June Roundup: Per My Last Email...
Newsletter 022 -- ICWA. The role of the diaspora. Affirmative Action. The Wagner Group.
Hey all!
I hope your summer is off to a great start!
This month’s roundup was kinda cool to write because nearly all of the stories covered include callbacks from stories and issues we’ve covered in previous newsletters. It’s almost like we’re building on foundational knowledge of world events… * I bet you didn’t even notice you were learning*! Within the analysis, I left breadcrumbs (links) to previous newsletters in case you need a refresher.
The Wagner group’s mutiny against the Putin regime came as a shock to many and the current agreement made to ensure Prigozhin’s safety seems an uncharacteristic act of benevolence for Putin. The stories below will catch you up to speed.
The Supreme Court ruled on the Haaland v. Brackeen case resulting in a victory for Native sovereignty and led to a more widespread discussion about tribal sovereignty. Parts of these important discussions can be found below.
I also cover a few pieces of news about Indian diplomacy. There are many moving parts, nuances, and tangential stories that make up the very visible diplomacy Prime Minister Modi and other Indian leaders conducted in the U.S. I offer a short explanation of the drama, but in being as concise as possible, a lot had to be left out.
Enjoy!
» Native Sovereignty
“It’s no small thing to have this pretty powerful institution called Harvard University put its flag out there & say, ‘We’re going to treat Indigenous nations like we treat the other nations of the world’, and that’s important because it sends a signal about both the substance of what Indigenous communities are working on, but also the history of how Indigenous peoples have been treated.” – Joseph Kalt (Harvard Professor)
There are 575 tribal nations in the U.S. and in the mid-1970s federal changes were made that allowed tribes to implement their own ideas about how to govern their communities. Over the last few decades, this experiment in self-governance has been a success. Incomes on tribal reservations have been growing 3.5 times faster than the average American income, and poverty rates have been cut in half, all in the last 30 years. Professors at the Harvard Kenedy School Project on Indigenous Governance & Development have observed that in rural America, tribal nations tend to be the economic engines of those regions. What the school has been able to determine is that economic development (or lack thereof) isn’t an economic problem, but a governance problem. And, the successes tribal nations have had further support the idea that self-governance is critical to any nation's success. The Harvard Kenedy School Project on Indigenous Governance & Development’s main goal is to support native communities and act as an incubator, sharing success stories that can be adapted for other nations or tribes around the world. Here are some self-governance success stories from tribal nations in America:
The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Commission ensures the health of the Yukon River that runs through the U.S. and Canada. This natural resource management project has been replicated in a number of places throughout the world, including in the Amazon, to ensure the health of riparian systems using Indigenous knowledge systems.
The Muskogee Creek Prisoner reintegration program in Oklahoma has seen the successful transition of recently incarcerated native people, back into the community. The rates of recidivism dropped so low that the state of Oklahoma asked tribe members to help them adapt the program for non-Natives.
— Alexis
In a special episode of This Land Rebecca Nagle succinctly recaps the Haaland v. Brackeen case (I highly recommend listening to the full series and reviewing our our analysis here) and breaks down the Supreme Court ruling. The Brackeens, along with the state of Texas (the petitioners in the case), argued three main points: their first claim was 1) that Congress didn’t have the power to pass a law like ICWA in the first place, 2) they argued anti-commandeering — a legal theory that says that the Federal government can't tell states they have to enforce federal law and, lastly, 3) that ICWA discriminated against them based on race. What’s key to remember is that native tribes are a political class meaning they’re sovereign nations that operate within another sovereign nation (I know, kind of mindbending, right?!). Native nations are sovereign and self-governing – a fact the Supreme Court upheld this month when they levied their verdict! — Alexis
» Putin & Prigozhin
Just a few days ago, armed fighters from the Wagner group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin initiated a mutiny against the Kremlin. The Wagner group is the most visible private military company (PMC) in modern history and has committed war crimes across the continent of Africa (which we’ve discussed before), in Syria, Ukraine, and beyond. They carry out nefarious dealings on behalf of the Russian state and Putin's regime and the fact that they're a private company allows the Kremlin culpable deniability. This is the issue with PMCs: they both are, and are not, bound by the same human rights treaties that governments are, and because they’re private companies, they can quietly carry out operations and keep information about their clients private. However, Professor Kimberly Martin establishes a strong connection between the Wagner group and Putin, stating that the Wagner group is less like a PMC and more like a contracting mechanism used by the Russian military intelligence agency. Martin believes that Prigozhin’s head got too big and that he attempted to usurp power from Putin. If this is true, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Putin may not be willing to let Prigozhin off the hook so easily. — Alexis
Prigozhin and the Wagner group’s attempt on the Kremlin have illuminated cracks in Putin’s power. It has also changed the framework for future negotiations to end the Ukraine/Russia war, the calculations NATO makes on Ukraine’s status, and Russia’s post-war future. When the mutiny sparked, many Russian citizens took their money out of Russian banks and bought plane tickets to leave the country — Russians have reason to believe that under Prigozhin they might experience deadlier authoritarianism and nationalism. The international community is watching closely to see whether Putin's pardon of Prigozhin will actually happen — many say that the pardon isn’t what's in question, but rather the details of the pardon. In this interview, reporter James Risen doesn't believe Putin will simply allow Prigozhin to walk freely in Belarus where he fled after Putin ensured his safe passage out of the country. As you heard in the interview with Professor Kimberly Martin (above), Putin may have a use for Prigozhin in Belarus (a local ally to the Kremlin and Putin) where President Alexandr Lukashenko is solidifying his own repressive power. — Alexis
» Indian Diplomacy Gets a Revamp
New York Dreams: Kerala’s Subnational Diplomacy
Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently embarked on an 8-day diplomatic visit to the U.S. and Cuba and it was a masterclass in paradiplomacy (which we have discussed before). The purpose of the delegation’s subnational diplomacy trip was to boost growth in the Indian state of Kerala and its standing on the international stage. Vijayan’s trip was carried out in the backdrop of Prime Minister Modi’s trip to the US (which was met with some condemnation due to Modi’s atrocious human rights record and repression of the media and religious minorities in India). Both Modi and Vijayan employed various forms of diplomatic tactics during their trips, and it provides us an opportunity to observe what the use of their chosen approaches said about what they hoped to accomplish on their trips. Modi opted to lean heavily on soft power and cultural tactics — leading members of the UN in a yoga session and touring the National Science Foundation with First Lady Jill Biden. The purpose of Modi’s visit was to discuss his hope of expanding India’s technological and defense cooperation with the U.S. Over the course of Vijayan’s visit to the U.S., he met with Pfizer leadership to discuss the possibility of establishing a Pfizer research center in Kerala with the hope of generating job opportunities and establishing more healthcare facilities. The Kerala delegation also met with the managing director of operations at the World Bank to discuss investment in the state's basic infrastructure. The World Bank approved a loan of $150 million to support Kerala’s resiliency to climate change and natural disasters. These were practical and important endeavors, but perhaps the most interesting objective Vijayan and his delegation carried out was diaspora diplomacy between Kerala leadership in India and Kerala’s Malayali people in the diaspora. The delegation organized events that brought together members of the diaspora of Kerala, or Non-Resident Keralites (NRK), in order to establish a foothold in the U.S. by way of their diaspora. Establishing stronger ties between the diaspora and those back home in the state of Kerala can secure a pathway to private foreign investment in the future. Diasporic diplomacy has been seen in many instances, and in the case of the Indian Hindu diaspora, there are some examples of how this can be weaponized. But, if used as an organizing tool and incubator for burgeoning soft power, and cultural projects in the future, I think it could be really exciting. — Alexis
The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook
Under Prime Minister Modi, there has been an onslaught of violence across the subcontinent of India. In October of 2022, the Georgetown University Bridge Initiative warned that India was heading towards a full-fledged genocide of Muslim residents within the country (of which there are 200 million), and since 2020 the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has asked that the State Department recognize India as a country of concern due to its many human rights violations. Non-Hindu Indian Americans have been outspoken about how India’s discriminatory socio-cultural practices have been exported to America and show up in their everyday lives. An example of this is the reproduction of India’s caste system here in the US. In the last few years, the issue of India’s caste system has been broached by Cisco, Google, and by local city governments around the U.S. (previous roundups about this can be found here and here). Since Modi began more vigorously carrying out his aim to make India a Hindu state, local American governments have been engaging with the consequences of these more radical ideas and building tensions within the Indian diasporic communities. In this article, you’ll read about the lead-up to and fallout from, the Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee passing a resolution condemning Hindu nationalist hate groups. These incidents show just how easily foreign policy and local policy can converge. And although there have been some positive advances to come out of these cases, there's not enough depth of knowledge available among decision-makers in America to keep them firm in their convictions. Like in the case of Teaneck where many signatories pulled their support for the resolution once Hindu groups claimed it was Hinduphobic. This Hindu/non-Hindu Indian friction stems back to British colonization and Partition (which we’ve discussed before) — this is an oversimplification, but a good place to start if you want to do more research. In this article, journalist Aparna Gopalan does a great job of laying out how the foreign policy arm of India, along with American groups like the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) are able to change the discourse, leading the conversation away from the discussion of legitimate grievances and discussions about what is happening in India, and into a place where they’re able to control the conversation and shape their desired narrative. India’s standing as the world’s largest democracy is at odds with the actions of its leadership. As Modi continues to move towards his aim of a Hindu nationalist state, it remains to be seen whether the U.S. will respond to this. But what we can be sure of is that Modi and groups like HAF know how important maintaining its relationships with the U.S. is to their success. — Alexis
» I Know I Keep Bringing it Up, But…
The most powerful tool that the U.S. has is the dollar and the implications of the U.S. dollar losing its reserve status are widespread and serious. Under the U.S.-dominated unipolar monetary order, 40% of the world's oil reserves (in Russia, Iran, and Venezuela) and 29% of the world's GDP are under sanctions. How did the American dollar become the world's currency? At the end of WWII, the U.S. held ½ of the world’s GDP and most of the world’s gold. In 1944 the Bretton Woods Agreement established the World Bank and set the standard pegging the U.S. dollar to the value of gold, and all other world currencies against the U.S. dollar. In the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, European countries realized that the U.S. was running deficits and began exchanging their U.S. dollars for gold. Then, in the early 1970s, President Nixon closed the gold window and made the U.S. dollar a fiat currency (a currency issued by a government that is not backed by a physical commodity). A few years after that, the petrodollar was established creating international demand for the U.S. dollar once again. This was a Saudi Arabia/U.S. deal asserting that Saudi oil could only be sold in U.S. dollars, and in return, the U.S. would provide a security guarantee to Saudi Arabia. After China was inducted into the WTO in the early 90s, its economy began to flourish. Meanwhile, America was still spending more than it earned and soon became the largest debtor nation, shifting from a manufacturing economy to a consumer economy. Today, countries around the world are engaging in conversation about creating localized trade currencies. You're probably most familiar with the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. These countries collectively represent 25% of the global GDP and have begun seriously discussing the creation of a currency system among the trading bloc — about 19 other countries are interested in joining. This August, BRICS, and other countries are meeting to discuss the creation of a new currency that would allow members the option to trade outside of the U.S. dollar system. South America is also thinking of creating a local currency (much like the Euro) for the purposes of trading within the South American trading bloc. China, Thailand, and the U.A.E are testing out a digital currency system for cross-border trade settlements. The driving reason countries are attempting to create a multipolar currency system among their trade partners is to gain more financial freedom and, diversify, should something happen to the U.S. dollar. — Alexis
We just heard about America’s most powerful tool, now, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Affirmative Action in higher education, we’ll look at one of America's most valuable tools in the competition to maintain our title as the world power. In the last decade, China has created a top-tier higher education system that, if we’re not diligent, could surpass America’s. One thing both the host and the interviewee agree on is that the diversity of the student population at American institutions (they focus on the admittance of foreign students, but there is, of course, a case to be made for a more widespread understanding of diversity) will be our piece de resistance — it provides America with the best and brightest minds, bolsters the employment of our professionalized fields, and keeps us resilient, politically and socially, in our globalized society. Affirmative Action was not a perfect solution, but the discrimination and bias it worked to combat are still very real. In a moment when student loan debt is suffocatingly high, students are deprioritizing college for lack of adequate ROI. #1 World Power title aside — what becomes of a society where higher education is something only some can obtain? — Alexis
» Updates
How is the Rent Crisis Affecting Creatives?
#MeToo Movement Gains Momentum in Taiwan
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In Solidarity,
The 823 Team