Global Politician - World History

America’s political domination on two continents is over
Abid Mustafa - 12/12/2011
The fall of America doesn't have to be a complete collapse -- it is, after all, a country that has managed to reinvent itself many times before. But today it's no longer certain -- or even likely -- that everything will turn out fine in the end. --Der Spiegel

BOOK REVIEW: The Oldale Curiosity Shop
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 9/15/2011
“Who, or Why, or Which, or What: A Global Gazetteer of the Instructive and Strange” by John Oldale – London and New-York, Particular Books (Penguin Group), 2011

June 2021: Ten Predictions for the Coming Decade
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 5/24/2011
1. Italy, the euro, and the US dollar

On November 24, 2010, I published (in Global Politician and elsewhere) an article titled “Italy will Kill the Euro”. Six months later, credit rating agencies have downgraded Italy’s outlook from “stable” to “negative”. Italy is in worse shape than most members of the European Union (EU): at 6% of GDP, it has an ostensibly sustainable budget deficit, but its external debt (now close to 120% of GDP) is higher than that of the most egregious wastrels in the bloc, Greece and Ireland included. Italy's banking sector is over-exposed to borrowers in Ce...

Revolution in the Air
Ron Coody - 4/8/2011
This spring brings not only budding trees but budding revolutions sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East. The latest to join the revolutionary movement are the countries of Ivory Coast and Syria. The pattern has repeated again and again in the past weeks. Countries dominated by an entrenched dictator have seen mass crowds of ordinary citizens pouring into the highways and byways with their cell phones and laptops heating up from constant communication directing the groundswell of dissatisfaction and demand for change. The people seem genuinely fed-up with the rule of one strongma...

The Second Middle Ages
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 1/14/2011
The fourth quarter of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first herald a period akin, in some respects, to certain stretches of the Middle Ages. The High Middle Ages – especially after the conquest of Spain by the Arabs (Moors) - was characterized by rapid technological and scientific progress. The very organizing principles, the foundations of society were revolutionized by advances in commerce, travel, and scholarship. It was a post-ideological, pragmatic, and materialistic age concerned with money, power, and, yes, sex. Yet, these superficial similarities rested on shift at the state and individual levels:

REVIEW Pears Cyclopedia 2010-2011
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 9/28/2010

The 2010-2011 edition of Pears Cyclopedia offers no new topics, but adds considerable heft to the "Britain Today", "Literary Companion", and "Medical Matters" sections. The "Life and Leisure" chapter has been expanded to comprise the "The World of Dance" and "The Great Outdoors" on top of the delectable "World of Wine".

The Cyclopedia is kept astoundingly up to date by a dedicated team of 30 or so scholar-contributors. I spotted hundreds of updates even in a curosory sweep. The computers section now includes sub-chapters about encryption, phishing, and cloud computing. The entry for...

Ten New Global Trends 2010
Naseem Javed - 1/21/2010
Miniaturization

Every business process will go through intense compression and digitalization so when it comes out on the other side of the tunnel, it will have already considerably reduced its operational costs. This will enable the process to function effectively, more powerfully, and be highly replicatable, with a lower cost structure like a proverbial silver bullet. Will this now shrink entire office floors into cubicles, and cubicles into little icons on websites? Who would need to come to the offices anyway; managers, to put their feet on desks, water cooler crowds, elevator pitc...

Pears Cyclopedia The World in Your Hand
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 10/29/2009
"Affection" and "attachment" are terms rarely used in a review of a reference title - but, they are the ones that come to my mind as I contemplate the new (2009-2010) edition of Pears Cyclopedia, one of many editions I possess. I confess to my addiction proudly: control freak that I am, I like holding the Universe of Knowledge in the palm of my hand, in manageable, pocket-sized form.

Can power shift to powerless nations?
Reza Hossein Borr - 7/28/2008
Do the powerless remain powerless forever? Do the helpless remain helpless forever? Do the nations who do not have their own governments will remain stateless forever? Do the powerful remain powerful what so ever? Do the strong remain strong forever? If this is the case, what has happened to the Persian Empire? What happened to the Pharaohs of Egypt? What happened to the Roman Empire? What happened to Islamic Empire? What happened to Mongolian Empire? What happened to the Ottoman Empire? What happened to the British Empire? What happened to the Austrian Empire? What happened to the German Empire? What happened to the Soviet Union? What happened to Yugoslavia?

Who Owns the Past?
James Cuno - 4/29/2008
Unprecedented global travel and cultural exchange help make the world a smaller place but, ironically, they also stir national pride. Nationalism, combined with business calculation, now threaten to segregate antiquity that belongs to all of the humanity.

The Fundamentals of Civilization
Dr. Ravindra Kumar - 3/13/2008
Hundreds of thousands of years have passed since man has lived along with the creatures of different shape, size and kind. It is generally acknowledged that every being has a soul. What is a Soul? Where does it live in a body? What is its form? I leave these entire questions to you. You may decide to answer them according to your belief. But I can specifically say that even though the soul is embodied in everyone, the word civilized, the derivative of which is civilization, is used for man only not for any other creature.

The evil that men do lives after them
Iqbal Latif - 6/2/2007
Columbus known as great discoverer but deserves nomination as a scoundrel of highest order, scold blooded killer of the vanquished nations of conquered America and a true proponent of might is right. If conquering Greeks, Romans, Sassanians or Arabs would have treated their conquered nations with such treachery Middle East would have diapered as cradle of civilisation and culture. 1.Columbus remains a mysterious and controversial figure who has been variously described as one of the greatest mariners in history, a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist.

An Analysis of Conflicts Around The World
Saberi Roy - 6/1/2007
If we try to provide an analysis of conflicts around the world, two patterns emerge. One relates to ethnicity, and the other relates to religion. Religion still forms the basis of major conflicts worldwide as in Israel-Palestine, although in case of India-Pakistan and Russia-Chechnya, the religious roots of such conflicts tend to have a close association with Islamic separatism. A clash of religious ideologies seems to be a common factor in such conflicts. But even if these ‘inter-religious’ conflicts have worldwide impact, ‘intra-religious’ conflicts as was seen in Northern Ireland or even Ir...

History Of Power From The Gutenberg Revolution To The Computer Revolution
Michael Hart - 5/27/2007
This piece is a result of conversations with a number of knowledgeable people who do not seem to be as aware of the history of power as I expected, with an emphasis on the kind of power used in The Industrial Revolution through today which I am hopefully labeling as The Neo-Industrial Revolution.