Craig Murray — The Pivot Point

Sometimes history appears to be approaching a pivot point, and then the weight swings back and nothing happens. But sometimes it does tip, and times such as these are times of great potential for change. I see hope, for example, in the upsurge of support for Green politics, and the happy convergence of popular political discontent with rising awareness over climate change.

This may be a point in time owing to a crisis or a process during which a realignment is worked out. I would bet on the latter alternative. This is likely to extend at least over the decade of the 20s s an "interregnum" (A. Gramsci). This will be a period in which the American millennial generation supplants the post-WWII "baby boomers" as the most numerous generation and the trendsetters. Globally, there is already a realignment underway in which the West is losing its dominant position that commenced half a millennium ago. This is likely to be a period of conflict.

Craig Murray Blog
The Pivot Point
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

F. William Engdahl — China’s Global Political Shift

The changing face of geopolitics and geostrategy in 2015.

No longer does China regard its relationship with the United Sates or even the EU as of highest priority. Rather they have defined a new grouping of priority countries in their carefully-deliberated geopolitical map. It includes Russia, as well as the entire BRICS rapidly-developing economies; it includes China’s Asian neighbors as well as Africa and other developing countries. 

To give a perspective, as recently as 2012 China’s foreign ptries in the world, including China); Multilateral Organizations (UN, APEC, ASEAN, IMF, World Bank etc.), and public diplomacy which determines which situations to become engaged in around the world. Clearly China has decided those priorities no longer work to her advantageolicy priorities were described in a general framework: Great Powers (principally the USA, EU, Japan, and Russia); Periphery (all countries bordering China); Developing Countries (all lower income countries). 

In his address to the meeting, President Xi highlighted a sub-category of developing countries: “Major Developing Powers (kuoda fazhanzhong de guojia). China will “expand cooperation and closely integrate our country’s development” with the designated Major Developing Powers, Xi declared. According to Chinese intellectuals, these are countries now deemed especially important partners “to support reform of the international order.” It includes Russia, Brazil, South Africa, India, Indonesia, and Mexico, that is, China’s BRICS partners, as well as Indonesia and Mexico. China has also ceased calling itself a “developing country,” indicating the changed self-image....

At present, what clearly emerges is China’s decision to make its relation with Putin’s Russia central to this new priority strategy. Despite decades of mistrust following the 1960 Sino-Soviet split, the two countries have begun a depth of cooperation unprecedented. The two great land powers of Eurasia are welding economic bonds that create the only potential “challenger” to future American global supremacy, as US foreign policy strategist, Zbigniew Brzezinski described it in his The Grand Chessboard in 1997....

All of these moves, while fraught with danger, signal that China has deeply understood the Washington geopolitical game and the strategies of the neo-conservative US warhawks and, like Putin’s Russia, have little intention of bending their knee to what they see as a Washington global tyranny. The year 2015 shapes to be one of the most decisive and interesting in modern history.

New Eastern Outlook
China’s Global Political Shift
F. William Engdahl

See also Vladimir Odintsov, Washington is Going to Rely on NGOs in Central Asia at New Eastern Outlook

As a rule, the target of these “cover activities” carried out by NGOs is the struggle for energy markets, or the fight against political opponents, among which the White House highlights Russia, China and Iran. This much explains the latest developments in Hong Kong. Washington has effectively created a network of NGOs there that promote American interests under the pretext of promoting “democracy”, which operate by using social networks for spreading their agenda. This same pattern has been duplicated numerous times across the globe to attempt regime change in countries that the White House perceives as a threat to US dominance.

To sponsor these activities Washington has been allocating billions of dollars annually through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – the organization responsible for countless coups around the world along with the CIA, on par with numerous private foundations. It’s no coincidence then that in Russia alone there were a total of 650 foreign NGOs back in 2012, that were receiving up to one billion dollars a year, with 20 million handed out by Western diplomatic missions directly. 

So, if we are to focus on the post-Soviet region, in recent years Western NGOs have been particularly active in the states of Central Asia, desperate in their strive to trigger “color revolutions” wherever possible. The avid interest of Washington towards this particular region is caused by a number of factors, including considerable deposits of natural resources along with the possibility to control the flow of those by taking a firm footing in the region, such as in destabilized Afghanistan. But the “key” factor behind Washington’s thinking is the ability to influence the geopolitical future and stability of the entire Asian continent and Russia. That is why the territory of the Central Asian region is considered by US think tanks an area of choice for projecting political influence on Russia and China, launching military campaigns against Afghanistan and potentially Iran. In this case, the United States seeks to break the Central Asian states away from Russian influence, by extensive use of international organizations and NGOs....

Recently, Russia banned such activity, to which the US reacted as the suppression of free expression, and China accused foreign interests of attempting to destabilize Hong Kong.

First appeared:http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/08/rus-npo-ssha-i-tsentral-naya-aziya/