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theoretical review of studies on the political dimensions of international migration. Migration and politics in the Middle East nowadays. How the analysis of migration dynamics and policies can help shedding light on some ongoing geopolitical changes in the region. ; revue des travaux théoriques traitant de la dimension politique des migrations internationales. Migration et politique au Moyen-Orient de nos jours. Comment l'analyse des dynamiques et politiques migratoires peut contribuer à éclairer les mutations géopolitiques en cours dans la région.

theoretical review of studies on the political dimensions of international migration. Migration and politics in the Middle East nowadays. How the analysis of migration dynamics and policies can help shedding light on some ongoing geopolitical changes in the region. ; revue des travaux théoriques traitant de la dimension politique des migrations internationales. Migration et politique au Moyen-Orient de nos jours. Comment l'analyse des dynamiques et politiques migratoires peut contribuer à éclairer les mutations géopolitiques en cours dans la région.

How was the vast ancient Chinese empire brought together and effectively ruled? What are the historical origins of the resilience of contemporary China's political system? In The Constitution of Ancient China, Su Li, China's most influential legal theorist, examines the ways in which a series of fundamental institutions, rather than a supreme legal code upholding the laws of the land, evolved and coalesced into an effective constitution.0Arguing that a constitution is an institutional response to a set of issues particular to a specific society, Su Li demonstrates how China unified a vast territory, diverse cultures, and elites from different backgrounds into a whole. He delves into such areas as uniform weights and measurements, the standardization of Chinese characters, and the building of the Great Wall. The book includes commentaries by four leading Chinese scholars in law, philosophy, and intellectual history--Wang Hui, Liu Han, Wu Fei, and Zhao Xiaoli-who share Su Li's ambition to explain the resilience of ancient China's political system but who contend that he overstates functionalist dimensions while downplaying the symbolic. Exploring why China has endured as one political entity for over two thousand years, The Constitution of Ancient China will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the institutional legacy of the Chinese empire

Inhaltsverzeichnis: I. Integration und Ausgrenzung an der EU-Grenze - Elena Kropatcheva: Perspektiven der Integrationsmodelle Russlands (8-11); Silke Skilters: Estland, Lettland und Litauen zwischen Kooperation und Konkurrenz (12-16); Anne Wetzel: Die Grenze(n) zwischen der Ukraine und der EU: gibt es mehr als "drinnen" und "draußen"? (17-20); Katrin Böttger: Die Europäische Nachbarschaftspolitik und ihre integrierenden und ausgrenzenden Faktoren (21-24); Olaf Melzer: Russland im Europarat: Demokratieexport durch den Europarat nach Russland seit 1989 (25-29). II. Identitäten als Grundlage für Kooperation und Konflikte in internationalen Beziehungen - Claudia Anschütz: Vorurteile und Stereotypen in den deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen und ihre innenpolitische Instrumentalisierung (30-34); Ulrich Best: "Giftgas", "Angst vor dem Bären" oder "Partnerschaft"? Die deutschen und polnischen Debatten um die Yamal-Pipeline (35-37); Gunter Deuber: Europa und eine christliche Identität? (38-44); Malgorzata Anna Czerniak: Die Rolle von Papst Johannes Paul II. bei der polnischen EU-Integration (45-49); Diana Schmidt: "Russische Demokratie" - Werte-Kluft oder geopolitische Herausforderung? (50-57). III. Integration in eine globalisierte Wirtschaft? - Karl Heinz Hausner: Trennlinien durch Wohlstandsgrenzen innerhalb Europas (58-61); Arjan Vliegenthart, Laura Horn: Corporate governance in Central Eastern Europe - the role of the European Union (62-66); Ildikó Lajtos: Der Beitritt Russlands in die WTO: landwirtschaftliche Aspekte (67-72); Andreas Gramzow: Institutionenökonomische Analyse von Politikmaßnahmen zur Entwicklung ländlicher Räume in Polen (73-79). IV. Regionalisierung als Integrationsmotor? - Ana-Maria Vidrean: Europa der Regionen: ein Ansatz zur Förderung der Integration im Osten? (80-83); Dana Miskovicova: Einbeziehung der regionalen Ebene in die Entscheidungsprozesse der Europapolitik in der Slowakei (84-86); Lucian-Boian Brujan: Inklusions- und Exklusionsprozesse im Dreiländereck Rumänien-Serbien-Ungarn (87-91); Sebastian Schröder-Esch: Kulturerbe als Bestandteil nationaler und regionaler Legitimierungsstrategien (92-97). V. Integration, Ausgrenzung und Autonomiewunsch: ethnische Minderheiten - Timofei Agarin: Zugehörigkeit trotz Exklusion: Anerkennung zwischen den Minderheiten und Mehrheiten im post-sowjetischen Baltikum (98-101); Márta Fazekas: Ungarische Autonomiekonzeptionen, Rundschau im Karpatenbecken (102-106); Falk Kunadt, Manuel Paffrath-Dorn: Roma und Sinti und ihre Bedeutung für die sich erweiternde Europäische Union (107-110); Malte Brosig: Integration der Desintegrierten? Zu den Perspektiven einer europäischen Minderheitenpolitik (111-113); Damien Tricoire: Partikularistische Forderungen und Assimilation nationaler Minderheiten: die "Deutschen" in Oberschlesien und Böhmen (114-119). VI. Soziale Exklusion und die Grenzen der Sozialpolitik - Patrycja Bielawska-Roepke: Wohnen im Wandel (120-124); Björn Wagner: Die wohlfahrtsstaatliche Transformationstheorie auf dem Prüfstand: Klasse und Staat im polnischen Kapitalismus (125-129); Agnes Gilka-Bötzow: Lokale Sozialpolitik in Russland zwischen Staat, Markt und Zivilgesellschaft - eine Forschungsheuristik (130-133).

'In den neunziger Jahren hat sich ein neuer Regionalterminus von geostrategischer Bedeutung eingebürgert, der allerdings noch seiner präzisen Abgrenzung und Gliederung bedarf: 'Kaspischer Raum'. Unter ihn werden die beiden Regionen Kaukasien und Zentralasien subsummiert, die ihrer historischen Entwicklung, ihren kulturellen Verhältnissen sowie ihren ethno- und geographischen Strukturen nach recht unterschiedlich sind, aber für etwa zwei Jahrhunderte die Südperipherie des zaristischen und sowjetischen Imperiums gebildet hatten. Auf der politischen Landkarte umfaßt dieser Raum acht Nachfolgestaaten der Sowjetunion und drei Sezessionsgebilde. Letztere werden völkerrechtlich zwar nicht anerkannt, haben aber in der mehrjährigen Dauer ihrer Abtrünnigkeit eigenmächtig staatliche Strukturen geschaffen, Dieser neue, über die unmittelbaren Anrainer des Kaspi-Sees weit hinausgreifende Raumbegriff wurde vor allem aufgrund der Exploration von Erdöl- und Ergasfeldern sowie internationalen Auseinandersetzungen über die Exportkanäle dieser strategischen Rohstoffe prominent. Für Rußland bedeutet 'Südpolitik' die Bewältigung seines strategischen Machtverlusts an dieser ehemaligen Reichsperipherie und das Verhalten gegenüber internationalen Akteuren in diesem Raum. Von dieser Perspektive aus gestaltet sich auch seine Politik gegenüber einem weiteren Süden und Osten (Türkei, Iran, China, Partner ehemaliger sowjetischer Drittweltpolitik im Mittleren Osten). Die in den letzten Jahren gewachsene Konkurrenz mit den USA im Kaspischen Raum hat Rußlands Forderung nach einer multipolaren Weltordnung bekräftigt, die gemeinsam mit Staaten wie Iran und China vorgetragen wird. Die 'kaspische Politik' der USA negiert die Abhängigkeit dieses Raums von einer regionalen Hegemonialmacht, fordert im Grunde genommen eben jene 'Multipolarität' für die internationalen Beziehungen in der Region. Dabei sind die USA dort selber aber zu einer relevanten Einflußmacht geworden. Im vorliegenden Bericht wird auch das Thema europäischer Politik im Kaspischen Raum berücksichtigt.' (Textauszug)

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The opening speech by Monika Sie Dhian Ho during the State of the Union conference 2024 with the theme 'EU's double assignment: stronger geopolitical Europe, stronger national democracies'






Your Excellencies, colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen,A warm welcome to the Clingendael State of the Union Conference 2024. Clingendael is thriving. But partly for reasons that give us little joy. Because of the enormous turbulence around us. Governments at all levels, businesses, ngo's, media and professionals turn to us to make sense of that turbulence.Turbulence in the world, so drastic, that Bundeskanzler Scholz has called it a Zeitenwende. We are moving from a hyper globalized world under American hegemony towards a more multipolar geopoliticizedworld with challenging implications for Western states that have been on geopolitical holiday for a couple of decades. Western states now also have to deal with power politics and become aware of territorial politics and of the force of collective identity politics. They have to adapt from believing in and relying on an international legal order, that served Western interests very well, to the power politics of Russia that followed-up its invasion of Georgia and its annexation of Crimea with a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.They must adapt from striving for a world market with universal rights for consumers and producers and an ideal of universal protection of human rights, to territorial politics. Where nation-states are delineating their communities and resurrecting borders. In order to regain control over their industrial base and labor markets; to redirect their value chains to become more resilient in the light of the instrumentalization of economic dependencies; to regulate and curb migration in the face of irregular migration pressure; and to invest globally in infrastructure and partnerships to connect their territories with critical raw materials and critical foreign markets for their products. And Western states are waking up from celebrating individualism, to a world in which leaders that have invested in collective identity politics - in strong national identities - have emerged as more powerful. Because when you have a convincing narrative for your people, about where they come from, what they stand for, and where they are heading as a collective in this turbulent world, it is much easier to be resilient, to mobilize people and to stand in solidarity in the face of global challenges.For a country like the Netherlands that used to be one of the most globalized countries in the world, this Zeitenwende in the world from hyper globalization to geopolitics is a huge paradigm shift. But at Clingendael we see two interlinked Zeitenwenden going on. Not only in the world, but also within Western democracies.A Zeitenwende within Western democracies from left-right politicization and a permissive consensus about international politics, towards a politicization of international politics in reaction to societal pessimism, a sense of loss of control over societies in a hyper globalized world. A politicization along a cultural axis, about questions of identity and community, that separate nationalists and globalists. For quite a while, elections were determined by this politicization along the cultural axis.However, since the large-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine and the resulting gas price inflation, the left-right dimension is back with a vengeance. Only political parties that have a narrative on both personal economic security (that is the left-right dimension) as well as a narrative on how to deal with global challenges (that is on the cultural dimension) are able to win elections. Now this Zeitenwende within our Western societies is getting an enormous impulse by the re-election of Donald Trump. Because of the world power of the US, Trump embodies the double Zeitenwende: of the shift to power politics, border politics and collective identity MAGA politics in the world, and of the rise of nationalism in Western societies.Over the last decades we have seen the rise of different types of nationalists in Western societies. With regard to their international position one can distinguish three types of nationalists. First: shortsighted nationalists. These isolationists take their country out of the European Union, and they suffer economically. This species of nationalists is dying out. After Brexit, we no longer hear pleas for Nexits or Frexits. Secondly, we have malicious nationalists. They cause chaos and polarization. And then they blame judges, the deep state or the EU and profit electorally from societal deception and diclinism.But it is the third type of nationalists that might become the game-changer in the double Zeitenwende. The third type are the smart nationalists, the inter-nationalists. The nationalists that take office and find out in government that you can only deliver on your election promises when you cooperate inter-nationally. The nationalists, like Meloni, who understand that you need to cooperate within the EU and with Tunesia and Egypt to protect your borders from irregular migration and that you need selective labor migration for ageing Italy in order to survive. Or the Danish, who would by now rather get rid of their opt-out of European migration policies, since they see that the EU is more powerful and effective in dealing with third countries.Now if nationalists become inter-nationalists, the two Zeitenwenden in the World and within Western societies start oscillating. And that is the mind-boggling turbulence that we might face now. Internationalism has for decades been loaded with progressive or neo-con content. Cooperating internationally to avoid climate change, or to enforce democracy in third countries. But inter-nationalism is of course a competence that also deeply conservative and nationalist forces might develop. And if they start cooperating inter-nationally, that can really alter the EU from within as well as the global order.It will matter significantly which variant of nationalism will become dominant globally. In a geopolitical, de-risking world, majorities in all Western societies become nationalist to a certain extent. But there is an important second distinction to make within the nationalists.First, there are exclusive nationalists that define the collective identity of their nation in religious or ethnic terms. As Christian, white, nations. And second, there are inclusive nationalists, that define the collective identity of their nation in terms of where we come from, stand for and are heading, that is as a societal project. With the memory of specific traditions, and an emphasis on certain virtues: the Netherlands of the hard-working Dutchmen, in the words of former Prime Minister Rutte. I, as a hardworking Chinese Indonesian French Dutchwoman can be part of that societal project.A big question for progressives and liberals today is whether they can also rediscover inter-nationalism and inclusive nationalism, that is: cooperation between nation states, able to define themselves as a project open to people that are willing to share that project. Not cosmopolitanism and not neo-liberalism. Since for decades, progressives and liberals have been de facto open border globalists hoping for world government or a world market. To understand the turbulence of a double Zeitenwende that starts oscillating because of the rediscovery of inter-nationalism, we need you. It is for that reason that we brought together for this conference specialists of world politics and specialists of Western societies. International Relations and regional specialists and sociologists, historians and political scientists. I am very much looking forward to the combined intellectual power of all of you, because we need to join forces to make sense of what is going on. Thank you so much for joining us.



Authors














Monika Sie Dhian Ho




General Director

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The opening speech by Monika Sie Dhian Ho during the State of the Union conference 2024 with the theme 'EU's double assignment: stronger geopolitical Europe, stronger national democracies'






Your Excellencies, colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen,A warm welcome to the Clingendael State of the Union Conference 2024. Clingendael is thriving. But partly for reasons that give us little joy. Because of the enormous turbulence around us. Governments at all levels, businesses, ngo's, media and professionals turn to us to make sense of that turbulence.Turbulence in the world, so drastic, that Bundeskanzler Scholz has called it a Zeitenwende. We are moving from a hyper globalized world under American hegemony towards a more multipolar geopoliticizedworld with challenging implications for Western states that have been on geopolitical holiday for a couple of decades. Western states now also have to deal with power politics and become aware of territorial politics and of the force of collective identity politics. They have to adapt from believing in and relying on an international legal order, that served Western interests very well, to the power politics of Russia that followed-up its invasion of Georgia and its annexation of Crimea with a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.They must adapt from striving for a world market with universal rights for consumers and producers and an ideal of universal protection of human rights, to territorial politics. Where nation-states are delineating their communities and resurrecting borders. In order to regain control over their industrial base and labor markets; to redirect their value chains to become more resilient in the light of the instrumentalization of economic dependencies; to regulate and curb migration in the face of irregular migration pressure; and to invest globally in infrastructure and partnerships to connect their territories with critical raw materials and critical foreign markets for their products. And Western states are waking up from celebrating individualism, to a world in which leaders that have invested in collective identity politics - in strong national identities - have emerged as more powerful. Because when you have a convincing narrative for your people, about where they come from, what they stand for, and where they are heading as a collective in this turbulent world, it is much easier to be resilient, to mobilize people and to stand in solidarity in the face of global challenges.For a country like the Netherlands that used to be one of the most globalized countries in the world, this Zeitenwende in the world from hyper globalization to geopolitics is a huge paradigm shift. But at Clingendael we see two interlinked Zeitenwendes going on. Not only in the world, but also within Western democracies.A Zeitenwende within Western democracies from left-right politicization and a permissive consensus about international politics, towards a politicization of international politics in reaction to societal pessimism, a sense of loss of control over societies in a hyper globalized world. A politicization along a cultural axis, about questions of identity and community, that separate nationalists and globalists. For quite a while, elections were determined by this politicization along the cultural axis.However, since the large-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine and the resulting gas price inflation, the left-right dimension is back with a vengeance. Only political parties that have a narrative on both personal economic security (that is the left-right dimension) as well as a narrative on how to deal with global challenges (that is on the cultural dimension) are able to win elections. Now this Zeitenwende within our Western societies is getting an enormous impulse by the re-election of Donald Trump. Because of the world power of the US, Trump embodies the double Zeitenwende: of the shift to power politics, border politics and collective identity MAGA politics in the world, and of the rise of nationalism in Western societies.Over the last decades we have seen the rise of different types of nationalists in Western societies. With regard to their international position one can distinguish three types of nationalists. First: shortsighted nationalists. These isolationists take their country out of the European Union, and they suffer economically. This species of nationalists is dying out. After Brexit, we no longer hear pleas for Nexits or Frexits. Secondly, we have malicious nationalists. They cause chaos and polarization. And then they blame judges, the deep state or the EU and profit electorally from societal deception and diclinism.But it is the third type of nationalists that might become the game-changer in the double Zeitenwende. The third type are the smart nationalists, the inter-nationalists. The nationalists that take office and find out in government that you can only deliver on your election promises when you cooperate inter-nationally. The nationalists, like Meloni, who understand that you need to cooperate within the EU and with Tunesia and Egypt to protect your borders from irregular migration and that you need selective labor migration for ageing Italy in order to survive. Or the Danish, who would by now rather get rid of their opt-out of European migration policies, since they see that the EU is more powerful and effective in dealing with third countries.Now if nationalists become inter-nationalists, the two Zeitenwendes in the World and within Western societies start oscillating. And that is the mind-boggling turbulence that we might face now. Internationalism has for decades been loaded with progressive or neo-con content. Cooperating internationally to avoid climate change, or to enforce democracy in third countries. But inter-nationalism is of course a competence that also deeply conservative and nationalist forces might develop. And if they start cooperating inter-nationally, that can really alter the EU from within as well as the global order.It will matter significantly which variant of nationalism will become dominant globally. In a geopolitical, de-risking world, majorities in all Western societies become nationalist to a certain extent. But there is an important second distinction to make within the nationalists.First, there are exclusive nationalists that define the collective identity of their nation in religious or ethnic terms. As Christian, white, nations. And second, there are inclusive nationalists, that define the collective identity of their nation in terms of where we come from, stand for and are heading, that is as a societal project. With the memory of specific traditions, and an emphasis on certain virtues: the Netherlands of the hard-working Dutchmen, in the words of former Prime Minister Rutte. I, as a hardworking Chinese Indonesian French Dutchwoman can be part of that societal project.A big question for progressives and liberals today is whether they can also rediscover inter-nationalism and inclusive nationalism, that is: cooperation between nation states, able to define themselves as a project open to people that are willing to share that project. Not cosmopolitanism and not neo-liberalism. Since for decades, progressives and liberals have been de facto open border globalists hoping for world government or a world market. To understand the turbulence of a double Zeitenwende that starts oscillating because of the rediscovery of inter-nationalism, we need you. It is for that reason that we brought together for this conference specialists of world politics and specialists of Western societies. International Relations and regional specialists and sociologists, historians and political scientists. I am very much looking forward to the combined intellectual power of all of you, because we need to join forces to make sense of what is going on. Thank you so much for joining us.



Authors














Monika Sie Dhian Ho




General Director

A year ago, Azerbaijan attacked and took control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region — a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan — displacing more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in a violent military operation many have called ethnic cleansing. A year later, almost to the day after the invasion began, Azerbaijan announced a "COP 29 Truce," calling for a cessation of all hostilities around the world during the climate summit it is hosting in November. While Azerbaijan swears its "COP Truce" is not just a "cynical PR stunt," its $4.7 million contract with a public relations firm suggests otherwise. In just one day, the PR firm, Teneo Strategy, treated three journalists to dinner at a five-star hotel restaurant in Nagorno-Karabakh during a media forum. The very next day, one of them celebrated Azerbaijan's newly established control of the region in an article published in Pakistan. A few weeks later, he tweeted that Azerbaijan is "lucky to have such a leader" in President Ilham Aliyev. Teneo Strategy has a tall order: making a warring petrostate look like Mother Teresa. But the PR firm has embraced the "flood the zone" mantra to great effect, contacting 144 journalists in 88 different global media outlets some 500 times to promote Azerbaijan's COP 29 agenda — including its peace-seeking narrative. According to disclosures under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, the COO of COP 29, Narmin Jarchalova, brought on Teneo to "establish the COP29's communications function, including narrative development, initial content development, communications and engagement campaign planning, issues management, organizational development, establishing media relations capability, and media training." At least five Teneo executives are always on the ground in Baku — racking up a tab of $350,000 on airfare and hotels to date.Teneo sent out embargoed copies of the COP29 agenda to journalists, including what it called the COP Truce Appeal: "COP29 will seek to maintain a focus on the importance of both preventing conflict and supporting some of the most vulnerable populations." "Our approach to the peace agenda is to live by example," said Hikmat Hajiyev, a top advisor to President Aliyev. But Azerbaijan and Armenia have yet to sign a peace agreement, and there's evidence the conflict is still simmering. Azerbaijan reportedly killed four Armenian soldiers inside of Armenian territory in February. This is why some have labeled Azerbaijan's "COP Truce" idea as "peacewashing."Artin Dersimonian, a Junior Research Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute and coauthor of a Quincy Institute brief on Azerbaijan's influence in the U.S., told RS that it's odd for Azerbaijan to tout the region as a success story given that tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Armenia. "Baku's framing is contradictory because the two sides have not yet formally established interstate relations or peace, and it doesn't seem terribly likely that they will do that to any meaningful extent before the summit." Azerbaijan has become notorious for flaunting its oil wealth to court foreign officials, lawmakers, and journalists with gifts, free flights, and luxury hotels, dubbed "caviar diplomacy." The Azerbaijan government paid for a trip to Azerbaijan last year for two aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams — who himself was indicted last week for luxury trips and a straw-donor scheme orchestrated by the Turkish government, a close ally of Azerbaijan. Officials from other states have taken Baku up on its generosity, too. According to a trip itinerary obtained by RS via a Freedom of Access Act Request, state lawmakers from Maine spent nine days in Azerbaijan in May with flights, food, and lodging paid for by the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the same agency that hosted Adams' aides. Part of the itinerary included two days learning about "new development after liberation from occupation" in Nagorno-Karabakh. "Guess I should locate my passport. I am very excited!" wrote State Representative Jill Duson in response to the invitation. In June, Azerbaijan's embassy in Washington even hired former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) in part to coordinate congressional delegation visits to Azerbaijan. The Friedlander Group, a firm retained by Azerbaijan's foreign ministry, is leading the charge on Capitol Hill in Washington. An email obtained by RS shows that the firm sent an email on September 23 to members of Congress asking them not to sign onto a congressional letter calling for Baku to release Armenian prisoners ahead of COP29. "On top of it, we owe Azerbaijan praise, an apology and an open hand," wrote the firm's CEO, Ezra Friedlander.*However, FARA disclosures suggest that Teneo has become the key cog in Azerbaijan's COP29 media relations operation.When Azerbaijan flew out some 300 foreign journalists to the newly-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh region for a media forum in July, Teneo held meetings and hosted expensive dinners — during which it discussed interviews with Azerbaijan's COP leadership team. "They are aiming for quantity over quality. With more than 1,000 people going on these trips, their goal is a handful that eat the caviar and remain loyal," said Rasmus Canbäck, an investigative journalist at the Swedish online platform Blankspot, during a phone interview with RS.During a press trip to Baku, Teneo met with Frank Kane, Editor-at-Large of Arab Gulf Business Insight (AGBI). Kane later remarked that the COP29 organizers should be prepared for an unprecedented level of ignorance and prejudice against Azerbaijan; "They will attack you on perceived corruption, human rights, and geopolitics—the myth of Azerbaijan aggression." Three days after meeting with Teneo, the influential Indian newspaper, The Hindu, published an article titled "Climate conference in November to emphasise 'peace' and 'truce.'" The firm also facilitated a New York Times article featuring Babayev in Azerbaijan that was based in part on a trip to Nagorno-Karabakh.Teneo was a natural fit for Azerbaijan's COP 29 "peacewashing" campaign. The company, which owns a majority stake in the Biden administration's darling consulting firm WestExec, was fresh off of a contract advising the UAE's state-owned renewable energy company. The UAE had appointed Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to lead the COP28 climate summit — sparking an outcry over the UAE's environmental and human rights records. Teneo was brought in at the last minute to help soften the reputational damage, eventually pocketing over $1.5 million for its work.Most of the 17-person COP29 team began its work in February, but Teneo didn't formally register under FARA until June. Parties have a 10-day window to register, and, according to FARA's regulations, they "may not begin to act as an agent of a foreign principal before registering," so it's unclear why Teneo's registration occurred months after its work began. A Teneo spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.With just over a month to go until the summit, however, Teneo's client appears satisfied with its PR blitz. Babayev, COP29's president, boasted on an Azerbaijani state-controlled television program about the government's media strategy to change international perceptions of Azerbaijan as a success story, including its "restoration of territorial integrity," referring to its offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. Without mentioning Teneo by name, he credited a new media team "consisting of serious specialists.""Thanks to the work of this professional team, there has not been a week this year when we have not provided information and made statements to international media…Now they all understand and see the strength of our country," he concluded.In a warning to fellow journalists ahead of the summit, Canbäck, the Blankspot journalist, said "Remember, the caviar served at dinner signals an expectation of loyalty upon your return home."The media, it would seem, is helping itself to the caviar.*Editor's note: this story has been corrected to reflect that the Friedlander Group had filed its Sept. 23 email under FARA within the mandated 48-hour timeframe.

On Jan. 20, 2024, Iran's Revolutionary Guards successfully launched a three-stage rocket that put the Sorayya satellite into orbit, at an unprecedented 460 miles above the Earth's surface. It is alleged that Iran's space program is a cover for testing a nuclear weapons delivery system. What is a scientific victory for Iran could also be a strategic projection of the Islamic Republic's geo-spatial power. While this space launch was planned days in advance, it occurred on the same day that Israeli forces allegedly killed five Revolutionary Guards of the expeditionary Quds Force in Damascus, followed by an Iraqi militia affiliated with Iran firing ballistic missiles at a base housing American forces in Iraq. Just five days earlier, Iran launched salvos of ballistic missiles towards Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan against alleged terrorist bases.The recent satellite launch into space is connected to these political tensions on the ground. It sent a message to the U.S. and Israel that, despite sanctions or the assassination of its scientists, Iran can still develop the technology to fire a long-distance missile, whether into space or over a continent. If the sanctions and assassinations were meant to curtail such activities, Iran demonstrated they are not working.This points to an unexamined aspect of the conflict in the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023: Outer space has become a conflict zone. When Iraqi Shi'a militias or Yemeni Houthis launch a drone or ballistic missile, these weapons either enter space or depend on satellites.What the latest Iranian launch has also demonstrated is that the conflicts of Earth — the current fighting in the Middle East in this case — have been projected into space, reminiscent of a trend that began with the Cold War superpowers.Militarizing spaceA ballistic missile burns up the fuel that propels it into the atmosphere until it enters space. Once the fuel is consumed, the missile's trajectory cannot be altered, following a path determined by gravity pulling it back toward the Earth's surface — and its eventual target. The German V-2 was the first ballistic missile. Fired on September 8, 1944, it was the first human-made object hurtled into space. As they invaded Germany, both the U.S. and Soviets sought out the German rocket scientists to develop their respective missile/space programs. The V-2's technology allowed the U.S. and Soviets to send satellites into space, even allowing astronauts to reach the moon itself.In October 1957, the Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space, where it orbited the earth and delivered a prestigious victory for communism during the Cold War. According to historian Douglas Brinkley, "For a world locked in a Cold War rivalry between the Americans and the Soviets, space quickly became the new arena of battle." Space launchers and launches were a means of refining military technology discreetly, in the name of space exploration, while simultaneously broadcasting these advances to adversaries and allies. From an American national security perspective, if the USSR could launch a satellite into space, it could do the same with a nuclear warhead, putting American territory in danger. Furthermore, a missile/ rocket might carry a physical payload, such as a satellite or a warhead, but it also carries a political message intended to communicate to adversaries short of violence. That dynamic is what made the Cold War cold.The same threat perceptions explain why the U.S. feared Iran's satellite program well before the regional war escalated last October, pitting American forces against the Islamic Republic's allies in Yemen and Iraq.The American and Soviet space programs were also about prestige, and the most recent launch has been a matter of national prestige for Iran in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist blasts that occurred in the nation on Jan. 3.Middle East geopolitics and astropoliticsAs for the Middle East, historically, outer space was an area used to penetrate the region. During the Cold War, the U.S. and USSR deployed spy satellites above the Middle East, and later satellites were essential for the global positioning system (GPS) to guide American cruise missiles and drones used against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, and then against al-Qaida after 2001.In the 21st century, the Global South entered the space arena, led by China, India, and Iran. Space soon emerged as an arena for competition among Middle Eastern states. Among the Persian Gulf regimes, Qatar achieved asymmetric power in the 1990s against Saudi Arabia by broadcasting Al Jazeera to its much larger neighbor, as well as the entire region, via a news channel that depends on satellite technology. The United Arab Emirates is currently bolstering its credentials as a regional Sparta by embarking on a mission to Mars.Israel, however, had a monopoly on space technology and putting its own satellites into space. Iran's current space program serves as a means to challenge a regional rival as well as a superpower — the U.S. At the same time, Iran's allies in the "Axis of Resistance" have militarized space. Iran gave Houthis drone technology that can fly long distances to strike Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Houthi drone attacks are guided by satellite technology, as a drone flying at such a long range depends on a satellite data link for information to be sent back to the pilot in Yemen. As for Houthi drones, they are GPS-guided to their target before crashing into it to wreak havoc and damage. The Houthis have no known communications satellites and rely on commercially available satellite space. These attacks demonstrate a sophisticated level of coordination among the Houthis, who use 3D printing to build the drones and the components based on Iranian designs, while imagery analysts, uplink engineers, mechanics, and pilot crews work in unison to support the attacks. By 2022, Houthi strikes were one of the factors that pushed Saudi Arabia and the UAE to extricate themselves from the Yemen conflict, which also gave an advantage to Iran, the Gulf countries' regional adversary. The Houthis mastered both drone technology and ballistic missiles. The Soviets transformed the German V-2 into the Scud, the most widely proliferated ballistic missile in the Arab world. The Houthis inherited Scuds from the former government after the Arab Spring. In 2017, they fired them towards Saudi Arabia. In 2023, the Houthis launched both drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel's southern port of Eilat, in solidarity with Hamas. In 2017, the Houthis attacked King Salman air base in Saudi Arabia and as well as Riyadh with the Burkan 2-H, a ballistic Scud-type missile inherited from the old Yemeni arsenal, and engineered with a range of more than 500 miles to hit the Saudi capital. Unlike the Burkan, the missiles that were launched towards Eilat were most likely based on the Iranian Ghadr (or Qadr) a close relative of the North Korean Nodong, basically a larger missile based on the original Soviet Scud missile, with more than double the range at 1,200 miles. These Houthi ballistic missiles reached outer space, where Israel's Arrow defense system intercepted them in the stratosphere, marking the first instance of space combat in history.The Islamic Republic's most recent space launch has sent a message to Israel that Iran is catching up. The message to the U.S. is that Iran is in a stronger position after Trump's 2017 unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Afterwards, Iran had the excuse to advance its centrifuge nuclear technology, its nuclear stockpile, and now advance its space program.Meanwhile, the message to the Iranian people is that, while its economy is under sanctions and they endure terrorist attacks, at least they can take national pride in reaching space.

Are you looking for the perfect foreign policy book to start the New Year right? We spent the last few weeks asking our favorite thinkers what new titles they loved this year. Here are the seven books that stood out in 2023.Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

By Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman"Underground Empire" tells the story of how America used the unipolar moment to create a vice grip on the international economy, making it impossible for most countries to do business with each other (or even exchange messages) without using U.S. payment systems or IT infrastructure. The world order, once defined by multiple dueling blocs, thus became synonymous with U.S. power.But empire isn't free. As Farrell and Newman note, Washington's constant use of sanctions and spying tools risks alienating other states and potentially bringing down the international system as we know it. Their book is a frightening reminder of the potential costs of overreach and a must-read for anyone interested in grand strategy and the future of global commerce. Ambitious readers may want to pair it with Chris Miller's "Chip War," a 2022 bestseller about America's quest to remain the kingpin of the world microchip industry.Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East

By Steven SimonWhen observing the parlous state of the Middle East today, it's hard to avoid a fundamental question: How could well-meaning American policymakers have gotten the region so wrong? In "Grand Delusion," Simon argues that most of our missteps boil down to a mismatch between pie-in-the-sky ends and limited means, made worse by a conviction that "facts don't matter, only intentions." The biting and well-researched book is made all the more powerful by Simon's long background of government service, including top-level roles in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, where he argued in favor of many policies that he now badly regrets.Simon brings a palpable sense of anger at four decades of American overreach in the Middle East, dedicating a chapter to each of the last eight presidents, all of whom found their own unique ways to leave the region worse than it was when they took office. His book is a must-read for those who want to understand where U.S. policy went wrong — and how to do things better next time. (Simon, we should note, is a senior research analyst at the Quincy Institute, which publishes RS.)The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism

By Keyu JinThese days, most English-language books about China begin from a place of deep skepticism. Government statistics are taken as carefully crafted fictions, official statements as likely lies. What else would one expect as a new cold war dawns?"The New China Playbook" is different. Written by a London-based economist whose father is a prominent Chinese Communist Party official, the book offers a rigorous yet sympathetic view of Beijing's rise. Jin's work provides crucial insights into the complex and sometimes surprising balance that the Chinese economy has struck between different systems. By demystifying China's economy, she urges us to consider a future of cooperation instead of conflict.Some have argued that Jin glosses over the darker aspects of Beijing's government policies. Readers can decide for themselves. But one thing is certain: Her book offers a thoughtful point of view on China that you won't find anywhere else.Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II

By Paul KennedyCould any list of foreign policy must-reads be complete without a book about WWII? We certainly didn't think so. Enter "Victory at Sea," a wide-ranging yet page-turning look at the naval activities that defined last century's greatest war from an eminent military historian. Kennedy's book, which features new paintings from marine artist Ian Marshall, narrates the fall of old great powers and the rise of new ones, first and foremost led by the United States.Readers with a limited background in naval history shouldn't fear this book, which is less about the details of each individual battle than the broader trends in geopolitics playing out at the time. Some reviewers have noted minor factual errors emanating from some less-than-ideal sourcing, but all in all, "Victory at Sea" is a helpful and provocative overview of a vital moment in military history. (This one was technically published in 2022, but the paperback edition doesn't come out until next year, so we'll call it even.)A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

By Nathan ThrallThe book starts with a living nightmare: A truck slams into a Jerusalem school bus carrying kindergartners, leaving one teacher and six children dead. Many survivors left the resulting fire with life-changing burns."A Day in the Life of Abed Salama" tells the story of the father of one of those children. Thrall narrates Salama's desperate efforts to find his son, an emotional struggle made all the more difficult by the fact that the life-long resident of Jerusalem could not legally enter Jewish-controlled parts of the city.The book expands on a 2021 essay in the New York Review of Books in which Thrall interlaces stories about the accident with a crash course in Jerusalem's history. The extra space allows Thrall to dive deeper into Salama's life, in which everything from his marriage to his child's education is shaped by the brutal realities of life under occupation. As war rages in Gaza, this book offers a moving testimony of the more mundane forms of violence that define life between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.Getting Russia Right

By Thomas GrahamSome books argue that the U.S. and Russia are natural enemies, doomed to fight until one side wins. Others blame one country or the other for a laundry list of sins that made cooperation impossible after the heady days of the 1990s. "Getting Russia Right," to its great credit, does neither.Graham combines a realist sensibility with the hard pragmatism of a long-time policymaker, drawing on a wealth of experience as in both government and academia. In his view, structural factors — chief among them the difference in how each side views Russia's rightful place in the world — combined with a series of impertinent decisions by both sides to leave bilateral relations in their current sorry state.By insisting on the agency of both Washington and Moscow, "Getting Russia Right" argues that better-informed decisions could actually lead to better outcomes. And Graham, in his typical style, lays out a clear and specific set of recommendations to encourage such a shift. His relatively short book is required reading for those who feel like one Cold War was more than enough.Beyond the Water's Edge: How Partisanship Corrupts U.S. Foreign Policy

By Paul PillarThere's an old truism that, while American politicians play partisan games over domestic problems, such petty squabbles give way to unity "at the water's edge." Pillar's book destroys this fiction, illuminating how party interests have all too often taken precedence over sober-minded analysis by patriotic bureaucrats. This phenomenon, in his telling, leads to unnecessarily long wars and corrodes our own democracy at home.While "Beyond the Water's Edge" largely focuses on the past three decades, Pillar sometimes reaches further back into U.S. history to demonstrate the ways in which officials have overcome this tendency. But Pillar, who is a former intelligence official and current non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, is far from pollyannaish: The book recommends myriad policies to reduce the influence of partisanship on foreign policy but deems their implementation highly unlikely. Little wonder that Francis Fukuyama described the slim treatise as an "ominous warning."

[ES] El 11 de septiembre de 2001, no de los terroristas más buscados de entonces, Osama Bin Laden, sorprendía a los servicios de inteligencia americanos y de todo el mundo con la ejecución casi perfecta de un ataque planeado durante meses: las Torres gemelas de Nueva York, el centro económico del mundo, se derrumbaban una tras otras. El mundo contenía la respiración y la geopolítica mundial cambiaría para siempre. En solo tres semanas, el régimen talibán era derrocado; la posterior fase de estabilización de Afganistán pretendía ser "un desfile militar". Una vez la seguridad fuese implementada, la democracia vendría después. Un claro error. La seguridad nunca llegó, y Afganistán es hoy el país más azotado por el terrorismo del planeta. La aparición de nuevas formas de "hacer la guerra" ha experimentado una notable evolución. Si bien la guerra es una continuación de la política y este postulado, como argumenta Clausewitz, es invariable, la "manera" de hacer la guerra ha variado continuamente, especialmente en los últimos años. Afganistán, ciertamente, ha sido un escenario en el que las nuevas formas de hacer la guerra han sido una clave en el fracaso del proceso de estabilización. La pregunta que se hacen historiadores y expertos, después de tanto esfuerzo, es cual fue la causa de ese fracaso. La seguridad era un elemento importante en la estabilización, pero tanto o más era las distintas identidades tanto étnicas como políticas de Afganistán. Las influencias de las civilizaciones son claves para entender las identidades de las distintas zonas del mundo; entre ellas Afganistán. El contacto del ciudadano de Afganistán con los distintos "imperios" invasores ha moldeado la identidad política de la mayoría de sus ciudadanos y, paradójicamente, ha supuesto que exista una falta evidente de identidad nacional común. La diversidad de Afganistán en cuanto a etnias supone que sea un país muy heterogéneo en ese sentido. La etnia, la lengua, la religión y la cultura son elementos definidores del nebuloso concepto de nación; si existe mucha diversidad, como es el caso afgano, también existe una cuantiosa pluralidad en la identidad política. Así, es más complejo implementar una estrategia pos conflicto en aquellos lugares como Afganistán en el que existen enfrentamientos históricos entre las distintas identidades políticas. La política de identidad empezó a tomar relevancia durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y tiene un gran protagonismo en esta tesis. La política de identidad se basa en búsqueda de reconocimiento de un determinado grupo como una comunidad significativa que influye en la política de una comunidad e incluso de un Estado. En Afganistán, las identidades políticas entran en conflicto con los valores occidentales que se basan en el imperio de la ley, los derechos humanos, el rendimiento de cuentas de los políticos y la participación política de sus ciudadanos. Esta forma de entender el funcionamiento de un Estado y la relación con sus ciudadanos se intentó exportar a Afganistán después de los Acuerdos de Bonn en el año 2004. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los ciudadanos afganos compartían como identidad política el derecho de la costumbre, representado por la ley Sharia y, en ocasiones, por una interpretación radical del Corán. Las Jirgas y las Shuras eran la referencia del ciudadano y no el parlamento o la Constitución. Así, ambas interpretaciones casi antagónicas de entender la vida política no tardarían entrar en conflicto. En el fondo, la tensión entre la identidad y democracia supuso que fueran dos conceptos irreconciliables en Afganistán. Afganistán, después de veinte años de guerra, vuelve a estar en el foco de la actualidad mundial. El posible acuerdo de paz con los talibanes supondría un claro triunfo de estos últimos; la comunidad internacional sellaría la consecución de sus objetivos políticos por medio de años de guerra asimétrica en el que miles de afganos, civiles y militares, han sido víctimas de ataques terroristas, violaciones de los derechos humanos fundamentales, etc. Si los talibanes vuelven o no al poder lo sabremos muy pronto, lamentablemente. [EN] On September 11th, 2001, one of the most wanted terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, surprised the American and worldwide intelligence services with the execution of an attack planned during months: the Twin Towers of New York, the economic center of the world, collapsed one after another. The world held its breath and world geopolitics would change forever. In just three weeks, the Taliban regime was overthrown; Afghanistan's subsequent stabilization phase was intended to be "a military parade." Once security was implemented, democracy would come later. A big mistake. Security never came, and Afghanistan is today the most terror-stricken country on the planet. The emergence of new ways of "making war" (warfare) has experienced a remarkable evolution. While war is a continuation of politics and this postulate, as Clausewitz argues, is invariable, the "way" of waging war has continually evolved, especially in recent years. Afghanistan has certainly been a scenario in which new ways of waging war have been a key to the failure of the stabilization process. The question that historians and experts ask themselves, after so much effort, what was the cause of that failure. Security was an important element in stabilization, but as much was the different ethnic and political identities of Afghanistan. The influence of civilizations is key to understanding the identities of the different areas of the world; including Afghanistan. The contact of the Afghan citizen with the various invading "empires" has shaped the political identity of the majority of its citizens and, paradoxically, has led to an evident lack of common national identity. The diversity of Afghanistan in terms of ethnicity means that it is a very heterogeneous country in that sense. Ethnicity, language, religion and culture are defining elements of the nebulous concept of nation; if there is a lot of diversity, as in the Afghan scenario, there is also a considerable plurality in political identity. Thus, it is more complex to implement a post-conflict strategy in which there are historical confrontations between the different political identities. Identity politics began to gain relevance during the second half of the 19th century and has a great role in this thesis. Identity politics is based on the search for recognition of a certain group as a significant community that influences the politics of a community and even a State. In Afghanistan, political identities conflict with Western values based on the rule of law, human rights, and the accountability of politicians and the political participation of its citizens. This way of understanding a State and the relationship with its citizens was attempted to export to Afghanistan after the Bonn Accords in 2004. However, the majority of Afghan citizens shared the value of custom as a political identity, represented by Sharia law and sometimes by a radical interpretation of the Koran. The Jirgas and Shuras were the reference of the citizen and not the Parliament or the Constitution. Thus, both almost antagonistic interpretations of understanding political life would soon come into conflict. Ultimately, the tension between identity or democracy supposed that both were irreconcilable concepts in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, after twenty years of war, is once again in the focus of world news. The possible peace agreement with the Taliban would be a clear victory for the latter; the international community would seal the achievement of its political goals through years of asymmetric warfare in which thousands of Afghans, civilians and military, have been victims of terrorist attacks, violations of fundamental human rights, etc. Whether or not the Taliban come back to power we will know very soon, unfortunately.

The certainty that water —and particularly, freshwater— is a cross-curricular element to all aspects of human life means that global anxiety has been building in the last decades, and because of the transcendental geopolitical, economic, socio-cultural or normative aspects of the situation, with growing international concern over access to water, its uses, the right to its exploitation, its capacity for renewal and its sustainable use, and even around the very nature of the element. The coordinators of this publication have wanted to contribute modestly in this dossier —number 45 of the Relaciones Internacionales Journal— to focus on the debate around water —particularly, although not exclusively, on freshwater—, and to address a multiplicity of approaches —most of them with a marked critical perspective— the phenomena and circumstances that surround this fundamental element for life on Earth. In spite of the abundance of water that exists on the Earth, scarcely 0.3% is apt for human consumption, and from this global provision of fresh water, the largest part is found in the poles and in the atmosphere. Thus, it is less than a fifth of these reserves that corresponds with the underground aquifers, the lakes and rivers of the planet; it is in these geographic spaces where both human beings and animals extract the necessary quantities of water to live and produce energy or food. The production systems of capitalist development and the growing global demographic have placed this natural element in a compromising situation, and we affirm that currently water is situated at the epicentre of some of the largest debates in international relations of the 21st Century, specifically those that take place around discussions about the condition and category of natural resources and their uses. It is also evident that the contemporary global economic processes have exacerbated the problems of water; all production processes base some of their stages on the use of water, which added to the massive extraction or accumulation systems of this resource are generating local and global tensions in many ways —political, social, economic, ideological, cultural, discursive or identity—, generated as much by the excess extractions of water as by the consequences of it in the ecosystems where it is found this element. In this way, the problems of environmental pollution —of water or the surroundings of the productive and extraction bases—, the inadequate or discriminatory political management of the resource —phenomenon aggravated in the regions with a weak consolidation of democratic procedures—, or the unequal distribution of the economic benefits of it —which harden the global disparity between enriched international actors and those subalterns of the capitalist system—, represent the possibility of latent conflicts and pose a series of dilemmas and contradictions that must be addressed urgently, and they must be approached —in addition— in a specific direction: in favour of the global collective benefit, with a balanced, ecological, sustainable character and respectful of local traditional uses and cultures. Starting from the basic consideration of water as an element available in nature, it is however evident that in the contemporary capitalist society, multiple conceptions of this element coexist different perspectives on its uses and even contradictory approaches about the future of its socio-political nature. This dossier contemplates a political problematization of the element, thus facing a more than necessary interdisciplinary debate on the global geopolitics of water, with a theoretical discussion around the perspectives, tensions, conflicts and opportunities raised by the confluence of interests, values, worldviews and water considerations in the international system. ; La certeza de que el agua —y en particular el agua dulce— es un elemento transversal a todos los aspectos de la vida humana está adquiriendo en los últimos decenios el cariz de inquietud global por los trascendentes aspectos geopolíticos, económicos, socioculturales o normativos de su situación; asimismo, existe una creciente preocupación internacional por el acceso a la misma, sus usos, el derecho a su explotación, su capacidad de renovación y uso sostenible, e incluso en torno a la propia naturaleza del elemento. Las coordinadoras de esta publicación hemos querido contribuir modestamente en este dossier —número 45 de la revista Relaciones Internacionales— a centrar la atención en el debate en torno al agua —particularmente, aunque no de manera exclusiva, sobre el agua dulce—, y a abordar desde una multiplicidad de enfoques —la mayoría de ellos con marcada perspectiva crítica— los fenómenos y circunstancias que rodean este elemento fundamental para la vida sobre la Tierra. A pesar de la gran abundancia de agua que existe en nuestro planeta, apenas el 0'3% es apto para el consumo humano, y de esta provisión mundial de agua dulce la mayor parte se encuentra contenida en los polos y en la atmósfera, de manera que es menos de una quinta parte de estas reservas lo que conforma los acuíferos subterráneos, los lagos y los ríos del planeta; es en estos espacios geográficos de donde tanto seres humanos como el resto de animales extraemos las cantidades necesarias de agua para vivir y para producir energía y alimentos. Los sistemas de producción del desarrollo capitalista y el crecimiento demográfico global han colocado a este elemento natural en una situación comprometida, y podemos afirmar que en la actualidad el agua se sitúa en el epicentro de algunos de los grandes debates de relaciones internacionales del siglo XXI, en concreto de aquellos que se producen en torno a la discusión sobre la condición y categoría de los recursos naturales, de sus usos, y de su relación con los ámbitos político y sociocultural humanos. Es también notorio que los procesos económicos globales contemporáneos han agudizado el problema del agua; todos los procesos de producción basan alguna de sus etapas en su utilización, lo que sumado a los sistemas de extracción o acumulación masivos de este recurso está generando local y globalmente tensiones de diversa índole —política, social, económica, ideológica, cultural, discursiva o identitaria—, provocadas tanto por el exceso de la extracción de agua como por las consecuencias de ello en los ecosistemas donde se encuentra dicho elemento. Así, los problemas de contaminación ambiental —ya sea del agua o del entorno de las bases productivas y extractivas—, la gestión política inadecuada o excluyente del recurso —debido principalmente a las fuertes presiones e intereses privatizadores—, o el desigual reparto de los beneficios de su explotación y uso —que recrudecen la disparidad global entre los actores internacionales enriquecidos y aquellos subalternos del sistema capitalista—, representan una posibilidad de conflictos latentes y plantean una serie de dilemas y contradicciones que, en nuestra opinión, deben ser atendidos con urgencia, y deben ser abordados —además— en una dirección concreta: en pro del beneficio colectivo global, con carácter equilibrado, ecológico, sostenible y respetuoso con los usos y culturas tradicionales locales. Partiendo de la consideración básica del agua como un elemento disponible en la naturaleza, resulta sin embargo evidente que en la sociedad capitalista contemporánea conviven múltiples concepciones de este elemento, perspectivas diferentes sobre sus usos, y enfoques incluso contradictorios acerca del futuro de la naturaleza sociopolítica del mismo. Este dossier contempla una problematización política del elemento, afrontando con ello un más que necesario debate interdisciplinar sobre la geopolítica global del agua, con una discusión teórica en torno a las perspectivas, tensiones, conflictos y oportunidades suscitados por la confluencia de intereses, valores, cosmovisiones y consideraciones del agua en el sistema internacional.

Cтаття присвячена вивченню ролі ціннісно-смислових комплексів у процесі геостратегічних взаємодій культурно-цивілізаційних світів. Проаналізовано формування та дію ціннісно-смислових комплексів, характерних для людини і культурно-цивілізаційного світу. Ціннісно-смислові комплекси розглядаються в контексті соціокультурного розвитку суспільства. Для цього вони вивчаються як важливий фактор інтерпретації дійсності людиною, спонукання людини до дії, формування суспільного середовища в конкретному культурно-цивілізаційному світі, конкуренції та діалогу між різними культурно-цивілізаційними світами. Особливу увагу приділено шляхам ефективного застосування ціннісно-смислових комплексів у створенні і реалізації стратегії розвитку ; Статья посвящена изучению роли ценностно-смысловых комплексов в процессе геостратегических взаимодействий культурно-цивилизационных миров. Проанализированы формирования и действие ценностно-смысловых комплексов, характерных для человека и культурно-цивилизационного мира. Ценностно-смысловые комплексы рассматриваются в контексте социокультурного развития общества. Для этого они изучаются как важный фактор интерпретации действительности человеком, побуждения человека к действию, формирования общественной среды в конкретном культурно-цивилизационном мире, конкуренции и диалога между различными культурно-цивилизационными мирами. Особое внимание уделено путям эффективного применения ценностно-смысловых комплексов в создании и реализации стратегии развития ; Until now, the geopolitical analysis was primarily an instrument of justifiation geopolitical objectives related to ensuring the hegemony: the struggle for the preservation of domination or claim to this status. However, it has always been, and in conditions of postmodernity growing trend of overcoming approach inherent to «zero-sum game.» Increase in the quality and quantity of arms, proportionality outcome of human intervention results of natural elements required to achieve the goals of preserving life and culture, as well as the development of mankind to change the ideology of desire to dominate the philosophy and mechanisms of compromise and consensus. Attempts to forcibly impose their aspirations not only degrade their subjects, but also cause a variety of counter (including, for example, is a global phenomenon of terrorism).The subject of research is especially the formation geopolitics pressure conditions and trends of modernity. Now the whole philosophy of social responsibility social behavior and decisions based on the position need careful consideration of the interests of all stakeholders and co-evolution strategy – the model of social partnership game with a non-zero result where everyone wins and increases the total social capital of society (win-win strategy, green-green strategy). This should be the foundation of both internal and external socio-cultural political engagement (partnership and competition) cultural and civilizational worlds.The article is devoted to learning of the role of value-semantic complexes in the process of geo-strategic interactions of cultural and civilization worlds. The formation and operation of the value-semantic complexes characteristic of human culture and civilization of the world are analysed. The value-semantic complexes are discussed in the context of socio-cultural development of society. To do this, they are studied as an important factor an interpretation of reality by man, encouraging people to action, the formation of the social environment in a particular cultural and civilization world, competition and dialogue between different cultural and civilization worlds.Special attention is given to ways of effective application of value and meaning systems in the creation and implementation of the strategy of development.Analysis of publications. The exercise geostrategic analysis, forecasting and transformations affecting 1) the development of professionals in the development of conceptual and categorical apparatus strategies, tactics and operatics (operational art); 2) analysts transformation processes globally historic dimensions; 3) interaction of individual researchers civilizations. Also, because postmodernity helps in the development of methodology, forms and methods of inter – transition to the level of interest, meanings and values constitute the basis of the study and the authors of content detection and comparison of values and hierarchies, and regulatory factors motivating their use in society and consideration of the scope of social integration, as well as to study the role of the ideal in public life, the importance of cultural representations and their interresonance speaker.The purpose of the article – the author's position statement on the analysis of the nature and direction of the leading social and political transformations, as well as the necessary changes in the implementation of adequate political thinking and strategic management.Social relations, Sociality - that is directly focused on playing the human person in the unity of the three principles: biological (individual), socioeconomic (actual person), spiritual and psychological (personality). Their use is often based on intuitive understanding and game (his and / or alien game) interactions. Meanwhile, different from each other socialites are integrated cultural and civilizational worlds. Their fates are often determined by the power of the original pulse, geopolitical circumstances and elite quality management. This strong sociocultural reasons of providing conservation and development in one country and the world at large cultural differences and norms recognized fair in the circumstances, that is based on the value and meaning of its complex cultural and civilizational world. A collapse of personality and individuality to the level of the individual, social dominance over biological - this is the degradation of man and ethnicity. In social terms generation - a unit change traditions. That is, if people talk differently about different - it means that generational change has occurred.From this point of view the value of communication for strategic competition cultural and civilizational worlds is considered. The level of Social psychological support of information impact is characterized. The dependence between the stability of the social order and the results of interregional competition on the quality of polylogue inside and outside the state, the ability to convey their beliefs, values make attractive and desirable to investigate the opinion is elaborated. In providing innovative strategic management it is allocated place of value and meaning complexes.Conclusions. Identifying patterns of strategic management level, the ratio of universal, general and individual can successfully use a variety of processes modernity, enhance the effect of the advantages and localize the effect of negative factors and distribution of problem areas. The broadest term open transit areas with signifiant potential for socio-cultural and multi-level diffusion contacts – but failed social and political control can turn them into areas of vulnerability.And especially important for very diverse, flxible and changing conditions of modernity is the problem of perception and interpretation of action / inaction another. Invocation in creating compositions typical of modernity management methodologies and resource bases aggressively requires emphasis in strategic interaction level between cultural and civilizational worlds of their basic values and semantic systems. Thus, the development polystructure and networking organizations cannot rely on long term performance only brutal force both the macro and micro levels.However, the art geo-strategy can not only be productive model of reality and provide quality future diagnostics but also optimize decision in circumstances where the general prescriptions are ineffective: spirituality (with components of morality, freedom, spirit, etc.) and the standard reverse flw of the events, and helps make changes to the transformation process (when the appearance of historical analogies and very small correction at the bifurcation point cause dramatic differences in the fiish).Strategic planning in this sector include: reconciling the interests of different units structure, the input of which reflct different points of view; inventory of resources (existing and potential), constraints and factors; identify short-term and long-term goals, which is responsible and provide motivation. Accordingly, the circuit design social strategy includes: 1) a vision mission, setting strategic goals; 2) provide strategic analysis of detection parameters of the environment (primarily – opportunities and threats) and internal resources (consideration of competitive advantages and conditions of use); 3) providing strategic choice (based on review of strategic alternatives, evaluation of possible strategies, creating optimal strategy); 4) implementation strategy (in the ratio budgets and plans), 5) monitoring, assessment, monitoring and correction.Increasing further work in this direction, in our view, can involve the use of tools for analysis, forecasting and implementation of social and political projects geostrategic level, and the application for this purpose nomenclature and terminology traditions simulation of social processes