Money, Power, Domination...

Securitization of Iraq

Peter Lesniak — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Intensive war-fighting in Iraq lasted only twenty one days, but these twenty one days have redesigned and changed the format and nature of the armed conflict. The transition from fighting to reconstruction of the state is in progress, however it is not an easy tasks and a secure nation-state will not be established as soon as many U.S. officials would hope so. Conflicts between groups of Iraqis and coalition forces, external authorities and NGOs, ethnic groups and individual authorities certainly do not make the process any easier. In addition, integration of the US-trained Iraqi military with the coalition forces revealed an enormous difference of capabilities between the two, which, along with other structural, technical and social obstacles discussed further in this study, creates a huge ground of dissimilarities making it extremely hard to bring peace and stability to the region. The essay will critically evaluate the securitization process conducted by the coalition forces led by the United States. First part of the research will be devoted to present historical background of the conflict providing information about colonial legacy and cruel doctrine of Saddam Hussein as well as his cooperation with the U.S. government. Next, the study will focus on series of situations that led to losing peace, deepening the war and destabilizing situation in the country. Based on number of evidence and studies the essay will argue that the securitizing actor (coalition forces led by US) is not in a position to make the securitizing move, proving that the situation in Iraq has not yet been securitized enough. Taking into consideration fragmented population, weak political institutions, Sunni/Shi’ite divide, Kurds and tendency for rule by violence, the research will prove that establishing political stability and peace in Iraq is extremely difficult.

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Future of Iraq, Iran and Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Peter Lesniak — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:50:00 +0000

In an age of economic recession, rising oil prices, the growing danger of nuclear proliferation and resurgence of terrorist organizations, the Middle East has become an issue of central importance in American elections. The aim of the essay is to compare and critically assess the candidates’ positions on the main issues in the Middle East: Iraq, Iran and Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The research will provide a concise presentation of their policies concerning the securitizing situation and withdrawal of forces from Iraq, dealing with nuclear Iran and future prospects for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This study also includes an overview of the potential internal and external consequences of the candidates’ positions, if executed after elected as president.

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The media and public perception: US Elections 2008

Peter Lesniak — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:41:00 +0000

We live in an age where media and technology are commonly and easily absorbed by civilization. Most parts of our society are the targets of technological propaganda. The media is shaping our opinions and changing our lives in ways we cannot even notice. Being involved in a world full of wires and colorful advertisements on every step, we are becoming simpler and more vulnerable for media manipulation; we are losing the context and perspective from which we used to look at the surrounding environment which is nowadays nothing more than a product of human ideology. Politics is one of many spheres of social live that seems to take advantage of technological advancement. Presidential campaigns use every possible format of media including satellite broadcasting, magazines, radios, newspapers, books, films, even and probably most importantly, internet and television, to get people to vote. Candidates spend millions of dollars employing lobbyists and media specialist to create their positive media image because they are aware of the fact that average person in North America sees 30 thousand commercials a year (including presidential campaign spots). There is a strictly political purpose in addicting people to new technologies, advertisements and commercials. Such knowledge combined with effective media campaign guarantees huge public support.

The aim of this essay is to show how close and fluid the connection between media and public opinion concerning presidential candidates and their position on most crucial issues is. To reveal the distinction and variety of conceptions, the sources used within this essay include both online and offline recourses, news coverage and opinion-based articles as well as Democratic-based and Republican-based think-tank excerpts from different periods of time. To provide a more academic approach to the issue of media-manipulation, the ideas of Jerry Mander (Four Arguments for The Elimination of Television) and Arthur Kroker (Life in the Wires) will be presented throughout the essay. Divided in two parts, the essay will show how media is shaping public perception of senators McCain, in the first part, and Obama, in the second, and will show different views on major issues in their presidential campaigns with specification on the Iraq war, healthcare and the economy.

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Russian Democracy

Peter Lesniak — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Russia has found itself in a difficult period of redefinition of its status and identity. The process of redefining Russia’s identity has been troubling for the society at large and, in particular for the ruling elites. Indeed, much as been at stake in this redefinition process in terms of the self-esteem of the political leadership and reconstruction of the national spirit. The essay will critically evaluate Russian transition towards democracy in particular indicating its weaknesses.

Taking into consideration changes that occurred in Russia over the last decade, we may undoubtedly say that democratization did occur and electoral democracy did emerge. Even though the trajectory has continued in an antidemocratic direction for several years, especially lately, we also posit that the political system still retains some democratic features. Whether these democratic traits are significant enough to label Russia a democracy is debatable. I however would risk a statement that Russia has not made a successful transition to democracy. Furthermore, as I will try to prove later in the essay, even though Russia is not a dictatorship, it is certainly moving towards an autocratic direction.

Unfortunately two and a half millennia after Athens, democracy still remains a complex concept and a subject of debate for scholars and students all over the world. To assess whether country has made a democratic transition it is necessary to define what democracy is. Therefore, the starting point of the essay will be a definition of democracy and criteria that country should meet to be considered a democracy. The first part of the essay will also shortly explain different types of democracies. The second part will examine Russian transition to democracy taking into consideration: firstly – 10 democratic criteria initially created by Larry Diamond and secondly – some of the main democratic features: legitimate constitution, fair elections, role of political parties and freedom of media.

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Failure of intelligence at 9/11

Peter Lesniak — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:17:00 +0000

The first few years of the twenty-first century have witnessed a transformation in the role of secret intelligence in international politics. Intelligence and security issues are now more prominent than ever before in Western political discourse as well as the wider public consciousness. Public expectations of intelligence have never been greater, and these demands include much greater disclosure of hitherto secret knowledge. Much of this can be attributed to the shock of the terrorist attacks of September 11. These events drove home the vulnerability of Western societies and the importance of reliable intelligence on terrorist threats (Scott and Jackson, 2004). For the sake of the arguments and understanding failure of intelligence I will focus my essay mostly on the US intelligence structure particularly stressing role of the CIA. As the dust from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was still settling, the chants began: The CIA was asleep at the switch! The intelligence system is broken! Reorganize from top to bottom! (Hoge and Rose, 2001) The biggest intelligence system in the world spending upward of $30 billion a year could not prevent a group of fanatics from carrying out devastating attacks. The question: what the intelligence services have to change to fight this war? The short answer is: almost everything.

As Charles Cogan states (Scott and Jackson, 2004), we face the greatest threat to our homeland in the history, following on the greatest humiliation in our history: 3,000 people killed by 19 Arab terrorists with box cutters whose sponsors had repeatedly told the world over the previous years that they were going to carry out an attack. Without the shadow of a doubt, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 involved the worst intelligence failure since Pearl Harbor in 1941. In this essay, I will argue that it was a failure at all phases of intelligence cycle, starting from the setting of priorities and tasking , through the wide range of collection activities, to the analytical assessment and dissemination process which should have provided some warning of the event. At the same time I will propose solutions as to how the intelligence system can be improved to work efficiently.

The first part of the essay will critically evaluate – as far as I’m concerned – two biggest issues that had a major influence on intelligence failure before 9/11. That is: decentralization of intelligence agencies along with their politicization and indecisiveness and lack of cooperation both internally and externally, or in other words – within and outside the US. Following paragraphs will be mainly focused on changing existing concept of intelligence and will provide examples of failures and solutions to specific aspects such as stereotyping terrorists, easy processes of obtaining visa, role of Human Intelligence and so on.

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Critical assessment of SAPs

Peter Lesniak — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank. Although SAPs are designed for individual countries but have common guiding principles and features which include export-led growth, privatization and liberalization and the efficiency of the free market.

The essay questions whether the adjustment policies are consistent with long-term development needs. To answer this question we can take a look on the subject within two dimensions: first is the issue of whether introduced policies succeeded to restore non-crisis conditions, in terms of the balance of payments and the domestic economy so that growth of investment, public expenditure and imports can be resumed without causing a critical foreign exchange shortage. Secondly, there is a question of whether the policies moved countries towards an appropriate structure for long-term development objectives. (G.A. Cornia and G.K. Helleiner, 1994)

Despite considerable controversy over the issue of Structural Adjustment Programmes, the evidence suggest that the policies are not succeeding in restoring viable conditions and do not help poor and indebted countries to restore normal economical and political order. Over 15 years since its inception, the Third World debt crisis remains unsolved. The fiscal deficit continued to be large. Debt continued to accumulate. Current account deficit remained very large. Therefore in my opinion, term “short term pain for long term gain” is highly inappropriate.

In the first part of the essay, short theoretical explanation of SAPs failure will be examined. The next paragraph will show the effects of three random policies introduced in SA programmes: Trade Liberalization, Liberalization of Financial sector and reform of labour market. Next paragraph will examine the outcomes of adjustment policies in both: Latin America and Africa proving their inadequacy.

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