By Barend ter Haar. “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct,” Trump said in 2015. At that time many people, including myself, dismissed this remark as just another sign of his lack of good manners. It took some time to realise that Trump had expressed an uncomfortable truth. His election as President of the United States proved that about half the Americans preferred an incorrect and inexperienced man above a civilised woman with great experience. This was not a typically American phenomenon. In referenda in several other Western countries more than half of the people voted “incorrectly” against international cooperation and in favour of narrow-minded nationalism. In most Western countries “politically incorrect” populist parties are now among the biggest political parties. The initial reaction of the political elite was usually to isolate and ignore the populists, to portray the people that voted for them as ignorant and deplorable and, if necessary, to repeat a referendum until the “correct” answer was given. This policy failed. Western elites cannot ignore that half or more of their fellow citizens do not support their globalist policies. But neither should anybody ignore how close these elites have come to Plato’s ideal of a philosopher-king. Thanks to this highly educated elite the quality of life in Western countries (public health, food safety, energy security etc.) has reached unprecedented levels. (For example, nobody wants to subject the safety rules for airplanes to a referendum.) So why do so many people oppose the policies of these elites? The main reasons are probably the unequal distribution of the benefits and costs of globalisation and an underestimation of its social-cultural costs. Although almost everybody is better off than his or her grandparents, the benefits of globalism go mainly to the highly educated elites, leading to a growing gap between the elites and the rest. This problem is aggravated by the unequal distribution of the costs of globalisation, in particular, the social-cultural costs. From a purely economic point of view, it is very profitable to import foreign workers, however – and that is where political correctness sometimes prevents us from having a realistic view – integrating people from a different cultural and social background can take several generations. As most of these immigrants find housing in low-income neighbourhoods, the inhabitants of these neighbourhoods bear the highest costs of globalisation, while they usually benefit least from it and have reason to fear that their relative position in society is in danger. It will not help to dismiss their worries as politically incorrect. The great challenge for democratic governments is to take their problems seriously, without ignoring the interests of other people, both within and without its borders.

By Guido Lanfranchi.

On January 18th and 19th, United States Under Secretary of State Andrea Thompson travelled to Geneva and Brussels to discuss the future of the INF Treaty with Russia and with NATO Allies. The deadline for Russia to return to compliance with the Treaty is set to February 5th. Continued violations by Russia – U/S Thompson said – will lead the US to suspend its obligations.

A few hours ahead of a deadline set for today February 5th, the United States and Russia are seeking to iron out their differences regarding compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force Treaty.

The INF Treaty is an arms control treaty that dates back to 1988, when US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to eliminate ground-launched nuclear and conventional missiles with intermediate or shorter range. Recently, the US has grown increasingly critical of the Treaty, threatening to withdraw from it on account of persisting lack of compliance on Russian side.

On January 18th, the two parties met in Geneva for talks on INF compliance. The US delegation was led by Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ms. Andrea Thompson, while the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Sergei Ryabkov, headed the Russian team. In the wake of the meeting, U/S Thompson flew to Brussels, where she held consultations with NATO Allies and sought their backing.

From Brussels, Ms. Thompson briefed the press on the outcome of her talks and on the way forward. U/S Thompson outlined the key messages that the US delegation tried to convey to its Russian counterparts. In the US view, over the last five years Russia has breached the INF Treaty’s provisions for more than 30 times. In spite of a more permissive attitude in the past, the US is not intentioned anymore to turn a blind eye on this issue: if the Treaty is to be preserved – U/S Thompson stressed – “Russia must return to full and verifiable compliance” with it.

While praising the quality of the delegations sent to Geneva and the professional, open atmosphere in which the negotiations took place, Ms. Thompson noted that “disappointingly but not surprisingly” no breakthrough was achieved. Russia has been putting the blame on the US for such failure, with Foreign Minister Mr. Sergei Lavrov accusing the US of not being willing to hold serious talks, and the Russian delegation raising questions about the compliance of US missile defense launchers.

Dismissing such claims as “rhetoric” and false allegations, Ms. Thompson put the whole blame on Russia, accusing it of not providing sufficient and verifiable proof of compliance. If Russia will not properly address its non-compliance within February 5th – Ms. Thompson said – the US will be compelled to reciprocate, and to suspend its obligations under the INF Treaty, for instance by starting research and development activities prohibited under the deal.

While other bilateral arms control agreements, such as for instance the New START, would not be directly affected by such developments, U/S Thompson noted that Russia’s continued lack of compliance with the INF Treaty would surely send a negative signal on Russia’s reliability as a partner at large.

While up to now diplomacy has not managed to yield positive results on the INF Treaty issue, doors remain open for negotiations. In the wake of the Geneva talks, no further sessions focused on this issue have been scheduled ahead of the February 5th deadline.

Nevertheless, Ms. Thompson noted that meetings in other frameworks, such as the upcoming NATO-Russia Council, might well provide avenues for discussing the INF Treaty in the margins, hopefully with a view to finding a diplomatic solution before February. The INF Treaty is of critical importance not only for the US and Russia, but for the whole international community.

Good luck to the negotiators: any good solutions would be more than welcome.

By Abraham Telar Kuc. It was my pleasure to join and met with more than five thousand youth leaders from around the globe, thousands of Egyptian youth and hundreds of world leaders, UN, regional, international affiliated bodies and governments officials, academia, innovators, entrepreneurs, experts, journalists, public figures and other influential people including ministers from Egypt and other foreign nations, ambassadors and some heads of states who gather at the “World Youth Forum 2018” held in Sharm El-Sheikh city, Sinai Peninsula, Arab Republic of Egypt from the 3rd to the 6th of November 2018; for the second year the Egyptian government and youth succeed to organize the most successful and one of the world largest international youth conventions hosted and funded by a single country. Under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah Saeed Hussein El-Sisi the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the next coming chairperson of African Union; the second edition of the World Youth Forum was held under three important themes (Peace, Development and Creativity), were the world youth, experts, policy and decision makers use the forum as a common world platform to discuss and tackle topics, share their experiences, exchange diverse views and invert new ideas related to building and sustaining peace, the role of world leaders in achieving peace, cooperation and partnership between nations, Euro-Mediterranean collaboration , fighting and countering ideological extremism and terrorism, humanitarian efforts and responsibilities, rebuilding societies and states in post conflict, energy providing, water security and climate change. Apart  sideline MAAS summit or Model of Arab and African Summit where youth participants from 67African and Arab nations representing their countries; the world biggest youth gathering also discussed and debated throughout its panel sessions on issues of development, the 2063 African development agenda, enhancing cooperation opportunities between countries, employment opportunities, issues related to women empowerment and how to reduce the gender gap and inequality in the labor market, the rights, empowerment and integration of people with disabilities, role of volunteerism work in societies, building future leaders, role of innovators and entrepreneurs in global economic growth, the role of arts and cinema in shaping communities, creativity, e-sports and games, the effects of social media, digital technology and citizenship. The Egyptian visionary president, innovative government, friendly people and its active youth did not only succeed in organizing the biggest international youth convention; but they manage creatively and diplomatically to influence the thinking of the forum foreign attendees, where the organizers introduced “The Seven Pillars of the Egyptian Identity” which is a book written by Dr. Milad Hanna who is an Egyptian author also, the book descript the influential diversity of Egyptian nation and how Egypt manage throughout the different eras to be a linking point between different world civilizations.And the seven pillars are the Pharaonic pillar, the Greco-Roman pillar, the Coptic Pillar, the Islamic Pillar, the Arabian pillar, the Mediterranean Pillar and the African pillar, in this book the late Egyptian author came through different reasons of why Egypt belong to all this pillars and the connection between the Egyptian and other world most influential civilizations, religious, languages and geopolitical regions. During the regime of late President Gamal Abdel Nassir Egypt use to be strong and influential country specially in Islamic, Arabian, African and other third world regions as its political and diplomatic strongest circle, but decades of negligence and ignorance has changed the geopolitical and diplomatic influence role of Egypt specially in the African continent and Asia; starting with the regime of late President Anwar El-Sadat and continued during the regimes of President Hosni Mubark and President Mohamed Morsi whom give up and turn their back to Africa and the third world only to focus their foreign relations to North Africa, Middle East, Arabian, US, Europe and Islamic regions. The coming of President Abdel Fatah El-Sisito the power in Egypt was a major turning point for the Egyptian foreign policy to regain its political and diplomatic influence in the global arena, African continent, Islamic world, Arabian region, Asia and in the Mediterranean basin countries as it used to be for many centuries; a country call itself (the mother of the world or umm al-donya-مصر أم الدنيا in Arabic)Egypt under the leadership of President El-Sisi the is increasingly regaining its world political and diplomatic influence once again. Through their new foreign policy goals and soft diplomacy strategy president El-Sisi and his government are repositioning and marketing Egypt regionally and internationally as a strong economy, trade and investment destination, commercial partner, cultural and religious linking point, tourism attraction, educational and learning hub; Apart from organizing a lots of regional and international conferences and other influential gatherings El-Sisi Egypt’s is hosting thousands of foreign students on his government scholarships, fellowship and private sponsoring from different countries around the world, visited by millions of tourists and adding to all this the success of Egypt to bring together world youth to its Annual World Youth Forum an initiative which recognize and proof Egypt’s influential and strong diplomacy. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. The author is South Sudanese Journalist, Blogger, TV Producer, Cultural, Political and Youth Activist and postgraduate student of Diplomacy and International Relational Studies at the Institute of Peace, Development and Security Studies – University of Juba; and working currently with South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation and can be contacted through E-mail : telar.abra@gmail.com or phone No : +211912577222.

Benjamin and Donald Ferencz. By Dr. Nevenka Tromp, University of Amsterdam On a sunny day in May of 2019, a wooden bench overlooking the Peace Palace was officially presented to a small but distinguished audience. It was a present from Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazi crimes to the city of The Hague. The donor, a vibrant 98 years old lawyer and activist, flew from the US, more precisely Florida, to be personally present at the event. Everything about the bench was carefully planned by its donor and a small creative team led by his son Donald Ferencz. The bench is made of wooden blocks, that resemble the form the bricks of the Peace Palace building. In the middle of it there are metal letters “LAW NOT WAR” The long bench curves elegantly on the street in front of the high iron fence, giving its users a beautiful view of the Peace Palace building. Its shape is such that people can sit on its both sides.

  Not far from the bench, at the first street corner, starts Benjamin Ferencz pad. Namely in May 2017 the city of The Hague honored, then 97 old Ferencz with a path named after him. The typical blue-and-white street board points invitingly towards the park that surrounds the Peace Palace building. Ferencz has been a fixture in The Hague vibrant international legal scene ever since the city profiled itself as a world capital of peace and justice in the early 1990s. He was for decades heavily involved in the lobbying efforts to create a permanent international criminal court and he greeted the affirmation of the Rome Statute in 1998 with the words that “an international criminal court – the missing link in the world legal order – is within our grasp.” Indeed, in 2002 the International Criminal Court (the ICC) was created.

But Ferencz had yet another mission to fulfil. Along with his son Donald, and a group of distinguished scholars, lawyers and diplomats, he rallied vigorously and intensively to add to the ICC Statute – crime of aggression. And they succeed. As of July 2018, crime of aggression became the fourth crime – next to war crimes, crime against humanity, and genocide – under the ICC’s jurisdiction. Not insignificant for the story is the fact that this was a historical development in the international criminal justice given that it is first time since Nuremberg’s Nazi trials that an international tribunal has been enabled to prosecute crime of aggression. Ferenczstarted his legal career in 1947 in Nuremberg and at age 27 he became the youngest US prosecutor to prosecute the Nazi crimes. This extraordinary beginning of his professional life will mark Ferencz. The evidence he encountered in his work made him feel that he had peeked through he door of Inferno. After the war he moved to New York where he practiced law in a private firm until 1975, when he finished the book Defining International Aggression-The Search for World Peace. More books followed and his ideas led to activism of which the creation of the ICC and inclusion of crime of aggression in the ICC statute are –are his most extraordinary achievements. Benjamin Ferencz showed us that law can change the way how people think and behave.