Geopolitics & Empire

Geopolitics & Empire · Isa Blumi: The Geopolitics of the War on Yemen #085 Dr. Isa Blumi discusses his book "Destroying Yemen" which explains how the Atlanticist empire has sought for a century to secure financial, political, and resource control over an independent Yemeni state with the help of GCC actors. Blumi also explains how Saudi Arabia is quickly disintegrating and what this means for the future. Show Notes In Yemen, Hardly A Revolution https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/opinion/09blumi.html What's Going On In Yemen? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oJf8g6FDHo Websites https://www.su.se/english/profiles/iblum-1.253921 https://www.twitter.com/isablumi Books https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520296145/destroying-yemen About the Guest Isa Blumi is Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor of Turkish Studies at Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies. He holds a PhD in History and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies from New York University and a Master of  Political Science and Historical Studies from The New School for Social Research, New York. Dr. Isa Blumi joins Stockholm University after spending the last 10 years teaching and researching in universities located in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, the USA, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, and Albania/Kosovo. Isa Blumi researches societies in the throes of social, economic, and political transformation. His latest work covers the late Ottoman period and successor regimes, arguing that these events are part of process that interlinks the Balkans, the Middle East, and the larger Islamic world. In this respect, it is key to explore in a comparative, integrated manner how post-Ottoman Turkey fits into what is a global story of transition. As he expands his work to include more of the 20th century, Blumi explores processes of change induced by Muslim refugees who ended up settling throughout the world. Exploring these refugees' stories through this global perspective helps question how we understand identity and social organization, themes Blumi will focus on in the courses he will teach. Beyond his historical research, Blumi also regularly writes, and lectures on contemporary Balkan and Middle Eastern politics (especially Kosovo, Turkey and Yemen) and political Islam. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Balihar Sanghera: Central Asia as the New Economic Battleground for China, Russia, and the USA #084 Dr. Balihar Sanghera discusses the economic dystopia left behind by the Soviet Union in Central Asia as well as why he thinks the United States holds the upper hand in the region despite Russia's formidable Eurasian Union project and China's Belt and Road. Websites https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/staff/academic/s/sanghera-balihar.html Show Notes https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/balihar-sanghera/economic-dystopia-in-kyrgyzstan https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/balihar-sanghera-and-elmira-satybaldieva/global-capitalism-in-central-asia https://theconversation.com/central-asia-is-the-new-economic-battleground-for-the-us-china-and-russia-98263 About the Guest Balihar Sanghera is the Director of Graduate Studies (Taught) and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, Medway campus. His main interests are political economy, social theory and ethics. Currently, he is writing up four research projects: Geopolitics and competing economic imaginaries in Central Asia (with Dr Elmira Satybaldieva) The moral economy of credit in Kyrgyzstan (with Dr Elmira Satybaldieva) The neoliberal judiciary and property rights in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Social justice philanthropy in the UK Before joining SSPSSR in 2004, he was a visiting lecturer at the Sociology Department, American University – Central Asia (2002-04), at the Sociology Department, Novosibirsk State University (2000-02), and at the Economics Department, University of Central England in Birmingham (1999-2000). He was also senior research fellow at the Management Department, University of Central England in Birmingham (1998-1999). *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Jeremy Kuzmarov: The New Cold War is a Farce #083 Academic and author Jeremy Kuzmarov discusses his latest book "The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce." Topics covered include the true origins of the Cold War, how a Henry Wallace presidency could've altered the course of history, the Military-Industrial-Academic-Complex, the use of propaganda against Russia in the New Cold War, NATO expansion, color revolutions, and how the Democratic left is perpetuating McCarthyism in the age of Trump. Websites https://jeremykuzmarov.com Books https://www.amazon.com/Russians-Are-Coming-Again-Tragedy/dp/1583676945 About the Guest Jeremy Kuzmarov has taught at numerous universities and colleges in the field of U.S. history and foreign relations. He has undertaken extensive specialized research on the following topics: —  Covert dimensions of U.S. foreign policy —  The War on Drugs —  U.S. policing and prisons and the internationalization of U.S. criminal justice —  U.S. airpower and its human cost —  American military base networks —  The false manipulations of the public in selling American wars, among other topics. Kuzmarov has contributed to many progressive publications like The Progressive Magazine, Counterpunch, the LA Progressive, the Huffington Post, Z Magazine, Z Net and has appeared in various media outlets, including on radio and television programs.  He is also a contributor to a peace website, developed by historian Roger Peace, that provides comprehensive overviews of major U.S. wars and assesses them from a just war perspective. Kuzmarov has been active in local peace groups, and is a board member of the Tulsa Peace fellowship, a friend of the Asia-Pacific Journal, and on the Steering committee for Historians for Peace and Democracy. He is also part of a network, headquartered at the University of Exeter, that studies colonial history and counterinsurgencies in comparative perspective. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Adriel Kasonta: Has Brexit Become a US Foreign Policy Tool Against the EU and Russia? #082 Political analyst and consultant Adriel Kasonta discusses potential Brexit scenarios and how it has been weaponized by the United States against the EU and Russia. Websites https://www.adrielkasonta.com https://www.twitter.com/Adriel_Kasonta About the Guest Adriel Kasonta is a London-based professional with a strong background in law, politics and diplomacy. He is currently serving as editorial board member at the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS) in Prague and European affairs analyst at Wikistrat, a geostrategic consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. He regularly blogs at Russian International Affairs Council. Adriel is former project manager at the British Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC) in London and chairman of the International Affairs Committee at the oldest conservative think tank in the United Kingdom, The Bow Group, where he authored a research paper titled “Reflections on the Revolution in Ukraine” and was the editor and leading author of a report titled “The Sanctions on Russia”. Furthermore, in this capacity, he also authored a research paper titled “British Euroscepticism”, which was published by The Bruges Group think tank. His opinion and analysis has appeared in Forbes, The National Interest, National Review, The American Conservative, Antiwar.com, RealClearReligion, CapX, EurActiv, Russia Direct and Sputnik News (PL). *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Dan Kovalik: The CIA and Deep State Plot To Attack Iran #081 Human Rights Attorney Dan Kovalik and author of "The Plot To Scapegoat Russia" and "The Plot To Attack Iran" discusses the US drive to overthrow Iran which includes proxy wars in Nicaragua, Yemen, Libya, and Syria that have the potential to pull Russia and China into a greater conflict. Websites https://twitter.com/danielmkovalik Publications https://www.amazon.com/Dan-Kovalik/e/B06XZ9ZRSD/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1537885269&sr=8-1 About the Guest Daniel Kovalik is Senior Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW). He has worked for the USW since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. While with the USW, he has served as lead counsel on cutting-edge labor law litigation, including the landmark NLRB cases of Lamons Gasket and Specialty Health Care. He has also worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, recently described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Morris Berman: End Of Empire...Are We There Yet? #080 We return to the broadcast with cultural historian Dr. Morris Berman to discuss his latest book titled “Are We There Yet?” which consists of a collection of lectures, unpublished essays and reflections on the continued decline of American Empire. Websites http://morrisberman.blogspot.com Publications http://www.amazon.com/Morris-Berman/e/B001HCWOWM About the Guest Morris Berman is well known as an innovative cultural historian and social critic. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and North America, and has held visiting endowed chairs at Incarnate Word College (San Antonio), the University of New Mexico, and Weber State University. During 1982-88 he was the Lansdowne Professor in the History of Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Berman won the Governor’s Writers Award for Washington State in 1990, the Rollo May Center Grant for Humanistic Studies in 1992, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity (from the Media Ecology Association) in 2013. He is the author of a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness–-The Reenchantment of the World (1981), Coming to Our Senses (1989), and Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (2000)–and in 2000 his Twilight of American Culture was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Berman relocated to Mexico in 2006, and during 2008-9 was a Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Tom Luongo: Has The Deep State Defeated Trump In Syria? #079 Geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo discusses the recent US strikes in Syria and whether President Trump has effectively been neutered by the Deep State and Military-Industrial-Complex. Also, is Trump in control of his own Twitter account and will he succeed in North Korea? Show Notes 'The Goal for China is to Open Up the Yuan Trade' – Tom Luongo on Sputnik News https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201804051063239817-china-petro-yuan-oil-us The Neocons’ Real Plan for Syria Emerges from the Lack of Rubble https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/16/the-neocons-real-plan-for-syria-emerges-from-the-lack-of-rubble Trump is Done, Mattis Won, Thank the Gods https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/14/trump-is-done-mattis-won-thank-the-gods Will Trump and Mattis Run Out the Neocon’s Doomsday Clock? https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/13/will-trump-and-mattis-run-out-the-neocons-doomsday-clock The Coup is Complete – Trump is Done https://tomluongo.me/2018/04/11/the-coup-is-complete-trump-is-done Websites https://tomluongo.me https://www.patreon.com/GoldGoatsNGuns https://seekingalpha.com/author/tom-luongo/articles#regular_articles About Tom Luongo Tom Luongo is a former research chemist by trade and an Austrian Economist by study and a market analyst by choice. For the past four years he has been a Senior Financial Editor with Newsmax Media publishing thoughts on where markets, central banks, gold and geopolitics meet and explode. He is now the publisher of Gold, Goats n' Guns, a monthly newsletter offered through Patreon. He has been an investor and market analyst for more seventeen years and is an astute observer in changes within the culture and the political landscape. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Christian Costamagna: The 'Special War' Doctrine to Destroy Yugoslavia #78 Dr. Christian Costamagna brings to light new research on the Yugoslav "Special War" describing the foreign interference and destabilization of Yugoslavia in the 1980s which exacerbated the existing internal crises and led to the bloodiest war in Europe since WWII. Show Notes Archival Documents Reveal Late-Yugoslav Strategic Thinking on the ‘Special War’ http://www.balkanalysis.com/blog/2018/02/05/archival-documents-reveal-late-yugoslav-strategic-thinking-on-the-special-war OSS, CIA and European unity: The American committee on United Europe, 1948-60 https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/aldrich/publications/oss_cia_united_europe_eec_eu.pdf Website https://costamagna.wordpress.com http://unipmn.academia.edu/ChristianCostamagna About Christian Costamagna Dr. Christian Costamagna is an Italian scholar specialized in the history of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. During the academic year 2014-2015, he taught Contemporary History and History of Eastern Europe at the University of Eastern Piedmont. He obtained his PhD in Historical Sciences at the same university in July 2013, with a thesis on Slobodan Milošević’s ascent to power in the second half of the 1980s in Serbia. Dr. Costamagna previously undertook a seven-month internship at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade in 2011. In 2012 he spent an additional semester at the Faculty of Arts at the University in Ljubljana, completing research at the National Archives of Slovenia. Dr. Costamagna has written for various Italian and other European journals about history, politics and geopolitics of the Western Balkans. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of EastJournal.net (Italy). *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJHMLAm3Ozo Former U.S. diplomat Jim Jatras discusses President Trump's rush to war in Syria, the false flag chemical attacks warned about by Russia, Putin's options in case of U.S. strikes, and the real geopolitical game being played in the Middle East which can lead to fatal escalation. Transcript G&E Podcast:                     We are speaking with analyst, former U.S. diplomat and foreign policy advisor to the Senate GOP leadership, Jim Jatras. We will be discussing the U.S.-Russia tango in Syria. Let's start with Russia. First it was U.S. election meddling, then Olympics sports doping, then the Russian media acting as foreign agent, and now this incredulous Salisbury nerve gas attack. What's next? Am I going to discover that my mother has actually been a KGB spy my entire life? Is there any truth at all to the neo-McCarthyism? Jim Jatras:                           Well, I think calling it neo-McCarthyism is unfair to Joe McCarthy, that back in his day there really were Stalinist agents at the State Department. Even if his methods went a bit overboard, there was a real concern. What we're seeing today is made out of whole cloth. I think this is simply part of a political campaign against Russia. The term "deep state" has gone from going virtually unknown to being totally overused, but I think there is a reality behind that concept. It's not just U.S. deep state. It's not just the CIA and NSA and FBI, the Department of Justice. It also includes our British friends, MI6, the GCHQ. I've been writing for months that there are British fingerprints all over the Steele dossier, all over the whole Russia-gate, FISA-gate thing. We see it, obviously, all over the Skripal case. [spoiler] Jim Jatras:                           It looks like that is coordinated with these latest accusations on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which, unfortunately, looks like it will lead to military action as early as tonight Washington time. Where I am it's a little after 10:00 p.m., and the talk is now within a few hours we should be launching an attack against Syria. I had hoped that that would have been held off until the OPCW investigators, who are on their way to Damascus, would have had a chance to look at the evidence. Honestly, I think there are people in this town, and certainly in London and some other capitals, who don't want there to be an independent investigation, that do not want their handiwork being exposed. Jim Jatras:                           This has nothing to do, really, with chemical weapons at all, in my opinion. It has to do with the fact that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 the United States emerged as the sole Superpower, unipolar moment and all that. There are people who are willing to risk plunging the world into a third world war to preserve that global hegemony against a Russia that's reasserting its own national interests, and, of course, also China. G&E Podcast:                     Let's just backtrack a bit. You are a former diplomat. Can you tell us about the significance of the recent, unprecedented, expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.S. and the E.U.? I don't think this even happened during the first Cold War. It's quite startling. As you mentioned, it's fabricated chemical attacks with the neo-McCarthyism, and now this expulsion. If we put that all together what does this mean? Jim Jatras:                           I think what we're seeing is the kind of demonization against a target country, and especially its leader, personally, in this case Vladimir Putin, that we've see so many times in the past, whether it was Milošević in Yugoslavia, or Saddam Hussein, or Muammar Gaddafi. Everybody is Hitler. We call it "The Hitler of the month club", is that we frame the target as this horrible, evil person who must be destroyed. Animal Assad now, President Trump is calling him. That means that the rules of normal conduct are suspended because, after all, if you're literally Hitler nothing could be out of bounds. I think that's the kind of mentality that's being used here. Jim Jatras:                           Right now Russia is the target country. Syria, of course, too, but Russia is as well. The fact of the matter is Russia's not a pipsqueak little country you can do this to. Let's remember that what was done with the expulsion of these diplomats, supposedly based on the Skripal case, and the certainty that the Russians did it, even though there's no evidence that they were involved at all, but a lot of evidence that MI6 was involved. That this is part of isolating and setting up a country for regime change. I would also add that the latest round of America sanctions, which seemed designed to ... I think the thinking is if they can put enough squeeze on Russian oligarchs, and, of course, Russian rich people are oligarchs, but America rich people like George Soros or Zuckerberg or people like that, they're not oligarchs. That they somehow can stage a coup to remove Vladimir Putin from power. Anybody that knows anything about Russian know that that's not going to happen. This is not the 1990s when the oligarchs are powerful enough to do that. Jim Jatras:                           All it means is that, I think, the Russians are increasingly going to take the view that they are being targeted for destruction, that war is going to become inevitable. That's a very dangerous notion that should end up in their consciousness because where does that leave us, then? What steps may they take on their side in anticipation of hostilities that may, to them, appear inevitable? This is far more dangerous than what we saw even during the first Cold War. No Soviet leader was ever demonized, not even Stalin, ever demonized in the way that Putin is. G&E Podcast:                     Going back to the deep state you mentioned, at a university where I was teaching years ago I would introduce these topics with my students, and people on campus sometimes would mock this idea of deep state and conspiracy theory. I even Skyped people like yourself into my classrooms. We talked to Peter Dale Scott, who they call one of the grandfathers of the deep state, deep politics term. You recently wrote a piece called Mikhail Octavian Trump, that the best we can expect from President Trump is make some kind of deal with North Korea, not bomb Russia, withdraw from Syria, avoid impeachment in order to preserve some semblance of the America republic. G&E Podcast:                     However, it seems that, in this moment in time, Trump is, perhaps, forfeiting everything he campaigned on if he goes through with the Syrian attack, which is not unlike every predecessor. Obama, "I'm going to close down Guantanamo." A year later nothing happens. Pull out of Iraq, they put more troops in Iraq. Then you say that this will have fatal consequences for Washington, and usher in or accelerate the collapse of the empire. We're hanging by a thread. Can you tell us more about the situation Trump finds himself domestically with the deep state? I understand they just raided his lawyer's home. Jim Jatras:                           That's right. I've been saying, maybe my timeline is a little wrong, but I've been saying that our situation here in the United States, or let's say on the eve of the 2016 election, was, in many respects, comparable to the situation of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. A system that had become completely unworkable, that urgently needed some kind of reform. That's what Gorbachev tried to do. Instead of saving the system and revitalizing it, he ended up destabilizing it further toward its inevitable collapse. I think that there are other examples like that in the past. The most obviously one being Octavian in the late Roman republic who replaced it with the principate. That's what we tend to think of as the empire, which, I would argue, wasn't the death of the republic. In many ways the only way the republic could have been salvaged at that time. Jim Jatras:                           I think if you look, for example, Madeline Albright has this new book out where she's warning against fascism. Everybody's a fascist, Trump's a fascist, Putin's a fascist. Viktor Orban is a fascist. I think there is a counter movement against the dysfunction of the neo-liberal globalist order where people want to return to their roots, return to some sense of identity and of self-respect, and in many cases return to religion, as we've seen, not only in Russia, but in Poland and Hungary and other countries. I think to some extent Trump was tapping into that revival of traditional American identity, which, as we know, is synonymous with racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and so forth because the globalist order doesn't like that kind of unique respect for one's own tradition and culture. Jim Jatras:                           I think that's all the more reason why Putin needs to be destroyed because, in many ways, he is seen as kind of the prototype of a, let's say, a new return to the old ways. A new return to the old bedrock sources of social tradition and strength. I think even China is doing this in its own way, except their values are not Christian, they're Confucian, and I respect that. Those are not my values, they're China's values. I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that it's a complete reversal of the Maoist anti-Confucian campaign whereas now Confucian thought as very highly-respected in China. I think this is a positive development. Jim Jatras:                           I think the global order is very much opposing that, and that is, at least in our country, center within the organs of government, which are, in some ways, kind of like the old Soviet nomenclature. They have their genetic code. They do what they do. Then don't even necessarily think, the people are just cogs in a machine, but they see Trump as a threat to that machine.

Geopolitics & Empire · Chris Devonshire-Ellis: China's Silk Road & Eurasian Game #076 Chris Devonshire-Ellis provides insight into the Belt and Road based on extensive travel in the region and sees China as spreading peace through trade. Show Notes The Belt and Road: Five Opportunities for Foreign Investors https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/30/belt-road-five-opportunities-foreign-investors Belt and Road Initiative Ushering in New Trade, Logistics, Blockchain, and 5G Technologies https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/22/belt-road-initiative-ushering-new-trade-logistics-blockchain-5g-technologies Venezuela to Pay Russia With Own Cryptocurrency for Automotive Parts https://sputniknews.com/business/201804041063187781-venezuela-pay-russia-cryptocurrency China's 'petro-yuan': The end of the dollar hegemony? https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/03/china-petro-yuan-dollar-hegemony-180331091248813.html NSA Monitors Financial World http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-the-nsa-spies-on-international-bank-transactions-a-922430.html Website https://www.silkroadbriefing.com http://www.dezshira.com Books China's New Economic Silk Road: The Great Eurasian Game & The String of Pearls About Chris Devonshire-Ellis Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the Founder of Dezan Shira & Associates and Chairman of the firms International Board of Equity Partners & Directors. He is now based mainly in Europe, however has a 30 year career in Asia, including 25 years living in China. He advises multinational corporations and foreign governments on their investment strategies for China and Asia, and has expanded this in recent years to include the OBOR regions, particularly in regard to European integration with China's "One Belt One Road" initiative. His 2014 book "China's New Economic Silk Road"has been a best seller. Over the past 25 years he has facilitated several billion euros worth of investment into Asia on behalf of his clients. Chris was ranked one of the top ten most important consultants in China by Accountancy Age Magazine in 2011, and ranked 1st in influence by Asia Law in 2015. He is an occasional lecturer at Cambridge Universities Dept. of Politics and International Studies, while his books and papers are regular course material at multiple Universities across China and Europe. He also fulfills pro-bono work on a number of Intra-Asian think tanks, including the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) business advisory council for Northeast Asia, which includes the governments of China, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea, serving as Vice-Chairman of their business advisory council, in addition to a main board directorship with the India-US Business Network based in Cincinnati and with the Gateway House Indian foreign policy think tank based in Mumbai. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Wong MNC Center in San Francisco. Chris is a member of the Royal Overseas League and St. James Club in London, the Institute of Directors in Hong Kong, and a lifetime member of the Hanoi Press Club and Scott Polar Research Institute He also holds the title Baron of Coigach, the 19th in a line stretching back to 1511. In 2012, he commissioned a new piece of classical music encompassing Chinese, India and European themes to mark Dezan Shira & Associates twentieth anniversary. He is a regular contributor to numerous regional charities, ranging from education for orphaned children in China (Care for Children) wildlife protection in Mongolia (Snow Leopard Trust) and Sri Lanka and the preservation of ancient buildings and reconstruction of hospitals and orphanages in Tibet (Surmang Foundation). He regularly travels around our offices and the region and is based from his properties in Sri Lanka and Malta during the winter months and St. Petersburg and Tallinn in summer. He is a competitive sailor, a qualified Ocean skipper and competent horseman. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)