ANALYSIS

Political Economy Journal: Russia’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Political Economy Journal: Russia’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East

BY: Daniel Ranjbar PEJOURNAL - In 1787, with several European ambassadors, the Russian Empress Catherine II visited Crimea. The purpose of the trip was to reassure and deceive the ambassadors before a new war against the Sublime Porte with regard to Russia’s true power ability. To this end, Crimean Governor Grigory Potemkin set up mobile villages full of soldiers dressed as farmers to show a fake picture of a fully developed countryside with flourishing agricultural activity. Since then, ‘Potemkin settlements’  have become synonymous with diplomatic deceit and have had a profound influence on the history of Russian foreign policy.  As…
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Trump’s Chance in 2020; amid corona virus pandemic

Trump’s Chance in 2020; amid corona virus pandemic

BY: Mohammad Ghaderi PEJOURNAL - Regarding the reduction in the spread of the coronavirus, the first question in the United States has been the impact of the virus on the 2020 presidential election, and to what extent the remnants of Covid19 will be the cause of Trump’s defeat or victory. It is clear that the coronavirus has already strongly influenced the 2020 election and even resulted in a sort of ‘genetic mutation’ in Trump, who described the drowsy and dumb Joe Biden as a calm and good man after a phone conversation between the two. Although he seemed to believe…
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The Game of Eurasia

The Game of Eurasia

BY: Daniel Ranjbar PEJOURNAL - The Eurasian Economic Union is a regional treaty signed in 2014 by the leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. A year later, in 2015, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined. The Eurasian Economic Union officially started its work on January 1, 2015. Eurasian countries now have an area of ​​20 million square kilometers and a population of more than 183 million, which is 5.2% of the world's population. On the day of the agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced: “Today we have created a powerful and attractive economic growth center, a regional market that connects more than…
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The Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany pipeline; Increasing Tension Between the U.S. and EU

The Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany pipeline; Increasing Tension Between the U.S. and EU

PEJOURNAL - Although the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany pipeline is 94 percent complete but Washington wants to keep it that way. A hulking Russian pipe-laying vessel called the Akademik Cherskiy can be seen off Germany’s Baltic coast these days,marine tracking sites say, apparentlywaiting for the chance to complete the final stretches of a massive undersea pipeline that will carry natural gas directly to Germany from Russia. The Trump administration, though, is trying to keep the pipeline, known as Nord Stream 2, on ice. Last week, the State Department moved to potentially impose economic penalties on investors and other business participants…
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China’s debt-trap tactics: Same script, different cast

China’s debt-trap tactics: Same script, different cast

BY: Chaitra Arjunpuri PEJOURNAL - Ever wondered why India’s measure to ban China related apps and cancellation of Chinese contracts given for infrastructure development is praised and backed by other countries? China’s lending and investment policies, often disguised as help, in other countries have always resulted in “hidden debt” trap. This trap has pushed the economies of the borrowing countries to a worse than expected slowdown, one of the many problems associated with it. Over the past 20 plus years, China has become a major global lender, with outstanding claims exceeding over 5% of global GDP. It has given many…
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The Ethiopia and Egypt Water Dispute: How likely are war threats to materialize?

The Ethiopia and Egypt Water Dispute: How likely are war threats to materialize?

BY: Begona Arechalde PEJOURNAL - Last week, Ethiopia and Egypt, two countries nourished by the waters of the Nile River, again exchanged threats of military intervention regarding the filling of the $4.5 billion hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is building in the east of the country. The dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Africa’s largest, is becoming a contemporary Rubicon that, if crossed, could irreparably harm the relationship between these two countries. On Tuesday, July 21, a new round of online negotiations managed to reduce tensions, putting the cooperation option back on the table. The Grand Renaissance…
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Turkey; Returning of Europe’s headache

Turkey; Returning of Europe’s headache

BY: Damir Nazarov Turkey expands the borders of intervention throughout the Middle East despite the abundance of economic problems and the prospect of being drawn into a series of large-scale conflicts, under the slogan of "protecting democracy" . In almost every hot spot in the region, the Turks built military bases or sent officers to train local AK Parti loyalists. Ankara imposes and justifies its occupation of Muslim countries by protecting local " democratic forces "(North-Western Syria, Libya), fighting "terrorism "(Northern Syria and Iraq), "helping allies "(Qatar, Somalia, Yemen) and "cooperation for economic purposes" (Sudan, Djibouti)*. The question arises, where…
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The National Interest: The Case for Kissinger

The National Interest: The Case for Kissinger

PEJOURNAL - HENRY KISSINGER, who recently turned ninety-seven, is America’s most celebrated living statesman. None of his successors has come close to matching the extraordinary blend of acclaim and notoriety, admiration and criticism that he attracted as national security adviser and secretary of state to Richard M. Nixon and secretary of state to Gerald Ford. The British Foreign Office referred to him at the time as “the Wizard of the Western World'” and Playboy Bunnies voted him the man they would prefer to date in 1972—no small accomplishments for an expert on the Congress of Vienna who spent much of…
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Artificial Intelligence in Foreign Policy

Artificial Intelligence in Foreign Policy

PEJOURNAL - The world of politics is like a game of chess, based on evaluating scenarios and predicting the best reaction or the best move of the pieces; but the chess of the political world is more complex as many actors with explicit and implicit preferences participate in it and their declarative and practical approaches are not necessarily the same; Internal changes in countries’ policies, including shifts in power and changes in the structure of rent resources, affect the strategies, tactics, and behavior of actors, and ultimately, it is difficult to understand the distinction between signal (signaling a particular motivation…
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Political Economy Journal: BRICS; Risk or Opportunity

Political Economy Journal: BRICS; Risk or Opportunity

BY: Daniel Ranjbar The BRICS countries flags PEJOURNAL - The BRICS countries are trying to get other countries that are almost in a similar situation to join the group in order to achieve their collective goals with more power. The group currently covers more than 40% of the world's population, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But one of the main problems of the BRICS countries in expanding relations and strengthening their position is the small number of members and the geographical distance of the member countries of this group. The BRICS group symbolizes the imbalance created by…
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