A New Cold War?

There has been talk in the past few days of the emergence of a new cold war as the US and Russia and Russia and the UK have been engaging in a war of words over missiles and spies. On the face of it, it does look like a page from the past but some deeper analysis demonstrates that it is more about post-Cold War power politics than a conflict rooted largely in ideology.

Both Russia and the US are governed by highly nationalistic administrations seeking to further what they consider to be the national interest. The US has decided that unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2001 followed by plans to build a missile defence system in Eastern Europe as part of a larger global network (for the stated aim of countering threats by “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran and non-state actors) is in its national interest; Russia has decided that the presence of such a system in its geographic sphere is a threat to its security and interests and has retaliated by testing a ballistic missile and announcing that it will target missiles at Europe. NATO has condemned the Russian threat and the French and British have also voiced concern.

All this comes at the same time as the row over the murder of a former Soviet intelligence agent in London and British demands for the extradition of another former Soviet spy who they claim is responsible.

Add to the mix the following: some Eastern European politicians are worried about a remerging Russia and view the US plan favourably even though the US has explicitly stated that the missile defence system is aimed at countering threats by “rouge states” and non-state actors and not at Russia; many of the people in Eastern Europe and particularly those who live in the areas where the system will be built are not supportive of the plan, environmental and health risks being primary concerns; many in Western Europe are unhappy with the idea of the US unilaterally going ahead to build a missile defence system in Eastern Europe and not consulting the EU; Russia has increasingly felt that it is not being accorded the respect it deserves in the international arena by other large powers and under Putin has been seeking to reassert itself; the US is caught up in its own “war on terror” and all of its actions are inevitably tied into the new realities of international security and politics; Russia possesses vast energy supplies on which Europe is dependent and the EU relationship with Russia is invariably influenced by this.

In other words, the current situation is complex and vastly different from what prevailed during the Cold War. Talk of a new Cold War is premature but the danger of arms proliferation are however very real and the only way to deal with the current impasse is for both sides to engage in dialogue and arrive at some form of a practical agreement.

A Celtic Tiger and an Island of Ice

*Photo from BBC website

A few days ago I mentioned Ice Island, a huge chunk of ice which broke off of the Canadian Artic coastline, changed the geography of the area and further highlights the effects of climate change. The BBC team and scientists landed on the Island yesterday and their latest report can be seen here.

Ireland, Europe’s model of economic success and labelled the Celtic Tiger, goes to the polls tomorrow in what is expected to be an extremely close election. This is despite the significant economic gains achieved in the past decade. Ireland has witnessed the same phenomenon as every country before it which experienced a serious economic transformation: conflict between the new and traditional ways of life, prosperity not reaching everyone, ecological/environmental challenges, immigration and a construction/real estate boom putting the price of property beyond the reach of the average person. The BBC website has a series of articles devoted to the Irish election and the various issues that have formed part of the debate leading up to polling day.

Fifty Years of Ghanaian Independence

Today is fifty years since Ghana gained independence from Britain. I don’t feel entirely comfortable saying "happy fiftieth birthday" because it seems to diminish centuries of history. It somehow implies that Ghana only came into existence fifty years ago. Ghana the modern state with its defined international borders may have become an entity fifty years ago, but Ghana, the ancient Western African Empire goes back hundreds of years, to a time when Europe was still in darkness! Needless to say, it was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where the Europeans arrived and started trading in gold and slaves and began to enrich themselves. It was also the first black country nation in Africa to gain independence from colonial rule and within three years, another seventeen African countries had won independence. Not a bad trend to have started!

Coincidentally, as Ghana celebrates fifty years of independence on March 6th, March 25th marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by Britain, another occasion for Africa and the peoples of the African diaspora to commemorate.

Call of the Wild

I watched a programme a few days ago called “Caribou and Wolves” about the Canadian Artic Tundra and two of its most important species and their complex relationship. I have always found wolves fascinating. Besides their beauty, they have this haunted look in their eyes and the howl of a wolf strikes right at your inner core, the call of the wild. I read Jack London’s book by that name when I was about twelve and absolutely loved it, but this feeling turned lukewarm when I became an enlightened teenager- I did not like his portrayal of the Native Americans. I learnt from further reading that while espousing socialist views, he held many racist views about non-whites and believed in the superiority of the white race.

Historically, human attitudes to wolves have varied, from the reverence of Native Americans and Ancient Rome to the largely negative image of Western folklore. In Europe and particularly North America, the fear of wolves combined with “modernisation” and a desire to conquer the wild led to wolf populations being decimated. However, significant research beginning in the first quarter of the last century, public education programmes aimed at demonstrating the importance of wolves to the eco-system and countering the myth of a dangerous beast and specific laws protecting wolves have resulted in some change in public perceptions of these beautiful animals and an improvement in their numbers. However, much remains to be done. Recent reactions to growing wolf populations caused by reintroduction programmes highlight that this fear is deeply rooted in humans. Hunters also continue to argue, erroneously, that wolves compete with them for prey, while ranchers and farmers view them as a threat to their livestock instead of acknowledging that continued destruction of natural habitat and therefore their food is what leads wolves to attack domestic animals.

I read an article earlier today about the reappearance of some twenty wolves on the heaths of Lusatia, a region along the German-Polish border. While wolves were largely killed off in much of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, there are now isolated groups of wolves in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France and bigger populations in eastern and Central Europe. Ecologists and biologists have welcomed this development but old fears have emerged and a campaign has been launched to have the wolves shot. Let us hope common sense prevails.