Tag Archives: EU

Building a Coalition to Further Democracy

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Shepard-DefendDignityDuring the last two months, the Berlin Forum on Global Politics has worked with a broad and diverse coalition of organizations and individuals to understand, explain, and confront the threats to democratic institutions and values, socio-cultural diversity, and the stability of global politics that are posed by the resurgence of far-right populism, discriminatory political discourses, and authoritarianism within Europe and the rest of the world.

Our collective efforts have only started, but we invite you – to that effect – to participate, today and throughout the weekend, in peaceful demonstrations that will be held in every state of the United States and in more than 30 countries across the world.

Come and voice your solidarity with women’s rights, affordable health care, and equal pay, and your rejection of far-right populism and its divisive politics of hatred and insularity.

Please read more on the demonstrations that will be held in Berlin today and tomorrow; on those that will also be held in European capitals today; and, on those that will be held in the US today and throughout the weekend.

Come and help us shape the future!

(Photo credit: Shepard Fairey | The Amplifier Foundation)

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New Blog Post: Trump: A New Climate of Doubt

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globalwarmingtweet2The election of Donald J. Trump cast a long shadow over recent negotiations at the Marrakech Climate Change Conference (COP22).

Before the third blog post of the series “Global Challenges of Climate Change”, our guest contributor, William Hull, assesses the new climate realities of a Trump presidency, the potential consequences for the Paris Agreement, and the on-going climate actions of U.S. corporations and citizens.

William also considers, in this blog post, the opportunities left for China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and lingering questions concerning the future role of the U.S. in climate diplomacy. The blog post, entitled ‘Trump: A New Climate of Doubt’, is available here.

(Image credit: Donald J. Trump | Twitter)

New Blog Posts: On the Brexit

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flickr | freestocks orgFor the first time in the history of the European Union, a member state is set to leave the organization. The novelty of United Kingdom’s withdrawal, better known as Brexit, has left many in the European and international community puzzled as to the causes of the referendum results and the political and economic implications of this situation.

Co-founder Miguelángel Verde Garrido analyzes, in two blog posts, various aspects of the Brexit. The first blog post offers an overview of the main social and political facts of the referendum campaigns and results. In the second blog post, Miguel discusses the main reasons for the Brexit and places the issue in a wider context. He argues that the referendum results should be a lesson for every liberal democracy that is failing to deliver its promises and where citizens have forgotten the importance and consequences of their civic responsibilities.

The first part, ‘Brexit, A Web Of Lies, And A Disunited Kingdom’, is available here, and the second part, ‘Lesson Learned: Brexit Was About Much More Than The EU’, is available here.

(Photo credit: freestocks org | Flickr)

#TTIPLeaks: Greenpeace Leaked 248 Pages of TTIP Documents Today

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florez - ttip demo 004Today, Greenpeace Netherlands released 248 pages of leaked documents from the secretive negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the proposed free trade agreement between the United States (US) and European Union (EU). The leaked documents cover 13 chapters that address topics from telecommunications to regulatory cooperation, from pesticides, food and agriculture to trade barriers, the US’ position, and internal EU documents that outline the “tactical state of play of the TTIP negotiations”.

When we published ‘The Transatlantic Colossus: Global Contributions to Broaden the Debate on the EU-US Free Trade Agreement’ in December 2013, our intention – as is the case with Greenpeace – was to draw public attention to the wide range of political, economic, and social implications that the proposed agreement could have on the everyday lives of US and EU citizens as well as on the rest of the world. Nowadays, more than ever, as civil societies on both sides of the Atlantic have voiced their concerns about TTIP and other agreements (i.e., TPP, CETA, and TiSA), it is important to continue broadening the debate with objective information and reliable analyses that include academics, experts, and civil society.

You can read and download the released documents at the dedicated #TTIPLeaks website.

Although we have dedicated and will continue to dedicate efforts to TTIP, we have also started to cover other topics, sharing our understanding on why the EU is failing to provide asylum to refugees, publishing a blog post series on sovereignty and global politics (i.e., in relation to financial markets, the Internet, and trade), and addressing some of the reasons behind environmental disasters. For this reason, we will soon welcome a new contributor to our blog, who will write a series of blog posts on the global politics of climate change and environmental diplomacy.

We will be announcing the launch of the blog post series on global politics of climate change promptly! For now, we leave you to consider how, despite the success of the Paris Agreement, the TTIP negotiations show that trade authorities within the EU and the US may not be as committed as the rest of their polities to seriously addressing the challenges of climate change and upholding environmental standards.

(Photo credit: Berlin Forum on Global Politics & Jonathan Florez | BFoGP)

New Blog Post: TTIP and Sovereignty

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TTIPOur blog post series on sovereignty and global politics comes to a close with an analysis by co-founder Daniel Cardoso on the relationship between trade and sovereignty today. Daniel argues that, when free trade agreements like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are used to advance at all costs the privileges of dominant world forces, sovereignty remains a necessary tool to manage globalization, protect the public interest, and guarantee citizens’ rightful participation in public policymaking.

The blog post, entitled ‘How TTIP Threatens State Sovereignty and Why We Should Be Concerned’, is available here.

(Photo credit: European External Action Service | Flickr)

New Blog Post: “All your Internet are Belong to Us”

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283894146_df1150c0d8_oWe continue our blog post series on sovereignty and global politics with co-founder Miguelángel Verde Garrido‘s analysis of sovereignty in relation to information and communications technology, which argues that proposals for technological and information sovereignty would do little to defend from, for example, mass surveillance, and concludes further efforts to establish global governance would better serve to confront nation states’ challenges regarding the Internet.

The blog post, entitled ‘“All your Internet are Belong to Us”: On Nation States’ Claims of Sovereignty over ICT Architecture and Contents’, is available here.

(Photo credit: Imamon | Flickr)

New Blog Post: ‘Failing to Provide Asylum’

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Bengin Ahmad | FlickrCo-founders Daniel Cardoso and Miguelángel Verde Garrido discuss the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe in this post. They argue that the (mis)management of the refugee crisis by the European Union and European governments has little to do with the extent of the challenge and more with being compromised by institutional and identity crises.

The blog post is the start to a series of events, activities, and materials that the Berlin Forum on Global Politics will organize in order to discuss the ongoing refugee crisis.

The post, entitled ‘Failing to Provide Asylum: Why Europe Cannot Manage the Refugee Crisis’, is available here.

(Photo credit: Bengin Ahmad | Flickr)

Drawing Lessons from NAFTA to Better Understand TTIP

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The Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP) discussed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), on Saturday, May 2, from 19:00, at the Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung in Berlin.

14391291462_2bf9964dd5_bThe event, organized by Mexico Via Berlin, sought to analyze the similarities and differences between TTIP and the North-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established in 1994 by the United States (US), Canada and Mexico. Prof. Nayar López Castellanos, from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), looked at NAFTA and its consequences while we focused on TTIP. Together we discussed how the case of NAFTA can help us anticipate the type of implications that a free trade agreement like TTIP can carry, not only for the US and the EU, but also for third countries.

We are always expanding our partnerships so as to involve more institutions and people in our projects. Our latest collaboration partner was Jonathan Florez, Berlin-based photographer and citizen journalist, who documented the event and captured, through images, the audience’s conclusions about the debate.

This event was part of a seminar series, organized by Mexico Via Berlin, which examined the work done in the context of the Mexican chapter of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT). Further information about the event and about the seminar series can be found here: http://mexicoviaberlin.org/

Language: English and Spanish

(Photo credit: EFF Photos | Flickr)