theglobaljournal.net: Latest activities of group #07

Forget Smart Power, Go for Cloud Power

2011-11-29T13:54:28Z

Dr Comtesse is among those who believe and support the emergence of new governance. Master in Mathematics and PhD in Computer Science (University of Geneva), Xavier L. Comtesse worked in academic institutions, as a start-up CEO and at the Swiss Federal Administration, including 7 years as a diplomat in the US. He was the first Swiss Consul in Boston where he founded the Swissnex Network, an organization in charge of technology and science exchange between the USA and Switzerland. Since 2002, he has been head of the Geneva Office of Avenir Suisse, a prominent think tank in Switzerland for economic and social issues. He enjoys what he sees in today’s political evolution. He is looking forward to the achievement and assimilation of what he calls “Cloud Power”.

Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power, and now Cloud Power. How does it all tie in with reality ?

We are at the heart of political reality. After the era of relations between nation and nation, at the beginning of the 20th century we saw the birth of multilateralism, which in turn, at the end of the first world war, gave rise to the Society of nations. It was no longer possible to settle problems just between two. From the 19th century onwards we saw the emergence of non-political, multinational organizations, such as the Postal Union, the Telegraph. After the second world war, multinationalism started to appear in the UN, although not as rapidly as in the two great antagonistic blocs of the Cold War. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new period of multilateralism began – with a difference. Neither bilateralism, nor multilateralism but a notion of multistakeholders took form. In addition to nations, there were also companies and civil society. An example was the rise in power of NGOs in the sixties, especially concerning issues of global governance. The idea of ‘soft’ law arose at this time –non-obligatory regulations based on voluntary commitment, without legal enforcement, without sanctions, giving complete freedom to withdraw.

Soft law was expressed notably through the increase of labels and norms, especially those proposed by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).
With these famous soft laws in the ascendance, Joseph Nye a rmed his concept of Soft Power, which he considered to be just as important as Hard Power, essentially represented by the police, the military and control. Since then we have witnessed an unprecedented development of soft law.
When Obama moved into the White House, he would try to reconcile these two major currents and define Smart Power, a project undertaken and embodied byHillary Clinton as the American Secretary of State.

What makes you believe in the appearance of a new movement that you call Cloud Power ?

Having published a series of four books on Soft Power for the Geneva Foundation, it seemed to me that those concepts had been overtaken by new realities. For example, the networks of megalopolises or regions, like the one set up by the R20, are developing and assuming importance. These networks represent political and economic power of the fi rst rank. As a result, even if they are trying to include civil society and the private sector in their decision making, the classic multilateral organizations feel thrown of course. The emergence of the Internet society is a major innovation that has a completely new set of rules, both with regard to intellectual conception and physical boundaries. Up until now power lay in a linear framework, transmitted from one end to the other. From now on, the new symmetry of information will completely change our thought patterns. What does this phenomenon mean for us? That’s where it seems to me we are entering a new era of global governance : we are entering Cloud Power. What it means is that from now on we can think of power as made up of a collection of processes, capacities and concepts, and that, faced with a problem, we can search for a suitable solution from the Cloud. When we’re confronted by an environmental problem it’s possible that resorting to an Internet-type operation will be the best solution, with a massive involvement of participants, more labels than laws –this is where I can draw from the panoply of ‘soft’ laws. For issues of migration or distribution of growth I can turn to an R20 type of structure for greater economic capillary action –targeted, e ective, green and sustainable. This vision of Cloud Power allows us to get past certain aberrations.

But isn’t that the role of the international organizations ?

Like many others, the United Nations would like to continuously reinvent itself to become more e cient, but is that really the right way of thinking? Each international organization has its history, a contemporary history what’s more, from which it is di cult to detach itself. Why seek to transform oneself when it would be simpler and more e cient to turn to a better adapted and more mobile structure? Cloud Power, as a vehicle for global governance, o ers a capacity to adapt both to the age and to each issue. Rather than rely on a single organization to answer every question, why not use a customized solution for each major problem ? From this point of view, Cloud Power encourages direct governance. I need a tool and I use it for a given issue.

Could this concept encourage us to share and make available the tools and processes for decision-making ?

Indeed, the Cloud borrows from information systems. Uploading and downloading are part of the game, and that’s very appropriate for our polycentric world. If a particular person or organization emerges, their knowledge becomes shareable, in the non-proprietorial manner of Internet space. They become an element of Cloud Power. From 2020 half the world’s inhabitants will be born with the Web. This half will think Cloud.

You have to accept that all our forms of governance to resolve world problems, be they local or global, are inherited from the 18th and 19th centuries, and apart from the major powers entering the game, we have not experienced any great upheavals. What we are witnessing now is the swing into a new form of development, of acquiring and applying di erent types of governance.

Isn’t there a risk ? Fear of social instability and the temptation to return to Hard Power ?

Let’s take the recent world fi nancial crisis. It wasn’t sorted out by the Basel agreement. Numerous protagonists took action. No specifi c organization was appointed to fi nd the answer. A diverse group of organizations were called upon, but no hint of hard power.

One of the paradoxes is that the G20 appears to be an institution without power. The will to act is there, but its effectiveness is no better than that of a UNO.

I’m so convinced that Cloud Power o ers us a perspective to explain what is happening around us and to advance our thinking. We managed to fi nd some solutions to the 2009 crisis, albeit with the risk of deferring the problem, but at least a response was produced. In 1929 no politician or organization was able to curb the crisis.

Internet also has rules and is making changes which may pose problems. ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recent authorization to create domain names incorporating the name of an entity such as .nestle or .danone, all the same, has sent out shock waves.

Internet is managed according to a posteriori requests, the famous Request for Comment (RFC) for all new ideas about regulations. The request is accepted if it is applied. Many of us fi nd this strange, but that’s how Internet governance operates. No vote, but trial and error. Proof lies in the pudding. It resembles case law rather than code law –and it works. The change you mention was formulated according to the RFC procedure. The real reason for it is that the .coms and other domain names brought money to these regulatory bodies. It corresponds to their business model. All these globalized organizations, ICANN, Internet Society (.org), W3, are all fi nanced according to this model and it was brought into play because they need fi nancing. This latest authorization will give them new scope for fund-raising. A .brand will cost a lot, about US$ 250,000. It’s a sort of tax on globalization to fi nance these Internet structures. Oppositioncomes from those who won’t have access to any of this income. Naturally, the others who stand to benefi t agree. In supporting this proposition the ‘soft’ organizations can maintain their self-fi nancing.

In Cloud Power, will there be a greater need to widen the debate to involve ordinary citizens ?

Even if the number of debates increases through think tanks or summits between leaders, ordinary people are not involved. It should be a much wider debate. Two major events in 2011 give us hope : the youth revolt in North Africa taught the establishment a lesson, and it embodied a new form of politics ; the second event was the nuclear disaster at Fukushima which produced an instant global discussion, with a noticeable distrust of the authorities. Nowadays, discovering the truth is perceived as a search or quest. What we are told day by day may be false, but we’ll fi nd out the truth in the end. Even a medical patient now goes through a process of questioning and verifying the accuracy of what the doctor says. Internet is the source of this phenomenon. It was the case with the images of torture in Egypt where people tried to fi nd out if they were genuine or not. When it was proved to be genuine, it totally liberated the revolt. It all contributes to a new form of global political dialogue. And for those in hard power the situation has become very complex.

But hard power won’t disappear completely ?

True, but it will soon be only one element among other forms of power, and will never regain the position it once had. Let’s take the case of football hooliganism in Europe. Incarceration was the fi rst response, with an assortment of fi nes and bans from the stadium. The real solution came from a dialogue between the police, the teams and an ‘NGO’ of fans. We are witnessing the failure of hard power, that’s the world we are entering now. There’s a sort of Darwinian evolution happening in the progressive empowerment of individuals, and we’re experiencing an acceleration of this phenomenon

by Henry Montana

photographs by Pascal Dolémieux

Mallika Sarabhai: Leading Indian Performer Joins Revolt Against Corruption

2011-10-25T15:07:54Z

Mallika Sarabhai is a noted Indian dancer and choreographer, turned political activist. She first came to international notice when she played a lead role in Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata, first in French and then English. A long time advocate and social activist for women, in 2009, she ran as an independent candidate for parliament from her home state of Gujarat. Although she lost to the ruling party candidate, her intention was to encourage others to challenge India’s two main parties. During the recent hunger strike by Anna Hazare that captured world attention, she joined his campaign to pass laws to rein in corruption.

As a political activist in India, can you explain why it took a dramatic spark like Hazare’s hunger strike to rally ordinary Indians to the problem of corruption, which has been a problem in India for as long as anyone can remember?

Symbols are very important in India. To a large extent we remain a people in search of charismatic leaders. Anna Hazare had the right look and profi le: old, male, unattractive, looks ascetic, no family and simple living. An attractive man or woman would never have been able to do the same. Corruption, especially in government, has been angering people for generations. It has just been getting more and more blatant, and a coterie of MPs, bureaucrats and corporate heads have formed a club to loot the country and cock a snook at those outside the club. That is why the movement caught the public imagination. Annaji was the right person, for the right cause, at the right time.

Now that Hazare has ended his hunger strike, how do you think he will continue his protest? And why a hunger strike as a form of protest?

Fasts unto death, in these circumstances, show a selfless commitment to the cause, which fuelled the fire. How can one mistrust someone who is willing to die? I must add that the media was crucial in making the phenomenon happen. Irom Sharmila has been fasting for eleven years in Manipur, but the media has not turned her into a phenomenon. She is largely unknown. Here, the media focus on the movement created the force of the movement...

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by Pamela Taylor

How Rio is Winning Against Violence

2011-09-22T10:30:29Z

While they are preparing for their first World Cup in 2014 and their
first Olympic Games in 2016, Brazilians can make history for an even better reason. If only they succeed in pacifying one of the most violent and ungovernable cities in the world, and becoming a model for all megacities. Is Rio going to score the goal? And at what price?

It was almost as if Brazil’s military had just taken back key territory from a foreign army after a long, exhausting battle. Except that when Rio de Janeiro’s police raised Brazilian flags on the highest point of Alemão favela complex, they were not taking the slum back from a foreign military, but rather from the grasp of Alemão’s pernicious drug traffickers. The most striking feature of the 2,600-man take-back of the favela in 2010 was not just the few hours it took or the fact that it marked the return of the state’s presence to an area from which it had been absent for decades. The most striking feature of this unprecedented police operation was that this time, the police came to stay. And as never before, citizens took to the streets to welcome them with open arms and jubilation. Rio de Janeiro’s police had probably never received such a warm welcome, so they knew the population had finally come to accept them in their new role, as peacekeepers.

Months before Rio de Janeiro officially launched its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian authorities were well aware that the skyrocketing violence of the city’s protracted war on drugs would be the greatest challenge to a successful bid. By 2007, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially launched the bidding process, Rio had become internationally renowned as one of the world’s most violent cities. In 2007, Rio’s homicide rate of 45 persons for each 100,000 was far above the global average of 7.6 per 100,000. Rio’s authorities knew that if they were to become serious contenders against much safer cities like Tokyo, Madrid, and Chicago, they would have to show the IOC that they were both willing and able to truly transform the face of urban violence in their city.

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by Albert Souza Mulli
photograph by Lalo De Almeida

More Marine Energy!

2011-09-17T21:53:16Z

It has been a little under two years since the members of the Major Economies Forum, under the auspices of the White House and the direction of Todd Stern, divided up priority areas for research and development in everything concerning energy. Common sense suggests that investment in energy R&D should not be duplicated from one country to another, while resources should be maximized by topic, ensuring that growth areas not be overlooked. Each of the members of this informal organization, all but a carbon copy of the G20, was allotted its areas for R&D. France’s portfolio included wave energy produced on marine areas. At first this topic looked like a consolation prize. Whatever the governments think about it, the private sector is raging over the marine challenges. This new market is already subject to stiff competition, as usual. And that’s a sign of good health for wave energy.

In the United States, Ocean Power Technologies is among the leading pioneers in wave-energy technology that harnesses ocean wave resources to generate reliable, clean and environmentally-beneficial electricity. The Company has a strong track record in the advancement of wave energy. OPT’s proprietary PowerBuoy system is based on modular, ocean-going buoys that capture and convert predictable wave energy into clean electricity. The Company is widely recognized as a leading developer of on-grid and autonomous wave-energy generation systems, benefiting from over a decade of in-ocean experience.

The company, head quartered in New Jersey, listed on the Nasdaq stock market is confident about its future and that of the industry. Charles F. Dunleavy, Chief Executive Office of the Company, is particularly grateful for the US Department of Energy’s continued financial support: “These awards are significant steps in a global drive to make wave power a commercial reality. OPT’s programs of work under these awards are in accord with the Department of Energy’s objectives to help develop innovative technologies that contribute to the clean energy economy”. The US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu is keen to accelerate the technological and commercial readiness of emerging marine and hydrokinetic technologies, which seek to generate renewable electricity from the nation’s oceans and free-flowing rivers and streams. OPT has two types of PowerBuoy product: autonomous devices that provide persistent, off-grid energy in remote ocean locations for a wide variety of applications; and utility devices, designed to generate power to be fed to the national electricity grid and to be deployed in arrays to form a wave farm. OPT is currently testing its 150kW buoy and is in the process of developing its next generation utility device that will have an output of 500kW. Performance in energy conversion efficiency of each entity should continue to improve, while maintenance costs decrease. OPT is looking for turnkey projects.

On August 11, 2011 a US Coast Guard vessel deployed an OPT device to be ocean-tested approximately 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey. This autonomous PowerBuoy wave energy device was designed and manufactured by OPT under the US Navy’s Littoral Expeditionary Autonomous PowerBuoy (LEAP) program for coastal security and maritime surveillance. The LEAP PowerBuoy structure, incorporating a unique power take-off and on-board energy storage system, is significantly smaller and more compact than the Company’s standard utility PowerBuoy. It provides persistent, off-grid clean energy in remote ocean locations for a wide variety of maritime security and monitoring applications.

The device will be integrated with the Rutgers Universityoperated, land-based radar network that provides ocean current mapping data for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and US Coast Guard search and rescue operations. The PowerBuoy provides power at the lower levels needed for the sophisticated vessel detection and tracking system, enabling maritime surveillance in near coast, harbors and littoral zones worldwide. Currently, systems requiring remote power at sea are often powered by diesel generators, which need frequent maintenance and fuel replenishment. The LEAP PowerBuoy system was developed by OPT to provide constant power in all wave conditions for the sea-based radar and communications system. The Company’s proprietary power management techniques and on-board energy storage capability are key innovations of the system, and enable operation even in extended zero-wave sea conditions. In addition, the system has been engineered to require no maintenance for three years.

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by Henry Montana

What Justice for Lebanon?

2011-09-16T20:58:28Z

We are used to thinking about tribunals as having all the means, and the power, necessary to shed light on criminal acts. This fundamental idea is even more indispensable when it is at the service of an international mandate, and a fortiori in the case of crimes against humanity. Such an ideal was inscribed into the establishment of the international tribunal in charge of the Hariri assassination. However, in the case of Lebanon, a stricter approach prevailed. Why? And to render what justice?

On February 14th 2005, a car bomb containing an estimated minimum of 1,000 kg of TNT tore through former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s motorcade along Beirut’s luxurious seaside promenade, the Corniche. The attack took Hariri’s life as well as that of 22 others, blasting a 10-meter wide crater in the street and damaging buildings a quarter-mile away from the explosion. The death of the man credited with rebuilding – in a literal sense - and restoring Lebanon’s confi dence after a decade and a half of civil war had a ripple effect, which inundated not only the Middle East, but the world. Speculation abounded with regards to the individuals, or states, responsible, ranging from Israel to Iran to Al-Qaeda. It didn’t take long for the international community to turn its gaze towards Syria, who fought for years to maintain dominion over Lebanon. Hariri had been notably embroiled in some not-soinconspicuous differences in the later months of his life with his neighbors: a frequently-cited episode was Hariri’s visit to Damascus in August 2004 regarding a three-year extension, via constitutional amendment, of Syria-friendly President Émile Lahoud’s term in office. The exchange allegedly included an unequivocal warning from Syrian President Bashar Assad: “President Lahoud is me. Whatever I tell him, he follows suit. This extension is to happen or else I will break Lebanon over your head…” Following his parliamentary bloc’s approval of the extension and his subsequent resignation, Hariri adopted a hard line towards Syria and its political supporters in Lebanon, planning an electoral win with his Future Movement and refusing to “work with people who stab me in the back”. A mere five days – February 10th– after Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy overseeing the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for free and fair elections in Lebanon and the withdrawal of foreign troops, warned Hariri to be “very, very careful,” his convoy was torn to shreds along the sumptuous seafront landscape he had helped build.

(Photo © Maya Zankoul)

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by Chiara Trincia

The Carbon Cowboys

2011-09-16T20:54:34Z

Just as many thought cap-and-trade was dead in the United States,
California –the eighth largest economy in the world– introduced a statewide
carbon-trading program. Can one state put a whole nation back on track
and send a message to major stakeholders around the world?

Prior to President Barack Obama’s election, cap-and-trade was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. It seemed a sure thing that legislation to curb carbon emissions would pass Congress and the green energy industry would blossom. But like the recent debt ceiling debate, all opponents had to do was label cap-and-trade “cap-and-tax” to stop the discussion in its tracks and send politicians running for cover. By the summer of 2009 cap-and-trade legislation was dead.

In the meantime, a nationwide voluntary market, the Chicago Climate Exchange, had opened its doors in 2003 in anticipation of cap-and-trade legislation passing. From the time it began, the exchange was North America’s only cap-and-trade system for all six greenhouse gases. The way it worked was that companies set targets for annual emissions of carbon dioxide. If they met or beat their targets the companies could sell surplus carbon credits to firms that hadn’t. Companies, such as Ford, Intel, and IBM, signed up believing that someday carbon trading would be mandatory and they’d be ahead of the game, able to profit from going green.

It wasn’t just environmentally-minded companies that were eager to reduce their carbon footprint. The Big Three banks –Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup– saw carbon trading as big business and they rushed to set up carbon trading desks. College grads looking to jumpstart their careers and dive into a booming market set their sights on Wall Street where carbon trading was all the rage.

Then reality sank in. As greenhouse gas reduction programs floundered under a lack of political will, the Chicago Climate Exchange announced last year it would end its voluntary cap-and-trade program. Earlier this month, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. announced it planned to shut down the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange at the end of the first quarter of 2012, citing the failure of the U.S. to pass cap-and-trade legislation as part of the reason. Without a regulatory obligation to deliver emissions reductions, there really was no market. The price of carbon on the exchange tumbled from $7.40 per ton in May 2008 when cap-and-trade legislation was anticipated, to 10 cents per ton in August 2010. Nonetheless, Intercontinental will still list OTC contract equivalents of all of its climate futures contracts on its over-the-counter trading system.

Does that mean all hope is lost for the reduction of carbon emissions in the U.S.?

Not so fast.

California, the most populous U.S. state and the eighth largest economy in the world, voted in August to put its statewide carbon trading program back on track. California’s program would be North America’s biggest carbon market and would require a reduction in carbon pollution to 1990 levels by 2020. The program was originally scheduled for implementation in 2012, but because of legal wrangling and delays, compliance in the cap-and-trade program will now begin in 2013. By 2016, approximately $10 billion in carbon allowances are expected to be traded in the California market alone. In addition, California may also work with Canada under the Western Climate Initiative, a partnership involving the United States, Mexico and Canada, to reduce carbon emissions.

But the question remains: Can California lead the way in reducing carbon emissions and convince the rest of the nation to follow suit?

“What we have to remember is that the U.S. is a federal republic and many initiatives, like seatbelts, began locally,” said Richard Sandor, who is known as the “father of financial futures” and is the chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products LLC. “California has a bottom up approach. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Avatar, Facebook or emissions trading, California is often a place where trends start in America. A failure in California would be bad. A success there would send an enormous message to the Federal government and other states about what they could do in terms of reducing greenhouse gases.”

If California’s carbon market succeeds, the hope is that other states will replicate its system and a national carbon market will be created.

It hasn’t been easy, but California has been able to bridge the political gap that Congress hasn’t been able to bridge, Sandor explained: “The environmentalists who had been very stringent about punish the polluter have backed off intelligently. And the right wing that tried to kill the program have backed off.”

Unfortunately, the U.S.’ failure to pass cap-and-trade legislation has meant that other countries have far outpaced it in creating their own carbon reduction programs. Sandor calls it “one of the great moments of irony” that the world leaders in emissions trading will be in China and that the U.S. “will become a follower not a leader.” Already China has carbon trading exchanges and programs in Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin and pilot emission trading programs in Jiaxing, Liuzhou, Baotou, Taiyuan, Pingdingshan, Guiyang, and Wuhan, as well as eight provinces. “Essentially China’s Communist economy will use a free market to solve their environmental problems and the U.S. with a capitalist economy is abandoning free markets and going to command and control,” Sandor mused. “It’s an interesting sign of the times.”

Sandor believes that China and India will shock the world. While the West has lectured the developing world, one of the biggest surprises in the next decade will be when China becomes the leading producer in renewables like solar and wind, Sandor pointed out.

“I think it’s interesting that we have lectured China and India in building robust economies and moving people out of poverty and some have criticized them for their environmental records, and yet their environmental record and economy has gotten better and our environmental record and our economy has gotten worse.”

It’s not only China and India that have started emissions reduction programs. Last year, Kenya and Indonesia both announced carbon trading initiatives. The Nairobi Climate Exchange will be the first in Africa and will allow for trading of carbon credits with other African nations. The Australian government plans to introduce an A$23 per ton carbon tax on 500 of the country’s largest emitters, which will be replaced starting in 2015 by a cap-and-trade scheme modeled on the European Union’s exchange, which is the largest in the world. The EU’s mandatory program began in 2005 and so far has successfully reduced emissions within the most carbon-emitting sectors, such as steel, cement refineries, pulp and paper.

“With the exception of California, the U.S. is in a position where it will be playing catch up,” said Abyd Karmali, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Head of Carbon Markets. “The EU carbon emissions market has existed for six years and it has the trading expertise, carbon fund management expertise, and a whole array of emissions verification, monitoring, legal, accounting, and all those professional services built up around carbon finance, which is a relatively new area of expertise. By moving early, Europe gained this expertise early on. Regardless of what happens in the U.S. there are other countries that are likely to go ahead with their own emissions reduction programs.”

The early success of the EU trading program reinforces the point that economic growth doesn’t have to be killed off to deliver environmental improvement. It’s possible to deliver innovation and growth in the economy and help transition to a green economy at the same time.

In 2009, the World Bank estimated a global carbon market would be valued at $144 billion, despite the recession. If the rest of the world continues to move forward with their cap-andtrade programs, the U.S. will get left further and further behind.

Meanwhile, the last few years have seen a leveling off in the growth of the carbon market because of significant policy uncertainty globally, particularly in the U.S. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which was aimed at fighting global warming, expires at the end of 2012. Another commitment period could start in 2013 but it’s difficult to predict how well that would go given the political situation. The U.S. has never signed on to the protocol and Canada and Japan have indicated they do not want another commitment unless they see greater engagement from the U.S. and China. The EU is happy to continue, but the whole you-emit-more-than-me-soyou- should-engage-first mentality has threatened to derail the entire protocol.

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by Ruthie Ackerman

It’s the Future, Stupid!

2011-09-16T20:34:38Z

Whatever the process, whoever is in charge, we always come back to wondering how current policies will shape the future. Are the men and women running our governments and institutions around the world able to help bring about the future we want?

It’s a good time to create a new obsession, on the condition that this obsession goes with hard questions and inevitable transformation. Each in its own way, the Global Voices in this seventh issue say that tomorrow’s world will not simply repeat what has come before. New forms of governance are emerging. Scott Weber, head of Interpeace, launches a how-to manual for creating new, sustainable national constitutions; Pierre Tapie, Executive Director of ESSEC, explains a new think tank that will explore the interaction between corporations and globalization; Mallika Sarabhai, a dancer turned politician, calls on the courage of all Indians to create democracy worthy of the name; and the Genevan thinker and visionary Xavier Comtesse talks about why he believes in the future of “Cloud Power”, while Jovan Kurbalija, Director of DiploFoundation, expresses his beliefs in new diplomacy. For us at GLOBAL, we wouldn’t exchange this observation post for any other media. Everything is happening here, at the heart of global issues, with the invention of political or new organizational approaches.

With its revolts, insurrections and other rebellions over, North Africa and the Middle East are only just beginning a long process of reinvention. The youth of developed countries must secretly envy the great wind of history that is sweeping countries hungry for change. The year 2011 marks the end of the “Western Democracy Export Company”. I still smile at how the great intelligence agencies failed to see it coming this spring. The illusion of an off-the-shelf Democracy delivered by the West will not have survived the time of the latest war in Afghanistan.

New blood, new ideas and also the end of omerta. Telling the people –the voters– that we can get by without nuclear power is a lie. Telling them that we could opt for new generation plants, whose waste has a lifespan of 300 years instead of 250,000, deserves a different propaganda than that of the “good-activists” media against nuclear. The witchhunt is open: “the nuclear lobby” is the enemy since Fukushima. Is it not rather the weakness of the mandate of the global organization for atomic energy that makes one shudder? Who are these white knights fighting for a nuclear phase-out when renewables are not yet able, either in terms of quantity or quality and potentially harmful and toxic as well, to substitute for it? Why not start with the question of “smart grids” and create new “Get off the old grid” NGOs since the current grid is totally unsuited to the new energy mix? So, yes, aberrations exist, regardless of the energy sector you consider. Do we want to deprive people of arable land in favor of land-use energy? If so, we could heat up the cemeteries in the South. What progress. Do we want to produce energy even if it cannot be stored? That will provide some nice data on waste. Do we want to keep second-generation nuclear power plants on life support or spend public funds on third-generation plants that offer nothing innovative, until the politicians have the courage to resist pressure from all sides and go straight to the new generation of nuclear power? Here, the brave would say, “That’s enough energy Manichaeism!” Energy consumption is exploding, as is the need for investment. So, let us drop the taboos and look at the mix and the timing required. Nuclear power must reinvent itself - and that’s good news. As we have done with ocean energy, where large amounts of energy await
us and marine farms are developing, let us ask the simple questions: by what means, how long, what dangers?

This Global also looks at another area of reinvention, that of urban violence. Under the pressure of the global sporting events that the city will host in 2014 and 2016, Rio has dared to rethink its police force. The results so far say a lot for the merits of boldness and show the way for many megacities around the world. That’s new governance, too. From the South.

September 2011, Jean-Christophe, Nothias Editor in Chief

A New Think Tank for Geneva

2011-09-16T20:32:02Z

The Geneva Creativity Center was officially launched on June 28 with the purpose of provoking unexpected encounters between researchers and industrialists to develop unique projects for the benefit of the local economy.
The Center is designed to respond to industries facing technological challenges and to encourage dialogue between industry and academia, providing opportunities for university researchers to work together on applied research and business projects.
A main goal of the Creativity Center is to end the tendency to compartmentalize research by sharing material
and human resources with the aim of eventually strengthening the region’s economy

The Visual Power of Landscapes

2011-09-16T19:58:22Z

Tierra Del Fuego, Patagonia, Argentina, 2000

From the Strait of Magellan to the endless plains of Patagonia, from Morocco to the Road of Heroes in the Dolomites, from Easter Island to the glaciers of Lapland, Photographer Luca Campigotto (born in 1962 in Venice) presents the quietude and contemplativeness of these secluded, wild stretches of land in virtually heroic views. The Global Journal pays respect to this artistic and journalistic work, in silence.

To discover more about this book, order a copy of the magazine

Photography by Luca Campigotto

5 Questions to Jovan Kurbalija

2011-09-16T19:56:53Z

Diplofoundation is a non-profit organization created in 2003 and based in Malta, unique in its vision of diplomacy as a field in need of greater inclusiveness through use of the internet. Its most emblematic achievement could very well be the creation of the first Virtual Embassy, in 2007, for the Maldives. Dr. Jovan Kurbalija, a former Yugoslavian diplomat and Diplofoundation’s founding director, talks about his organization and its future challenges.

What does Diplofoundation do?

Our main mission, to make diplomacy more inclusive and efficient and to help small states, is methodologically supported by e-tools. In some cases, like that of small island states, this is the only way to deliver continuous training for diplomats. It’s another reason why Diplo has alumni from 187 states, and we are considered, uno cially, as the diplomatic academy of small island states. Our focus on e-tools came out of practical necessity: we started Diplo in Malta, which is geographically isolated, so the only way to be present in international discussion was through e-tools. In the early 1990s we began turning our geographical disadvantage into conceptual advantage, and Diplo became the leading institution in e-diplomacy and use of e-tools both in training and practical diplomatic activities.

You’re contributing to the development of the so-called “cyber-diplomat.” What does being a diplomat of the Internet age entail?

What we are essentially trying to do is to train and equip diplomats with the necessary skills to use e-tools. This is to make them aware, fi rst of all, of social media and its power. Secondly, this makes them aware of the importance of the negotiation about Internet governance. We are adding an ‘e-layer’ to the core values of diplomacy –negotiation and human contact– through the use of social media and other tools.

www.diplomacy.edu

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by Global Journal