Focus Iraq: a background to this week’s elections.

Iraqi Goran Supporter. Photo: Al-Jaazera

Iraqi Goran Supporter. Photo: Al-Jazeera

In the year 2003 Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. They were part of an evil alliance, dubbed “the axis of evil”, and they also supported the Al-Qaida terrorist network. These familiar arguments were provided by the world’s only superpower, The United States of America. The US invaded Iraq in order to overthrow Saddam Hussein, their former ally, and to install a new democracy that would pave the way for a new democratic Middle East and solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Two elections have so far been held in Iraq, in 2005 and in 2010. This article discusses the political structure of Iraq leading up to the elections this week.

Further reading;

Al-Jazeeras Interactive website on the Iraq Elections

The Swedish Newspaper DN.se Q&A

The Swedish Newspaper DN.se listing of the parties and alliances

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Lecture – Hans Rosling discusses the state of the world

Bild: UPF Lund

Bild: UPF Lund

Already half an hour before last week’s Hans Rosling lecture was set to start the queue outside had grown long. The lecture was the result of a joint effort by the Association of Foreign Affairs and Studentafton. Well inside some people were forced to stand as the venue quickly ran out of chairs. Everybody wanted to see the now famous professor use his equally famous Gapminder graphs to try to answer the question of whether or not the world has become a better place. No small task it seems, but Rosling came up with an answer and had the stats to back it. And that was just the first 10 minutes of his presentation.

See also: Radio UPFs interview , A brief bio and a number of Hans Rosling’s talks at TED, Gapminder and Gapminder World,

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Of Big Brothers, Little Brothers, and LGBT rights

When in October 2009 the Ugandan MP David Bahati tabled a draft bill proposing a harshening of the country’s already severely punitive anti-homosexuality legislation, the international community was outraged. Or so the media said. Sure enough, official communications from Europe and North America spoke clearly in terms of alienation and disgust - at the November Commonwealth Summit in Trinidad and Tobago, Canada’s and the UK’s respective heads of state, Stephen Harper and Gordon Brown, were so scathingly critical that the Ugandan MP Kassiano Wadri told a Guardian journalist that “if Uganda is to be expelled from the British Commonwealth, then let us go”. On the same note, Sweden, then holder of the EU presidency, threatened to cut off development aid should the bill be passed. It can be debated, however, whether this Western response can really be titled an international outcry. In fact, a closer look at legislated - and, more importantly, implemented - gay rights world-wide presents a rather bleak view from a humanitarian angle.

See also:

Reports on LGBT rights (Human Rights Watch), State Sponsored Homophobia (ILGA), LGBT rights by country or territory (Wikipedia) (more…)

Crossing our common future

A diary written by Sailor Lucas Le Provost of the COP15. One of the numerous ships navigating amidst world politics.

Day 1, December, 8th of the year 2009. I left my house and my family behind me for the first time. Xiao Yu was asleep for the better, it avoided screams and tears. My tears. Today has been a long first day on the boat. There are people all over the place, many of them busy with more tasks than they can handle, many of them just wandering around, lost in the hectic excitement. The cacophony of so many different languages mixed with the knowledge of the difficult tasks ahead makes me think of Babel. I hope that God will help us with this one. (more…)

Lecture: The Lisbon Treaty: United States of Europe? - Implications for national sovereignty & democracy

EU flagsOn the 1st of December, the European Union’s new treaty, the Lisbon Treaty, entered into force. Appropriately enough, a lecture on the implications of the new Treaty was held in Lund the following day by Mr Henrik Norinder. Mr Norinder, who has a background in European and Swedish Constitutional Law and who has specialized in Competition Law and Internal Market Law, teaches EU Law at Lund University and is an associate at a law firm. During the lecture Mr Norinder gave a brief background of the Lisbon Treaty and highlighted some of the innovations in the document that from now on will constitute the legal basis for the EU. The lecture ended up in a discussion about whether the Lisbon Treaty could be seen as the creation of a ‘United States of Europe’.


For further reading; Q&A: The Lisbon Treaty (BBC News) Lycka till med den nya kommissionen (SvD) Europa - Treaty of Lisbon (official website) (more…)

Lecture: Somali Piracy

somali_pirates

Last week the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies arranged a seminar about international piracy and Sweden’s upcoming role as Force Commander of the EU naval operation (EUNAVFOR), taking place in the Gulf of Aden. The headline of the seminar was “Historical and Comparative Lessons for Sweden in the Gulf of Aden” and the panel consisted of Lieutenant Commander Kindgren, the Royal Swedish Navy; Dr. Charles Wheeler, Senior Researcher at Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Dr. Mark LeVine, Professor of global history at the University of California.

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Political responsibility in dealing with climate change

Climate change is moving up and up on the international political agenda. At the time of writing, thousands of diplomats, journalists and activists - including myself and a hundred other young liberals - are preparing to enter the arena of the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Special editions of newspapers and features on television make it seem as if we are having an event ahead of us similar to the world football championship.

For further reading; United Nations Climate Change Conference (officiell homepage) Reinfeldts kraftprov (SvD) Ekots rapportering om klimatmötet (sr.se) (more…)