Global Trade Wars, Unilateralism & the Providence of Multi-lateralism - RL Vol XII No 308 MMXVIII

Global Trade Wars, 

Unilateralism & the Providence of Multi-lateralism

Interview transcript - RL Vol XII No 308 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

President, Lem Ethiopia: Environment and Development Society

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

Protectionism refers to government actions and policies that restrict or restrain international trade, whose merits of protectionism are the subject of fierce debate. Critics argue that over the long term, protectionism often hurts the people it is intended to protect by slowing economic growth and pushing up prices, making free trade a better alternative. Proponents of protectionism argue that the policies provide competitive advantages and create jobs. The three pillars of the ‘America First’ ideology — isolationism, protectionism and restricting immigration — were gaining popularity before Mr. Trump became president and may outlast his tenure. In international relations, unilateralism is any canon that nations take as a parochial action, a neologism which is already in common use; it was coined to be an antonym for multilateralism, which is the doctrine which asserts the benefits of participation from as many parties as possible. With the advent of Global Governance Institutions after the catastrophic World War II, multilateralism flourished to maintain world order, economic prosperity and human rights. The Breton Woods institutions (IMF & World Bank) were founded as the financial agencies of the world, the WTO to regulate world trade and the UN Security Council to maintain world order. Others were formed to undertake human and structural development across the globe.

The US is the richest and most stable economy and its role is seen as a leader of the free world to create a global architecture for freedom from fear and freedom from want. Nevertheless the ‘America First’ slogan is fast removing it from leading the multilateralism process. One can observe that the US is trying to contrast itself with developing nations such as China that has been feared as a communist giant and countries that are gradually emerging from authoritarian rule of the Cold War. The stability of Asia, Africa and Latin America is paramount for US peace and hence the US must pay any price to maintain human security in these regions through principally trade. Otherwise, it will have to send its troops such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya to name a few. Yes, indeed, the U.S. administration's inward looking approach of ‘America-first’ will hurt multilateralism. For a good reason. America has been the largest supporter of the Breton Woods institutions, it has contributed to the UN peace keeping more than any other nation, and its bilateral aid has been instrumental in fighting poverty and diseases. The US contribution to NATO has also been substantial. The Marshall Plan had reconstructed Europe after WWII and American capital has heralded capital development in East Asia and Latin America. Now all this is under question mark, with the US threatening to withdraw aid from nations that do not support it in the UN General Assembly. The US stance on global governance institutions is also another threat to multilateralism, with WTO fast becoming irrelevant given the US unilateral action. The World Bank warns trade tensions could trigger a 2008-level crisis.

Key words: China, United States, trade wars, developing nations, protectionism, WTO, UNCTAD

See paper here or https://www.academia.edu/37582029/Global_Trade_Wars_Unilateralism_and_the_Providence_of_Multilateralism_RL_Vol_XII_No_308_MMXVIII

Syncretic Conduits to Middle Eastern Schisms in Noxious Religious Conflicts (Sunni-Sufi-Shia) Public Lecture - RL Vol XII No 315 MMXVIII

Syncretic Conduits to Middle

Eastern Schisms in Noxious Religious Conflicts (Sunni-Sufi-Shia)

Public Lecture - RL Vol XII No 315 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

Sufism was a mystical form of Islam, a school of practice that emphasises the inward search for God and shuns materialism. It has produced some of the world’s most beloved literature. While some Muslims view Sufis as quirky, even eccentric, some fundamentalists and extremists see Sufism as a threat and its adherents as heretics or apostates. Puritanical Salafist Muslims have attacked Sufi shrines and communities across the Arab world in a campaign to spread their influence. Nevertheless, in Tunisia, where national history and identity are intimately intertwined with Sufism, the Salafis have been thwarted (Luck, 2017). Sunni, Ahl al-Sunna, are the people of the tradition. The tradition in this case refers to practices based on precedent or reports of the actions of the Prophet Muhammad and those close to him. Sunnis venerate all the prophets mentioned in the Quran, but particularly Muhammad as the final prophet. In early Islamic history, the Shiats were a political faction - literally Shiat Ali or the party of Ali. The Shiats claimed the right of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants to lead the Islamic community.

Conflict is seen as a positive and necessary force, desirable because individuals and groups are naturally seen as having different needs and interests, valued because it often serves as an important impetus for positive change. However, the brutal demise of the Yemeni people shows how these schisms have to be put together and the dots have to be connected. The chessboard is being staged for a Clash of Cultures & Civilisations and all the chess pieces are being put into place. The Arab World is in the process of being cordoned off and sharp delineation lines are being created. These lines of delineation are replacing the seamless lines of transition between different ethno-linguistic, skin-colour, and religious groups. Hence, resolving conflicts that arise from spiritual variances derive from several basic premises about the nature of conflict, change and power and how conflict is managed.

Key words: Sunni, Shia, Clash of Cultures & Civilisations, Clash of Cultures, Conflict resolution, 

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/37578443/Syncretic_Conduits_to_Middle_Eastern_Schisms_in_Deadly_Religious_Conflicts_-_RL_Vol_XII_No_315_MMXVIII

The Ethiopian Somali Dynamic Bearings of a Simmering Statutory Crisis RL Vol XII No 277 MMXVIII

The Ethiopian Somali Dynamic

Bearings of a Simmering

Statutory Crisis

Public Lecture - RL Vol XII No 277 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

          In the Somali Region, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, farmers and traders – have suffered a series of livelihood shocks in contemporary years, some natural, others political (violent conflicts). Unfavourable polices towards the region by successive regimes in the country’s political history. Because of these multiple shocks, and because rainfall in the Horn of Africa has been low in recent years, questions are being asked about the sustainability of livelihood in a predominantly pastoralist area. The Government for instance, is advocating rural sedentarization of pastoralists as one long-term option, while many question the government’s legitimacy to intervene in changing people’s lifestyle. The purpose here is to develop such an understanding and look for critical answers to the genuine causes of underdevelopment in the region. This is the foundation to come up with sustainable resolution to the backwardness in the Region. The study will help to present this evidence to policy-makers as an input to their strategic decision-making. Using a descriptive research design based on secondary data, it allows the research to describe the behaviour of the issue understudy without influencing it in any way. Under-development in Somali Region is affected by processes of social change, political instability, drought triggers livelihood crises, but the underlying causes of underdevelopment are the combination of social, political and natural.

            While the region has witnessed some form of stability since the attack on oil and gas exploration teams that killed 72 Ethiopian and Chinese engineers and works, new developments in the Somali region have culminated in the arrest of the former president Abdi Mohamed Omar, accused of human rights. The following discussion may help shape the debate. With the opposition parties now officially in Ethiopia, can one expect a negotiated peace in the Somali Region? With the newfound oil and gas wealth, what is the future of the Somali Region? What are the implication of the arrest former president of Abdi Mohamed Omar, the region? Now that Eritrea and Somalia have made peace, would AL Shabaab move in into the Somali Region of Ethiopia?

Key words: Somali Region, Ethiopia, human rights, petroleum find, self-determination,

See lecture here or  https://www.academia.edu/37568141/The_Ethiopian_Somali_Dynamic_Bearings_of_a_Simmering_Statutory_Crisis

Interview with Ethiopian Herald Sunday Group

The Rationale behind Teaching & Studying Ethiopian History,

Interview - RL Vol. XII No 291 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chief Scout, Ethiopian Scouts & President, Lem Ethiopia

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

         History helps us understand people and societies, the importance of history in our own lives, history contributes to moral understanding, history provides identity, studying history is essential for good citizenship and history is useful in the world of work. Some argue that history has been justified for reasons that Africans no longer accept – the history that was thought as if it were the narrative of its colonisers and rulers, but not of its people.

       Civic education, learning about and appreciating one's rights, duties, obligations and responsibilities as a citizen and the immediate rules, laws and governance structures within which one exercises citizenship is the first and fundamental step in citizenship. Nevertheless, we have narratives that our children must learn.

         Three thousand years ago, Axum was the seat of the earliest Ethiopian kingdom and one of the holiest grounds and traded with the world from the ports of Adulis and subsequently Massawa were the gateway of the Ethiopian Empire. One of the earliest holy mosques in the world is the holy Islamic faith centre, Negash built before many Muslim nations had a mosque. The Ottomans attempt to colonise Ethiopia were defeated buy Emperor Yohannes and Ras Alula. Ethiopian forces defeated the Italian army at Mequelle on 21 Jan 1986 and at Adwa on first of March 1896.

       Adwa has become a quintessential emblem and a pedestal for Pan-Africanism - an important political form of a religious Pan-Africanist worldview appeared in the form of Ethiopianism.

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See interview here or  https://www.academia.edu/37428133/Interview_The_Rationale_behind_Teaching_and_Studying_Ethiopian_History_RL_Vol._XII_No_291_MMXVIII

Democracy, Republic and Multiparty Politics in Ethiopia RL Vol XII No 307 MMXVIII

Interview with Herald

Democracy, Republic and Multiparty Politics in Ethiopia

Interview - RL Vol XII No 307 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chief Scout, Ethiopian Scouts & President, Lem Ethiopia: Environment and Development Society

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

            Globally, democracy is in retreat, so assert influential voices in the West. With the rise of populism and hate politics in relation to immigration, religion and colour. Three types of threat to democracy: coups, catastrophes and technological takeovers. While coups will become less common, other forms of “coups” will constrain elected governments even while they remain formally in power. Further, looming threats to civilisation, (environmental crises and nuclear warfare) could make democracy seem like an unaffordable luxury. Social media we have become dependent on is an arena that we neither control nor fully understand. Nevertheless, while influential voices contend that democracy is in decline worldwide, the global proportion of democracies is actually at or near an all-time high. Republican democracy is the active participation of politically conscious citizens with the requisite understanding of the meaning of democracy, as citizens of a political society in a polity endowed with political rules and institutions. It is a system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections and one that protects the human rights of all citizens and a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. Democracy creates losers as well as winners. When the losers are powerful enough to undermine democracy, this is why the fate of many democracies has been precarious.

        Today, while PM Abiy inherits a spectacular economic and infrastructure growth, hundreds of thousands graduating yearly from hundreds of vocational schools, universities, a ten-years increase in life expectancy in a decade and meeting the MDGs. Nevertheless, because of the frustrated populace he has now emerged to transform the security situation which predicated a martial law to silence it, after his historic speech focused on Ethiopianness and the need to act together as citizens of a single political society. The remaining agenda is to fix the economic and social governance and the livelihood of Ethiopia’s youth. I see unquestionable genuineness in PM Abiy’s moves to widen the political space and to make his ruling party a competitive political organ that can win the spoils of power using political participation and political competition. Whatever his party chooses as a strategy remains to be seen, but Abiy has given another life to a party that had transformed the economic infrastructure and education of the youth of Ethiopia; but, had at the same time, lost the confidence of the same youth it had meticulously enlightened to question its governance strategies. 

See interview here or https://www.academia.edu/37481100/Interview_with_Herald_Democracy_Republic_and_Multiparty_Politics_in_Ethiopia

Pan Africanism, Globalisation & Regional Integration: The Impact of Trade Wars on Developing Nations RL Vol. XII No. 303, MMXVIII

Today, humankind stands on an extraordinary, and perhaps, seductive sets of dilemma: a global lifestyle and value system in which the 21^st century has ushered in unprecedented global wealth; yet, such a lot that is all lavishly squandered, while Africa is haunted by an oppressive present -- an embodiment of conflicts and devoured natural environment.

Interview transcript

Pan Africanism, Globalisation & Regional Integration: The Impact of Trade Wars on Developing Nations

Public lecture series - RL Vol. XII No. 303, MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chair Ethiopica Communication Infrastructure & Tunnelling Co

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

         Elbowing the heinous crimes of slave trade, and later on, colonialism and militarism, Pan-Africanism represents the complexities of black political and intellectual thought over two hundred years. At a basic level, it is a belief that African peoples, both in Africa and Diaspora taken as slave labour, share not merely a common history, but also a common destiny.

Even today, Africa faces the usual panoply of challenges endemic in with too few instruments and too few resources, while also grappling with the perennial problem of non-integration. While the top five fast growing economies are in the continent, coupled with the impact of the recent trade war, globalisation and regional integration are disembarking on ill-prepared African leadership… Hence, Africa should modify regulatory policies that inflate business costs and depress urban consumer incomes, go for bolder and more unconventional agricultural policies and put in place a smarter set of policies for the financial sector.

            On regional integration, the case for government investments in public goods such as roads and power infrastructure is undeniable, as it is laying the essential foundations—the necessary conduits and circuitry—of a modern economy. The peace initiative with Eritrea has suddenly transformed the Horn of Africa where Somalia and Eritrea have made peace, there is dialogue between Djibouti and Eritrea and the South Sudanese have once more put pen to paper to make peace. 

        On ethnic based conflicts, the degree of self-determination up to and including secession, has been widely assumed by its critics that this was pronounced with the objective of legitimising the stand that condoned the secession of Eritrea. Consistent with this strategy, a major restructuring of Ethiopian polity has been undertaken, setting the foundation for and cutting it up into a score of regional governments based on linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identity. Hence, maintaining peace, law and order are paramount if the economic trajectories will continue as expected by IFIs that have been pumping loans and grants to the state. Moreover, if it is going to continue to be the darling of FDI, it must secure law and order with a view to secure more investments. 

See paper here or  https://www.academia.edu/37495011/Pan_Africanism_Globalisation_and_Regional_Integration_The_Impact_of_Trade_Wars_on_Developing_Nations_RL_Vol._XII_No._303_MMXVIII