Geopolitics & Empire

Geopolitics & Empire · Duncan Tucker: Crash Course on Mexican Politics #040 Journalist Duncan Tucker gives on overview of current Mexican politics and his experience covering Mexico for VICE, Al-Jazeera, The Guardian and the UK Independent. Website thetequilafiles.com twitter.com/DuncanTucker About Duncan Tucker Duncan Tucker is a British journalist based for the past five years in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city. He has written for VICE, Al-Jazeera, the UK Independent and the Huffington Post among other publications. His main focus is on Mexican current affairs, politics, social issues and the war on drugs, especially in Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco. He also covers business, culture, travel and sports. *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: Welcome to Trumpland and the Post-American World #039 Acclaimed cultural historian Dr. Morris Berman dissects the US elections, the crimes of Clinton and introduces us to Trumpland. He muses on the Post-American world and gives his prognosis for Mexico. Website http://morrisberman.blogspot.com Books http://www.amazon.com/Morris-Berman/e/B001HCWOWM About Morris Berman 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 · Jeff Brown: Asia Will Replace American Dominance by 2030 #038 Author and analyst Jeff J. Brown of China Rising Radio Sinoland explains the decline of American dominance and its replacement by Asia (namely China) by 2030. His newest book is China Rising: Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations and the True Face of Asia's Enigmatic Colossus. Websites chinarising.puntopress.com twitter.com/44_Days SoundCloud - 44 Days Stitcher - 44 Days About Jeff J. Brown Jeff J. Brown is a renowned China expert and geopolitical analyst residing in Beijing. China Rising, Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations, is his latest work, scheduled for publication by Punto Press Publishing in the Spring of 2016. Jeff is also the author of 44 Days  (2013), Reflections in Sinoland – Musings and Anecdotes from the Belly of the New Century Beast (summer 2015), and Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015).  He is currently writing an historical fiction, Red Letters – The Diaries of Xi Jinping, due out later in 2016. Jeff is commissioned to write monthly dispatches for The Saker  and The Greanville Post, touching on all things China, and the international political & cultural scene. Besides these activities, Jeff Brown is a member of The Anthill, a collective of authors who write about China, and also submits articles on Oped News and Firedog Lake. His articles have been published by Paul Craig Roberts, Ron Unz, Alternative News Network and many other websites. He has also been a guest on Press TV, Truth Jihad, Daily Coin, Shadow of Truth, Wall St. for Main St. and KFCF Radio 88.1 in Fresno, California. His podcasts and interviews can be found on 44 Days Radio Sinoland and heard at SoundCloud, Stitcher Radio and iTunes. In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm Literary Festival, the Capital M Literary Festival, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at international schools in Beijing and Tianjin. *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 · Dmitry Orlov: Trump, Financial Crisis and the New Cold War #037 Russian-American author Dmitry Orlov discusses the new Trump presidency and what it may mean for the next stage of the Global Financial Crisis and the New Cold War. He also discusses his concerns regarding the threat of GMOs and Russia's recent ban on genetically engineered crops, which could lead to a global ban. Website https://cluborlov.blogspot.com Books https://www.amazon.com/Dmitry-Orlov/e/B001JSB23G/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1478903123&sr=8-1 About Dmitry Orlov Dmitry Orlov is a Russian-American engineer and a writer on subjects related to "potential economic, ecological and political decline and collapse in the United States," something he has called “permanent crisis”. Orlov believes collapse will be the result of huge military budgets, government deficits, an unresponsive political system and declining oil production. Orlov was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and moved to the United States at the age of 12. He has a BS in Computer Engineering and an MA in Applied Linguistics. He was an eyewitness to the collapse of the Soviet Union over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. In 2005 and 2006 Orlov wrote a number of articles comparing the collapse-preparedness of the U.S. and the Soviet Union published on small Peak Oil related sites. Orlov’s article "Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US" was very popular at EnergyBulletin.Net. Orlov’s book Reinventing Collapse:The Soviet Example and American Prospects, published in 2008, further details his views. Discussing the book in 2009, in a piece in The New Yorker, Ben McGrath wrote that Orlov describes "superpower collapse soup" common to both the U.S. and the Soviet Union: “a severe shortfall in the production of crude oil, a worsening foreign-trade deficit, an oversized military budget, and crippling foreign debt.” Orlov told interviewer McGrath that in recent months financial professionals had begun to make up more of his audience, joining "back-to-the-land types," "peak oilers," and those sometimes derisively called “doomers”. In his review of the book, commentator Thom Hartmann writes that Orlov holds that the Soviet Union hit a “soft crash” because of centralized planning in: housing, agriculture, and transportation left an infrastructure private citizens could co-opt so that no one had to pay rent or go homeless and people showed up for work, even when they were not paid. He writes that Orlov believes the U.S. will have a hard crash, more like Germany’s Weimar Republic of the 1920s. *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://youtu.be/KXY2C-iWbVY Analyst F. William Engdahl discusses his new book "The Lost Hegemon: Whom the Gods Would Destroy" where he explains how Western intelligence has manipulated and weaponized radical Islam, from the days of World War 2 and the Muslim Brotherhood to the Global War on Terror and the Islamic State. He also gives his analysis of the decline of American hegemony and what the future holds for the U.S.A. and the rest of the world. Websites williamengdahl.com twitter.com/EngdahlFW Books About William Engdahl F. William Engdahl is an award-winning geopolitical analyst, strategic risk consultant, author, professor and lecturer. He has been researching and writing about the world political scene for more than thirty years. His various books on geopolitics—the interaction between international power politics, economics and geography—have been translated into 14 foreign languages from Chinese to French, from German to Japanese. *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 · Annie Machon: Talks New Cold War and Surveillance State #035 Former MI5 Intelligence Officer and whistleblower Annie Machon discusses Western intelligence connections to radical Islam and her greatest fear today, the energy game and proxy war in Syria which could lead to a nuclear confrontation between the US and Russia. She also covers the threat of the surveillance state. Websites http://anniemachon.ch https://twitter.com/anniemachon Book Machon, A. (2005). Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5 and the David Shayler Affair Book Guild Ltd. ISBN-10: 185776952X About Annie Machon Annie Machon is a former intelligence officer for MI5, the UK Security Service, who resigned in the late 1990s to help blow the whistle on the spies’ incompetence and crimes with her ex-partner, David Shayler. Drawing on her varied experiences, she is now a public speaker, writer, media pundit, and political campaigner. She is also the European Director of LEAP. She has a rare perspective both on the inner workings of governments, intelligence agencies and the media, as well as the wider implications for the need for increased openness and accountability in both public and private sectors. She is also a recognised international public speaker on a variety of issues: security and intelligence, ethics and citizenship, the war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on whistleblowers, internet freedoms, press and media freedoms, secrecy legislation, civil liberties, totalitarianism and police states, accountability in government and business, as well as discussing her personal story of being ‘on the run’. Annie read Classics at Cambridge University. In 1991 she was recruited by MI5 where she was posted to their political and counter-terrorism departments. *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=7rzFxpzWthA Christoph Germann gives a general overview and takes the pulse of the New Great Game for Eurasia between US/NATO, Russia and China. He also discusses the attempted coup in Turkey and his personal perspective on media analysis. Websites http://christophgermann.blogspot.com https://twitter.com/newgreatgame https://porkinspolicyreview.com http://www.boilingfrogspost.com About Christoph Germann Christoph Germann is an independent analyst whose focus is on the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits in Central Asia and the Caucasus region between a U.S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, Russia, China and other regional players. *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 · Stephen Kinzer: U.S. Foreign Policy and Interventionism #033 Dr. Stephen Kinzer discusses U.S. foreign policy and interventionism and whether it is the most destabilizing force in the world today. He discusses which US presidential candidate would be worst in terms of increasing war tensions and also covers the legacy of Muhammad Ali's anti-war posture and "American exceptionalism" which is a key factor in support of US interventionism. Websites http://stephenkinzer.com https://twitter.com/stephenkinzer http://watson.brown.edu/people/visiting/kinzer http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Kinzer/e/B001IGOJOS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1465396272&sr=8-1 About Stephen Kinzer Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. His articles and books have led the Washington Post to place him “among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling.” Kinzer’s most recent book is “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War.” The novelist John le Carré called it “a secret history, enriched and calmly retold; a shocking account of the misuse of American corporate, political and media power; a shaming reflection on the moral manners of post imperial Europe; and an essential allegory for our own times.” Kinzer’s previous book was “Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future.” “Stephen Kinzer is a journalist of a certain cheeky fearlessness and exquisite timing,” The Huffington Post said in its review. “This book is a bold exercise in reimagining the United States’ big links in the Middle East.” In 2006 Kinzer published “Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.” It recounts the 14 times the United States has overthrown foreign governments. Kinzer seeks to explain why these interventions were carried out and what their long-term effects have been. He is also the author of “All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror.” It tells how the CIA overthrew Iran’s nationalist government in 1953. Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. His foreign postings placed him at the center of historic events and, at times, in the line of fire. While covering world events, he has been shot at, jailed, beaten by police, tear-gassed and bombed from the air. Before joining the New York Times, Kinzer was Latin America correspondent for the Boston Globe. He is now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, where he teaches international relations. He contributes to The Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe. *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=tEkI6FALU-s What are the greatest threats to civilization today? Why are the TTP and TTIP dangerous to democracy? How do states misbehave at the United Nations? How do we fix the United Nations? What human rights do whistleblowers such as Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have? What are the responsibilites of governments and citizens in global civil society? Websites https://twitter.com/alfreddezayas https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/AlfredDeZayas.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred-Maurice_de_Zayas http://alfreddezayas.com About Alfred de Zayas Alfred-Maurice de Zayas studied history and law at Harvard, where he obtained his J.D. He practiced corporate law with the New York law firm Simpson Thacher and Bartlett and is a retired member of the New York and Florida Bar. He obtained a doctorate in history for the University of Göttingen in Germany. Mr. de Zayas has been visiting professor of law at numerous universities including the University of British Columbia in Canada, the Graduate Institute of the University of Geneva, the DePaul University Law School (Chicago), the Human Rights Institute at the Irish National University (Galway)and the University of Trier (Germany). At present he teaches international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy. In 2009 de Zayas was a member of the UN workshop that drafted a report on the human right to peace, which was subsequently discussed and further elaborated by the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council. He is also a signatory of the Declaración de Bilbao and Declaración de Santiago de Compostela on the Human Right to Peace. He served as a consultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the issue of mercenaries. De Zayas is an expert for civil and political rights and has published nine books on a variety of legal and historical issues, including “United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law” (together with Jakob th. Möller, N.P. Engel 2009), and has been co-author and co-editor of numerous other books, including "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms" (together with Gudmundur Alfredsson and Bertrand Ramcharan). His scholarly articles in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, Oxford Encyclopedia of Human Rights and Macmillan Encyclopedia of Genocide, encompass the prohibition of aggression, universal jurisdiction, the right to the homeland, mass population transfers, minority rights, refugee law, repatriation, legal aspects of the Spanish Civil War, indefinite detention, Guantanamo and the right to peace. He is fluent in six languages and has published a book of Rilke translations with commentary (“Larenopfer”, Red Hen Press 2008) and is completing the translation of Hermann Hesse’s "Das Lied des Lebens". From 2002-2006 he was Secretary-General, from 2006-2010 President of PEN International, Centre Suisse romand. He was member of several advisory boards, including of the International Society of Human Rights (Frankfurt a.M.), Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen (Berlin), the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (Canada) and of the conseil scientifique of the Académie International de droit constitutionnel (Tunis). He has received several awards, most recently the "Educators Award 2011" of Canadians for Genocide Education. *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 · Allan Gotlieb: North American Politics and Integration #031 Retired Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb discusses Canadian foreign policy in the shadow of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He reveals his thoughts on the progression of the North American idea and community or as Parag Khanna recently described it in the New York Times, "an emerging North American Union". He also provides his analysis of the Canadian oil sands and Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, he offers advice to future political scientists and diplomats. Websites http://www.bennettjones.com/GotliebAllan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Gotlieb http://www.international.gc.ca/odskelton/gotlieb.aspx?lang=eng http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-canada-relations-at-historic-cool-veteran-diplomat-allan-gotlieb-says/article23210155 About Allan Gotlieb A former Canadian ambassador to the United States, Allan Gotlieb's international law and diplomacy experience has been honed over the past 50 years through his legal and public service careers. Mr. Gotlieb is the emeritus chairman of the Canadian Group and former North American deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a non-governmental policy discussion group. He is also chairman or member of several Canadian charitable foundations and companies and a past director of a number of international corporations in Canada and the United States as well as Canadian Crown corporations and agencies. Mr. Gotlieb is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civil honour in the country, a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Government of Canada and of the Order of Manitoba. Mr. Gotlieb has taught at numerous universities, including Harvard University as William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor and the University of Toronto as Claude Bissell Visiting Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, former Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto, Western University, Concordia University and a number of other universities. Mr. Gotlieb has written five books and countless articles on international law, diplomacy and political science. His latest book, The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989, was nominated for The Writer's Trust of Canada's 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Regarding these diaries, Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail wrote "These are among the best diaries about public policy ever written by a Canadian, maybe even the best." *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)