involves ‘fighting with weapons,’ is being conducted without a mandate from the German Bundestag,” Pflüger writes on his homepage. “I call on the German government to put an end to this lack of a mandate and, if soldiers are already in Niger, to present a mandate for the Gazelle military mission.”

IMF cuts growth forecast and points to rising financial risks

Nick Beams

The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global growth this year to its lowest level since the global financial crisis and recession of 2008-2009 and warned that deepening trade conflicts make the outlook “precarious.”

Apart from the headline numbers in the World Economic Outlook report issued on Tuesday, the most significant aspect of the IMF’s update on the state of the world economy was its forecast on continuing low growth in four key sectors.

It found that the global “big four”—the US, China, Japan and the eurozone—would not see any improvement in their growth rates over the next five years.

The IMF predicted the world economy would grow by only 3 percent this year, down from 3.6 percent in 2018 and 0.3 percent below the forecast at its April meeting.

The Global Financial Stability Report issued on Wednesday added to the darkening outlook. It warned that continuing low interest rates were leading investors to take greater risks in an effort to maintain their returns on capital, and that could have an adverse impact on the broader economy.

“The search for yield among institutional investors—such as insurance companies, asset managers and pension funds—has led them to take on riskier and less-liquid securities,” Tobias Adrian, the IMF’s financial counsellor said. “These exposures may act as an amplifier of shocks.”

The low-interest rate regime was supporting the economy at present, but was putting growth at risk in the medium term.

The IMF’s WEO report said global growth was expected to rise to 3.4 percent in 2020—a downward revision of 0.2 percentage points from its forecast last April. But it warned that even this limited projected upturn, unlike the “synchronised slowdown,” was “not broad based and is precarious.”

Growth for the advanced economies is projected to slow to 1.7 percent in 2019 and 2020. If a global pickup does take place, it will be as a result of expansion in emerging market economies. More than half of this would be driven by “recoveries or shallower recessions in stressed emerging markets, such as Turkey, Argentina and Iran.” In other words, the projected recovery rests on very shaky foundations, given the ongoing slowdown in the major economies.

The report itself acknowledged that the risks to its baseline outlook were “significant.” It warned that “should stress fail to dissipate in a few key emerging market and developing economies that are currently under performing or experiencing severe strains, global growth in 2020 would fall well short of the baseline.”

Further escalation of trade tensions and policy uncertainty could further weaken growth. Financial market sentiment could also deteriorate, resulting in tighter financial conditions that would impact heavily on vulnerable economies.

“Possible triggers for such an episode include worsening trade and geopolitical tensions, a no-deal Brexit withdrawal … and persistently weak economic data pointing to a protracted slowdown in global growth,” it stated.

For the US, the IMF expects the economy to slow from 2.4 percent growth this year to 2.1 percent in the election year of 2020—well below the Trump administration’s target of growth of 3 percent or more.

Largely as a result of the weakness in the German economy, economic growth in the eurozone is expected be only 1.2 percent this year, rising to 1.4 percent in 2020.

The growth rate of the Chinese economy is also forecast to slow. The IMF predicts that it will fall from 6.1 percent in 2019 to 5.5 percent in 2024, with the forecast for this year 0.2 percent lower than the prediction in April.

A rare moment of truth on the US support for Al Qaeda

Patrick Martin

There was a rare moment of truth during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, an Iraq war veteran, said that while Trump had Kurdish blood on his hands, “so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime-change war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheer-leading this regime-change war.”

This was directed not only against the Obama-Biden administration, which began the US covert intervention in Syria, but against the New York Times and CNN, the co-sponsors of the debate, who have been among the most strident in denouncing Trump’s order to withdraw from Syria.

Gabbard continued, “As president, I will end these regime-change wars by doing two things, ending the draconian sanctions that are really a modern-day siege, the likes of which we are seeing Saudi Arabia wage against Yemen, that have caused tens of thousands of Syrian civilians to die and to starve, and I would make sure that we stop supporting terrorists like Al Qaeda in Syria who have been the ground force in this ongoing regime-change war.”

This remarkable admission that American imperialism was allied in Syria with Al Qaeda—the supposed main enemy in the “war on terror” now nearly 20 years old—was passed over in silence by the three media “moderators,” two from CNN and one from the Times, and by the other eleven candidates.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a military intelligence veteran of the Afghanistan war, tried to rebut Gabbard’s claim that Syria was a US-backed “regime-change” war. He reiterated the conventional presentation of the war as a struggle to defend civilians from the brutality of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while not acknowledging that Washington and its allies among the Gulf sheikdoms had funneled money, weapons and Islamist gunmen for years in an effort to put a stooge regime into power in Damascus.

Gabbard responded, “So, really, what you’re saying, Mayor Pete, is that you would continue to support having U.S. troops in Syria for an indefinite period of time to continue this regime-change war that has caused so many refugees to flee Syria, that you would continue to have our country involved in a war that has undermined our national security, you would continue this policy of the U.S. actually providing arms in support to terrorist groups in Syria, like Al Qaeda, HTS, al-Nusra and others, because they are the ones who have been the ground force in this regime change war? That’s really what you’re saying?”

Buttigieg had no answer on the facts, merely declaring that Gabbard was advocating the same policy in Syria as Donald Trump. As for the corporate media, there was virtually no mention of Gabbard’s charge of a US-Al Qaeda alliance in Syria, and no attempt to refute it. Even to discuss that connection would call into question the entire foreign policy of American imperialism in the Middle East.

Gabbard is neither a pacifist nor an opponent of imperialism, but a serving military officer in the Army Reserve who did two tours of duty in Iraq, including in 2005 at the height of the war, and took several weeks off from the campaign in August for a unit training exercise in Indonesia—part of the US preparations for a future war with China.

“In short, when it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk,” Gabbard told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in 2016. “When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.”

Her views tend towards outright Islamophobia. She criticized the Obama administration for refusing to use the term “Islamic radical terrorism” to describe Al Qaeda, along the lines of ultra-right operatives like Steve Bannon, Trump’s onetime political counselor and former campaign manager. Bannon invited her to the White House where she met Trump early in 2017, one of the first congressional Democrats to do so. She later travelled to Syria and had a face-to-face meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.

While she describes herself as a convert to Hinduism, and has praised the Hindu chauvinist Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, Gabbard’s connection to that religion is actually tenuous. As described in a long profile in New York magazine, her father joined an offshoot of the Hare Krishna sect founded by an American guru named Chris Butler. People raised in this sect include Gabbard’s family, both her first and second husband, and her congressional chief of staff. Gabbard’s father is currently a Hawaii state senator, elected on a program of liberal environmentalism and anti-gay bigotry. Gabbard only shifted her position on gay marriage after several years in the state legislature.

None of this affects the truth of what Gabbard said about the US intervention in Syria, or the utilization of Al Qaeda forces in Syria as the ground troops for American imperialism’s regime-change war.

Margaret Sanders International Scholarship 2019/2020 for Undergraduate African Students

Application Deadline: 1st November 2019

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be taken at (country): African countries

Type: Undergraduate

Eligibility:

• Be enrolled at an AISA Full Member school in good standing
• Be in their senior year of high school
• Be endorsed and recommended by their school
• Have applied to a qualifying 501 (c)(3), U.S. chartered, degree-granting institution

Selection Criteria: The Margaret Sanders International Scholarship will be awarded to the students who demonstrate character strengths such as persistence and motivation, resourcefulness, and acceptance of other cultures and points of view.
Nominated students should also display a genuine interest in, and sustained commitment to the welfare of others, as reflected through participation in school activities, and community/civic involvement.


Factors considered in the selection process include:

1. 1. Academic achievement
   2. Financial need

• Leadership and service contributions that directly address community and societal needs and solutions

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: To be determined by the Margaret Sanders Foundation each year (normally around US$5,000)

How to Apply: Margaret Sanders International Scholarship details and the application form can be found on the AAIE website here.

• Full Member AISA schools are invited to submit one student for consideration of the scholarship opportunity.
• AAIE will forward all applications received from the region to the AISA Board who will choose one student to represent the AISA region. This applicant will then compete with candidates in other regions for this prestigious international award.
• Winners will be notified on 15 December with awards presented at the annual AAIE Conference in February.

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

Novo Nordisk International Talent Programme 2020/2021 (Funded to Study at University of Copenhagen)

Application Deadlines:

• 25th October, 2019
• 1st April, 2020

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Universities: The International Alliance of Research Universities are:

• University of Cape Town 

Others are:

• Australian National University
• ETH, Zürich
• National University of Singapore
• Peking University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of Cambridge
• University of Oxford
• The University of Tokyo
• Yale University

Harvard University is also included in the Novo Nordisk International Talent Program.

To be taken at (country): University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Eligible Field of Study: Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biology-Biotechnology, Public Health, Food Innovation and Health, Global Health, Human Nutrition, Human Biology, Human Physiology, Immunology and Inflammation, Health Informatics, Chemistry, Medicine, Medicine and Technology, Molecular Biomedicine, Nanoscience and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

About the Award: Novo Nordisk International Talent Programme is a scholarship programme set up to assist students from the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) in a range of select academic fields seeking to study abroad at the University of Copenhagen.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: To be eligible to apply, candidate must:

• be enrolled in a degree programme at a IARU university or Harvard University
• apply for admission to UCPH as an exchange or guest student
• study at third year Bachelor’s level or Master’s level while at UCPH in one of the following programmes:
  Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, Biology, Biology-Biotechnology, Public Health, Food Innovation and Health, Global Health, Human Nutrition, Human Biology, Human Physiology, Immunology and Inflammation, Health Informatics, Chemistry, Medicine, Medicine and Technology, Molecular Biomedicine, Nanoscience and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• meet a GPA requirement of minimum 3
• engage in study activities pertaining to metabolism, insulin, haemoglobin and obesity

Selection Criteria: The programme gives priority to applicants who display a strong academic background and have submitted an ambitious study plan for their stay at the University of Copenhagen.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: 

• The scholarship may be spent towards the cost of tuition fees, travel costs, insurance, and other expenses incurred in connection with studying abroad at UCPH.
• The scholarship will typically amount to approximately EURO € 1200 a month. Depending on the costs and length of the study abroad at UCPH, it may increase up to EURO € 26000 in total.

Duration of Scholarship: Scholarships are awarded for up to one academic year.

How to Apply: To submit an application, you will be required to prepare following documents:

• Application form containing a motivated study plan and a list courses you plan to attend during your study abroad – download here
• Transcript of records in English from your Bachelor’s programme and Master’s degree programme (if applicable)

The application and requested documents are submitted through this link.
Please fill in the form electronically and attach all documents as PDF files. Please do not attach recommendations.
You will be requested to submit your GPA, including both Bachelor’s and Master’s grades (if you have Master’s grades). Please use this GPA calculator.
If you are applying from the National University of Singapore, the NUS CAP wil be converted to GPA by multiplying the NUS CAP with 0,80.
You may expect to hear about the outcome of your application 4-8 weeks after the application deadline.


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Mawazo PhD Scholars Programme 2020 for African Women

Application Deadline: 22nd November 2019 at 11.59 pm EAT

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Citizens from any African country

To be taken at (country): Kenya

Field of Study: Any field of study, at the PhD level

About the Award: The PhD Scholars Programme is a one-year, non-residential fellowship where PhD Scholars receive a research grant worth up to $5000 to support their research, a travel grant worth up to $2000 for conference travel, and a training grant worth up to $500 for ongoing training. Scholars also benefit from professional and leadership skills trainings provided by Mawazo and our partners, research and editorial support, as well as mentorship and networking opportunities. This programme is designed to amplify our Scholars’ research and position them as the next generation of leading experts, thinkers, and innovators who are finding homegrown solutions to local development challenges.
The call for applications for the 2020 cohort of Mawazo PhD Scholars will be open from October 14th 2019 to November 22nd 2019. Eligible applicants are invited to apply following the instructions below.

Type: PhD

Selection/Eligibility Criteria: In order to be eligible for the PhD Scholars Programme, applicants must:

• be women below the age of 40 as at 1st January 2020
• be citizens of an African country
• be enrolled for their PhD at an accredited university in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania or Uganda
• have completed their course work if applicable and passed their departmental proposal defence (i.e. in the dissertation phase of their PhD)
• demonstrate that their research project is related to African development and is relevant to a global, regional, national or sub-national policy priority
• demonstrate potential for leadership both within and outside academia, and a strong passion to leverage their expertise for impact in society
• be available to fully participate in the programme in 2020-2021

Selection: All applications will be reviewed by the Mawazo Institute staff and a panel of external expert reviewers. Successful applicants will demonstrate that they can do the following:

• Meet all eligibility requirements
• Identify a problem which has important implications for African development and is linked to a global, regional, national or sub-national policy priority
• Demonstrate that their research is academically rigorous and addresses a unique and important gap in the field
• Propose a research project which has clear objectives, is appropriately designed for the question being asked, and can be feasibly executed with the financial resources available and within a one- to two-year timeline.
  
• Write a summary of their project which is clear, concrete, and accessible to scholars outside their own field

The Mawazo Institute is committed to non-discrimination in the application review process.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Mawazo PhD Scholars will receive the following benefits:

• A research grant of up to $5000
• A travel grant worth up to $2000 for participation in regional or international conferences
• A training grant worth up to $500 for field specific training not offered by Mawazo
• A stipend worth $500 for discretionary use
• Participation in Mawazo’s in-house professional development and leadership training programme, comprised of a mix of in-person and virtual training modules
• Research and editorial support from the Mawazo staff and our partners
• Connections to mentors, as well as exposure to leaders from academia, industry, government and other sectors
• Visibility via Mawazo digital platforms and event.

Duration of Scholarship: One year

How to Apply: Interested candidates are required to fill in and submit their applications via our online application portal. Applications will not be accepted by email or in hard copy. Applications will be considered complete when the following are provided:

• A completed online application form
• A current 2-page CV
• A letter confirming current enrollment in an accredited PhD programme
• A letter confirming that you have completed your course work (if applicable) and passed your departmental defense
• A recommendation letter from your PhD supervisor
• A recommendation letter from a second referee
• A completed budget and timeline for the project (Please download the template here)
• A completed budget narrative of 500 words or less

For instructions on how to use our online platform, complete your application and meet all the requirements required for consideration please download the application guidelines here.

Visit Program Webpage for Details

Sciences Po Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme 2020/2021 for Undergraduate and Graduate Africans to Study in France

Application Deadlines:

• Bachelor: 29th January, 2020
• Master: 5th December, 2019

Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Africans

To Be Taken At (Country): France

About the Award: Scholarships for the 2020/2021 academic year are awarded in collaboration with a network of partner institutions authorised to nominate candidates.

Sciences Po is the first university in continental Europe to join the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program. Within this international network, 27 prestigious institutions in Africa, America and Europe are committed to ensuring that all young people, whatever their background, have the same opportunities to get a quality education and fulfil their potential.

Over six years (2017 – 2022), the Scholars Program will fund:

• 20 scholarships to complete the Sciences Po Bachelor of Arts programme, Africa specialisation
• 40 scholarships to complete a Master’s programme at one of our seven graduate schools
• 60 scholarships reserved for Mastercard Foundation Scholars studying at other partner universities and who would like to attend Sciences Po Summer School.

Type: Bachelors, Masters

Eligibility: The scholarships are awarded to students from sub-Saharan African countries with an outstanding academic record and strong leadership potential, but who face financial and other barriers to higher education.

Number of Awards: 120 for a period of 5 years.

Value of Award: Thee scholarships cover the full cost of tuition fees at Sciences Po and living costs in France during the study .
As well as funding their studies, Sciences Po will offer scholars a specific suite of resources to ensure they have appropriate academic support and to facilitate their transition from education to employment:

• An orientation programme and individualised academic advising throughout their studies at Sciences Po
• A mentor programme offered in collaboration with the Africa Division of Sciences Po Alumni
• Career guidance and support: an online job platform dedicated to professional opportunities in Africa (internships and first jobs), access to our business incubator and the network of employers and alumni working in Africa, and specific career workshops.

Duration of Program: The scholarships are awarded for a period of three years for the Bachelor’s degree, two years for the Master’s degree and one month for the Summer School.

How to Apply: More information on the application and selection process and dates:

• Undergraduate Candidates
• Graduate Candidates
• Summer School Candidates

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Google Women Techmakers Scholarship Program 2020/2021 for Women in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

Application Deadline: 5th December 2019 11:59 pm GMT.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Women from Europe, the Middle East and Africa

To be taken at: Universities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Eligible Subject Areas: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics or a closely related technical field

About the Award: Dr. Anita Borg devoted her adult life to revolutionising the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. She proposed the “50/50 by 2020” initiative, so that women earning computing degrees would be 50% of the graduates by year 2020. However, the percentage of Computer Science degrees earned by women is still far from 50% throughout the world.
As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to furthering Anita’s vision, Google is proud to honor Anita’s memory and support women in technology with the Women Techmakers Scholars Program (formerly the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship).
Through the scholarship, Google aim to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, and become active role models and leaders.

Type: Bachelors, Masters, PhD 

Selection Criteria: Multiple scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic performance, leadership experience and demonstrated passion for computer science.

Who is qualified to apply? To be eligible to apply, applicants must:

• Currently be enrolled at an accredited university for the 2019-2020 academic year
• Intend to be enrolled in or accepted as a full-time or part-time student in a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD program at a university in Europe, Middle East or Africa for the 2020-2021 academic year
• Be studying computer science, computer engineering, informatics or a closely related technical field
• Demonstrate a strong academic record
• Exemplify leadership and demonstrate passion for increasing the involvement of women in Computer Science

Number of Scholarships:  Not specified

Value of Scholarship:

• The scholarship recipients will each receive a €7,000 (or equivalent) scholarship.
• A retreat opportunity to connect with fellow scholars and Google mentors, while participating in professional and personal development trainings and workshops.
• An online network with fellow scholars program participants designed to share resources, support the global community of women in tech and collaborate on projects to make continued impact.

How to Apply: The Women Techmakers Scholarship is a one-time scholarship. While past applicants and finalists are encouraged to reapply, unfortunately, past recipients of any Google scholarship, including the Women Techmakers Scholarship and Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, are not eligible to apply.
Complete the online application and submit all requested documents by 5th December 2019. The following application documents must be in English.

• General background information (includes contact information and information about your current and intended institutions)
• Current resume
• Academic transcripts from your current and prior institutions (if you have earned a prior degree)
• One letter of reference from a professor, instructor, adviser or supervisor
• Responses to five essay questions

Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details

Sponsors: Google

Government of Germany DAAD Scholarships 2020/2021 for Artists and Filmmakers in Developing Countries (Fully-funded)

Application Deadline: 31st October 2019

Offered Annually? Yes

To Be Taken At (Country): Germany 

Type: Short courses/Training, Masters

Eligibility: Foreign applicants who have gained a first university degree in the field of the Performing Arts at the latest by the time they commence their scholarship-supported study programme.
What can be funded?
In this study programme, you can complete

• a Master’s degree/postgraduate degree leading to a final qualification, or
• a complementary course that does not lead to a final qualification (not an undergraduate course)

at a state or state-recognised German university of your choice.
This programme only funds projects in the artistic field of the Performing Arts (Drama, Theatre Directing/Theatre Dramaturgy, Musicals, Performance Studies, Dance, Choreography). Other DAAD scholarship programmes are available for applicants from the fields of Theatre and Dance Studies or for artists with a scientific project.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:

• A monthly payment of 850 euros
• Travel allowance, unless these expenses are covered by the home country or another source of funding
• One-off study allowance
• Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover

Under certain circumstances, scholarship holders may receive the following additional benefits:

• Monthly rent subsidy
• Monthly allowance for accompanying members of family

To enable scholarship holders to learn German in preparation for their stay in the country, DAAD offers the following services:

• Payment of course fees for the online language course “Deutsch-Uni Online (DUO)” (deutsch-uni.com) for six months after receipt of the Scholarship Award Letter
• if necessary: Language course (2, 4 or 6 months) before the start of the study visit; the DAAD decides whether to fund participation and for how long depending on German language skills and project. Participation in a language course is compulsory if the language of instruction or working language is German at the German host institution.
• Allowance for a personally chosen German language course during the scholarship period
• Reimbursement of the fees for the TestDaF test which has either been taken in the home country after receipt of the Scholarship Award Letter or in Germany before the end of the funding period
• As an alternative to the TestDaF for scholarship holders who have taken a language course beforehand: the fee for a DSH examination taken during the scholarship period may be reimbursed.

Duration of Program: 

• Masters/Postgraduate study programmes: Between 10 and 24 months depending on the length of the chosen study programme or project
• Complementary studies not leading to a final qualification: One academic year

How to Apply: The application procedure occurs online through the DAAD portal. You are also required to send additional documents by post to the specified application address. 


Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

ArtsEverywhere Fellowship for Artistic Journalism (Fully-funded to Ontario, Canada) 2020

Application Deadline: 1st November 2019

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): Guelph, Ontario, Canada

About the Award: The fellowship will be a continuation of a line of inquiry and body of work ArtsEverywhere has been developing for the past two years — The Curse of Geography. While we do not expect the work of the fellow to replicate the stories in the series, the proposed project should conform to the approaches of reportage and long-form narrative storytelling that have been developed in collaboration with independent artists, journalists, and producers as well as cultural and academic institutions, media outlets, and international NGOs. Accepted fellows will receive support from professional artists, journalists and producers, including our editorial staff, contributors, and commissioned mentors.

Type: Career Fellowship

Eligibility: Projects focused on locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, the South Pacific, South America and the Caribbean, or in under-reported parts of North America and Europe will be given preference, though the final decision will be based on the following: the merit of the overall proposal; quality background research and proof of concept; feasibility of timeline and final project; demonstrated experience creating compelling non-fiction narrative, in tandem or through quality artistic production; and measured usability of final product to lend towards positive social change in relation to sources and focus communities. Proposal submissions and final projects should be written in English. All translations will be covered by the fellow. Please contact fellowship@artseverywhere.ca with any inquiries regarding your project proposal’s suitability.

Selection: Shortlisted applicants will be notified by November 15^th and interviews and final decisions will be made by December 15^th. The fellow will be expected to attend 2-3 introductory calls in January and to attend the ArtsEverywhere Festival, January 23-26, 2020, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada (unless country visa requirements don’t allow it). A schedule of bi-weekly calls will be set up during the introductory sessions.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The fellow will receive $15,000 CAD as a fee and $5,000 CAD for travel, equipment and other project costs. Fellows will be required to present a mid-project progress report and participate in the 2021 ArtsEverywhere Festival in a programmatic capacity TBD (funds to attend the festival will be provided separately by ArtsEverywhere).

Duration of Award: 1 year

How to Apply: 

1. Cover letter (1 page) single spaced, resume/cv, short bio
2. Story Pitch (500 words, can be accompanied by appendixes that clarify concept)
3. Diagram (a drawing/sketch/visual treatment) of your story idea that illustrates the narrative structure, arc, and connectivity with sources and potential partner outlets)
4. Work samples (2 previous projects that can be evaluated within the parameters of the fellowship objectives and requirements)
5. A letter of reference (additional letters will be accepted, but are not required)
6. Website, digital portfolio, any links to previous or related work

Proposals must be submitted to fellowship@artseverywhere.ca. You will receive a confirmation receipt within 24 hours. Only short-listed applicants will be notified after the deadline passes on November 1, 2019.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

The Oil Despots

Basav Sen

The world’s burgeoning far-right movements are far-flung and diverse, but in government they share a few core tendencies: They attack minority populations. They criminalize dissent. And they’re horrible for the planet.

The slide into extractivist authoritarianism in the U.S. is part of a worldwide trend, exemplified by the parallels between the U.S. and Brazil, where far-right president Jair Bolsonaro is presiding over an accelerated destruction of the Amazon, attacks on Indigenous Brazilians, and brazen profiteering by aligned corporate interests.

Another striking international parallel was on display recently in Houston, Texas, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the stage with Trump at an event that felt like a fascist rally.

I’m not using the term “fascist” lightly. Here’s a brief explanation for readers unfamiliar with Indian history.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi’s political party, is rooted in a much older organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a connection the BJP doesn’t deny — Modi himself is a long-time RSS member.

Early RSS ideologues were inspired by European fascism. B.S. Moonje, a mentor of RSS founder K.B. Hegdewar, visited Italy, met with Mussolini, toured fascist youth indoctrination camps, and was inspired to popularize an Indian version of these camps through the RSS.

M.S. Golwalkar, another early RSS leader, openly praised Nazism in his writings. He wanted to create a Hindu nationalist India based on the ethnonationalist, militaristic vision of fascism. Golwalkar never apologized for or retracted these views during his lifetime, and the RSS waited 67 years to publicly repudiate them, making the repudiation not particularly credible.

But this isn’t just an ancient skeleton in the BJP’s closet. The violent ethnonationalism that RSS leadership admired and espoused in the 1930s is very much alive in the agenda of today’s BJP. This ideology views Muslims as the enemy of India’s national identity, and Muslims have been the main target of the Modi government’s politics of violence and repression.

The best-known example is the BJP government’s escalation of the decades-long conflict in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution provided for a certain measure of autonomy for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 35A, a provision of Article 370, restricted acquisition of land in the state by persons from outside it.

In August, the Modi government unilaterally scrapped Article 370 using questionable means. This was a prelude to the further militarization of an already heavily militarized territory, a communications blockade that eliminated all internet, mobile phone, and landline service, and worsening violence against Kashmiris, with reports of deaths, torture, and detention (including detention of children).

Eliminating Article 35A opens the door to changing the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir through settlement, much like Israel’s practice in occupied Palestine. Doing so would be completely consistent with the BJP’s ethnonationalism.

A lesser known example of the Modi government’s Islamophobia is its campaign to strip Muslims of alleged Bangladeshi descent in the state of Assam of their Indian citizenship unless they can prove their citizenship — in a country where most people, especially the rural poor, don’t have birth certificates.

Also excluded from the “citizens’ list” created by the Modi government are transgender people.

The Indian government is now building camps to detain people who are stripped of their citizenship. Mass detention of a civilian population, usually based on their ethnic, religious, or other identity, fits the definition of concentration camps.

There are obvious parallels with the U.S. here. The Trump administration’s horrific border policies include detaining children and families in concentration camps, as experts who’ve studied the history of concentration camps agree, regardless of what right-wing apologists say. And The Trump administration is engaged in a legal assault of its own against the basic rights of transgender people and LGBTQ people more broadly.

Then, there’s the Modi and Trump regimes’ deep-seated hatred of Muslims. The U.S. government has gone to the extent of banning people from specific Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. altogether. While courts have upheld this policy on the grounds that its stated intent is to keep out nationals from countries with ties to “terrorism,” Trump’s own statements point to the intent to exclude Muslims from the U.S.

Other parallels between the far-right political projects in India and the U.S. include their ties to extractive industries and their shared objective of criminalizing opposition to extractivism, particularly by Indigenous peoples.

In the United States, a recent investigative news report revealed that oil and gas companies have been lobbying Congress to insert provisions criminalizing protests against fossil fuel infrastructure into a pipeline safety bill. Similar laws are already on the books in states such as Louisiana and North Dakota. Besides being an attack on the right to protest, these laws are outright assaults against Indigenous peoples who have been in the forefront of struggles against fossil fuel infrastructure in the U.S.

These laws are being pushed by the fossil fuel industry — along with regulatory changes rolling back automobile fuel efficiency standards, making it easier for coal power plants to pollute, and more. The U.S. government increasingly acts like a tool of fossil fuel companies and oligarchs.

Similarly, Modi has direct ties with Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who has benefited from public subsidies and deregulation for his fossil fuel, mining, and other business interests. Adani has also been a vocal supporter of Modi, including when the latter faced scrutiny for his role in covering up an anti-Muslim pogrom when he led the state of Gujarat. Adani’s company has a sordid record of destroying ecosystems and violating Indigenous rights, from Gujarat to Australia.

And like the U.S. government, the Modi government is also criminalizing Indigenous resistance to extractivism by equating it with “terrorism.”

Exploring these parallels isn’t an academic exercise. For cross-border movements for justice to successfully dismantle far-right ethnonationalism backed by fossil fuel and other corporate interests, in the U.S., India, Brazil, and elsewhere, we must start with a shared understanding of the common material and ideological foundations of the global far right. Sharper understanding can make our resistance more effective.