GLOBAL ISSUES

On April 12, 2011, RIEAS Director John M. Nomikos, along with Senior Analyst Aya Burweila and Research Associate Georgios Protopapas, met with a visiting delegation from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). Headed by SIIS President Dr. Yang Jiemian, who actually extended the kind invitation to meet, the Chinese delegation also comprised:

Dr. JIANG Xiyuan, Senior Associate, Institute of International Strategy, SIIS,
Dr. SHAO Yuqun, Deputy Director, Institute of Taiwan, HK and Macau Studies, SIIS,
Mr. ZHA Xiaogang, Researcher, Institute of World Economy, SIIS,
Ms. LOU Xiangfei, Researcher, Institute of Foreign Policy, SIIS,
Mr. LU Chuanying, Researcher, Institute of Data Processing, SIIS.

Richard L. Benkin, Ph.D.
(President, Forcefield)

Copyright: Richard L. Benkin on line

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. That is not opinion; it is a fact.  At the time of India’s partition (1947), they were just under one in three East Pakistanis.  When East Pakistan became Bangladesh (1971), they were under one in five; thirty years later less than one in ten; and according to some estimates, under eight percent today.  Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York, using demographic and other methods, calculates that well over 49 million of them are missing (Dastidar, 2008).(1) During that same period, regular reports of anti-Hindu atrocities have poured out of Bangladesh.  They have not slowed even with the landslide election of the self-styled “pro-minority” Awami League government at the end of 2008.  Serious anti-Hindu actions occurred at the rate of almost one a week in 2009; and they have continued without let up in 2010 and 2011.(2)   This puts every one of Bangladesh’s remaining 13-15,000,000 Hindus at risk.  Yet, while these numbers dwarf those of the worst cases of genocide and ethnic cleansing (e.g., Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur), no major human rights organization, international body, or individual nation has highlighted this quiet case of ethnic cleansing or even raised it as a matter for investigation.

Ketki Madane
(RIEAS Regional Director in Southeast Asia and Australia)
Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The invention of the printing press in 1440 created an information revolution which at first was controlled by a few powerful entities. By the 20th century, due to the explosion of the internet and the freely available information online, pioneers in the social networking industry such as Friendster brought a unique flavor to friendship.
After Friendster set the bar for social networking, its competitors came in the form of Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, Linkedin and the newest player – Twitter. As platforms became increasingly sophisticated after newer versions were introduced, social media began to catch the eye of corporations.

By Alexis Giannoulis
(RIEAS Research Associate & Independent Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

In 24 September 2011 the world witnessed the end of the debate about who will be running for (and most certainly become) the next Russian president at the elections of 2012. The plan was revealed on the 24th of September at the annual conference of United Russia party and this plan shocked a good portion of international and Russian political analysts and experts. However and rather astonishingly, a large amount of respected international media have welcomed this arrangement as an orderly ‘swap’ of the two most important posts in Russian politics, the one of the president and the one of the prime minister (PM). For example, a FT article of September 22 argued that the uncertainty surrounding the 2012 elections has “left Russia paralysed” . Washington had also claimed that whoever becomes the next Russian President the “reset” of US-Russian relations would continue  without, in essence officially commenting on the swap.... Read more 

CHENG, Yu-Chin
(Lecturer, Institute of Political Science, Charles Univesrity in Prague, Director of European Office for Defense Technology Monthly Taipei, Taiwan)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Introduction

The North Korean official media mouthpiece confirmed that the North Korean General  Kim Jong-II died on 18th December 2011, and this sudden news rocked the world politics. Except China, the members of the Six-Party Talk and Japan had nothing about his death, and the intelligence chiefs were under the criticis from their own parliaments and the press. Due to no early-warning intelligence, more and more people criticised the worse effectiveness of the intelligence services. Unlike abovementioned countries, the EU memeber states suffers less complaints and critics, but it cannot be interpreted that the EU people underestimate the Korean Peninsula Situation, but the EU manages this nuclear-like issue very carefuly. ... Read more

Zhyldyz Oskonbaeva
(RIEAS Senior Analyst & Eurasian Liaison)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

As it stands today the nuclear situation in Iran is still not crystal clear. There isn’t a clearly mapped transparent report of the nuclear sites of Iran.  But that’s not because intelligence forces are hiding the information from international public eyes, nor because they do not have complete intelligence on Iran’s Nuclear Program. The issue is that even all the existing and so far declared nuclear achievements of Iran are covert.  Which might make it difficult for forces to pin point the sites before bombing. So one of the obstacles is that bombing might bring major civilian loses.