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donate Summary for Blätter 03/2009
Norman Birnbaum
New US-President, new foreign policy?
Since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the whole world is looking at Washington: Will there be a substantial change in U.S. foreign policy, or will there be "business as usual"? Norman Birnbaum, Professor em. at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and co-editor of "Blätter", introduces the main new appointees in the field of American foreign policy and discusses the challenges for the new President – from the Near East and Iraq to Russia, China and Afghanistan.
Elmar Altvater
Capitalist plagues
Energy crisis, climate collapse, hunger and financial chaos
The biblical plagues seem to be reborn in really existing capitalism. Elmar Altvater, Professor em. at Freie Universität Berlin, analyses the tremenduous challenges lying ahead. Altvater criticises the current anti-crisis strategies as well as the shortcomings of Keynesian policies. His thesis: The various crises can only be fought effectively if we understand their interconnectedness.
Gianni Vattimo
Postmodern Communism
Can we afford the fetishisation of economic growth any longer? Gianni Vattimo, theorist of postmodernism and Professor of Philosophy, sees the need for a radical brake with capitalism. He suggest a rebirth of "ideal communism" – denouncing both Stalinism and mainstream left reformism.
Axel Troost and Nicola Liebert
The billion-grave
About tax havens and shadow banks
The root causes of the current financial crisis are not only to be found in a lacking regulation of financial markets, but also in tax havens. Axel Troost, Member of the German Bundestag (Left Party), and journalist Nicola Liebert analyse the financial effects of tax havens and shadow banks and propose alternatives for a new regulation of the global economy.
The NATO war against Serbia
Ten years after
Ten years after the war, the controversy about it is still going on. Was the war necessary to avoid serbian crimes? Or was it rather the peak of a fundamentally failed Balkan policy of the West? Ludger Volmer, state secretary at the department of foreign affairs at the time of the war, and Wolf Oschlies, Professor at the University of Gießen, develop different views of the causes and consequences of this conflict.
Ann Jones
Congo: the war against women
The war in Congo has been going on for 15 years – a war in which millions have died. Despite various truces, the killing has still not come to an end. Ann Jones, who worked for an international aid organisation in the east of the country, shows one of the darkest sides of the war: the abuse, rape and homicide of hundreds of thousands of women. Jones' thesis: The brutality against women aims at the destruction of the whole community.
Helmut Kramer
The fight over "Kriegsverräter"
Counterfeiting history for political reasons
Over 60 years after the end of Nazi-regime, the German Bundestag is still discussing the rehabilitation of the so-called "Kriegsverräter", i.e. soldiers who left the troops during the war. Judge Helmut Kramer exposes current lies about the Kriegsverräter in the context of the Bundestag's judicial panel. He criticises these last attempts to "save the honour" of the Wehrmacht as well as the shameful role of party politics.
Published 2009-03-05
Original in German
© Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik
© Eurozine
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