January Roundup: A New World Order
Newsletter 017 -- China & Russia on the rock. America needs new ideas. Canada's foreign policy playbook.
Welcome to the first roundup of the year!
We’re starting 2023 off by discussing ideas in the International Relations space that have been essential in creating the landscape and will continue to be critical in shaping the landscape of the future.
The world order is shifting and, I think, it’s moving in a positive direction. Or, at least, I see spaces opening up for average citizens, like you and me, to engage in change-making on a global scale. We have the technology, we’re building the community, and the only thing left to do is to give enough people access to the knowledge required to move forward deliberately. This is still 823’s mission — to be a resource for understanding the world more deeply and a catalyst that empowers our readers to thoughtfully engage.
I’m glad you’re here, and I’m happy to be continuing the work in 2023. Let’s get to it!
» Ideas For The New World Order
To begin, I want to introduce a few concepts and ideas that I think are good places to start as we build a new global affairs paradigm that fits the 21st Century…
When it was first imagined, globalization presented international trade partnerships as the gold standard for international progress. Globalization shaped our world order in powerful ways when trade relationships were established in the 90s. This episode lays out what we have misunderstood about globalization: namely, that globalization hasn’t been as “global” as we were told it would be, nor has it led to equitable gains for all (or even most) countries around the world. Trade and money have gone abroad, but neither has gone very far which led to a concentration of trade relationships within regions, rather than widespread democratic participation in the global supply chain. Today, globalization refers to more than just trade partnerships; it also refers to how culture and ideas have spread and been adopted worldwide. Globalization looks more like the process of interaction and integration among people and governments, as well as the flow of technology, information, and goods. Although globalization is an important international framework and idea, the conversation in the podcast also reminds us that regionalization is equally as important—because the local, becomes the international. Strong regionalization incubates ideas and important infrastructure that countries need in order to participate on the international stage, and these intangible political ideas, cultural materials, etc. are important exports in today's world. — Alexis
“The Ukraine war does represent something that we’ve seen happening for many years. Politics is now in command of economics. We got used to the idea that decisions were made primarily on economic grounds. That’s no longer the case. Today, whether its energy, whether its food, whether its development…all of this is being dealt with politically, rather than on sheer economic grounds. For me, therefore, politics is back in command…I think were back to emotion, to geopolitics, to contention, great power rivalry, all the things that make life unpredictable and, sometimes, nasty.” (Quote from the episode by Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary of India) — Alexis
Paradiplomacy refers to the foreign activity of non-state actors that are outside of the international system and are interested in going abroad for various reasons (vague, I know, but stay with me). Local networks (or Paradiplomats) have been organizing and building international coalitions around issues like asylum, environmental issues, and the economy. Global networks, created through paradiplomacy, help causes gain relevance in arenas of power and can advance the prominence of issues on the global stage. Companies have engaged in paradiplomacy around trade and when garnering foreign investment. As I stated in the globalization explainer above, organizing locally will prove to be a highly critical tool for us as the world order shifts and “everyday citizens” find ways to engage in foreign policy. We are dealing with global issues and in order to properly address them, we will have to work across time zones, cultures, and borders. — Alexis
» The Globalization of Ideas in Latin America
A Cop Was Burned Alive During Deadly Protests in Peru
In the past five years, Peru has had five different presidents. The most recent president, Pedro Castillo, was arrested and removed from office. He was considered a man of the people due to his background as a poor, elementary school teacher. Peruvians who put hope in Castillo and his promise to address inequality saw his removal as an attack on this hope and yet another way for the rich and powerful to maintain the status quo. The question that resurfaces time and time again when a headline reveals violent protesting is, “Why can’t they just protest peacefully?” So, how do protests turn violent? According to Helier Cheung from BBC News, there are several reasons. The first reason is that police will use extreme force and violence against protestors. A cop was burned alive in Peru, only after 17 civilians were killed during protests. Police force against protestors increases us versus them mentality. When people think a system is broken, they will do something grand and shocking to show the immorality of that system -- this is the second driver of violence. Peruvians believed that Castillo was being removed from office unjustly and they weren’t given a chance to vote democratically on a new president. It wasn’t until after the protests started that the interim president moved the elections up. The stereotypes of the Global South as inherently aggressive (read: violent) and unruly (read: unable to govern/ungovernable) are perpetuated when headlines portray this violence without context. As more and more protests break out in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, more headlines about violence will appear, and it’s crucial we dig deeper. Why does police involvement in protests around the globe all look the same? How are we utilizing the police in our societies that shape them into this and in turn, how are they necessary in this capacity? — Sarah
Earlier this month, supporters of Bolsonaro (the former Brazilian president) stormed the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace a week after President Lula was sworn in. In the weeks following, American news outlets compared the incident to the January 6th storming of the American capitol. Brazil’s deep political divide and feelings of discontent echo that of divide and discontent in America and prove that these groups, ideas, and frustration aren’t fringe. And, more importantly, they’re global. As a global power, America exports its culture all over the world, wielding influence and supplying the world with global frameworks and ideas (for better or for worse). This video follows Brazilian organizers and the Worker’s Party as they ramped up for the country’s most recent election. It shows the work these groups did to organize and diligently educate Brazilians in order to move the needle of public progress forward. There's certainly nuance here, but one thing I’m reflecting on after watching this video is how local organizing can incubate global ideas and that the people can decide what gets exported. — Alexis
» The Dirty Work of Relationship Building
The war in Ukraine is about to mark a full year, and with that, China has taken stock of its relationship with Russia. In this episode, Yun Sun (a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the East Asian Program and Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center) personifies China’s diplomatic relationship with Russia in really helpful ways. Imagine your most messy, hot-headed friend (Russia) starts a drunken fight with a fellow bar go-er. And you’re standing on the sideline, less obviously inebriated (China). You cannot, in good conscience, align yourself with their grievances, but you want to mitigate any further embarrassment for them and for you because they’re clearly losing the fight. Here’s how Yun Sun (more seriously) outlined this relational dynamic:
What Russia picking a fight with Ukraine has shown China
“Russia is a country torn between great power ambition and the lack of great power ability.”
What China has been disillusioned about
China used to believe that Russia had proficient strategic skills (like diplomatic maneuvers, strategic manipulation, and hybrid warfare) that would allow them to punch above its weight.
Where does China stand currently (subject to change depending on what happens next in the war)
The Chinese policy community has much less respect for Russia
Russia is losing the war and embarrassing China: “The only bigger crime than starting a war is to start one and lose it.”
China won’t abandon Russia if they lose the war because they see Russia as a useful investment. With a weaker Russia, China hopes to influence Moscow's decision-making and reign in its destructive behavior (its giving, ‘I can change him’).
— Alexis
The “Freeland Doctrine” and Canada’s Indio-Pacific Strategy
On October 11th, at the Brookings Institution, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered a speech that outlined how Canada plans to carry out their foreign policy in what she referred to as the “post-post-Cold War world”. The tenants of this speech were elaborated on, and introduced, as the Freeland Doctrine earlier this month. There are three main pillars to Canada’s revised approach to the world order: 1) Friendshoring: doubling down on the relationship with their current allies 2) rethinking their approach to authoritarian countries and 3) seeking relationships with “in-between” countries. In the 19th Century, the world order was marked by Imperialism and, therefore, imperialist relationships which concentrated power and influence into the hands of a few. In the 20th Century, we saw power distributed (slightly!) thereby widening the concentration of power into local geopolitical areas. Now, in the 21st Century, we are seeing a more global world order (the article says “the first truly global world order” but I don’t believe power and money have been spread evenly enough to qualify that statement so emphatically). I see this new world order as one that will be shaped less by economics and more by what relationships countries are able to form around their cultural and political ideals. The first pillar of the Freeland Doctrine (Friendshoring), I’d argue, is how the Western world got themselves, and the Global South, into the predicament we’re in today – whereby Western countries like Canada and the U.S. are losing moral influence in the world because they didn’t see the Global South as worthy partners in international governance. Addressing the second pillar: the war in Ukraine has forced the West to interact with states outside of their friend group. These are states that aren’t full-fledged enemies of the West but are nations they don’t find strategically necessary or that aren’t emphatically aligned with the West’s moral liberal democracy. This was seen at the U.S.-African summit when the U.S. pandered to African leaders in an attempt to out-influence China (a Russian ally) on the continent, and the appeals to Azerbaijan and Morocco to help address the energy fallout in Europe. The latter example leads to my indictment of the doctrine’s third pillar. Canada (like other Western democracies today) holds tight to the Democracy-Autocracy binary, they like this binary because it allows them to enjoy the moral high ground. But in post-Trump America, that’s a less viable narrative today. For Canada and the rest of the West, this binary is shortsighted. In a more global world order, it’s beneficial to have working relationships with as many countries as possible. This doesn't mean leaders have to be super tight with every other leader in the world, but their ability to directly engage with global leadership when it’s necessary for advancing their interest is just a smart, common sense strategy. — Alexis
» America is in Need of New Ideas
This Country Will Offer 18 Months of Parental Leave for Working Parents
South Korea currently has the world’s lowest birth rate and if the birth rate doesn’t increase, they will soon have a labor shortage. In order to increase the population, the government proposed a law that would allow couples to take 1.5 years of parental leave, in addition to the childcare subsidies and parental leave support that already exists in the country. The current childbearing generation’s resistance to having children forced the South Korean government to consider these policy changes. Without government support, most south Korean couples consider it financially unwise to have children. The United States is the only industrialized nation without paid parental leave) - only about 21% of U.S. workers have paid family leave through their employers. The U.S.’s deep neglect of children is historical. After WWII, other countries feared that a low birth rate would hold them back from producing the workforce needed to rebuild after the war, but the U.S. hadn’t suffered major population losses and steady immigration helped to maintain their labor force. But, women were forced back into their roles as stay-at-home mothers, so the returning soldiers could resume their positions at work. Because our workforce was bolstered by immigration and other factors, and because the U.S. feared becoming a socialist or communist country post WWII, parental leave was never built into our public health care system. For the past 80 years, the U.S. has refused to re-evaluate its outdated beliefs on public health and socialism, and families have been deprived of what the majority of the Global North considers basic health care. Looking beyond the nuclear family, parental leave is a benefit for the whole nation, not just parents. It improves the physical and mental health of the workforce when parents are given the appropriate amount of time to care for and nurture themselves and their children. Studies show that children develop better language skills and have fewer behavioral issues when parents are able to stay home for the first few months of their life. Mothers in particular are also more likely to return to the workforce in a healthy state of mind, increasing the number of women working. Parental leave also helps to reduce racial disparities because the majority of low-wage workers, who happen to be people of color, do not have access to paid family leave. All in all, parental leave fosters a healthier, happier population. — Sarah
New Stock Listings Open the Door to American Investment in the Israeli Occupation
The New York Stock Exchange has partnered with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, allowing Americans to directly invest in Israeli companies. Here’s the issue: According to the UN human rights office database there are hundreds of Israeli companies directly tied to the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The American government funds the Israeli occupation of Palestinians using American tax dollars (making American citizens compulsory financial supporters of the occupation), but now Americans can intentionally invest in the apartheid state, and by default, its new far-right government. According to Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, Jewish Supremacy (meaning that only Jews have rights to the land) is being normalized both in Israel and the U.S., signifying to him that Americans will have no moral issue investing in Israeli companies, and thereby strengthening the government. The U.S. will continue to be entwined with Israel financially, politically, and socially as more opportunities for the average American to invest in Israel become available. — Sarah
At yet another international summit, Canada, the U.S., and Mexico gathered to discuss trade, immigration, and the economy. The leaders focused their concerns on migration, and the militarization at the border between Mexico and the U.S. In this video, how the converging crises in the Caribbean and Central America that are catalyzing the heavy flow of asylum seekers at the Mexico-U.S. border is discussed in detail. — Alexis
» Updates
The Ozone Hole Shrank!
How Far Can Vertical Farming Go?
As modern society becomes increasingly urbanized, industries are pushing the boundaries on ways humanity can connect with the land. Farmers in places like Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., are partaking in vertical farming—growing plants in shallow trays with minimal soil, in buildings, or even underground. Hydroponic farming (growing plants without soil, typically in water) has also been taking root, using water or various materials to support the root systems of the plant and provide it with nutrients. In many parts of Europe, including Denmark and The Netherlands, floating forests have become the new innovation of the day. In these floating forests, salt-water-resistant trees are grown and float on the water in recycled buoys. They’re a way to beautify concrete jungles, curb CO2 emissions, and they allow for the recovery of trees. Humanity has always found its way back to nature even when technology has led us astray with an abundance of screens and metal. Studies have found that greenery, and spending time in nature are necessary for better physical and mental health, and these little windows of nature amongst our industrialized cities, are proof that we yearn to be closer to the earth that sustains us. — Sarah
Unburying Franco And The Crimes of The Spanish Civil War
What happens if the state has the power to shape memory? Currently, Spain is in the midst of a cultural project of great magnitude – they're reshaping the history and collective memory of the Spanish Civil War. The discussion and codification of memory at the federal level (with the passing of the country’s Democratic Memory Law) is quite interesting and has gotten communities talking about how to remember, who gets to remember, and how to create inclusive memories. Coming across this article and then, a few days later, this podcast, felt serendipitous to me. In the last few years, we’ve all experienced a number of catastrophic events. As we gain distance from these events and begin to memorialize them, we should think about where we start, how we memorialize together, and (because I’m always skeptical) what role the state should have in this if any. — Alexis
If you found this newsletter helpful and engaging, please subscribe and share us with your friends! We’re always looking for contributors (either one-off or ongoing) so shoot us an email at [ 823newsletter@gmail.com ] if you’re interested.
In Solidarity,
The 823 Team