Video: Robert D. Kaplan, George Friedman & Colin Chapman

Om USA og især Kina:

A STRATFOR Conversation: George Friedman and Special Guest Robert Kaplan

There is widespread international debate on the extent to which China’s naval expansions pose a threat to U.S. dominance of the world’s oceans. George Friedman and author and foreign affairs expert Robert Kaplan agree on China’s ambition, but have very different views on its geopolitical impact.

Og om Iran:

Agenda: With George Friedman and Robert Kaplan on Iran

In the wake of the latest IAEA report on Iran, STRATFOR CEO George Friedman and special guest Robert Kaplan discuss potential threats to world oil supplies from the Persian Gulf, and U.S. President Barack Obama’s limited options.

Og igen: Der er ingen overbefolkning

Det kan ikke siges for tit. Overbefolkning er ikke et problem. En nation skal have bæredygtighed, hvad folketallet anbelanger. Arbejdskraftens reproduktion. Et stabilt fødselstal hos landets oprindelige befolkning må være målet – ungefær 2,1 barn per kvinde for Danmarks vedkommende:

Five Myths About the World’s Population

By Nicholas Eberstadt | November 6, 2011

1. The world is overpopulated.

Sure, 7 billion is a big number. But most serious demographers, economists and population specialists rarely use the term “overpopulation” — because there is no clear demographic definition.

For instance, is Haiti, with an annual population growth rate of 1.3 percent, overpopulated? If it is, then was the United States overpopulated in 1790, when the new country was growing at more than 3 percent per year? And if population density is the correct yardstick, then Monaco, with more than 16,000 people per square kilometer, has a far greater problem than, say, Bangladesh and its 1,000 people per square kilometer.

Back in the 1970s, some scholars tried to estimate the “optimum population” for particular countries, but most gave up. There were too many uncertainties (how much food would the world produce with future technologies?) and too many value judgments (how much parkland is ideal?).

Mere HER hos AEI eller her i The Washington Post.

Andre kilder: djøf-bladet,

Interview med Condoleezza Rice

The FP Interview: Condoleezza Rice on Obama, “Leading from Behind,” Iraq, and More

The former secretary of state dishes on what the current administration gets right – and what it gets wrong.

By Josh Rogin | November 3, 2011

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down for an extensive interview with Foreign Policy as part of the rollout of her new book, No Higher Honor. Rice criticized the notion of “leading from behind”; called for a return to a focus on human rights in foreign policy; lamented the downfall of democracy in Russia, calling Putin’s likely return to power a “terrible turn of events”; and contended that George W. Bush’s administration, despite avowals by the current White House to the contrary, had always intended to negotiate an extension to the agreement that required all U.S. troops to exit Iraq by the end of this year.

On the contentious subject of Middle East peace, Rice fully endorsed the U.S. decision to withdraw from any U.N. organization that grants full membership to the Palestinians, as UNESCO did this week. “If the U.N. wants to go down this road, let them see how well they do without U.S. support,” she said. Rice also said that by initially pressuring the Israeli government to accept a settlement freeze, Barack Obama’s administration had “put the Palestinians in a position of having to be less Palestinian than the United States,” forcing them to adopt more extensive demands.

Mere HER i Foreign Policy.

Video: Steven Pinker & Ronald Bailey

Reason TV har uploadet dette interview i dag. Jeg deler ikke mandens optimisme, men det lyder da pænt:

Steven Pinker on The Decline of Violence & “The Better Angels of Our Nature”

Der følger en længere afhandling med, som man kan læse under videoen på YouTube her.

Video: War against Baby Girls

Fra AEI 14. juni 2011 – selektiv abort er et omsiggribende problem:

A Worldwide War against Baby Girls: Sex-Selective Abortion Goes Global

Sex-selective abortion–terminating a pregnancy based on gender–is a modern phenomenon. As the expense of sex-selection technology like ultrasound plummets, it is being used in a growing number of countries, almost universally to eliminate girls, and generally with the assistance of health care professionals. In her new book, Unnatural Selection (PublicAffairs, June 2011), Mara Hvistendahl, a Beijing-based correspondent for Science magazine, documents how this practice has severely altered the natural balance of boys and girls in increasingly many societies, including China, South Korea, Vietnam, India, and the Caucasus republics. Is the worst yet ahead? Is there hope for reversing this scourge? Join us for what promises to be an enlightening–and sobering–discussion with the author and AEI scholar Nicholas Eberstadt.

Panel: Mara Hvistendahl, Nicholas Eberstadt, Danielle Pletka

Den islamiske verden fører også krig imod kvinder:

For Girls, Idealism Can Be Deadly

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman – June 15, 2011

President Kennedy urged American youth to consider a stint in the Peace Corps where they could help the world’s poor and spread American values. Thousands have heeded this call, and for many, their time abroad was a valuable learning experience. But for many others, mostly young women, there was a big problem that was swept under the carpet until now: rape. 

The idea that women and men are equally human and entitled to equal opportunities and dignity is very new. The United States and Europe have pioneered this social revolution, but in some places around the world, this notion is either unknown or vigorously rejected. Sub-Saharan Africa and the Muslim world are the worst offenders.

Mere HER hos Family Security Matters.

Og så er ovenstående endda rent flueknepperi. Hvis halvdelen af alle mænd i et samfund har 2 koner, hvem skal den anden halvdel så gifte sig med? Flerkoneri er det største problem af dem alle…

Det Sydkinesiske Hav

Problemer i en overrendt del af Stillehavet - forfatteren hedder Denmark:

Crowded Waters

The superpower battle for regional supremacy in the South China Sea is heating up once again.

By Abraham M. Denmark | June 7, 2011

For the last two years, a quiet showdown has played out over the South China Sea, the body of water bordered by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This little-known body of water is of vast strategic importance: Fully one-third of the world’s maritime trade traverses the South China Sea, and some optimistic estimates of its untapped stores of oil and natural gas would make it a second Persian Gulf. The South China Sea is also a major highway linking the oil fields of the Middle East and the factories of East Asia, with more than 80 percent of China’s oil imports (and large percentages for Japan and South Korea as well) flowing over its waters. As influential Asia-watcher Robert D. Kaplan has put it, the South China Sea’s importance to the region makes it the “Asian Mediterranean.”

Mere HER i Foreign Policy.

Opdatering 14. juni 2011:

Turbulent Waters in the South China Sea

Mounting territorial aggression destabilizes the region and puts the global economy at risk

By Michael Auslin – June 14, 2011

If China were a U.S. congressman, it would be Tweeting threatening pictures of its biceps to its rivals.

Beijing recently warned Vietnam and the Philippines not to explore for oil in disputed waters that China claims, and late last month Chinese naval patrol craft allegedly cut the surveying cable of a Vietnamese seismic research boat. Manila’s recent grievances against China are similarly severe. The Philippine government claims that China has harassed its exploration vessels, illegally unloaded supplies to build an oil rig in disputed waters and sent fighter jets into its airspace.

Mere HER i Wall Street Journal. Artiklen er endnu ikke lagt frem her hos AEI, men det plejer at ske.

Audio: Francis Fukuyama om sin nye bog

Men mest om Libyen, Kina, USA, demokrati, skat, statsdannelse og mere. Fra KUOW Radio den 14. april 2011:

Francis Fukuyama And America’s Political Order

Ross Reynolds – April 14, 2011

Francis Fukuyama, the Stanford historian and author of “The End of History,” attempts no less than an analysis of “The Origins of Political Order” in his new book. Along the way he questions whether America’s liberal democracy is up to the huge challenges it faces in the near future.

Startes HER eller her - åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed 18½ minut.

Video: Victor Davis Hanson & Thom Hartmann

Lidt indforstået om USAs økonomi:

Thom Hartmann confronts Victor Davis Hanson on why America is in decline

Thom Hartmann confronts Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow in Residence Hoover Institution on the declining Middle Class www.victorhanson.com

Mark Steyn om anglosfæren

Dependence Day

by Mark Steyn – January 2011

On the erosion of personal liberty

If I am pessimistic about the future of liberty, it is because I am pessimistic about the strength of the English-speaking nations, which have, in profound ways, surrendered to forces at odds with their inheritance. “Declinism” is in the air, but some of us apocalyptic types are way beyond that. The United States is facing nothing so amiable and genteel as Continental-style “decline,” but something more like sliding off a cliff.

In the days when I used to write for Fleet Street, a lot of readers and several of my editors accused me of being anti-British. I’m not. I’m extremely pro-British and, for that very reason, the present state of the United Kingdom is bound to cause distress. So, before I get to the bad stuff, let me just lay out the good. Insofar as the world functions at all, it’s due to the Britannic inheritance. Three-sevenths of the G7 economies are nations of British descent. Two-fifths of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council are—and, by the way, it should be three-fifths: [...]

Mere HER i The New Criterion.

Interview med Victor Davis Hanson

The Saturday Interview: Victor Davis Hanson ‘therapeutic’ culture heart of U.S. problem

By Kevin Libin - Dec. 10, 2010

Victor Davis Hanson has a tragic view of the universe. It comes naturally. As a former professor of classics, decades of working with Homer, Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, Greek history and studying ancient warfare, he says, have taught him that there are certain “immutable laws.” We all age and die. Humans are selfish. Power is might.

Of course, being a farmer has a way of nurturing a certain fatalism, too. Though he’s a winner of the National Humanities Medal and the $250,000 Bradley Prize for intellectual accomplishment, when Mr. Hanson’s not working at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, he’s on the three-hour drive to, or at, his San Joaquin valley raisin grape farm in Selma County, the poorest county in California.

The National Post HER.

Video: Robert D. Kaplan om det nye Asien

Her hører vi en masse om Indien, Kina og de muslimske lande, der ikke ligger i Mellemøsten. For en gangs skyld. Fra 27. oktober 2010:

Is the U.S. Ready for the Rise of Asia?

American maps of the modern world centrally and prominently locate the global powers of the 20th century, and the arenas of their wars: the U.S. and Western Europe, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But the 21st century has already begun to see a shift in geopolitical focus to an area generally relegated to the edges of our maps: the Indian Ocean. From the Horn of Africa to the Indonesian archipelago, the Indian Ocean region is home to a striving new middle class, young populations tempted by extremism, s magttil søsweak governments and infrastructures, not to mention nuclear weapons. The struggles for world power, democracy, energy independence, and religious freedom will be won or lost there. Atlantic national correspondent Robert Kaplan, author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, visits Zócalo to ask whether the U.S. is ready for the rising challenges of the next century.

Videoen startes HER – åbner på ny side hos Zócalo Public Square. Desuden artikel her:

The Return of the Indian Ocean Region

The Asian century has begun, but not in the way we think, according to Robert Kaplan.

“I don’t mean it in only economic terms, which is something we all know about. The Pacific Rim tigers have been the stuff of magazine cover stories since the early 1980s,” said Kaplan, an Atlantic national correspondent and author of Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. “I mean it in military terms as well.”

Læs mere HER hos Zócalo Public Square. Desuden kan man læse et uddrag af Robert D. Kaplans nye bog, Monsoon:

The 21st Century Map

Since the end of the Cold War, many American thinkers have argued for adapting institutions — intelligence, diplomatic, political — burnished by that conflict to present day challenges. Robert D. Kaplan argues that it’s time to change our maps, too. In the excerpt below from Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, he explains why the Indian Ocean region should be the center of our focus and what challenges we may face there.

 Mere HER hos Zócalo Public Square.

Video: Victor Davis Hanson om Europa, Asien og Amerika

Victor Davis Hanson har igen været gæst hos Hoover Institutions Peter Robinson. Videoen er blevet frigivet i denne uge:

Victor Davis Hanson – The New Old World Order

Hoover Institution | October 14, 2010

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and military historian, professor of classics, and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of more than a dozen and a half books. His most recent volumes are Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, which Dr. Hanson edited, and The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern, a volume of Dr. Hanson’s own essays.

Beginning with an explanation of why the post-Cold War New World Order is rapidly breaking apart, Victor Davis Hanson sees a world where nations are returning to the ancient passions, rivalries, and differences of past centuries. In light of this world transformation, Hanson looks at key challenges the United States faces around the globe: in Europe, Asia, Russia, Mexico, and Iran.

Posten opdateret.

Præsident Obama langer igen ud efter Israel

Caroline Glick kommer vidt omkring her i sin gennemgang af den israelske sikkerhedssituation:

The new, improved Obama

By Caroline Glick – Juli 26, 2010

Just when you thought he was shifting gears he pulls out a zinger

You have to hand it to US President Barack Obama. He is relentless. Just when you thought he was shifting gears – easing up on Israel and turning his attention to Iran’s nuclear weapons program – he pulls out a zinger.

His recent courtship of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu led some Israelis and supporters of Israel in the US to believe the administration had seen the light. After 18 months, we were told Obama finally realized that contrary to what he had thought, Palestinian statehood is not the most urgent issue in the Middle East, Iran’s nuclear weapons program is.

The Jerusalem Post har historien HER.

Nu starter grisens år i Kina – imam protesterer

Efter den kinesiske månekalender starter grisens år inden længe. I den anledning sendes der nytårs-kort ud med gode ønsker, men det fornærmer muslimer: grisen er et urent dyr og kortene er fornærmelige imod islam. En betydningsfuld imam har klaget til Taiwans udenrigsminister, fordi han har sendt imamen et kort med 4 grise på. Grisens år begynder den 18. februar og er en vigtig helligdag for kinesere overalt i verden.

Taiwans postvæsen har udsendt et frimærke med en gris på, men har advaret folk om ikke at bruge det til breve, der sendes til den muslimske del af verden.

Kina har forbudt tv at bringe billeder af grise og ordet “gris” må heller ikke nævnes, for ikke at fornærme landets muslimer. Tv må ikke vise traditionelle nytårspapirklip med grise og forbuddet gælder også tegnefilm!

De øvrige navne for årenes rækkefølge er: rotte, okse, tiger, kanin, drage, slange, hest, får, abe, hane, hund og gris.

Kilde: The Raw Story

Frimærket øverst er en joke. Resten er desværre alvor. 

UPDATE: Forbuddet har bragt giganten Nestlé lidt i klemme, da de ville have haft nogle reklamer bragt med et billede af en gris. Nu må de så finde på noget andet. Der er 18 millioner muslimer i Kina i følge landets officielle statistikker. Channel NewsAsia.com

Joga-stævne i Indien truet af muslimer

Indien: her var et kæmpestæve med jogaøvelser for skolebørn nær blevet aflyst, idet muslimer mente, det var fornærmeligt imod islam. Hindu-børnenes joga-stævne blev reddet i sidste øjeblik af en højesteretskendelse.

UPDATE 28.01.07: Så har DR har også opdaget historien. Citat: