China’s ‘Silk Road’: A drive for Global Integration or simply a Metaphor for Hegemonic Quest

China’s ‘Silk Road’:

A drive for Global Integration or simply a Metaphor for Hegemonic Quest

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria– Vol. IX No. XXXVI, CXXI, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

The Silk Road or Silk Route was an ancient network of trade routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the West and East from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in Chinese silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han dynasty. One of the most acclaimed Silk Road projects is the One Belt, One Road initiative put forward by China, a project, which was first formulated in 2013 during a trip to Central Asia, has resonated with both the region and the wider globe. It spans almost the entire Asian continent, even extending as far as East Africa and Europe and a Maritime Silk Road, covering Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Africa, and Europe.

Beyond being a simple transport corridor, it envisages economic integration of the countries along its path. The first of the five basic areas of cooperation envisioned in the project is based on the integration of transportation (railways, highways, airways, and ports) systems and the joint use of energy and natural resources as well as their extraction operations. China’s One Belt, One Road initiative has received the support of countries throughout the region, but some important players consider the project as an attempt by China to snatch regional and global hegemony, stemming from worries that Beijing wishes to increase its political influence by using its economic power. It is obvious that if the project becomes successful, the Chinese economy will be the first to benefit. If it fails, it becomes a disaster for China. In all this, Africa needs to assemble the required mettle to change power relations in its dealings with China.

Key words: Silk Road, One Road, One Belt, Integration, Security, Trade,

See lecture here or paste this  in your browser  https://www.academia.edu/28043870/Chinas_Silk_Road_A_drive_for_Global_Integration_or_simply_a_Metaphor_for_Hegemonic_Quest

Inductional Realism of Credit & Capital Markets in Africa

Inductional Realism of

Credit & Capital Markets in Africa

Synopsis of a Feasibility Study of Credit & Capital Markets in Africa

Based on a Consultancy Report to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa UNECA, Addis Ababa, Lecture updated 2014 Respublica Literaria CXIV, MMXVI –

 Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Abstract

An efficient and a development-oriented private sector provide the nourishment, which these markets require to grow and function effectively. The markets themselves provide the credit ingredients, which the private sector requires to grow, expand and contribute to development. Thus, there is a reciprocal and mutually productive relationship between the private sector on the one hand and credit and capital markets, on the other hand. The analysis further suggests that countries should incorporate the requirements of establishing capital markets and strengthening the private sector in the list of priorities on their macro-economic reform programmes. Primarily, the banking system must be firmly entrenched and functioning as efficiently as planned. This should take good care of the money market and hence the credit market needs of rudimentary private sectors. The consequential growth response of the latter should give a boost to capital markets, which in turn provide the capital for long-term and sustained development. The study provides ample evidence that this evolutionary process is well underway in several African countries.

The purpose of the study is to sensitize African countries on issues that are pertinent to the establishment of credit and capital markets. The dismal pace of developing credit and capital markets can be attributed to policies of colonial regimes where deliberately antagonistic to the evolution of a viable private sector, which was not intended to bring about the social and economic development and did not encourage the development and strengthening of capital markets. This study is predicated by the rationale that credit and capital markets can make positive contributions to the sustained and sustainable development of African countries. The aims of this study are to explore the feasibility of comprehensively developing and strengthening the capacity of financial and capital markets in Africa in order to promote entrepreneurship. The objectives of the study are to advance explicit clarification of the role of the private and public sectors in view of the interactive role of these sectors and the implications for capital markets development.

Key words: credit, capital, markets, finance, intermediation, banks, insurance, unions,

See paper here or paste the link https://www.academia.edu/27957778/Inductional_Realism_of_Credit_and_Capital_Markets_in_Africa

Analytic Dynamics in Engaging Crises-Affected Societies

    

Analytic Dynamics in 

Engaging Crises-Affected Societies:

Non-State Actors in Preserving & Advancing

Self-esteem Integrity and Innovativeness

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, Addis Ababa University

Trustee, Africa Humanitarian Action

costy@costantinos.net

A dialogue starter think piece - CX, MMXIII Vol X No IX

 Towards the implementation of the Common African Position (CAP) and the commitments of the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS):

The Role of the Non-State Actors for Effective Humanitarian Action

Sheraton Addis, Addis Ababa, 15 August 2016

    One outcome of the WHS is the ‘Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation that will accelerate transformative improvements in humanitarian action by creating a shared space for the development of innovative tools, approaches and processes’. The CAP too underscores that ‘effective and mutually reinforcing partnerships are of paramount importance in humanitarian action’. Far more critical in determining both the level and quality of dialogue and strategic humanitarian partnership is the political and economic context in which crises–affected societies find themselves. Hence new ‘rules’ of engagement must be based on the fundamental perception, that peo­ple can be the handmaiden of human secu­rity. While participation is a common strand used by humanitarian agencies, it is not used from the perspective of empowerment that leads to critical thinking, which is the main theme of this think piece.

      Nonetheless, beyond platitudes and good inten­tions, engagement of non-state actors and crisis-affected societies, is not premised in an ethic of em­powerment. True, humanitarian action has saved millions of lives, but the sustainability of its inter­ventions raise fundamental questions as they are not augured on indigenous adaptive strategies, that nurtured a survival niche long before institutional aid came to the scene. By a way of contributing to mend these infirmities, we may theorise such an engagement as a dynamic interaction of policy, strategy, organisation and process.

      This brings up the issue of conceptualising the engagement as a work­ing process, which balanced against strategy, determines what makes for real, as opposed to vacu­ously formulated sloganeering. It suggests itself, seems within reach only to elude, and appears read­ily practicable only to resist realisation: a tendency to narrow the endeavour to the terms and catego­ries of immediate, not very well considered, participatory action, naïve realism, as it were. Those who best understood the lessons of the 20th century were not the ideologues asking, what is to be done? They were those asking, how can people be freer to find their own solutions?

Key words: humanitarianism, WHS, CAP, non-state actors, crises-affected societies

See lecture here

The Proxy Cold War 2.0

Could NATO’s militarisation of the Caucasus, Moscow’s projection in Crimea and Syria, China’s claim to South China Sea & schisms in the Middle East ignite the CW2.0?

Public Lecture, Centre for Human Environment - CXXIV, MMXVI Vol. X No. VII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

            Russian statement at the Munich Security Conference - we are in a new Cold War and that this year, 2016 reminds us of 1962, sends unnerving signals of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world staggered on the threshold of atomic war. Edward Lucas's The New Cold War asserts that Moscow's new battle with the west is not about ideology but power. Painted in black and white, the anti-hero is a Kremlin with evil designs upon a naïve, disorganised ‘West’, while Russia accuses the North Atlantic Treaty of seeking to destabilise the Caucasus with upcoming joint exercises in Georgia. Russia views this consistent 'development' of Georgian territory by NATO soldiers as a provocative move, aiming to destabilise the military-political situation in the Caucasus region deliberately. On the other hand, South China Sea has become a contested region.

            A school of thought prevails that the West should not be afraid of Russian strength, but rather of its fragility because it still possess powerful arsenal. Rather, the US ought to be worried about Europe and the centripetal forces that seem to be pulling apart its closest pool of allies inexorably. The question is what is the best course for the US? Pundits urge caution in response to NATO's plans to deploy battalions to the Baltic States, warning it could lead to another Cold War. Moscow quickly responded that it would position brigades along its EU borders. Then the West continues to build up the eastern flank of NATO, with more battalions, more exercises, and more ships and more platforms, and the Russians will respond. Is it some real strategic thinking or a reaction? It is a tactical ricocheting from crisis-to-crisis, which has been much of what is in the Middle East.

   

      The paper analyses global security governance - the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority to manage inter-governmental affairs. It is the complex mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which states and citizen’s groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights and obligations and mediate their differences. The West with its support to an agglomeration of tin-pot dictatorships, Sha’ria tyrannies, banana republics and soon-to-be failed European states cannot lead the world alone any longer. The mono-polar, US-dominated world is history.  A multi-polar world has emerged before our eyes, not just in Russia but also in five or six capitals around the world (Cohen, 2015).

Key words: Cold War 2.0, Russia, US, Europe, nuclear, global security governance, multi polar world

see article here

The simmering Middle East Inferno Chronological Rendition of War, Defeat & Conquest

The simmering Middle East Inferno

Chronological Rendition of War, Defeat & Conquest

Public Lecture, CX, MMXIII Vol. X No. VII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

Arab nationalism emerged to prominence with the weakening and defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the 20^th century. It degenerated after the defeat of the Arab armies in the Six Day War. It aim was to end of Western influence in the Arab World, seen as a nemesis of Arab strength, and the removal of those Arab governments considered dependent for their survival upon Western powers. The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to the political tension, military conflicts and disputes between a number of Arab countries and Israel. The roots of the modern Arab–Israeli conflict are bound in the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19^th century. The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I saw five main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign, and the Gallipoli Campaign. There were also several minor campaigns: the North African Campaign, Arab Campaign, and South Arabia Campaign. The post-Ottoman period is rife with conflicts in the Middle East (the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia), Levant, and the Delta of the Nile and neighbouring areas of Arabia, Anatolia and Iran). It currently encompasses the area from Egypt, Turkey and Cyprus in the west to Iran and the Persian Gulf in the east, and from Turkey and Iran in the north, to Yemen and Oman in the south. Furthermore, the Muslim split into two main branches, the Sunnis and Shia that originates in a dispute soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad over who should lead Muslim community. Due to the alarming gains made by the Shiats (Houthis in Yemen) who claimed the right of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants to lead the Islamic community, a Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab nations is already turning Yemen into a phantom state. Yet Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has indicated that the coalition’s mandate may be extended beyond Yemen?
See article here