Berlin intensifies agitation against Turkey

Johannes Stern

Foreign policy relations between Berlin and Ankara have reached a new low amid hysterical denunciations of the Turkish government by German politicians.

On Tuesday, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Foreign Minister Roderich Kiesewetter questioned Turkey’s NATO membership, and called for sanctions against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family. “For example, I see the lever that we can freeze the foreign assets of the Erdogan clan,” Kiesewetter told broadcaster Berlin-Brandenburg. “On the other hand, we are freezing the foreign assets of Russian oligarchs, but are not doing anything regarding Turkey.”

Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary party chief Thomas Oppermann went even further in the Passauer Neuen Presse on Monday. He accused Erdogan of the destruction of democracy and the rule of law in Turkey, and threatened: “If one employed his political methods in Germany, he would not be at the head of the government but in prison.”

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Justice Minister Heiko Maas (both SPD) published a joint guest contribution in Spiegel Online on Tuesday under the headline: “There is no place for Erdogan’s cultural battle in Germany.” In it, they speak of “a massive threat to our free democratic state” by Erdogan, and plead for stronger control of Turkish clubs and mosques in Germany.

Earlier, Gabriel had called the Turkish President’s call to Turkish voters in Germany not to vote for the SPD, the CDU or the Greens, an “intervention in the sovereignty” of Germany and personally blamed Erdogan for an alleged assault on his wife. “Some obviously feel motivated about the way Erdogan does this and try to pester and harass my wife.”

The Left Party is even more aggressive. Its spokeswoman for international relations, Sevim Dagdelen, said: “The federal government must take the initiative to exclude Turkey from the Interpol Convention. Erdogan is consciously violating the Interpol Convention and is abusing Interpol to be able to prosecute [his] political critics abroad.” In general, “the government should adopt clear lines towards Erdogan. Any further appeasement and restraint only endangers the security of German citizens.”

Who does Gabriel, Dagdelen and Co. want to impress with their hysterical agitation against Turkey? Clearly, the conservative Erdogan government is acting arbitrarily against oppositionists and journalists, and is setting up an authoritarian regime in Turkey. But in Germany, it is not the Turkish president who is attacking the “free democratic” state, but the German government itself. The German government also has no scruples when it comes to censoring the Internet, abrogating fundamental rights, and using brutal violence against journalists and demonstrators. This was recently shown by the G20 summit in Hamburg.

The German government’s criticism of the arrest of the writer Dogan Akhanli by Interpol in Spain as a result of a Turkish arrest warrant is also particularly hypocritical. The German government has gone much further in the past. In June 2015, it arrested the international journalist Ahmed Mansour at Berlin-Tegel Airport. Mansour had not violated German, European or international law, yet he was sought by Interpol. The only thing against him was an arrest warrant from the bloodthirsty military dictatorship in Egypt, with which Berlin works very closely.

The aggressive campaign against Turkey has nothing to do with the defence of human rights in Turkey or Germany, but is aimed at securing the foreign policy goals of the German ruling elite. Even before the failed Turkish coup in mid-July 2016—which enjoyed the silent support of sections of ruling circles in the USA and Germany—Berlin had systematically undermined relations with Turkey. In June 2016, the Bundestag (federal parliament) adopted a resolution describing the mass murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. At the time, Erdogan warned of “damage to the diplomatic, economic, political, and military relations between the two countries.”

Since then, the German government has further heightened the conflict with Ankara. Before the Turkish constitutional referendum in April, the German authorities imposed a ban on Turkish government members travelling to speak at meetings in several German cities and openly supported the Turkish opposition. In June, the Bundestag decided by a large majority to transfer Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) units from the Incirlik air force base in Turkey to the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, after Ankara repeatedly banned members of the Bundestag from visiting German soldiers stationed in Incirlik.

About a month ago, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel announced that policy towards Turkey would take a new direction. “It cannot go on like this. We cannot continue as before,” declared the Social Democrat, questioning, among other things, the EU’s pre-accession aid to Turkey and negotiations on the extension of the customs union. “We will now have to look at how we are adapting our policy towards Turkey in relation to the aggravated situation,” he said.

Four weeks before the Bundestag election, all the establishment parties are agitating against the predominantly Muslim Turkey in order to split the working class and appeal to right-wing layers. Significantly, some of the foulest rabble-rousers come from the ranks of the SPD, the Left Party and the Greens. With their calls for a strong state, Gabriel, Dagdelen and Co. are reacting to the fundamental crisis of capitalism and the growing resistance to exploitation and war.

Moreover, behind the aggressive confrontation with Ankara lie military and geopolitical conflicts. As a component of German imperialism’s offensive in the Middle East, the Bundeswehr has armed and trained Peschmerga units—the armed forces of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan (ARK)—in northern Iraq since the summer of 2014. The ARK announced an independence referendum for 25 September 2017, which was strongly criticized by the Turkish government. Ankara wants to prevent the emergence of an independent Kurdish state under all circumstances, criticizes Western support for the Kurds and threatens a new military operation in Syria and Iraq.

German imperialism fears not only a Turkish attack on its Kurdish allies, but also considers Ankara’s new orientation towards Russia and China a threat to its own economic and geo-strategic interests in the region.

According to a recent paper issued by the Federal Academy of Security Policy, entitled “Can Turkey play the Shanghai card?”, the “alarm bells should shrill in the face of the Turkish charm campaign offensive towards the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization]. Turkey still has a high strategic value for Europeans and Americans in dealing with a variety of regional security policy challenges.” Now, “Turkish aspirations towards a strategic reorientation could further reduce the need for positive relations with Brussels.”

Maternal mortality highest among industrialized nations

Trévon Austin 

An estimated 700 to 900 women die in the US every year from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes, the highest rate among industrialized nations. Another 65,000 nearly die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A study released last week published in MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing indicates that postpartum nurses are not being properly educated on the dangers mothers face after giving birth. Lacking sufficient education, the nurses are unable to play the critical role in identifying potential warning signs of postpartum complications and taking precautionary measures.

A recent CDC Foundation analysis of data from four states found that close to 60 percent of maternal deaths were preventable. By failing to properly alert mothers to postpartum risks, nurses may be missing an opportunity to reduce the abysmal maternal mortality rate.

MCN researchers surveyed 372 postpartum nurses around the United States. According to the study, only 15 percent of respondents were aware of the current maternal mortality rate and 12 percent accurately reported the correct percentage of deaths occurring during the postpartum period. Eighty-eight percent of nurses could not identify the three leading causes of maternal mortality: postpartum bleeding (15 percent), complications from unsafe abortion (15 percent), and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (10 percent).

On the day that mothers were discharged, 67 percent of respondents reported spending less than 10 minutes focusing on potential warning signs, such as painful swelling, headaches, heavy bleeding and breathing problems that could indicate potentially life-threatening complications. Furthermore, 19 percent of nurses believed maternal mortality was declining. “If [nurses] aren’t aware that there’s been a rise in maternal mortality, then it makes it less urgent to explain to women what the warning signs are,” says study co-author Debra Bingham, who heads the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement and teaches at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

The importance of postpartum education is stressed by both experts and the nurses surveyed. The data reported that 95 percent of RNs reported a correlation between postpartum education and mortality. However, only 72 percent strongly agreed it was their responsibility to provide this education. Nurse respondents who were over the age of 40 were significantly more likely to report feeling very competent when providing education on all the postpartum complication variables measured, indicating a decline in the quality of education for nurses.

This post-delivery education is particularly important because a mother typically doesn’t see a doctor for four to six weeks after she leaves the hospital. A statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that up to 40 percent of new mothers, overwhelmed with caring for an infant and often lacking in maternity leave, child care, transportation and other kinds of support, never go back for their follow-up appointments.

This revelation is obviously correlated with the decline in access to adequate health care for all Americans. Approximately 11.3 percent of adults in the US are without any form of health care. Throughout the United States, researchers have pointed to heart problems and other chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, to explain the rise in pregnancy-related deaths. The rise in these conditions coincides with a decline in the quality of health care and its accessibility, especially among low-income families.

This trend is reflected in Texas, the state with the highest maternal mortality rate and the highest uninsured rate in the United States. In the previous legislative session, Texas lawmakers rejected a federally-funded expansion of Medicaid that would have covered 1.1 million more Texans. More than half of all births in Texas are covered by Medicaid, indicating the irresponsible and disastrous nature of lawmakers’ decision to defund Medicaid, but increase funds for border patrol.

Actions of the Trump administration and Congress will only exacerbate this situation. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the president is preparing to roll back an Obamacare rule requiring all employers to provide insurance coverage of all contraceptive methods without co-pays.

German president in Estonia: Historical revisionism to justify militarism

Peter Schwarz 

In a speech in Estonia on the 78th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin pact, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party, SPD) sought to whip up nationalist resentments against Russia.

The German president is currently paying an official visit to the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. His first stop was the Estonian capital, Tallinn, where he gave a presentation on August 23 titled “Germany and Estonia—a changing history, a common future” at the Academy of Sciences. On that day in 1939, the German and Soviet foreign ministers, Ribbentrop and Molotov, signed the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. The pact gave Nazi Germany a green light for its invasion of Poland and led to the eventual incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union.

Steinmeier used the anniversary to threaten Russia and boost Estonian nationalism, which draws directly from the traditions of the Nazis.

Addressing Moscow, he warned that Berlin would never “recognise the illegal annexation of the Crimea” nor “accept covert interference through hybrid means or deliberate disinformation,” as has supposedly taken place in Estonia. Steinmeier accused the Russian leadership of “deliberately defining their country’s image as different from, or even in hostility to us in the West.”

He then falsely presented Estonia and the other Baltic states as havens of freedom and justice. “The very first message echoing here in Tallinn is the power of freedom—a force which no inhuman ideology or totalitarian rule can restrain in the long term,” he gushed.

Steinmeier knows very well this is not true. As is the case across Eastern Europe, where Stalinist regimes collapsed or were overthrown between 1989-91, there has been no flourishing of democracy and prosperity in the Baltic states. Instead, power was shared between competing capitalist cliques, whose interpretation of “freedom” is the unrestrained exploitation of the working class. They have maintained power primarily by fomenting nationalism and racism.

In Estonia, for example, the Russian minority, which accounts for more than one quarter of the country’s 1.3 million inhabitants, is subject to systematic discrimination. About half of the minority lack an Estonian passport and can only acquire one by completing a difficult Estonian language test, which is particularly hard for the elderly. Income and career prospects for the Russian minority are correspondingly lower.

Economic growth, based on low wages, meagre social benefits and limited workers’ rights, benefits only a small minority. The average income of a full-time employee is one-third of that in Germany, and unemployment is relatively high, officially 7 percent. Around 100,000 Estonians work abroad due to lack of work at home.

Nevertheless—or precisely for this reason—Steinmeier praised Estonia as a role model for the European Union. “Many people in Germany are grateful for the fresh European wind that blows over the Baltic Sea from the Baltic states at a time when some Europeans are turning away from unification and its values,” he said.

Steinmeier’s accusation directed at the Russian leadership of “defining their country’s image” in opposition to another is much more true of ruling circles in Estonia, which campaign in a hysterical manner against Russia. They go so far as to glorify the Nazis and their collaborators. In 2012 the Estonian parliament adopted a resolution honouring the voluntary Estonian members of Hitler’s Waffen-SS as “freedom fighters” and “fighters against the communist dictatorship.”

Some 80,000 Estonians had joined the Nazis in World War II in order to fight the Red Army. August 28, the day on which the Waffen-SS recruited members of the Estonian Defence League in 1942, is a national holiday, celebrated every year with marches. Neo-Nazis take part, including those travelling from abroad, while leading politicians send their greetings. There is no corresponding tribute for the 30,000 Estonians who fought in the Red Army against the Nazis.

The Hitler-Stalin Pact is used to argue that the Baltic states were more oppressed and persecuted by the Soviet regime than by the Nazis. “August 23 has long since been a day of anti-Russian emotions at this historical intersection between East and West,” the correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes from Tallinn. “The memory of communism times is more alive than the German occupation.”

Steinmeier exploits this historical revisionism to justify the return of German militarism. The argument that the Soviet regime was worse than the Nazi regime and National Socialism, as a justified reaction to the crimes of “Bolshevism”, has long been a weapon in the hands of right-wing extremist historians, from Ernst Nolte to Jorg Baberowski.

Stalin’s pact with Hitler was undoubtedly criminal, delivering a severe blow to dedicated Communists and anti-fascists all over the world and undermining their fighting morale. But this does not mean that Hitler and Stalin pursued the same goals or, as Steinmeier in Tallinn put it, “made East Central Europe their prey.”

Hitler represented German imperialism, whose hunger for markets, raw materials and “living space” in the East could only be satisfied by violent expansion. For Hitler, the pact with Stalin was a tactical measure to gain time for his war plans against England and France, and then attack the Soviet Union.

For his part, Stalin represented the interests of a privileged bureaucracy which had usurped Soviet power from the working class. The bureaucracy feared, above all, uprisings by workers across the globe, which would inspire Soviet workers to take similar action, thereby threatening the rule of the clique in Moscow. It was incapable of defending the Soviet Union, as Lenin and Trotsky had done, by mobilising the international working class. Instead, it relied on alliances with various imperialist powers.

Two important events preceded the Hitler-Stalin pact: Stalin’s Terror of 1937-1938, which decapitated the leadership of the Red Army and the Communist Party and rendered the Soviet Union virtually defenceless; and the Munich Agreement of 1938, with which Great Britain and France delivered Czechoslovakia on a plate to Hitler. Stalin concluded he could no longer rely on London and Paris. Moscow had sought to strike an alliance with Great Britain and France to the end, but they were merely playing for time until Stalin finally struck his deal with Hitler. Despite the cynicism, brutality, and recklessness with which it was carried out, Moscow’s pact had essentially a defensive character.

Hitler was able to fulfil his historical mission by taking the path to war. In his article “The Twin Stars: Hitler-Stalin”, Leon Trotsky wrote in 1939: “A victorious offensive war would secure the economic future of German capitalism and, along with this, the National Socialist regime. It is different with Stalin. He cannot wage an offensive war with any hope of victory. … No one knows this better than Stalin. The fundamental thought of his foreign policy is to escape a major war.” ( Writings of Leon Trotsky 1939-40, Pathfinder Press, p. 115).

In a section of his speech in Tallinn, Steinmeier indicated the real reason for his visit. He expressed his pleasure with his Estonian hosts who “appreciate our cooperation and seek to collaborate with us on the existential questions of security and defence.”

Germany, the US and NATO use the right-wing, anti-Russian regimes in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw to encircle Russia militarily. A large proportion of the 4,000 NATO soldiers permanently deployed on the Russian border as the vanguard of a 40,000-strong rapid deployment force, are stationed in the Baltic states, with their combined population of just 6 million. Steinmeier is due to visit NATO troops in Rukla, Lithuania, on Friday.

In September 2014 US President Obama gave an assurance that NATO would provide Estonia military assistance in any conflict with Russia. Steinmeier has now echoed that call. “I assure people in Estonia: their security is our security,” he said. This means that in the event of a provocation by the right-wing government of the tiny state, Germany will be plunged into a war capable of transforming Europe into a nuclear battlefield.

It is not the first time that Steinmeier has worked with Nazi apologists to advance German militarism. In 2014 he was intensively involved in the preparation of the coup in Ukraine, which toppled the president-elect Viktor Yanukovych and brought the pro-Western oligarch Poroshenko to power. Steinmeier’s Ukrainian allies at that time included the leader of the fascist Swoboda party, Oleh Tyahnybok. Yanukovych was forced to flee the country by armed fascist militias who drew on the tradition of Nazi collaborators in Ukraine during WWII.

Shortly before the putsch in Kiev Steinmeier had proclaimed the “end of military restraint” at the Munich Security Conference. Germany is “too big and too important” to stand on the world’s side lines, he said.

Steinmeier’s recent trip to Estonia confirms that the return of German militarism is inextricably linked to the revival of the vilest traditions of German history.

US massacring hundreds of Syrian civilians every week in Raqqa

Jordan Shilton

The US-backed onslaught on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa is claiming hundreds of civilian lives every week, including dozens of women and children. US aircraft and troops on the ground are deploying indiscriminate force on a civilian center where an estimated 25,000 people remained trapped and a further 270,000 have already fled.

According to Airwars, which monitors air strikes by the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq, 725 civilians have lost their lives in the two-and-a-half months since the Raqqa offensive began in June. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with ties to the anti-Assad opposition, reported that between Aug. 14 and Aug. 22 alone, 168 civilians died in US air strikes and shelling attacks.

The humanitarian situation is so bad that the United Nations appealed yesterday for a pause in military operations to allow civilians to escape. An official in Washington unceremoniously dismissed the UN’s plea, declaring that a pause would give ISIS “more time to build up its defenses and thus put more civilians in harm’s way” and “reinforce [its] tactics of using civilians as human shields.”

US imperialism is determined to consolidate its geostrategic and economic interests in Syria, Iraq and the wider region against its rivals, even if this means laying waste to entire urban centers and slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. While Washington’s official propaganda claims that the US wants to eliminate Islamic State, the principle reason for the ruthless assault on densely populated cities over the past year has been to ensure that US-backed forces gain control over strategically important regions of eastern Syria and western Iraq before pro-Assad fighters, backed by Russian air power and Iranian soldiers, do so.

An Amnesty International report released Thursday revealed that US ground troops, supposedly deployed to act as “advisers” to the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, are indiscriminately firing unguided shells into Raqqa. One incident documented by the group saw twelve shells strike a residential building, causing the deaths of twelve civilians, one of which was a baby. “Whether you live or die depends on luck because you don’t know where the next shell will strike,” a resident told Amnesty.

Amnesty Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera said that the US-backed assault was helping create a “deadly labyrinth” for civilians in the city, who were coming under fire from all sides. It also accused the Assad government of bombing villages to the south of Raqqa.

Reports suggest that around 60 percent of Raqqa has been recaptured by the SDF, which is led by the US-armed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But even in areas allegedly under the militia’s control, ISIS fighters have been able to mount counterattacks.

The horrific slaughter of civilians in Raqqa comes just months after US-backed Iraqi forces, relying on US air power, laid waste to vast swathes of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. US warplanes repeatedly used overwhelming force on residential areas, frequently resorting to the dropping of non-precision-guided munitions against ISIS snipers. Some estimates place the number of deaths in the city as high as 40,000, and there have been widespread reports of systematic human rights abuses by Iraqi forces, including summary executions.

These vicious crimes against the long-suffering population of Syria and Iraq are war crimes and blatant violations of international law, which prohibits the targeting of civilians and the use of indiscriminate attacks in urban areas. They implicate not only the top officials in the Trump administration, including the president himself who has boasted about removing any restrictions on the use of military force, but also the government of Barack Obama, who became the first two-term president to wage war throughout his term in office, and launched the Mosul offensive.

The imminent prospect of ISIS being forced from its last major urban stronghold will not lead to a decrease but rather an increase in US military involvement in Syria. US and British special forces have been training Syrian Islamist rebels in the southeast of the country with the aim of using these proxies to take ISIS territory further north, rather than allowing it to fall into the hands of Assad’s troops. The eastern border region is of considerable strategic significance, since it would enable Iran to establish a land bridge from Teheran to Damascus and its Hizbollah ally in Lebanon. The Trump administration, which has demonized Iran as the chief sponsor of terrorism in the region, views such a prospect as intolerable.

An indication of the discussions well under way within US ruling circles is provided by an article entitled “Does Trump intend to thwart Iran’s ambitions in Syria?” published Thursday by Foreign Policy, which warned, “The president risks going down in history as the man who defeated the Islamic State only to make the Middle East safe for Iranian hegemony.”

Alleging that Israel, feeling threatened by the establishment of an Iranian corridor to the Mediterranean, the article’s author, John Hannah, who served as Dick Cheney’s National Security Adviser during the Bush administration and is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, proceeded to argue that Trump’s chief goal in Syria should be “preventing a fundamental shift in the balance of power in favor of America’s most determined enemies in a region of the world long deemed vital to US interests.”

The unrestrained use of Washington’s military will not be restricted to Iraq and Syria. On Monday, President Donald Trump spoke to an audience of soldiers in military uniform and boasted that full decision-making powers would be given to military commanders to determine when to use overwhelming force to “obliterate” enemies in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands more civilian casualties are inevitable in the impoverished Central Asian country, where hundreds of thousands have already lost their lives in the brutal, 16-year-old neocolonial war of occupation led by the United States.

Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis have used no less inflammatory language in their bellicose threats against North Korea. After Trump warned that Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” from the US, Mattis left no doubt about the scale of the onslaught being prepared against Pyongyang when he proclaimed that a war with North Korea would lead to the “destruction of its people.”

The eruption of US imperialist violence in ever more bloody forms is a devastating indictment of all of those political forces which have sought over the past quarter century to portray Washington as the defender of “human rights” and “democracy.” The Democrats, led by the “liberals” at the New York Times, provided the necessary propaganda to justify the war in Iraq in 2003, the bombardment of Libya to bring about regime change in 2011 under the pretext of the bogus “responsibility to protect,” and the arming of Islamist rebels in Syria in the name of supporting a so-called “democratic” opposition. They were supported by numerous pseudo-left groups who went so far as to portray events in Syria as a “revolution” and appealed to the US and its European imperialist allies to intervene more decisively on the side of the “rebels.”

Last year, the corporate media issued incessant denunciations of Russia and the Assad regime for war crimes and violations of international law during their assault to drive US-armed Islamist Jihadis out of eastern Aleppo. The hundreds of civilians killed or maimed in the joint Russian and Syrian offensive pale in comparison to the tens of thousands massacred by US-led operations so far this year, not to mention the millions who have been killed as a result of the uninterrupted US wars of aggression over the past twenty-five years throughout the Middle East.

Precisely because of this fact, the major media outlets have deliberately sought to bury coverage of the latest events, giving as much space to the absurd denials of responsibility from the US military as they do to the damning findings of the reports from Airwars and Amnesty.

These findings have not stopped Thomas Friedman, a columnist at the Timeswho has propagandized for every US-led war of aggression since the 1990s, from continuing to glorify America’s military prowess. In a recent column entitled “From Kabul to Baghdad,” Friedman enthused over his visit to the US joint strike center in Irbil in northern Iraq, from where many of the rockets and missiles that have killed civilians have been fired. He witnessed US forces fire a 500-pound bomb at a building where ISIS snipers were based, and could barely contain his enthusiasm. “The screen rebroadcasting the F-15E’s targeting pod showed the bomb going straight down through the roof,” wrote Friedman, as if he was describing a video game.

“‘We have splash,’ said one of the controllers in a monotone as a huge plume of smoke engulfed the video screen.” All that was left of the target, Friedman continued, was a pile of “smoldering rubble,” a result that has clearly been produced many hundreds of times in the US’s brutal air war.

Over recent months, the Democrats have spearheaded a vicious anti-Russia campaign that has sought to pressure the Trump White House to maintain Washington’s bellicose stance towards Moscow.

The anti-Russia campaign has simultaneously portrayed the military, including Mattis, Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R: McMaster, all of whom are implicated in the war crimes of US imperialism around the world, as “moderates” and the “adults in the room” capable of restraining Trump.

The bloodbath being inflicted on Iraq and Syria, and the imminent threat of its expansion into Afghanistan, show how fraudulent such claims are.

Amelia Earhart Fellowship for Women in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering 2018

Application deadline: 15th November 2017

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Women from Any Country

To be taken at (country): Any University or College offering Accredited Degrees in any country.

Subject Areas: PhD/Doctoral degrees in Aerospace-related Sciences and Aerospace-related Engineering

About the Award: Zonta International established the Amelia Earhart Fellowship in 1938 in honor of legendary pilot and Zontian, Amelia Earhart. Today, the Fellowship of US$10,000 is awarded annually to 35 talented women, pursuing Ph.D./doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences or aerospace-related engineering around the globe.

Offered Since: 1938

Type: PhD/Doctoral

Eligibility

• Women of any nationality pursuing a Ph.D./doctoral degree who demonstrate a superior academic record in the field of aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering are eligible.
• Current fellows may apply to renew the Fellowship for a second year and will undergo the same application and evaluation procedures as first-time applicants.

Number of Awards: 35

Benefits of Fellowship:

• Fellowship of US$10,000 is awarded annually
  
• The Fellowship enables these women to invest in state-of-the-art computers to conduct their research, purchase expensive books and resource materials, and participate in specialized studies around the globe.
• Amelia Earhart Fellows have gone on to become astronauts, aerospace engineers, astronomers, professors, geologists, business owners, heads of companies, even Secretary of the US Air Force.

Duration of Fellowship: One year (current fellows can reapply to renew the fellowship each year)

How to Apply: The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Committee reviews the applications and recommends recipients to the Zonta International Board of Directors. All applicants will be notified of their status by the end of April.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Sponsors: Amelia Earhart Fellowships are made possible by generous contributions to the Zonta International Foundation Amelia Earhart Fellowship Fund.

Important Note: Please note that post-doctoral research programs are not eligible for the Fellowship. Members and employees of Zonta International or the Zonta International Foundation are also not eligible to apply for the Fellowship.

International Symposium on China-Africa Educational Exchange and Industrial Capacity Cooperation (Funded to Tianjin, China) 2017

Application Deadline: 7th September 2017.

Eligible Countries: African countries

To Be Taken At (Country): Tianjin, China

About the Award: Over the past half century, China has been an increasingly important partner of Africa in education and training exchange and in industrial capacity cooperation. A central factor in ensuring that the cooperation and investments deliver on economic and social returns for both Africa and China depends on the quantity and quality of skills in African countries. Enhancing both how skills are delivered and the range and quality of skills will be a critical pillar for the economic transformation of African countries and the achievement of both Agenda 2063 and the global Sustainable Development Goals.

The number of scholarships and training opportunities provided by the Chinese government for African countries continue to grow. Yet, the effectiveness of the education and training programs, especially their contribution to the industrial development in Africa has largely remained unstudied. Key questions for discussions include:

• How can African countries benefit from intensified social, cultural and economic ties with China?
• How can China benefit from socially and economically sustainable investments into African economies?

The conference aims to integrate African perspectives on Africa-China cooperation in education/skills development and industrial capacity transfer, featuring presentations by African and Chinese scholars and officials. The conference will also bring together established and aspiring thought leaders on Africa-China collaboration, offering first-hand insights and unparalleled opportunities for networking and exchange.

Type: Call for Papers, Conferences

Eligibility: The Conference Organizing Committee invites proposals for papers from scholars, experts, decision makers and opinion leaders on the following themes:

• Education and Industrialization: Lessons and Experience of China.
• Industrialization and Human Resource in Africa: Demands and Supply.
• China-Africa Industrial Capacity Cooperation: Achievements, Challenges and Future.
• China-Africa Education and Training Cooperation and its Effect on China-African Industrial Cooperation

Selection Criteria: The proposals may explore the undermentioned sub-thematic areas that could be embedded within more than one main themes.

1. Capacity Building to promote social protection interventions for enhancing access and retention in education, including Home Grown School Feeding and  Policy Support for Member States
2. A paper that uncovers the engagements of China-Africa relation
3. Internationalization of Higher Education and Research: Lessons for Africa; and
4. Quality Assurance in Higher Education: What lessons can Africa draw from the Chinese experience?
5. Forecasting for 21st Century skills. Challenges and lessons in skills supply and demand in Africa.
6. Building Human capacity to unlock the Demographic Dividend in Africa

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The Tianjin University Technology and Education will cover the costs for the participation of selected African experts.

Duration of Program: 24th – 25th November 2017

How to Apply: Paper abstracts (not exceeding 500 words) and a curriculum vitae should be submitted to the Association of African Universities (AAU) by 7th September 2017. The selection of papers for the symposium will be undertaken by the AAU.

Each papers has to stress on the points highlighted below:

1. Addressing the main theme or subthemes as exhaustive as possible
2. Concentrating on links to Africa–China Relation
3. Draw applicable lessons from Chinese experience to Africa

The deadline for submitting final paper is 6th October 2017.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Tianjin University Technology and Education

Promotion of Think Thank Work on Migration and Socio-Economic Challenges in Morocco (Funded) 2017

Application Deadline: 10th September 2017

Eligible Countries: Countries in the MENA Region and Europe

To Be Taken At (Country): Berlin, Germany and Rabat, Morocco

About the Award: The thematic focus lies on migration and socio-economic challenges in Morocco. This can include, but is not limited to, questions regarding the integration of the informal economic sector, reforms of the education system, Morocco’s challenges as a sending as well as a receiving country of migrants, as well as links between smuggling, human trafficking, and terrorist networks.

The project’s objectives are:

• to analyze pressing issues and developments in selected countries and the region as a whole;
• to provide training to develop new as well as to enhance existing policy analysis and advice capacities;
• to network with peers, political decision-makers, and senior experts to exchange experiences and increase visibility and credibility.

Type: Call for Papers, Workshop

Eligibility: 

• The main target group are mid-level professionals from Morocco and Europe who work in the field of policy analysis and advice in think tanks, academic research institutions, or comparable organizations.
• Applicants must have a background that is relevant to the topic and should demonstrate in their application how participating would benefit their professional activities.
• The working language is English. Participation in both workshops and submission of a final paper are mandatory.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• The organizers cover accommodation and provide for travel subsidies based on participants’ country of residence.
• Berlin workshop: participants travelling from Morocco may receive a subsidy of up to € 500, participants travelling from the EU one of up to € 200.
• Rabat workshop: participants residing in Morocco are eligible for a subsidy of up to € 50, participants travelling from the EU for a subsidy of up to € 500.
• Travel expenses will be reimbursed separately after each workshop.

Duration of Program: 

Workshop in Berlin: December 7–December 10, 2017

• Two days of topic analysis and discussion with external experts and presentation of first drafts
• Two days of training on policy-paper writing and research

Workshop in Rabat: March 15–March 18, 2018

• Presentation of final papers to the group and relevant decision-makers
• Two days of training on policy advocacy and communication

How to Apply: Applications must include:

• completed application form
• CV (max. three pages)
• letter of motivation

Please send your application to kabis@dgap.org. An application form is available for download below this entry. Kindly note that only complete applications in English can be considered.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

University of Laval Masters Scholarship for African and European Students 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 15th September, 2017

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Students from African or European country (other than France)

To be taken at (country): University of Laval, Canada

Eligible Field of Study: Scholarships are awarded within the Faculty of Law, Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies,. Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Music, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.

About the Award: The purpose of this program is to promote academic excellence by offering scholarships to foreign students who are citizens of an African or European country (other than France*) and are admitted to a master’s program at Université Laval.

This scholarship of $7,000 per year is renewable once, subject to compliance with the faculty’s criteria of excellence and upon the research director’s recommendation and faculty approval.

Type: Masters degree

Eligibility:

• At the deadline indicated below, must have submitted a complete application package* at Université Laval in an eligible first master’s program and have been accepted in this program.
• You are a foreign student who is a citizen of an African or European country other than France.
• You graduated from a public university accredited by the ministry of higher education in your country of origin. For private institutions, eligibility is determined when the file is reviewed.
• You are registered full time for the two firt semesters in the program of study for which the scholarship was granted (winter 2015 and summer 2015).Number of Scholarships:

Number of scholarships: Participating faculties can determine a fixed number of scholarships to be awarded.

Value of Scholarship: $7,000 per year

Duration of Scholarship: Renewable once

How to Apply: There is no form to complete for master’s level scholarships. Recipients are selected using information from admission applications received by Université Laval. To be considered, candidates must submit a complete application for admission to the University no later than the deadline of the target semester (see application deadlines above).

How to apply for admission?

Visit scholarship webpage for details to apply

Provider: University of Laval, Canada

Important Notes: Please refer to the person in charge of this program at your faculty to get more information.

Erasmus MOBILE+3 Scholarships at University of Porto 2018/2019 – Portugal

Application Deadline: 15th September 2017 (23:59 CET)

Eligible Countries: The 14 countries include Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Egypt, Georgia, Morocco, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan.

About the Award: Within the 2 years of duration of the project, 144 scholarships will be granted to students and staff from the different programme and partner institutions, after the signature of an Inter-Institutional Agreement between the University of Porto and each one of the 44 partner institutions from the 14 countries abovementioned. The implementation of the project will be ensured through this website and the online platform that the U.Porto has been developing in the last years for the management of its projects.

Type: Short courses

Eligibility: In order to be eligible for an Erasmus + scholarship under this project, candidate

• must be a student/staff from the institution which are a part of the project’s Consortium.
• The MOBILE+3 project offers grants for exchange mobility. As so, all the students must be registered in a HEI and enrolled in studies leading to a recognized degree or another recognized tertiary level qualification.

For Undergraduate studies:

• must be enrolled at least in the second year of higher education studies in order to be eligible to undertake an exchange period abroad.

For Master studies:

• must have completed at least one semester at the home institution before undertaking an exchange period.

For Doctorate studies:

• must have completed at least one year of studies and have already a research project.

For academic and administrative staff:

• must work (full-time) at a partner institution of the project in order to be eligible to apply for a grant.

All applicants must receive the formal support of their home institution, through the issuing of a support letter (this documents is mandatory at the application stage).

Erasmus+ enables students to study or train abroad more than once as Erasmus+ students as long as the minimum duration for each activity and a total maximum of 12 months per study cycle is respected.

Number of Awards: 144

Value of Award: The MOBILE+3 project provides the following financial support to the grant holders:

• Monthly allowance (the amount per month will depend on the mobility’s direction);
• Round trip plane ticket between the grant holder’s home city and the host country;
• Health, accident and travel insurance valid during the entire mobility period

Duration of Program: 

• Undergraduate: 6 months:
• Master:  6 months
• Doctorate: 6 months
• Academic and Administrative Staff: 7 days

How to Apply: After selection the candidates approved to the MOBILE+3 scholarship should also fulfill the admission criteria of each host institution.

Interested candidates should go through the Admission criteria and application instructions on the Program Webpage (see Link below) before applying

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: European Commission

Yousriya Loza-Sawiris Masters Scholarship for Egyptian Students 2018/2019 – University of Minnesota

Application Deadline: 19th October, 2017.

Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Egypt

To be taken at (country): University of Minnesota, USA

Field of Study: Master’s of Development Practice (MDP)

About the Award: The Yousriya Loza-Sawiris Scholarship is a fully-funded program for students seeking to earn a Master’s Degree in Development Practice (MDP) from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, USA.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: 

• ​Egyptian national
• Hold a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from a well reputed academic institution in a related field of study
• Satisfy the entry requirements into the academic MDP program
• Demonstrate excellent professional and academic track record
• Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills (extracurricular activities/community work/entrepreneurial initiative)
• Demonstrate inability to finance studies from own resources
• While no specific experience or academic track is required, students with a strong liberal arts education background and sound quantitative and analytical skills will be best prepared for academic success at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
• Previous coursework in mathematics, statistics, and economics is recommended
• English language proficiency is required. Valid TOEFL or IELTS exam scores with a minimum of 600 (paper-based), 250 (computer-based), 100 (internet-based, minimum 22 on each section) on the TOEFL, or 7 for the IELTS.
• A valid Graduate Record Exam (GRE) score is required. No specific score is required, however, Fall 2015 admitted students tested within average GRE Verbal Reasoning Percentile: 68% and average GRE Quantitative Reasoning Percentile: 54%

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship will cover full tuition, living expenses, travel and health insurance.

Duration of Scholarship: Duration of course

How to Apply: An interested applicant should download the application and fill in all the required fields, then mail their hard copy application, and required documents to Newton Education Services.
Address: Building 4, Floor 4, Regus Offices, Arkan Plaza, El Sheikh Zayed, Plot 31, in front of Zayed 2000 Compound, Giza, 11728, Egypt.
Email: ylss@sawirisfoundation.org

APPLY NOW

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Newton Education Services on behalf of Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD).

Important Notes: Please note that the Yousriya Loza-Sawiris Scholarship candidates must apply to, and be accepted at, the Masters of Development Practice (MDP) program at the Hubert H. Humphrey
School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, USA, independently from this scholarship application. Being shortlisted for the Yousriya Loza-Sawiris Scholarship does not guarantee acceptance at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.

Soraya Al Salti Masters Scholarship for Female Students in MENA Countries 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 31st August 2017

Eligible Countries: Egypt

About the Award: This scholarship, managed by Newton Education Services, offers a number of fully funded and partial scholarships for Arab women looking to pursue a masters degree in various fields, for up to two years.

Type: Masters

Eligibility: 

• Female national of the MENA region
• Candidates must hold a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent from an accredited academic institution
• Demonstrate excellent professional and academic record
• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills (extracurricular activities, community development or entrepreneurial initiative)
• A minimum of two years of work experience and/or significant community service-related activities.
• English language proficiency is required. Valid TOEFL or IELTS exam scores with a minimum of 600 (paper-based), 250 (computer-based), 100 (internet-based, minimum 22 on each section) on the TOEFL, or 7 for the IELTS.
• Depending on the field of study, candidates may be required to sit for the GRE or GMAT exam

Upon graduation, scholarship recipients are required to work within the MENA region and/or projects related to the MENA region for a minimum of one year.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value and Duration of Award: Full or partial tuition and/or living expenses coverage for a maximum of two years

How to Apply: An interested applicant should download the application and fill in all the required fields, then mail their hard copy application, and required documents to Newton Education Services.
Address: Building 4, Floor 4, Regus Offices, Arkan Plaza, El Sheikh Zayed, Plot 31, in front of Zayed 2000 Compound, Giza, 11728, Egypt.
Email: soraya.scholarship@newton-prep.com

APPLY NOW

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Newton Education Services