Astana 2017: contents and projects of the next International Exhibition   By Alessandro Lundini. On 24 and 25 February Astana hosted the second Meeting of International Participants of “Future Energy” EXPO which will take place in the capital city of the Central Asian republic from 10 June to 10 September 2017. The conference gathered around 300 delegates from over 100 countries and representatives of international organization and business. The meeting was the occasion to sign many agreements for participation to EXPO and to discuss financial, technical and logistic issues, in order to create an exchange of information between the organizers and the participants. Now, more than 70 countries and 40 organizations officially confirmed their adhesion to the 2017 Exhibition. Towards EXPO: the concept behind it “Future Energy” wants to put on the international political agenda environmental and energy issues. The main theme will be developed through the analysis of three challenges related to energy. The first is the environmental challenge, related to the policies of protection and to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. The second one takes into consideration economic implications about energy, especially its rational and efficient use. The third challenge is the social aspect related to energy, which is thought as the broadening of the right of access to the resources, in order to extend the possibilities of development and modernization. A recurring concept behind EXPO 2017 is the building of a platform of debate and interaction among countries and the sharing of different experiences. A formative purpose, which will be one of the main keys of the Exhibition, beyond recreational and architectural aspects. Answering to our question on what kind of message Astana sends to the world, Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales told IsAG: «Among top priorities there are the prevention of climate change, the protection of environment and a new definition of sustainability. When Kazakhstan – which is one of the most important oil&gas producers – chooses this theme, at the same time takes world leadership in the field of new sources of energy, despite its economy depends by hydrocarbons. This is a strong message». In response to our question on the relation between the idea of “Future Energy” and the past and present of Kazakhstan on energy themes, the EXPO Commissioner Rapil Zhoshybayev reminded the whole work done by his country in environmental and energy issues. He also spoke about the commitment for nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, and the recent establishment of the Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank in 2015. Zhoshybayev explained: «All these initiatives are contributing to the realization of a peaceful climate for what concerns the theme of energy and in Astana EXPO 2017 new technological opportunities will be shown to the entire world». Initiatives, legacy and aspirations Given standard dispositions of the International Bureau of the Exhibition – the area of EXPO will cover 25 hectares, while entire site will cover much more, around 173.4 hectars. Beyond exhibition buildings, the area will have spaces for housing and the necessary infrastructures. At the centre of the exhibition area there will be the Kazakh pavillion, the “Museum of the Future”, an 80 meters sphere and the symbol of the event. The surrounding area will be completed by international participants and thematic pavillions. One of these structures will be dedicated to the exhibition of “best practices” in the field of energy and environmental sustainability, selected by a special international commission. Moreover, organizers included other four thematic pavillions, called “World of Energy”, “Energy for Life”, “Energy for All” and “My Future Energy”. Their aim is to develop in depth different fields, ranging from efficient use of energy, innovations in transport and urban planning to “social” and economic aspects related to this issue. In the wake of what happened in the most successful examples of great events, Astana is already elaborating a strategy for the “legacy”, in order to maintain and develop the material and immaterial achievements of EXPO. A first proposal is the institution of the Astana International Financial Center, which should open since January 1 2018 in some of the Exhibition buildings. The aim is to attract investment flows from abroad thanks to the provision of a special tax and judicial regime for operators. The immaterial legacy of EXPO, instead, is represented by the idea of President Nursultan Nazarbayev of a Center for the development of “green technologies” and support for investment projects under the aegis of United Nations. In this way, Kazakhstan wants to make of Astana one of the main political and financial Central Asian cities, and raise the attractiveness of the capital even in the tourist sector. Astana 2017 from a geopolitical perspective Speaking at the end of the Meeting, Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales said that EXPO 2017 is on a «good truck» and that the importance of this Exhibition is given by the fact that this edition, compared to that of Milan, takes a «strong geopolitical value». This statement can be taken into account because of various reasons. First of all, it must be considered the high relevance of the main theme. In this particular phase of the global economy, energy assume a great role in shaping the economies of developed countries and energy producers ones. Equally important is the attention to new sources of energy and environmental protection. A second aspect derives not only by the theme but from the host country itself: it’s the first time for a Central Asia state and CIS member. The “Kazakh option” marks also the growing relevance of a region that wants to be perceived as a bridge between Europe and Asia. The choice of an energy-rich country, more than a contradiction, can mean the recognition of the necessary evolvement towards a new kind of economic development. Kazakhstan is committed to the implementation of Green Bridge and Atom Projects initiatives at international level and the promotion of renewable resources at home, even if EXPO must not be considered as a definitive result but rather a strengthening of these policies. With this candidacy, Kazakhstan obtained another political and diplomatic victory. EXPO probably is the most significant international event hosted in this country since its independence. Moreover, another political aspect is that Kazakhstan has been able to present itself as a dynamic and reliable player on the international scene, despite clear difficulties and critical aspects are still present and could represent a potential negative factor for the future development and stability of the country.   Alessandro Lundini, IsAG Research Associate of the “Eurasia” Program, is co-Editor (with Dario Citati) of “L’Unità nella diversità. Religioni, etnie e civiltà del Kazakhstan contemporaneo” (2013), and attended the second Meeting of International Participants in Astana.

Noah, Peter Pan and the Sleeping Beauty / Europe – Identity Imagined   By Professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic. Economic downturn; recession of plans and initiatives; €-crisis; Brexit and irredentism in the UK, Spain, Belgium, Denmark and Italy; lasting instability in the Euro-Med theatre (debt crisis of the Europe’s south – countries scrutinized and ridiculed under the nickname PIGS, coupled with the failed states all over the MENA); terrorism; historic low with Russia; influx of predominantly Muslim refugees from Levant in unprecedented numbers and intensities since the WWII exoduses; consequential growth of far-right parties that are exploiting fears from otherness which are now coupled with already urging labor and social justice concerns, generational unemployment and socio-cultural anxieties… The very fundaments of Europe are shaking. Strikingly, there is a very little public debate in Europe about it. What is even more worrying is the fact that any self-assessing questioning of Europe’s involvement and past policies in the Middle East, and Europe’s East is simply off-agenda. Immaculacy of Brussels and the Atlantic-Central Europe-led EU is unquestionable. Corresponding with realities or complying with a dogma?   One of the leading figures of European Renaissance that grossly inspired European renewal, Dante, puts Prophet Muhamed to the 8th circle of his famous Inferno. The only individuals bellow Muhamed were Judas, Brutus, and Satan. “Islam was seen as the negation of Christianity, as anti-Europe…and Muhammed as an Antichrist in alliance with the Devil…” as Rana Kabbani noted in her luminary piece Imperial Fictions. However, both religions trace their origins back to Abraham. They both lived in harmony (or at least they cohabitated for centuries within the MENA proper, notably in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq). Why was than there no harmonious relationship between Christian Europe and the Middle East? Was Europe opting to repress the Muslims in order to artificially generate a homogenous European self? This is a story of the past centuries – one may say. Still, absence of any self-reflection on the side of the EU towards its policy in the Middle East today, makes it worth to revisit some of the bleak chapters of European history, and the genesis of its pre-secular and secular thoughts.   Civitas Dei Brussels: Extra Euro-Atlanticum, nulla salus Europe came to be known as ‘Christendom’ because its identity was imagined or invented as the Catholic in contradistinction to the Islamic Middle East and to the Eastern (true or Orthodox) Christianity. The Christianity, of course, originated in the Middle East not Europe. It was subsequently universalised and Europeanised by the Balkan-born Roman Emperor, who spent much of his life on Bosporus and hence was buried in Asia Minor – Constantin the Great. Surely, it was by legal design of this glorious Emperor that the city of Rome was (re)turned into an administrative periphery, politico-ideological outcast and geostrategic suburbia. Therefore, the post Roman/Byzantine inauguration of ‘Christendom’ as a pure western culture necessitated a sustained intellectual acrobatics: Such an inversion (ideological and geopolitical periphery presenting itself as a centre) required both physical coercion and imposed narrative over the extensive space and time. This a ’la card creation of Catholic Christendom or to say: Western Ummah, served two vital objectives: domestic and external. Both helped solidification of the feudal socio-economic and politico-military system, and based on that of a precolonial European collective identity. Domestically, it served for a coherent sense of selfhood (us vs. them paradigm): unity, oppression and obedience (extra ecclesiam nulla salus – no salvation outside the church, following the old Roman rational ‘no world beyond Limes line’, or the modern one: ‘no prosperity outside the EU’). Externally, here was the justification for military voyages and other forms of organized plunders, all coupled with a coercive societal identity. A Catholic Renaissance Europe soon realized that, in order to effectively project itself – to physically and/or mentally colonise overseas territories – it needed either coercion (rarefying and assimilation), labour-camp detention (slavery) or final solution (physical extermination). These strategic dilemmas over the instruments to use influenced and dominated European debates of the time. It brought about the conception of the ‘noble savage’ – who could be assimilated, versus the ‘ignoble savage’ who was destined for either labour detention or final solution. That coerce-or-exterminate dilemma of ‘soul salvationists’ even culminated within the pre-Westphalian Christian Ummah. It was in the famous Valladolid controversy of 1550, by which Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s notion of the ignoble savage faced off against Bartolomé de Las Casa’s view of the noble savage. In both cases – the claim was offered – the Amero/AfroAsian Natives deserve salvation as they have a ‘strong desire for it’, but the views differed on whether the Natives’ prone wishes exceeded their mental capacity to receive Christianity. Hence, the debates – which were the roots and origins of the later liberal theories as well as the early precursors of the subsequent regime change, humanitarian intervention and preemption doctrines – always presupposed the inferiority (and passivity) of the Natives. Frankly, this remains a constant behaviour in international relations: E.g. views on Libya differed, as they differ today on Syria. However, what is common to all views is; nobody consults the local population and considers what they would like for themselves.[1]   Legitimizing the imperialism of imagination In a course of subsequent centuries, the notion of final solution underwent through a sophistication, and was eventually replaced by the combination of cultural conversions/ submissions (induced submissiveness), politico-military obedience and socio-economic apartheid. A subtle apartheid (that is easy to deny, but hard to prove) is usually better than the brute genocide (which is traceable and easily quantifiable). At the peaks of imperialism a noble-ignoble savage dilemma was embodied in an implicit and explicit racism. Debate was focused on a question whether the civilizational inferiority can be remedied through the imperial ‘civilizing’ mission, with social Darwinists and ‘scientific’ racists being rather pessimistic, but more solutions’ instructive. The so-called central dilemma of liberalism (Is it liberal to impose liberal values on illiberal societies) was of course only an innocently looking tip of the large iceberg, of the tireless othering. This ‘epistemology’ was further soft-embedded in the so-called Peter Pan theory with a romanticised image of the Other as more childishly careless and helpless, than intentionally cruel and barbaric; being rather alluring, promiscuous and exotic. Essentially, the East as an innocently enveloped child who would never grow up. This, of course, gave rise to various binary categorisations, the us-vs.-them/either-or listings in order to facilitate a decisive and long-lasting differentiation between the constructed West and the East.[2] The West as a constructed male vs. the East as a constructed female. A ‘mind-oriented’ west vs. a ‘body-oriented’ east. Phallusoid peninsulas and islands of (Atlantic-Scandinavian) Europe vs. womb-like continental landmass of Afro-Asia; Erective and explosive vs. reflective and implosive; an Omnipresent (ever seafaring and trading) extroverted male vs. humble, handcrafting, waiting female. Masculin, phallusoid, progressively erected temporal linearity vs. periodic menstruation leakages in regressive cycles of stagnation. Clearly, anything beyond that was deemed inconsequential. Physical, material, ideological, active, polarizing, determined vs. metaphysical, spiritual, esoteric, atmospheric, inclusive, holistic. No wonder that all operationalized ideologies originated solely in Europe. What else, since no one ever, but Asians revealed any significant religion to the world.[3] Gradually, the imperial civilizing mission (Expansion is a path to Security) got a new form. It became a moral duty – R2P (Responsibility to Protect), as much as the parental duty is to raise their infant child. The handsome, masculine and strong Western Prince Charming has one duty – to emancipate his Eastern Sleeping Beauty. Giving a ‘kiss’ meant projecting the western physical military presence, Christianity and commerce.[4] Who was/is the Eastern Sleeping Beauty? Rudyard Kipling’s famous 1899 poem, The White’s Man Burden offers some answers while describing the Eastern peoples as ‘half-devil and half-child’. “The blame of those ye better / The hate of those ye guard” – Kipling warns and instructs, he describes and invites. In his classic novel of 1847, Tancred, much celebrated British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli claims “A Saxon race, protected by an insular position, has stamped its diligent and methodic character of the century. And when a superior race, with a superior idea to Work and Order, advances, its state will be progressive…All is race!” Quite an intellectual acrobatics for Disraeli himself, who was neither Saxonic nor Christian. Over the period, western Catholic missionaries constituted one of the most powerful and influential lobbying voices for this civilizing mission. It was of course weaponisation of religion, a notorious misuse for ideological purposes. Same like today, fanatics then and there, were identified and further radicalised, to say ’inspired’. Eventually, they usually got hired as the AGITPROP/Ideological police by the predatory elites, hid behind the Feudal European states. Naturally, the justification was looked upon in any Biblical narrative. E.g. the re-invoking the Genesis story of Noah’s three sons, and interpreting it as the ‘duty’ of Japheth (Europe) to absorb Shem (the Asians) and enslave and colonise Ham or Canaan (the Black Africa and Indianos of America). Amazingly, according to Genesis ch.9, verse 27: “God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant”. The later Protestant revival infused the next wave of Christian missionaries to force this narrative into the matrix of colonisation as ‘wilful’ implants onto the minds and bodies of overseas peoples. Therefore, James Lorrimer and other architects of that-time political and international legal order divided the world in three segments: civilized White, barbarous Yellow and savage Black. Yellows were ‘fallen people’, a terra infantilis to civilize (what will later evolve into indirect rule, with a social apartheid in place), the area occupied by the Blacks, Redbones and Aborigine was a ‘borderless space’, terra nullius just to conquer and settle, since the indigenous have no ‘birthright’ to it (meaning: physical colonisation and direct rule, final solution and genocide). Unfinished business of ‘salvation’ came back to Europe of 20th century. Hitler’s interpretation of it was: civilized White (Arian) – Central Europe; Yellows (to be put under indirect rule, with ‘only’ social apartheid in place) Atlantic and Scandinavian Europe; Blacks (predestined for a physical colonisation of superior race upon a decisive final solution and genocide) all Slavic states of Eastern and Russophonic Europe. Indeed, ever since the 18th century on, European notion that ‘civilization’ was the monopoly of the West, clearly implied that there is no civilization – and therefore, salvation – outside the western model. Famous historian Toynbee calls it “a secularized version of the primitive Western Christian proposition Nemini salus …nisi in Ecclesia.” See for yourself how much current debates, sparked by the ongoing refugee crisis, follow the above patters.   Triangular economy of othering There is a consensus within the scientific community that the critical factor in redefining Europe as the advanced West was the expansion of its strategic depth westward to the America upon 1492. This enabled the so-called triangular transcontinental trade, brutally imposed by Europeans: Enslaved Africans shipped to America in exchange for gold and silver from there to Europe, in order to cover European deficits in importing the cutting-edge technologies, manufactured products, other goods and spices from a that-time superior Asia and the Middle East.[5] The Afro-America yields were so colossal for Atlantic Europe that many scholars assume the so–called Industrial revolution rather as an evolutionary anomaly than a natural process of development, which was primarily pivoting in Asia. Such a rapid shift from a peripheral status to an ‘advanced civilization’ of course necessitated a complete reconstruction of western identity. This acrobatics – in return – also enhanced the split between Eastern/Russophone, closer to and therefore more objective towards the Afroasian realities, and Western (Atlantic/Scandinavian/ Central) Europe, more exclusive, self-centred and ignorant sphere. While the Atlantic flank progressively developed its commercial and naval power as to economically and demographically project itself beyond the continent, the landlocked Eastern Europe was lagging behind. It stuck in feudalism, and involuntarily constituted a cordon sanitaire to Islam and the Russo-oriental East. Gradually, past the 15th century the idea of ‘Western Europe’ begun to crystallise as the Ottoman Turks and the Eastern Europeans were imagined and described as barbarians. During the 17th and 18th century, Atlantic Europe portrayed itself as the prosperous West that borders ‘pagan/barbarian’ neighbours to its near east, and the ‘savage’ neighbours to its south and west, and Far East. Consequently, we cannot deny a role that the fabricated history as well as the ‘scientific’ racism and its theories played in a formation and preservation of European identity. The Enlightenment was a definite moment in the reinvention of European identity. The quest came along with the fundamental question who are we, and what is our place in the world? Answering that led on to the systematisation, classification and – frankly – to invention of the world. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, a kind of an intellectual apartheid regime was forming. The rise of the West was portrayed as a pure virgin birth as John M. Hobson fairly concluded. Europeans delineated themselves as the (only or the most) progressive subject of the world history in past, presence and future, while the Eastern peoples (e.g. Asian as ‘the people without history’) were seen as inert, passive and corrosive. While the Solar system ‘became’ heliocentric, the sake and fate of our planet turned plain – ‘Europocentric’. The world is flat mantra set the stage. (following the geostrategic dictatum: the expansion is a path to security. “The idea of Europe found its most enduring expression in the confrontation with the Orient in the age of imperialism. It was in the encounter with other civilizations that the identity of Europe was shaped. Europe did not derive its identity from itself but from the formation of a set of global contrasts. In the discourse that sustained this dichotomy of Self and Other, Europe and the Orient became opposite poles in a system of civilizational values which were defined by Europe.” – notes Delantry. Even the English word to determine, position, adapt, adjust, align, identify, conform, direct, steer, navigate or command has an oriental connotation. To find and locate itself opposite to Orient, means to orient oneself. Feudal Europe had identified itself negatively against Levant and Islam. Clearly, it was an identity heavily resting on insecurity. An external manifestation of inner insecurity is always aggressive assertiveness. Is this still alive or even operative? How it correlates today? Europe repeatedly missed to answer to the East and Middle East through a dialogue (instruments) and consensus (institutions) although having both (CoE, OSCE, EU’s ENP, Barcelona Process, etc.). For the last 25 years, it primarily responded to the MENA militarily (or/and with sanctions, which is a socio-economic warfare) – via ‘Coalitions of the Willing’. However, for a rapidly economically and demographically contracting Europe, the confrontation does not pay off anymore. While practically still yesterday (by the end of WWII), four of the five largest economies were situated in Europe, today only one is not in Asia. None is in Europe.[6] (Likewise, while the US economy contributed with 54% of the world output in 1945, today it hardly has 1/3 of that share.) Simply, the Old Continent is not a wealthy club anymore. It is a place with a memory of its wealthy past. The EU has to learn how to deescalate and compromise. It is in its best interest, for the sake of its only viable future. Therefore, it is a high time for the Brussels-headquartered Europe to evolve in its views and actings. Let us start by answering the question: Is the so-called Russian expansionism or MENA ‘Islamofascism’ spontaneous or provoked, is it nascent or only a mirror image of something striking in front of it? And after all, why the indigenous Europe’s Muslims (those of the Balkans) and their twins, indigenous Christians of MENA (those of Levant) are now two identically slim shadows on a bulletproof wall. Photography by Ms. Anna Lehner. ——————-    Author Professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic  is chairperson and professor in international law and global political studies, Vienna, Austria. He authored three books: FB – Geopolitics of Technology (published by the New York’s Addleton Academic Publishers); Geopolitics – Europe 100 years later (DB, Europe), and the just released Geopolitics – Energy – Technology by the German publisher LAP. No Asian century is his forthcoming book, scheduled for later this year. anis@corpsdiplomatique.cd  References: Kabani, R. (1994), Imperial Fictions: Europe’s Myths of Orient, Pandora Books Brading, D.A. (1991), The First America: the Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State 1492-1867, Cambridge University Press, (pages 80-88) Losada, A. (1971), The Controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in the Junta of Valladolid, The Northern Illinois University Press, (pages 280-282) Toynbee, A. J. (1934-61), A Study of History, Vol VII: Universal States; Universal Churches (Oxford University Press 1954) and Vol XII: Reconsiderations (Oxford University Press 1961) McBrien, R. (2000), Lives of the Popes, Harper San Francisco Wright, L. (2006), The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, First Vintage Books Kipling, R. (1899), The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands, NY 2(99) McClure’s Magazine, (reprint, 1934) Disraeli, B. (1847), Tancred: Or the New Crusade (Complete), (reprint: Echo Library August 28, 2007) Curtain, P.D. (1984), Cross-Cultural Trade in World History, Cambridge University Press Abu-Lughod, J. L. (1989), Before European Hegemony, Oxford: Oxford University Press Lorimer, J. (1880), The Institutes of Law: a Treatise of the Principles of Jurisprudence as Determined by Nature (2 ed.), Edinburgh – London: William Blackwood & Sons (retrieved via Archive.org as of 14022016) Wolf, E. R. (1982), Europe and the People Without History, Berkeley: University of California Press Hobson, J.M. (2004), The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization, Cambridge University Press Delantry, G. (1995), Inventing Europe, London, Macmillan (p.84) Bajrektarević, A. (2013), Multiculturalism is D(r)ead in Europe – MENA Oil and the (hidden) political prize Europe pays for it, Nordic Page, Oslo Norway Palacio, A. (2016), Europe on the Sidelines, Project Syndicate (13 Feb 2016, pg.27). ^[1] For centuries, it follows the same matrix: doctrinated/induced inferiority, denouncing, attack, marginalization, passivation, plunder, indirect rule, remote control presence. Or, reduced to a binary code formula: victimisation-criminalisation. Namely: humanitarian intervention. ^[2] Small surprise that the 43^rd US President (un)famously claimed: ‘you are either with us or against us’… His father, the 41^st US President, strategized the Cold War and summarised its epilogue effectively: ‘We win, they lose’. ^[3] To this end: Inventive, proactive, scientific, rational, disciplined, sell-controlled/self-constraining, sane, sensible, practical, ‘mind-oriented’, independent, and most of all paternal West. The East, of course, was on the opposite side and inferior: imitative, passive, superstitious, lazy, irrational, spontaneous, insane, emotional, exotic, body-oriented, dependent, and above all, child-like. Tall, matured ‘masculinity’ vs. immature and physically underdeveloped ‘femininity’. The masculine phallus of military, industry, technology, shipping and trade that is welcomed, if not heartedly invited, to tap and drill the womb-like dwell of resources, while at the same time seeding the ideological semen of ‘civilization’. ^[4] Most of the so-called International/Cross-continental Trade Pacts are closer to the capitulation agreements than to any fair, balanced and mutually beneficial commercial accords. What a popular language of today calls barriers to trade are in fact the socio-economic sovereign rights and other checks-and-balances national well-being instruments. ^[5] In order to illustrate a magnitude, let’s note a following data: Starting from an early 16th century for consecutive 300 years, 85% of the world’s silver production and 70% of the world’s gold output came from the Americas. Further on, during the 17th, 18th and 19th century the role of Black slavery, slave trading, American Black slave-driven production centres and Negro markets, all significantly contributed to Atlantic Europe’s agricultural and industrial ‘breakthrough’ – as we are celebrating it today. Even the US Founding Fathers were slaveholders (5 of the 7 principal ones: Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington). ^[6] The moment of ‘liberal truth’ always comes from Atlantic. Thus, Ana Palacio who served both sides of Atlantic (as the former Spanish Foreign Ministers and the former Senior Vice President of the Washington-based WB) – among many others – recently warned the Western Ummah: “After years of handwringing over Obama’s strategic “pivot” to Asia, even as Russia was stirring up trouble in Ukraine, Europe is once again a strategic focus for the US. But the deeper message is far less encouraging. The US is acting because its European partners have not. This divergence is troubling. American engagement is necessary to provide momentum, but it is Europe’s weight that has served as the critical mass required to move the world’s liberal order in a positive direction. From the perspective of the European Union, the latest US security bailout raises the possibility that after more than two decades of growing prominence, Europe will lose its agenda-setting power.” (text underlined, by A.B.)

The 4th edition of The Hague Marathon will take place on Sunday 25 September 2016, shortly after the International Day of Peace on 21 September and the Sunday right after Prince’s Day. With the support of Diplomat Magazine, the marathon organisers hope to make this year’s event the most successful yet. Stichting The Hague Marathon is a charitable organisation which aims to provide long distance running and walking events within The Hague and its surrounding regions, thereby showcasing many beautiful landmarks such as the International Peace Palace, Scheveningen Pier, The Hague Forest and the Dutch Houses of Parliament. This year, all profits will go to the Heart Foundation, although many other charities will also be represented at the event. The official website is www.denhaagmarathon.nl and runners from all over the world are represented in the distances of 2.2 km, 21km, 42km and 63 km. The event is organised primarily by volunteers including from Diplomat Magazine, and we welcome anyone who would like to contribute. Diverse tasks include administrative work at the office at Raamweg 47; traffic regulations on the day itself; manning the water-posts; escorting the ultra-marathon runners; packing lunches and folding runners’ shirts; storing luggage from the runners; and general promotional tasks in The Hague to raise awareness of the event. If you like to participate in this fun-filled athletic and cultural event, please send an email to info@denhaagmarathon.nl. The Stichting holds a “borrel” or drink every third Friday of the month for all volunteers, and every volunteer receives a goody bag and runner’s T-shirt on the marathon day itself. Naturally, all volunteers are provided with a lunch packet on the day, and there is a dinner organised in the weeks following the event to thank those who participated. The Peace Marathon is also an excellent opportunity for expatriates to work alongside Dutch volunteers, practise your Dutch language skills and enjoy the typical Dutch ‘bier en bitter garnituur’. Moreover, the Stichting allows companies, organisations, institutions and Embassies the possibility to participate in the event as a Business Run. With this Business Run, we offer teams the opportunity to sign up for the half marathon, the marathon or the ultramarathon. Every team should have 5 members, and is free to choose both the distance to run and the members of its team (relatives can also take part). The registration cost for a Business Run team is Euro 395 (excl. 6% BTW). Every fourth team of the same organisation pays only Euro 345 (excl. 6%) per team. For the Business Run teams, we offer special facilities with the co-operation of Novotel on the Hofweg and these include: Changing rooms Snacks and drinks in a special reception A special starting section for the Business Run teams A meeting and photo with a well-known Hague personality Notification of your name and logo as a Business Run Partner on the DHM website Special baker’s delicacy of ‘Haagse Kakker’ for every team Green-yellow runner’s shirt for all team members and for two companions, a lovely collector’s item and 50% off a room with bath and shower at Novotel The Hague.