Geopolitics & Empire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJHMLAm3Ozo

Former U.S. diplomat Jim Jatras discusses President Trump's rush to war in Syria, the false flag chemical attacks warned about by Russia, Putin's options in case of U.S. strikes, and the real geopolitical game being played in the Middle East which can lead to fatal escalation.

Transcript

G&E Podcast:                     We are speaking with analyst, former U.S. diplomat and foreign policy advisor to the Senate GOP leadership, Jim Jatras. We will be discussing the U.S.-Russia tango in Syria. Let's start with Russia. First it was U.S. election meddling, then Olympics sports doping, then the Russian media acting as foreign agent, and now this incredulous Salisbury nerve gas attack. What's next? Am I going to discover that my mother has actually been a KGB spy my entire life? Is there any truth at all to the neo-McCarthyism?

Jim Jatras:                           Well, I think calling it neo-McCarthyism is unfair to Joe McCarthy, that back in his day there really were Stalinist agents at the State Department. Even if his methods went a bit overboard, there was a real concern. What we're seeing today is made out of whole cloth. I think this is simply part of a political campaign against Russia. The term "deep state" has gone from going virtually unknown to being totally overused, but I think there is a reality behind that concept. It's not just U.S. deep state. It's not just the CIA and NSA and FBI, the Department of Justice. It also includes our British friends, MI6, the GCHQ. I've been writing for months that there are British fingerprints all over the Steele dossier, all over the whole Russia-gate, FISA-gate thing. We see it, obviously, all over the Skripal case. [spoiler]

Jim Jatras:                           It looks like that is coordinated with these latest accusations on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which, unfortunately, looks like it will lead to military action as early as tonight Washington time. Where I am it's a little after 10:00 p.m., and the talk is now within a few hours we should be launching an attack against Syria. I had hoped that that would have been held off until the OPCW investigators, who are on their way to Damascus, would have had a chance to look at the evidence. Honestly, I think there are people in this town, and certainly in London and some other capitals, who don't want there to be an independent investigation, that do not want their handiwork being exposed.

Jim Jatras:                           This has nothing to do, really, with chemical weapons at all, in my opinion. It has to do with the fact that at the end of the Cold War in 1991 the United States emerged as the sole Superpower, unipolar moment and all that. There are people who are willing to risk plunging the world into a third world war to preserve that global hegemony against a Russia that's reasserting its own national interests, and, of course, also China.

G&E Podcast:                     Let's just backtrack a bit. You are a former diplomat. Can you tell us about the significance of the recent, unprecedented, expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.S. and the E.U.? I don't think this even happened during the first Cold War. It's quite startling. As you mentioned, it's fabricated chemical attacks with the neo-McCarthyism, and now this expulsion. If we put that all together what does this mean?

Jim Jatras:                           I think what we're seeing is the kind of demonization against a target country, and especially its leader, personally, in this case Vladimir Putin, that we've see so many times in the past, whether it was Milošević in Yugoslavia, or Saddam Hussein, or Muammar Gaddafi. Everybody is Hitler. We call it "The Hitler of the month club", is that we frame the target as this horrible, evil person who must be destroyed. Animal Assad now, President Trump is calling him. That means that the rules of normal conduct are suspended because, after all, if you're literally Hitler nothing could be out of bounds. I think that's the kind of mentality that's being used here.

Jim Jatras:                           Right now Russia is the target country. Syria, of course, too, but Russia is as well. The fact of the matter is Russia's not a pipsqueak little country you can do this to. Let's remember that what was done with the expulsion of these diplomats, supposedly based on the Skripal case, and the certainty that the Russians did it, even though there's no evidence that they were involved at all, but a lot of evidence that MI6 was involved. That this is part of isolating and setting up a country for regime change. I would also add that the latest round of America sanctions, which seemed designed to ... I think the thinking is if they can put enough squeeze on Russian oligarchs, and, of course, Russian rich people are oligarchs, but America rich people like George Soros or Zuckerberg or people like that, they're not oligarchs. That they somehow can stage a coup to remove Vladimir Putin from power. Anybody that knows anything about Russian know that that's not going to happen. This is not the 1990s when the oligarchs are powerful enough to do that.

Jim Jatras:                           All it means is that, I think, the Russians are increasingly going to take the view that they are being targeted for destruction, that war is going to become inevitable. That's a very dangerous notion that should end up in their consciousness because where does that leave us, then? What steps may they take on their side in anticipation of hostilities that may, to them, appear inevitable? This is far more dangerous than what we saw even during the first Cold War. No Soviet leader was ever demonized, not even Stalin, ever demonized in the way that Putin is.

G&E Podcast:                     Going back to the deep state you mentioned, at a university where I was teaching years ago I would introduce these topics with my students, and people on campus sometimes would mock this idea of deep state and conspiracy theory. I even Skyped people like yourself into my classrooms. We talked to Peter Dale Scott, who they call one of the grandfathers of the deep state, deep politics term. You recently wrote a piece called Mikhail Octavian Trump, that the best we can expect from President Trump is make some kind of deal with North Korea, not bomb Russia, withdraw from Syria, avoid impeachment in order to preserve some semblance of the America republic.

G&E Podcast:                     However, it seems that, in this moment in time, Trump is, perhaps, forfeiting everything he campaigned on if he goes through with the Syrian attack, which is not unlike every predecessor. Obama, "I'm going to close down Guantanamo." A year later nothing happens. Pull out of Iraq, they put more troops in Iraq. Then you say that this will have fatal consequences for Washington, and usher in or accelerate the collapse of the empire. We're hanging by a thread. Can you tell us more about the situation Trump finds himself domestically with the deep state? I understand they just raided his lawyer's home.

Jim Jatras:                           That's right. I've been saying, maybe my timeline is a little wrong, but I've been saying that our situation here in the United States, or let's say on the eve of the 2016 election, was, in many respects, comparable to the situation of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. A system that had become completely unworkable, that urgently needed some kind of reform. That's what Gorbachev tried to do. Instead of saving the system and revitalizing it, he ended up destabilizing it further toward its inevitable collapse. I think that there are other examples like that in the past. The most obviously one being Octavian in the late Roman republic who replaced it with the principate. That's what we tend to think of as the empire, which, I would argue, wasn't the death of the republic. In many ways the only way the republic could have been salvaged at that time.

Jim Jatras:                           I think if you look, for example, Madeline Albright has this new book out where she's warning against fascism. Everybody's a fascist, Trump's a fascist, Putin's a fascist. Viktor Orban is a fascist. I think there is a counter movement against the dysfunction of the neo-liberal globalist order where people want to return to their roots, return to some sense of identity and of self-respect, and in many cases return to religion, as we've seen, not only in Russia, but in Poland and Hungary and other countries. I think to some extent Trump was tapping into that revival of traditional American identity, which, as we know, is synonymous with racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia and so forth because the globalist order doesn't like that kind of unique respect for one's own tradition and culture.

Jim Jatras:                           I think that's all the more reason why Putin needs to be destroyed because, in many ways, he is seen as kind of the prototype of a, let's say, a new return to the old ways. A new return to the old bedrock sources of social tradition and strength. I think even China is doing this in its own way, except their values are not Christian, they're Confucian, and I respect that. Those are not my values, they're China's values. I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that it's a complete reversal of the Maoist anti-Confucian campaign whereas now Confucian thought as very highly-respected in China. I think this is a positive development.

Jim Jatras:                           I think the global order is very much opposing that, and that is, at least in our country, center within the organs of government, which are, in some ways, kind of like the old Soviet nomenclature. They have their genetic code. They do what they do. Then don't even necessarily think, the people are just cogs in a machine, but they see Trump as a threat to that machine....

Former U.S. diplomat Jim Jatras discusses President Trump's rush to war in Syria, the false flag chemical attacks warned about by Russia, Putin's options in case of U.S. strikes, and the real geopolitical game being played in the Middle East which can lead to fatal escalation.

Show Notes

Mikhail Octavian Trump https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/04/06/mikhail-octavian-trump.html

The US-UK Deep State Empire Strikes Back: ‘It’s Russia! Russia! Russia!’ https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/18/us-uk-deep-state-empire-strikes-back-its-russia-russia-russia.html

Can the Impending Collapse of Russiagate Halt the Slide Toward a Nuclear 1914? https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/02/can-impending-collapse-russiagate-halt-slide-toward-nuclear-1914.html

Attack on RT Is Another Step Towards Sovietization of American Media https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/18/attack-rt-another-step-towards-sovietization-american-media.html

Website

https://twitter.com/JimJatras

http://www.jimjatras.info

About Jim Jatras

Jim Jatras is a Washington, DC-based attorney, political analyst, and media & government affairs specialist. He formerly served as a senior foreign policy adviser to the US Senate Republican leadership, and before that served as a diplomat in Mexico, the Office of Soviet Union affairs, and the Office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Chris Devonshire-Ellis: China's Silk Road & Eurasian Game #076

Chris Devonshire-Ellis provides insight into the Belt and Road based on extensive travel in the region and sees China as spreading peace through trade.

Show Notes

The Belt and Road: Five Opportunities for Foreign Investors https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/30/belt-road-five-opportunities-foreign-investors

Belt and Road Initiative Ushering in New Trade, Logistics, Blockchain, and 5G Technologies https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/22/belt-road-initiative-ushering-new-trade-logistics-blockchain-5g-technologies

Venezuela to Pay Russia With Own Cryptocurrency for Automotive Parts https://sputniknews.com/business/201804041063187781-venezuela-pay-russia-cryptocurrency

China's 'petro-yuan': The end of the dollar hegemony? https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/03/china-petro-yuan-dollar-hegemony-180331091248813.html

NSA Monitors Financial World http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-the-nsa-spies-on-international-bank-transactions-a-922430.html

Website

https://www.silkroadbriefing.com

http://www.dezshira.com

Books

China's New Economic Silk Road: The Great Eurasian Game & The String of Pearls

About Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the Founder of Dezan Shira & Associates and Chairman of the firms International Board of Equity Partners & Directors.

He is now based mainly in Europe, however has a 30 year career in Asia, including 25 years living in China. He advises multinational corporations and foreign governments on their investment strategies for China and Asia, and has expanded this in recent years to include the OBOR regions, particularly in regard to European integration with China's "One Belt One Road" initiative. His 2014 book "China's New Economic Silk Road"has been a best seller.

Over the past 25 years he has facilitated several billion euros worth of investment into Asia on behalf of his clients. Chris was ranked one of the top ten most important consultants in China by Accountancy Age Magazine in 2011, and ranked 1st in influence by Asia Law in 2015. He is an occasional lecturer at Cambridge Universities Dept. of Politics and International Studies, while his books and papers are regular course material at multiple Universities across China and Europe.

He also fulfills pro-bono work on a number of Intra-Asian think tanks, including the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) business advisory council for Northeast Asia, which includes the governments of China, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea, serving as Vice-Chairman of their business advisory council, in addition to a main board directorship with the India-US Business Network based in Cincinnati and with the Gateway House Indian foreign policy think tank based in Mumbai. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Wong MNC Center in San Francisco.

Chris is a member of the Royal Overseas League and St. James Club in London, the Institute of Directors in Hong Kong, and a lifetime member of the Hanoi Press Club and Scott Polar Research Institute He also holds the title Baron of Coigach, the 19th in a line stretching back to 1511. In 2012, he commissioned a new piece of classical music encompassing Chinese, India and European themes to mark Dezan Shira & Associates twentieth anniversary. He is a regular contributor to numerous regional charities, ranging from education for orphaned children in China (Care for Children) wildlife protection in Mongolia (Snow Leopard Trust) and Sri Lanka and the preservation of ancient buildings and reconstruction of hospitals and orphanages in Tibet (Surmang Foundation). He regularly travels around our offices and the region and is based from his properties in Sri Lanka and Malta during the winter months and St. Petersburg and Tallinn in summer. He is a competitive sailor, a qualified Ocean skipper and competent horseman.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Chris Devonshire-Ellis provides insight into the Belt and Road based on extensive travel in the region and sees China as spreading peace through trade.

Show Notes

The Belt and Road: Five Opportunities for Foreign Investors https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/30/belt-road-five-opportunities-foreign-investors

Belt and Road Initiative Ushering in New Trade, Logistics, Blockchain, and 5G Technologies https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2018/03/22/belt-road-initiative-ushering-new-trade-logistics-blockchain-5g-technologies

Venezuela to Pay Russia With Own Cryptocurrency for Automotive Parts https://sputniknews.com/business/201804041063187781-venezuela-pay-russia-cryptocurrency

China's 'petro-yuan': The end of the dollar hegemony? https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/03/china-petro-yuan-dollar-hegemony-180331091248813.html

NSA Monitors Financial World http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-the-nsa-spies-on-international-bank-transactions-a-922430.html

Website

https://www.silkroadbriefing.com

http://www.dezshira.com

Books

China's New Economic Silk Road: The Great Eurasian Game & The String of Pearls

About Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Chris Devonshire-Ellis is the Founder of Dezan Shira & Associates and Chairman of the firms International Board of Equity Partners & Directors.

He is now based mainly in Europe, however has a 30 year career in Asia, including 25 years living in China. He advises multinational corporations and foreign governments on their investment strategies for China and Asia, and has expanded this in recent years to include the OBOR regions, particularly in regard to European integration with China's "One Belt One Road" initiative. His 2014 book "China's New Economic Silk Road"has been a best seller.

Over the past 25 years he has facilitated several billion euros worth of investment into Asia on behalf of his clients. Chris was ranked one of the top ten most important consultants in China by Accountancy Age Magazine in 2011, and ranked 1st in influence by Asia Law in 2015. He is an occasional lecturer at Cambridge Universities Dept. of Politics and International Studies, while his books and papers are regular course material at multiple Universities across China and Europe.

He also fulfills pro-bono work on a number of Intra-Asian think tanks, including the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) business advisory council for Northeast Asia, which includes the governments of China, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea, serving as Vice-Chairman of their business advisory council, in addition to a main board directorship with the India-US Business Network based in Cincinnati and with the Gateway House Indian foreign policy think tank based in Mumbai. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Wong MNC Center in San Francisco.

Chris is a member of the Royal Overseas League and St. James Club in London, the Institute of Directors in Hong Kong, and a lifetime member of the Hanoi Press Club and Scott Polar Research Institute He also holds the title Baron of Coigach, the 19th in a line stretching back to 1511. In 2012, he commissioned a new piece of classical music encompassing Chinese, India and European themes to mark Dezan Shira & Associates twentieth anniversary. He is a regular contributor to numerous regional charities, ranging from education for orphaned children in China (Care for Children) wildlife protection in Mongolia (Snow Leopard Trust) and Sri Lanka and the preservation of ancient buildings and reconstruction of hospitals and orphanages in Tibet (Surmang Foundation). He regularly travels around our offices and the region and is based from his properties in Sri Lanka and Malta during the winter months and St. Petersburg and Tallinn in summer. He is a competitive sailor,

Geopolitics & Empire · Edward Curtin: False Flag Operations Will Start New War #075

Professor of Sociology Edward Curtin discusses the attempts by the US, Britain, NATO and Israel to create false pretexts for an invasion of Syria and war with Russia. He discusses how the Deep State has concocted RussiaGate and how media and propaganda make it difficult to tell fact from fiction.

Transcript

G&E Podcast:

We are speaking with Professor Edward Curtin, who teaches sociology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He has been writing on the precarious situation the world finds itself in, regarding the potential for a new world war emanating from the Middle East. Professor Curtin, you've been writing about the American Empire on your website edwardcurtin.com. Could you tell us a bit about where you're coming from, what prompted you to write on these issues and how you view the American empire?

Edward Curtin:

Thank you for having me. Yes, I'd be glad to tell you why I write on these things and what my motivation is. It goes back a long time to when I was actually in college, and after the next few years after college. I had the good fortune to have a wonderful college teacher by the name of Bill Frain, who introduced me to, actually one book I remember in particular, it was about a German, a peasant fellow, named Franz Jägerstätter, who defied Hitler and refused to serve in the armed forces in Germany, and was subsequently beheaded. He did this against the advice from his family, from the Catholic Church, from all the authorities. And it really inspired me. [spoiler]

And then subsequently I was in the Marines and was introduced to father Daniel Berrigan, a famous anti-war priest who became a mentor to me. I became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and so since that time, I've been disturbed by the American empire, which has a long history, which goes back to the founding of this country and what they call manifest destiny, in which Native peoples were slaughtered and people were brought into slavery from Africa.

And then over the years, I've been addressing these issues and the American empire has, of course subsequent to World War Two and the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency, taken on a new form and spread further around the world. And it seems to be everywhere these days, trying to conquer nations, instigate and start wars.

And so I was very disturbed from a young age by all of this. And I suppose you could say it was my conscience that disturbed me. It has gotten me very mad and ashamed of this country. And so that is why I write about it.

G&E Podcast:

Did you start your blog not too long ago?

Edward Curtin:

Yes, I started the blog to post what I write, probably a couple of years ago, at the instigation of my daughter and son-in-law, because they felt that my writing should have one place for it. But I've been writing about these things for a long time. Many of my works were never published by the mainstream press because they were too critical of the establishment and this goes back many years. But with the introduction of the internet and many good alternative websites, my voice has gotten out there more.

G&E Podcast:

And one of the pieces that became recently very popular and was reposted around the internet and independent news sites and alternative media sites was The Wars to End All War, and in there you discuss how the U.S. and Israel are looking for pretext to start a proper war in Syria, which would spread into Lebanon, Iran and perhaps beyond.

Most of America's wars have been based on lies. Some of the most famous are Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin. Non-incidents, Iraq's non-existent WMDs. At this moment, Russia and Syria are being accused using chemical weapons, when we know they were, a few years ago, they were handed over to the West and gotten rid of, so there are none. We also know that the U.S. supported Jihadis in Syria are the actual culprits and the Russian military has recently openly stated this, and finally, the evidence in the London attack against this double agent Sergei Skripal, continues to support this line. There's no evidence and Britain and the U.S. are just shouting at the top of their lungs and it sounds again like the Iraq, Vietnam, and so on.

So how can they keep on getting away with this and can you comment on this?

Edward Curtin:

I think it all is what John Pilger, the eminent journalist calls a carefully constructed drama, and this drama has been going on a long time. And there have been so many false flag attacks, the list is so long, it goes way back in history. But I would add to what you said, I think perhaps before I get to this recent case of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, one of the most important, if not the most important is the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the subsequent linked anthrax attacks, which have been documented and analyzed astutely by Graham McQueen, who's a Canadian researcher and writer and who also just wrote a tremendous piece about manufactured war triggers.

And I think the Skripal case, sometimes it just makes me laugh, it's so absurd, but because it's so serious, you want to cry. It's just patent propaganda. And where it's leading is in a very dangerous place because there's a massive propaganda campaign to blame Russia, not only for that, but it seems for everything else in the world. I think there's growing evidence that in Syria or in Lebanon, the Russians will be blamed, together with the Syrians, for some kind of gas attack, sarin attack, chemical attack, without any evidence, and this will lead to a greatly expanded Middle East war.

G&E Podcast:

On this podcast, Geopolitics and Empire, we try to look at things objectively, everybody's biased and we have our own perspectives, but I try not to look at it ideologically. And no one's really a good guy here, we're not trying to say the Russians are good guys, necessarily, because I taught a course at university on 9/11 and terrorism. I was actually asked to teach on that and we looked at everything and you mentioned 9/11, that it looks like a military intelligence operation with elements of the United States government. Anyone who seriously analyzes that.

And in 1999, in Moscow, in Russia, there were a series of apartment bombings and there's American academics who have published on this, where the evidence shows that likely too was a state-sponsored terrorist operation. So we're not trying to say that this is something that every state does in history, but in this moment in time what's going on is very serious, and in this moment in time, in this context, Russia just seems to be minding their own business, and if you can just comment on Russia Gate, because to me, Russia Gate looks all concocted. Again, there's no evidence and it seems to be either to start a war or to distract the American public or for some other reasons, there hasn't been evidence of collusion between Russia and Trump and people like Ray McGovern and the veteran intelligence professionals for sanity, WikiLeaks, Kim Dotcom and all these other experts have explained, there was we're no election hacks.

What are your thoughts on the whole Russia Gate and making Russia out to be a monster?

Edward Curtin:

Let me say this, I agree with you about the apartment bombing in Moscow in '99, and none of these countries are innocent little children. We're talking about major states, whether it's Russia or the United States, but in recent days, as you said, Russia has been minding their own business. The Russia Gate affair is again, in Pilger's words, another carefully constructed drama.

I believe it was conjured up when Trump, probably as a surprise to him as well, was elected president. Actually, it started before then, and I would call it a plot, a conspiracy, to make sure that if Trump somehow was elected, the Russian connection would be the reason to use to undermine his presidency. And as I wrote a year ago, used the deep state forces to undermine him as best they could. And I think we know now that the Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Hillary Clinton team and the Democratic National Committee was very instrumental in that. And that the FBI, the Obama administration were all involved in this, including the people in the news these days, Comey, McCabe, Mueller, etc. It's simply a false story.

G&E Podcast:

Looking at the media, one final question that I wanted to ask about the media, which for me, this is very interesting and I'd like to hear what you have to say on this, on the coverage of this, it seems if I'm not mistaken that the right-wing media at least on Russia Gate, seems to have gotten it right, while the mainstream media and left-wing publications have been getting it wrong, except for a few.

But you mentioned in your article, what amazes me, are certain publications such as WhoWhatWhy and I'd like to say that I have great respect for Russ Baker. We've interviewed him a couple times and I like the work that WhoWhatWhy does, I've donated to them, but I can't understand ... he buys into the Russia Gate issue and I can't understand how some organizations get things that I think are obvious wrong, and my sense is that individuals or media outlets subject themselves completely to their ideology. If you're right-wing or left-wing, you will find any justification to support, to go against your enemies. Like if your left-wing, Trump, Republican, right-wing, Putin and Russia are your enemy, so you will use any ammunition you can even if it's not true. I think we need to be more nuanced and follow the evidence where it leads, regardless whether if we are right or left.

So what's your take on these media organizations that get some things right and then some obvious things wrong?

Edward Curtin:

I agree with you, some of my writing is published on conservative websites as well as far left, anti-empire websites, which I'm proud of....

Professor of Sociology Edward Curtin discusses the attempts by the US, Britain, NATO and Israel to create false pretexts for an invasion of Syria and war with Russia. He discusses how the Deep State has concocted RussiaGate and how media and propaganda make it difficult to tell fact from fiction.

Show Notes

Triggering War. A Manufactured “Catalytic Event” Which Will Initiate An All Out War? Are We Going to Let this Happen Again? https://www.globalresearch.ca/triggering-war-a-manufactured-catalytic-event-leading-to-all-out-war-are-we-going-to-let-this-happen-again/5632549

Further Signs of More War: A Most Dangerous Game http://edwardcurtin.com/further-signs-of-more-war-a-most-dangerous-game

The Coming Wars to End All Wars http://edwardcurtin.com/the-coming-wars-to-end-all-wars

Denying the Obvious: Leftists and Crimestop http://edwardcurtin.com/denying-the-obvious-leftists-and-crimestop

Website

http://edwardcurtin.com

About Edward Curtin

Educated in the classics, philosophy, literature, theology, and sociology, I teach sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. My writing on varied topics has appeared widely over many years. I write as a public intellectual for the general public, not as a specialist for a narrow readership. I believe a non-committal sociology is an impossibility and therefore see all my work as an effort to enhance human freedom through understanding.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Analyst Richard Heydarian explains President Rodrigo Duterte's rise to power and the geopolitics and foreign policy of the Philippines as it struggles to find its way between a military alliance with the United States and its economic integration with China and the New Silk Road, all in the shadow of the ongoing South China Sea crisis.

Show Notes

How fear and paranoia about China’s rise breathed new life into the ‘Quad’ – at Asean’s expense http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2135860/how-fear-and-paranoia-about-chinas-rise-breathed-new

China nearly done militarizing South China Sea http://www.atimes.com/article/china-nearly-done-militarizing-south-china-sea

Duterte to China: ‘If You Want, Just Make Us a Province’ http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/duterte-china-%E2%80%98if-you-want-just-make-us-province%E2%80%99-24599

Rodrigo Duterte Is Key to China's 'Post-American' Vision for Asia http://nationalinterest.org/feature/rodrigo-duterte-key-chinas-post-american-vision-asia-20825

Richard Heydarian: Duterte’s Rise in Perspective https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/richard-heydarian-dutertes-rise-in-perspective

Website

https://www.twitter.com/richeydarian

https://www.facebook.com/Richeydarian

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Javad-Heydarian/e/B00J3URNJY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1521562690&sr=8-1-fkmr0

About Richard Heydarian

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Assistant Professor in international affairs and political science at De La Salle University, and previously served as a policy advisor at the Philippine House of Representatives. As a specialist on Asian geopolitics and economic affairs, he has written for or interviewed by Al Jazeera, Asia Times, BBC, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Diplomat, The Financial Times, and USA TODAY, among other leading international publications. He is the author of How Capitalism Failed the Arab World: The Economic Roots and Precarious Future of the Middle East Uprisings (Zed, London), and the forthcoming book Asia’s New Battlefield: US, China, and the Struggle for Western Pacific (Zed, 2015). You can follow him on Twitter: @Richeydarian.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Analyst Richard Heydarian explains President Rodrigo Duterte's rise to power and the geopolitics and foreign policy of the Philippines as it struggles to find its way between a military alliance with the United States and its economic integration with China and the New Silk Road, all in the shadow of the ongoing South China Sea crisis.

Show Notes

How fear and paranoia about China’s rise breathed new life into the ‘Quad’ – at Asean’s expense http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2135860/how-fear-and-paranoia-about-chinas-rise-breathed-new

China nearly done militarizing South China Sea http://www.atimes.com/article/china-nearly-done-militarizing-south-china-sea

Duterte to China: ‘If You Want, Just Make Us a Province’ http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/duterte-china-%E2%80%98if-you-want-just-make-us-province%E2%80%99-24599

Rodrigo Duterte Is Key to China's 'Post-American' Vision for Asia http://nationalinterest.org/feature/rodrigo-duterte-key-chinas-post-american-vision-asia-20825

Richard Heydarian: Duterte’s Rise in Perspective https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/richard-heydarian-dutertes-rise-in-perspective

Website

https://www.twitter.com/richeydarian

https://www.facebook.com/Richeydarian

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Javad-Heydarian/e/B00J3URNJY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1521562690&sr=8-1-fkmr0

About Richard Heydarian

Richard Javad Heydarian is an Assistant Professor in international affairs and political science at De La Salle University, and previously served as a policy advisor at the Philippine House of Representatives. As a specialist on Asian geopolitics and economic affairs, he has written for or interviewed by Al Jazeera, Asia Times, BBC, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Diplomat, The Financial Times, and USA TODAY, among other leading international publications. He is the author of How Capitalism Failed the Arab World: The Economic Roots and Precarious Future of the Middle East Uprisings (Zed, London), and the forthcoming book Asia’s New Battlefield: US, China, and the Struggle for Western Pacific (Zed, 2015). You can follow him on Twitter: @Richeydarian.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Geopolitics & Empire · Rupert Darwall: Radical Environmentalism and the Climate Deep State #073

Author Rupert Darwall discusses the totalitarian roots of radical environmentalism and the "Climate-Industrial-Complex" or "Climate Deep State" composed of NGOs, government agencies, oligarchs, academia and green technology companies. He explains how the climate change movement began as a political agenda with roots in Nazi Germany and 1970s Swedish technocracy and that renewable energy cannot feasibly replace carbon energy sources.

Show Notes

Renewables have brought rising costs, unreliability and puny results https://capx.co/renewables-have-brought-rising-costs-unreliability-and-puny-results

Green Ideology’s Failed Experiment https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/02/green-ideologys-failed-energy-experiment

Science proves kids are bad for Earth. Morality suggests we stop having them https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/science-proves-kids-are-bad-earth-morality-suggests-we-stop-ncna820781

Brown advocates for one world parliament https://www.theage.com.au/national/brown-advocates-for-one-world-parliament-20110629-1gqz1.html

Scientists warn of unusually cold Sun: Will we face another ice age? http://www.ibtimes.co.in/scientists-warn-unusually-cold-sun-will-we-face-another-ice-age-759865

New study confirms that nature is responsible for 90% of the Earth’s atmospheric acidity https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/11/new-study-confirms-that-nature-is-responsible-for-90-of-the-earths-atmospheric-acidity/#more-54630

POOP BURGER: Japanese Researcher Creates Artificial Meat From Human Feces https://inhabitat.com/poop-burger-japanese-researcher-creates-artificial-meat-from-human-feces

Website

https://twitter.com/RupertDarwall

Books

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/green-tyranny

https://www.amazon.com/Rupert-Darwall/e/B003VN7VAU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

About Rupert Darwall

London-based Rupert Darwall has two decades’ experience in finance and public policy, specializing in the intersection of the two. A graduate of Cambridge University where he studied economics and history, Mr Darwall was an investment banker at Swiss Bank Corporation (now part of UBS) before becoming a special adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer at the UK Treasury in 1993.

He has advised companies on their bids for multi-billion dollar government  public-private partnerships;  on their regulatory and anti-trust strategies; worked with leading Private Equity houses on public-to-private transactions and in 2008, he advised on a major proxy battle regarding the US assets of one Britain’s largest corporations.

In the public policy sphere, Mr Darwall co-founded one of London’s leading think tanks and was a consultant to the Conservative party during the 2005 general election.  His published writings on reforming Britain’s civil service and tax credits have been widely cited and he has written three major articles for the Hoover Institution’s Policy Review.  He has also written for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal on British politics.  His books Global Warming: A Short History and Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate-Industrial-Complex are available in bookstores everywhere.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Author Rupert Darwall discusses the totalitarian roots of radical environmentalism and the "Climate-Industrial-Complex" or "Climate Deep State" composed of NGOs, government agencies, oligarchs, academia and green technology companies. He explains how the climate change movement began as a political agenda with roots in Nazi Germany and 1970s Swedish technocracy and that renewable energy cannot feasibly replace carbon energy sources.

Show Notes

Renewables have brought rising costs, unreliability and puny results https://capx.co/renewables-have-brought-rising-costs-unreliability-and-puny-results

Green Ideology’s Failed Experiment https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/02/green-ideologys-failed-energy-experiment

Science proves kids are bad for Earth. Morality suggests we stop having them https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/science-proves-kids-are-bad-earth-morality-suggests-we-stop-ncna820781

Brown advocates for one world parliament https://www.theage.com.au/national/brown-advocates-for-one-world-parliament-20110629-1gqz1.html

Scientists warn of unusually cold Sun: Will we face another ice age? http://www.ibtimes.co.in/scientists-warn-unusually-cold-sun-will-we-face-another-ice-age-759865

New study confirms that nature is responsible for 90% of the Earth’s atmospheric acidity https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/11/new-study-confirms-that-nature-is-responsible-for-90-of-the-earths-atmospheric-acidity/#more-54630

POOP BURGER: Japanese Researcher Creates Artificial Meat From Human Feces https://inhabitat.com/poop-burger-japanese-researcher-creates-artificial-meat-from-human-feces

Website

https://twitter.com/RupertDarwall

Books

https://www.encounterbooks.com/books/green-tyranny

https://www.amazon.com/Rupert-Darwall/e/B003VN7VAU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

About Rupert Darwall

London-based Rupert Darwall has two decades’ experience in finance and public policy, specializing in the intersection of the two. A graduate of Cambridge University where he studied economics and history, Mr Darwall was an investment banker at Swiss Bank Corporation (now part of UBS) before becoming a special adviser to the chancellor of the exchequer at the UK Treasury in 1993.

He has advised companies on their bids for multi-billion dollar government  public-private partnerships;  on their regulatory and anti-trust strategies; worked with leading Private Equity houses on public-to-private transactions and in 2008, he advised on a major proxy battle regarding the US assets of one Britain’s largest corporations.

In the public policy sphere, Mr Darwall co-founded one of London’s leading think tanks and was a consultant to the Conservative party during the 2005 general election.  His published writings on reforming Britain’s civil service and tax credits have been widely cited and he has written three major articles for the Hoover Institution’s Policy Review.  He has also written for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal on British politics.  His books Global Warming: A Short History and Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate-Industrial-Complex are available in bookstores everywhere.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)