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World of Resistance [WoR] Report, Part 1: The Global Awakening
World of Resistance [WoR] Report, Part 1: The Global Awakening
By: Andrew Gavin Marshall
Originally posted at Occupy.com
The world today is in the midst of the most monumental social, political and economic upheavals in human history – a state of continual protests, uprisings and what may be considered inevitable revolution on a global scale. Power that had been centralized for roughly 500 years among the Atlantic powers of Western Europe and North America is rapidly shifting to include the rise of the East, as China, India and others operating within established, institutional frameworks of power get wooed by the former Western imperial managers to become colluders in empire, instead of competition.
To add to this, global wealth and power is being centralized among a highly interconnected and transnational ruling class: a small global elite who own and operate the major banks, corporations, foundations, think tanks, universities and international organizations. It is this numerically minute group of plutocrats whom empire serves. Long established among the Western elites, this group of plutocrats is attempting to bring the oligarchies of other powerful and rising states firmly within its organizational and ideological structure.
Think of it as an established Mafia that helped build up a few other crime families in order to extend its influence – and which now has to contend with the increasing autonomy and competition that these strengthened crime families pose, as it attempts to bring them closer within the established 'Family' instead of risking an all-out Mafia war in which all parties would surely lose. The changing structures of global power, along with the ever-increasing unrest of populations around the world, has created perhaps the most challenging situation for any empire in human history.
Zbigniew Brzezinski has written and spoken for years on the issue, publishing in establishment journals and speaking at elite think tanks about what he calls the "Global Political Awakening." Brzezinski is not a casual observer nor a resigned academic; he sits within the heart of the intellectual and institutional foundations of the American empire alongside other notable figures such as Henry Kissinger and Joseph Nye. Brzezinski was even recruited as a foreign policy adviser to the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, who referred to Brzezinski as "one of our most outstanding thinkers."
Brzezinski wrote in 2005 that the United States needed to face "a centrally important new global reality: that the world's population is experiencing a political awakening unprecedented in scope and intensity, with the result that the politics of populism are transforming the politics of power." Thus, the "central challenge" for the U.S., noted Brzezinski, "is posed not by global terrorism, but rather by the intensifying turbulence caused by the phenomenon of global political awakening. That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing."
In a 2004 speech to the elite-populated Carnegie Council, Brzezinski explained that the global awakening was partly "spurred by America's impact on the world," by virtue of the fact that America is able "to project itself outward" and "transform the world," creating an "unsettling impact, because we are economically intrusive, [and] culturally seductive." In other words, American imperialism is – by its very nature – creating its antithesis: the global awakening.
The awakening "is also fueled by globalization," Brzezinski further explained, "which the United States propounds, favors and projects by virtue of being a globally outward-thrusting society." The process of globalization, however, "also contributes to instability, and is beginning to create something altogether new: namely, some new ideological or doctrinal challenge which might fill the void created by the disappearance of communism."
In other words, since the end of the Cold War, when Marxism and Communism represented the largest and most organized global ideological challenge to Western state-capitalist democracy, Brzezinski maintains there has been an ideological vacuum in terms of ideas opposing the present global order. The global awakening, however, is changing the circumstances. As he stated: "I see the beginnings, in writings and stirrings, of the making of a doctrine which combines anti-Americanism with anti-globalization, and the two could become a powerful force in a world that is very unequal and turbulent."
Brzezinski noted in 2005 that, "the population of much of the developing world is politically stirring and in many places seething with unrest," having become "acutely conscious of social injustice to an unprecedented degree, and often resentful of its perceived lack of political dignity." A "community of shared perceptions" was being created by the spread of radio, television and Internet access, creating the potential for energies to be galvanized which "transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still perches."
The youth of the Third World represent "a demographic revolution," and being "particularly restless and resentful," they also represent "a political time-bomb… creating a huge mass of impatient young people." The "potential revolutionary spearhead" of the Third World youth was, in Brzezinski's view, "likely to emerge from among the scores of millions of students" concentrated in the educational institutions of the developing world. Having largely originated from "the socially insecure lower middle class and inflamed by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting… connected by the Internet… Their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred."
In 2008, Brzezinski wrote in the New York Times that "global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination." In his view, the necessary course of action "is to regain U.S. global legitimacy by spearheading a collective effort for a more inclusive system of global management." Brzezinski noted, in a speech he gave that same year to Chatham House, that "in the current post-colonial era, it is too costly to undertake colonial wars" which is why the U.S. should attempt to avoid getting further "bogged down" in the Middle East and Central Asia, where America would be "engaged in a protracted post-imperial war in the post-colonial age, a war not easy to win against aroused populations."
Later, in a 2010 speech to the Canadian International Council (CIC), an elite think tank based in Canada, Brzezinski explained the "total new reality" of the awakening of mankind, explaining that "most people know what is generally going on… in the world, and are consciously aware of global iniquities, inequalities, lack of respect, exploitation. Mankind is now politically awakened and stirring."
In a 2012 speech at the European Forum for New Ideas (EFNI), Brzezinski stated that 20 years following the end of the Cold War, "a truly comprehensive American global domination is no longer possible [because] in recent decades, worldwide social change has experienced unprecedented historical acceleration, particularly because instant mass communications… cumulatively have been stimulating a universal awakening of mass political consciousness."
"The resulting widespread rise in worldwide populist activism is proving inimical to external domination of the kind that prevailed in the age of colonialism and imperialism," he continued. "Persistent and highly motivated populist resistance of politically awakened and historically resentful peoples to external control has proven to be increasingly difficult to suppress, as protracted guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, Algeria, or Afghanistan have amply demonstrated; and as the rising turmoil in both the Middle East and Southwest Asia are foreshadowing." ("The Role of the West in the Complex Post-Hegemonic World," Speech at the European Forum for New Ideas, 26 September 2012)
As Brzezinski explained to his fellow elites and imperialists in the United States and other powerful Western societies: "The worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening." As he stated at Chatham House in 2008, the world's major powers, "new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people."
Institutional and imperial power structures have never been more globalized or concentrated in human history; yet, simultaneously, never have they been under more threat from an awakened humanity. We have unprecedented access to information and communication; never have we had a greater opportunity to transform the world for the better and to challenge – or make obsolete – the prevailing global power structures.
Yet, simultaneously, never has humanity – collectively – faced such a monumental challenge: a combination of a massive global economic crisis, growing levels of poverty and hunger, tens of millions dying from poverty-related causes every year, massive global land grabs, high-tech police states and surveillance societies, murder by remote control drone terror campaigns, a more distanced decision-making apparatus than perhaps ever before, and an ecological crisis of such proportions that it threatens the very survival of the human species, let alone all other life forms on Earth.
The World of Resistance (WOR) Report is a new Occupy.com series that aims to provide greater context and understanding about the causes, and the consequences, of social unrest, protests, riots, resistance, uprisings, rebellions and revolutions spreading across the globe. What form is the "global political awakening" taking in different regions, under different conditions, and with what differing degrees of success and failure?
This series aims to explore the evolution of the long road to world revolution so that we may better understand, and support, the causes of human and biological survival to ensure that people's "central challenge" to elites – that is, the quest for "human dignity" – is made all the more impossible for 1% institutions and ideologies to undermine or repress.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a 26-year old researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada. He is project manager of the People's Book Project, chair of the Geopolitics Division of The Hampton Institute, research director for Occupy.com's Global Power Project, and hosts a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.
Counterinsurgency, Death Squads, and the Population as the Target: Empire Under Obama, Part 4
Counterinsurgency, Death Squads, and the Population as the Target: Empire Under Obama, Part 4
By: Andrew Gavin Marshall
Originally posted at The Hampton Institute
Part 1: Political Language and the 'Mafia Principles' of International Relations
Part 2: Barack Obama's Global Terror Campaign
Part 3: America's "Secret Wars" in Over 100 Countries Around the World
While the American Empire – and much of the policies being pursued – did not begin under President Obama, the focus of "Empire Under Obama" is to bring awareness about the nature of empire to those who may have – or continue – to support Barack Obama and who may believe in the empty promises of "hope" and "change." Empire is institutional, not individual. My focus on the imperial structure during the Obama administration is not to suggest that it does not predate Obama, but rather, that Obama represents 'continuity' in imperialism, not "change." This part examines the concept of 'counterinsurgency' as a war against the populations of Iraq, Afghanistan and spreading into Pakistan.
Continuity in the imperialistic policies of the United States is especially evident when it comes to the strategy of 'counterinsurgency,' notably in Afghanistan. As examined in Part 1 of this series, language plays a powerful role in the extension and justification of empire. George Orwell noted that political language was "largely the defense of the indefensible," where horrific acts and policies – such as maintaining colonial domination, dropping atomic bombs on cities – can only be defended "by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face." Thus, political language is employed, consisting "largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." One specific example was provided by Orwell in his essay – Politics and the English Language – which holds particular relevance for the present essay: "Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification." Virtually the same process or strategy is today employed using words like counterinsurgency or counterterrorism. These military strategies are frequently employed, and the words are carelessly thrown around by military officials, politicians, intellectuals and media talking heads, yet little – if any – discussion is given to what they actually mean.
Near the end of the Bush administration in 2008, General David Petraeus was appointed as the Commander of CENTCOM (Central Command), the Pentagon's military command structure over the Middle East and Central Asia, overseeing the two major ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, Obama had appointed Petraeus as commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, and in 2011, he was appointed as CIA Director. Petraeus is a good starting point for the discussion on counterinsurgency.
Petraeus was previously commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, having quickly risen through the ranks to lead Bush's "surge" in 2007. Prior to the surge, Petraeus was initially sent to Iraq in 2004 given the responsibility of training "a new Iraqi police force with an emphasis on counterinsurgency." While in Iraq, Petraeus worked with a retired Colonel named Jim Steele, who was sent to Iraq as a personal envoy of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Steele acquired a name for himself in 'counterinsurgency' circles having led the U.S. Special Forces training of paramilitary units in El Salvador in the 1980s, where he turned them into efficient and highly effective death squads waging a massive terror war against the leftist insurgency and the population which supported them, resulting in the deaths of roughly 70,000 people.[1]
Jim Steele had to leave a promising military career after his involvement with the Iran-Contra scandal – trading arms to the Iranians for their war against Iraq to finance the death squads in Central America – and so he naturally turned to the private sector. But he had so impressed a Congressman named Dick Cheney, that when Cheney was Vice President, he and Rumsfeld maintained a cozy relationship with Steele who was then sent to Iraq in 2003 to help train the Iraqi paramilitary forces. Steele, working with David Petraeus and others, helped establish "a fearsome paramilitary force" which was designed to counter the Sunni insurgency which had developed in reaction to the U.S. invasion and occupation, running ruthless death squads which helped plunge the country into a deep civil war. Petraeus' role in helping to create some of Iraq's most feared death squads was revealed in a 2013 Guardian investigation.[2]
However, in 2005, the Pentagon had openly acknowledged that it was considering employing "the Salvador option" in Iraq in order "to take the offensive against the insurgents." John Negroponte, who had been the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras when the U.S. was running death squads out of Honduras in Central America was, in 2005, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. The Pentagon and the CIA were considering what roles they could play, possibly using U.S. Special Forces, to help train Iraqi "death squads" to hunt down and kill "insurgents."[3]
Within the first three years of the Iraq war and occupation, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published research indicating that between 2003 and 2006, an estimated 650,000 – 940,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war.[4] A survey from 2008 indicated that there had been more than one million deaths in Iraq caused by the war.[5]
This is referred to as a "counterinsurgency" strategy. In 2006, General Petraeus wrote the foreward to the Department of the Army's Field Manual on Counterinsurgency, in which he noted that, "all insurgencies, even today's highly adaptable strains, remain wars amongst the people."[6] A 1962 U.S. counterinsurgency guide for the U.S. war in Vietnam said it even more bluntly when it noted that, "The ultimate and decisive target is the people… Society itself is at war and the resources, motives, and targets of the struggle are found almost wholly within the local population."[7]
At the risk of being redundant, let me put it even more simply: counterinsurgency implies a war against the population. An insurgency is an armed rebellion by a significant portion – or sector – of a population against an institutional authority or power structure (usually a state or imperial power). Thus, for the American Empire – adhering to its rigid 'Mafia Principles' of international relations – an 'insurgency' is always a threat to imperial domination: if people are able to resist domestic power structures (say, a specific U.S. ally/client state), then other people around the world may try the same. The United States will seek to counter insurgencies for several reasons: to maintain the stability of their ally, to maintain the confidence of other allies, to maintain its reputation as the global hegemon, and to counter more direct threats to U.S./Western interests, such as the loss of access to resources or key strategic points, or in the case of U.S. military occupations, to crush any and all resistance.
In Part 1 of this series, I briefly summarized some major strategic reports written by key U.S. imperial planners, such as Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Brent Scowcroft. A 1988 National Security Council-Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy was co-chaired by Kissinger and Brzezinski, and directly acknowledged that most conflicts across the world were "insurgencies, organized terrorism, [and] paramilitary crime," including "guerilla forces" and "armed subversives." The report stated that the U.S. would have to intervene in these "low intensity conflicts" in which the "enemy" was "omnipresent" (or, in other words, in which the target was the population), because if the U.S. did not wage war against armed rebellions or uprisings around the world, "we will surely lose the support of many Third World countries that want to believe the United States can protect its friends, not to mention its own interests."
This is a key example of 'Mafia Principles.' The Mafia is able to expand its influence not simply through coercion, but through offering 'protection.' Thus, businessmen, politicians or other individuals who pay dues to the Mafia are in turn given protection by the Mafia. If they are confronted with a problem – competition, threats to their position, etc. – the Mafia will use threats or force in order to protect their patrons.
Take, for example, a corrupt politician (I know, how redundant!) who is in the pocket of the Mafia. A mob boss may ask for a favour – to pass (or block) a particular law – and in turn, the politician gets protection from the mob. Suddenly, an up-and-coming young politician gains in popularity in opposition to the corrupted political figure. The politician asks the mob for some help (after all, the mob doesn't want to lose the person in their pocket for the one who appears to be a wild card), and so the mob attempts to bribe or makes some threats to the aspiring political figure. If the bribes and/or threats don't work, then force may be used. Suddenly, the aspiring political figure was found washed ashore along the city's riverbanks.
This has served several purposes: the politician is kept in the pocket of the Mafia (always easier than trying to find a new point man), the mob maintains its reputation as an organization not to be challenged or disobeyed (fear plays a essential part in maintaining power), and the politician is more indebted than ever to the mob. Interests are secured, reputations are maintained, and power is strengthened.
An 'insurgency' in a client state or against a Western occupation poses such a threat to the local and international power structures of imperialism. Thus, the Empire must counter the insurgency in order to undermine the immediate threat to its forces (or those of its allies/clients), to maintain its reputation as what Obama recently referred to as "the anchor of global security,"[8] and thus, to maintain the confidence of other allies around the world, and to pose a powerful threatening force to other populations which may attempt resistance. Interests are secured, reputations are maintained, and power is strengthened.
The notion that a counterinsurgency campaign is targeting a population resisting some form of authority – whether justified or not – and that such a strategy leads to enormous human tragedy, civilian casualties, suffering, chaos, destruction and human social devastation simply is of little significance to those who advocate for such doctrines. If the interest is in maintaining 'power,' the suffering of people is irrelevant. For the Empire, power and profit are what matters, people are incidental, and most often, in the way.
In the midst of the massive civil war in Iraq that Petraeus helped to bring about (with his 'counterinsurgency' operations of building death squads), Bush appointed Petraeus to head the planned "surge" of 20,000 U.S. troops into the country in 2007, which was hailed in the media and by the political class and their intellectual sycophants as a profound success.
By 2008, violence in Iraq was down, and this was of course interpreted as a success of the counterinsurgency/surge strategy. The reality was, as several commentators and analysts have pointed out, that the violence decreased because most of the ethnic cleansing in Iraq had taken place by then, and the Shia had won.[9] One academic study noted that just prior to the surge, there was a massive ethnic cleansing that took place within Iraq, and so by the time the surge began, noted one researcher, "many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country," and that, "violence has declined in Baghdad because of inter-communal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning." The effect of the surge was not to reduce violence, but rather, noted the report: "it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved."[10]
Even General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO who led the NATO war against Yugoslavia in the 1990s, wrote in 2007 that as the surge was taking place, "vicious ethnic cleansing is under way right under the noses of our troops."[11] Upon the disgraced resignation of Petraeus from the position of CIA Director (due to some insignificant political sex scandal) in 2012, the Washington Post reflected on the "surge" strategy back in 2007 which propelled Petraeus "to the top," writing that the surge strategy was "about helping Iraqis."[12] Naturally, such a notion – in the Western media – is a given 'fact' without the need for qualification: we did it, therefore it is 'good'; we did it in Iraq, therefore it was for the benefit of Iraq; we did it to Iraqis, therefore it was for Iraqis.
Counterinsurgency strategy – or 'COIN' as it is referred to in military parlance – shares a great deal with terrorist strategy, namely that, "the target is the people." The difference, however, is that one is employed by a massive state-military power structure while the other is used by small networks of individuals (often) operating outside of state structures. Both, however, are typically driven by relatively small groups of violent extremists.
Obama briefly appointed General Stanley McChrystal – former commander of the JSOC forces running secret wars around the world – as the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2009, who was a strong advocate of "counterinsurgency tactics."[13] In March of 2009, Obama announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan as a dual 'AfPak' strategy, expanding the Afghan war theatre directly into Pakistan, a nation of some 180 million people and armed with nuclear weapons.[14]
The strategy in Afghanistan was expected to drive militants into neighboring Pakistan, likely destabilizing the country.[15] As the Obama administration began its "surge" into Afghanistan in March of 2009, under the leadership of General McChrystal, who formerly ran Cheney's "executive assassination ring," an additional 21,000 troops were sent to the country. The Pakistani military warned the Americans that they were worried that U.S. actions in Afghanistan would not only send an increased level of militants, including the Taliban, into Pakistan's lawless areas, but that it could also "prompt an exodus of refugees from southern Afghanistan." In May of 2009, under U.S. pressure, the Pakistani military launched an offensive against the stateless North West Frontier Province (NWFP), displacing over 2 million people.[16]
This offensive was urged by State Department official Richard Holbrooke, as well as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and General David Petraeus.[17] The Independent referred to the displacement which resulted as "an exodus that is beyond biblical," creating roughly 2.4 million internal refugees within the span of a month. Across the world, only Sudan, Iraq and Colombia had larger internal refugee populations. The speed of the "displacement" reached up to 85,000 per day, matched only by the Rwandan genocide in 1994.[18] The refugee crisis had subsequently "inflamed murderous ethnic rivalries" across Pakistan, noted the Wall Street Journal.[19] However, by late August, Pakistan had returned roughly 1.3 million of the refugees to the areas from which they were displaced.[20]
In October, Obama sent an addition 13,000 troops to Afghanistan.[21] The Pakistani Prime Minister warned that this would "destabilize his country."[22] In December, Obama announced an intention to send an additional 30,000 U.S. forces to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of U.S. troops in the country to roughly 100,000.[23]
In a 2009 State Department cable from Pakistan, Anne Patterson reported that U.S. policy and actions in Pakistan "risks destabilizing the Pakistani state, alienating both the civilian government and military leadership, and provoking a broader governance crisis in Pakistan without finally achieving the goal." However, Patterson, seemingly without paradox, wrote that the U.S. strategy was "an important component of dealing with the overall threat" of terrorism.[24]
Further, noted Patterson, the U.S. strategy in relation to Afghanistan, which included supporting an increased role for India, Pakistan's long-standing state-enemy, was pushing the Pakistanis "to embrace Taliban groups all the more closely," and that U.S. arms deals with India "feeds Pakistani establishment paranoia and pushes them close to both Afghan and Kashmir-focused terrorist groups while reinforcing doubts about U.S. intentions."[25]
Another 2009 diplomatic cable from Patterson in Pakistan noted that nuclear proliferations was "a bigger threat than terrorism," while Pakistan had been building nuclear weapons "at a faster rate than any other country in the world," according to a U.S. national intelligence official in 2008. U.S. support for India's nuclear program (which is not a signatory to the NPT), has continued to cause Pakistan to refuse to sign the NPT, and had encouraged Pakistan to instead develop more nuclear weapons. Patterson described the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. as one of "mutual distrust," explaining that, "the relationship is one of co-dependency we grudgingly admit – Pakistan knows the US cannot afford to walk away; the US knows Pakistan cannot survive without our support."[26]
Patterson noted in a 2009 cable that most Pakistanis view America with "suspicion," and that the Pakistani government was worried about the influx of militants and refugees from the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan, and that they would prefer to implement a strategy of "dialogue, deterrence and development" (instead of military operations) in regards to the country's own troubled regions which were becoming hot-beds for the growth of extremist groups. Patterson recommended that the U.S. government instruct the Pakistanis that, "it will be difficult for international donors to support a government that is not prepared to go all-out to defend its own territory." In other words: if Pakistan wants military and economic aid and IMF 'assistance,' it will have to continue military operations.[27]
Fred Branfman, who examined in detail Wikileaks cables related to Pakistan, summarized their findings as thus: "A disastrously bungled U.S. policy toward Pakistan has led a majority of the Pakistani people to see the U.S. as their 'enemy' and strengthened jihadi forces in both the northwest territories and Punjab heartland and thus made it more likely that anti-American forces could obtain Pakistani nuclear materials." As America continues its war in Afghanistan, it will "continue to destabilize the Pakistani state," not to mention, so too will undertaking a 'secret war' inside Pakistan itself.[28]
Since General Petraeus had so much "success" with creating death squads in Iraq, plunging the country into a deeper civil war, supporting the massive ethnic cleansing and undertaking a war against the population ("counterinsurgency" campaign), he was naturally the right choice for Obama to appoint in 2010 when it came to leading the "counterinsurgency" and "surge" into Afghanistan, replacing General McChrystal.
As revealed by Bob Woodward in 2010, under the Obama administration, the CIA was "running and paying for a secret 3,000-strong army of Afghan paramilitaries whose main aim is assassinating Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives not just in Afghanistan but across the border in neighboring Pakistan's tribal areas," likely working "in close tandem" with U.S. Special Forces undertaking "kill-or-capture" missions, all of which is approved by the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.[29]
The Afghan "surge" of the Obama administration was a profound failure. Following the first year of the surge, 2010 was recorded as the "deadliest year" for Afghan civilians since the war and occupation began in 2001, with over 2,700 civilians killed, up 15% from the previous year, according to the UN.[30] In 2011, the death toll reached another record high, with more than 3,000 civilians killed, according to the UN, an 8% increase from the previous year, and the number of deaths caused by suicide bombings increased by 80% from the previous year.[31]
The U.S. troops presence was to be reduced significantly following the formal "withdrawal" in 2014, after which time Obama pledged to keep a "small troops presence" in the country.[32] The remaining force would largely be geared toward "counterterrorism" operations in the country.[33] In June of 2013, the "formal" handing over of security operations from U.S.-NATO forces to Afghan forces was initiated, with a 350,000-strong military and police force trained by NATO and the US to manage internal 'security' against the continued 'insurgency' in the country.[34]
In other words, nearly thirteen years after a U.S.-NATO war and occupation began in Afghanistan, the war will continue indefinitely, and the "target" will remain as the population. In our media, we hear about deaths of "militants" or "Taliban" as if these are easily confirmed card-carrying or uniform-wearing groups and individuals (just as we report in regards to Obama's global drone bombing terror campaign). Yet, these reports often go unquestioned, much like during the massive counterinsurgency war the U.S. waged in Vietnam, where the majority of the population was largely opposed to the imperial presence of the United States, and where those whom the U.S. killed were given the all-encompassing label of 'Viet Cong' – the "enemy." So long as those who we murder in our foreign occupations are given the correct 'label' (whether Viet Cong, Taliban, al-Qaeda, or the ever-bland 'militants' and 'terrorists'), our continued slaughtering is continuously justified.
Few comments are made about the notion of the right of populations to resist foreign military occupations. Regardless as to whether or not we – as individuals – approve of particular militant groups in places like Afghanistan or Pakistan, we do not have the 'right' to dictate who rules those nations. And, in fact, our presence strengthens the more extremist, militant, violent and deplorable groups precisely because they are those which are best equipped to resist another – far more – violent, extremist, militant and deplorable group: namely, Western military occupation forces.
Here is a hypothetical: imagine you live in the United States, and the government collapses amid disarray and disagreement (I know, I'm being redundant again!), but then, China suddenly decides to send in its army of 2.2 million forces to occupy the United States in order to act as an "anchor of security" for the world. Imagine Chinese forces installed a puppet government, maintained an occupation for over a decade, and ultimately ruled the country by force. Surely, in the United States, armed resistance would emerge. Yet, who – in the U.S. – are those most likely to resort to armed resistance?
Chances are, such groups would emerge among the militant right-wing Christian groups spread out across much of the country, holding extremist ideologies which much of the population finds deplorable, but also being among the best armed members of the domestic American population. Other gangs and criminal groups would likely flourish, war lords and drug lords would rise to high places (as they have in Afghanistan, Mexico, and Colombia), and then the Chinese would resort to a 'counterinsurgency' strategy, in which the whole population is punished. This would ultimately increase support for the domestic militants, despite their deplorable ideologies, and a subsequent cycle of violence and destruction would likely ensue.
Surely, such a scenario is not desired – at least not by the many Americans I know and consider friends and family – but such is the scenario we impose upon countries and people all across the planet. This insanity must stop. There must be – in the West and most especially within the United States itself – the development of an anti-imperial/anti-empire social movement. It is not only a requirement out of some uncomfortable argument about the 'economic costs' of extending an empire around the world, but it is a moral necessity. As Obama himself stated in September of 2013, "for nearly seven decades the United States has been the anchor of global security."[35] That is seven decades of American imperialism on a truly global scale, for which the populations of the West must now make amends, and that can only be done by ending the empire. Nothing less than the absolute abolishment of imperialism – in all its modern forms – is of the utmost human necessity.
We can have destruction, or we can have dignity. We can have hypocrisy, or we can have honesty. We can have fascism, or we can have a future. We can have hatred, or we can have humility. We can have repression, or we can have possibility. We can have war, or we can have no more. We can have Empire, or we can have Humanity. We cannot have both. Clearly, those in power are not equipped with the principles or possible threat of having a 'moral moment' in order to make such decisions: Barack Obama is no exception. Obama is merely the latest political personification of imperial phlegm spewed forth from the charred chest of the American oligarchy as their chief representative, diligently applying Mafia principles to international relations.
The future of humanity – and the ending of empire – can only exist in hands of humanity itself, not a single human being with concentrated power, but rather, with the actualization – the decentralization – of power among the population.
When Hitler's second in command – Hermann Goering – was asked at the Nuremberg trials about Nazi Germany plunging the world into war, he replied: "Why, of course, the people don't want war… Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship… voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."[36]
It would seem, then, that the only ones qualified to determine foreign policy are those it affects the most – those who are sent off to kill, and those who are targeted to be killed – in short: the population. Peace is possible, if people are empowered. Otherwise, imperialism is inevitable, and extinction is nearly ensured. There is a choice: we can passively accept imperialism and internalize a sense of insignificance and apathy; or, we can acknowledge that the whole global imperial system and structures of domination were established and are maintained precisely because those few in power – the tiny minority of global oligarchs – who rule the world are very well aware that when people work together, locally and globally, change is inevitable. If people were so easily controllable, so automatically apathetic, or inherently insignificant, why are there so many institutions, ideologies, techniques, structures and systems designed to keep people that way?
We can have Empire, or we can have Humanity. The choice is yours.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a 26-year old researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada. He is Project Manager of The People's Book Project, chair of the Geopolitics Division of The Hampton Institute, research director for Occupy.com's Global Power Project, and hosts a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.
[1] Mona Mahmood, et. al., "From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington's man behind brutal police squads," The Guardian, 6 March 2013:
[2] Ibid.
[3] John Barry, "'The Salvador Option'," Newsweek – The Daily Beast, 7 January 2005:
[4] "The Iraq deaths study was valid and correct," The Age, 21 October 2006:
[5] Luke Baker, "Iraq conflict has killed a million Iraqis: survey," Reuters, 30 January 2008:
[6] Thomas A. Bass, "Counterinsurgency and Torture," American Quarterly (Vol. 60, No. 2, June 2008), page 233.
[7] Nick Cullather, "'The Target is the People': Representations of the Village in Modernization and U.S. National Security Doctrine," Cultural Politics (Vol. 2, No. 1, 2006), page 41.
[8] Barack Obama, "Transcript: President Obama's Address To The Nation On Syria," NPR, 10 September 2013:
[9] Patrick Cockburn, "Iraq: Violence is down – but not because of America's 'surge'," The Independent, 14 September 2008:
[10] Maggie Fox, "Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq," Reuters, 19 September 2008:
[11] Wesley Clark, "Bush's 'surge' will backfire," The Independent, 7 January 2007:
[12] Max Fisher, "The Iraq success story that propelled David Petraeus to the top," The Washington Post, 9 November 2012:
[13] Ann Scott Tyson, Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Fired. The Washington Post: May 12, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051101864.html
[14] George Packer, The Last Mission. The New Yorker: September 28, 2009: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/28/090928fa_fact_packer
[15] Andrew Gray, US Afghan surge could push militants into Pakistan. Reuters: May 21, 2009: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21412211.htm
[16] AP, Afghanistan surge tied to Pakistan stability. MSNBC: May 21, 2009: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30871807/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/
[17] George Packer, The Last Mission. The New Yorker: September 28, 2009: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/28/090928fa_fact_packer
[18] Andrew Buncombe, In Pakistan, an exodus that is beyond biblical. The Independent: May 31, 2009: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/in-pakistan-an-exodus-that-is-beyond-biblical-1693513.html
[19] YAROSLAV TROFIMOV, Refugee Crisis Inflames Ethnic Strife in Pakistan. The Wall Street Journal: May 30, 2009: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124363974401367773.html
[20] Nita Bhalla, Some Pakistan war displaced must winter in camps: U.N. Reuters: August 20, 2009: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE57J2N020090820
[21] Ann Scott Tyson, Support Troops Swelling U.S. Force in Afghanistan. The Washington Post: October 13, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/12/AR2009101203142.html?hpid=topnews
[22] US surge in Afghanistan 'may destablize Pakistan'. Press TV: November 30, 2009: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=112484§ionid=351020401
[23] Scott Wilson, Obama: U.S. security is still at stake. The Washington Post: December 2, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120101231.html
[24] US Embassy Cables, "US embassy cables: 'Reviewing our Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy'," The Guardian, 30 November 2010:
[25] Ibid.
[26] Fred Branfman, "WikiLeaks Revelation: How US Policy in Pakistan Heightens the Risk of Nuclear Attack," AlterNet, 16 January 2011:
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Julius Cavendish, "How the CIA ran a secret army of 3,000 assassins," The Independent, 23 September 2010:
[30] Laura King, "U.N.: 2010 deadliest year for Afghan civilians," Los Angeles Times, 10 March 2011:
[31] Damien Pearse, "Afghan civilian death toll reaches record high," The Guardian, 4 February 2012:
[32] Scott Wilson and David Nakamura, "Obama announces reduced U.S. role in Afghanistan starting this spring," The Washington Post, 11 January 2013:
[33] Michael R. Gordon, "Time Slipping, U.S. Ponders Afghan Role After 2014," The New York Times, 25 November 2012:
[34] Nathan Hodge, "Blast Mars Day of Security Handover in Kabul," The Wall Street Journal, 18 June 2013:
[35] Barack Obama, "Transcript: President Obama's Address To The Nation On Syria," NPR, 10 September 2013:
[36] G.M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (New York: Signet, 1961), pages 255-256.
Empire Under Obama, Part 1: Political Language and the 'Mafia Principles' of International Relations
Empire Under Obama, Part 1: Political Language and the 'Mafia Principles' of International Relations
By: Andrew Gavin Marshall
Originally published at The Hampton Institute
In the first part of this essay series on 'Empire Under Obama,' I will aim to establish some fundamental premises of modern imperialism, or what is often referred to as 'international relations,' 'geopolitics', or 'foreign policy.' Specifically, I will refer to George Orwell's writing on 'political language' in order to provide a context in which the discourse of imperialism may take place out in the open with very little comprehension on the part of the public which consumes the information; and further, to draw upon Noam Chomsky's suggestion of understanding international relations as the application of 'Mafia Principles' to foreign policy. This part provides some background on these issues, and future parts to this essay series will be examining the manifestation of empire in recent years.
On August 21, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad was accused of using chemical weapons on its own population, prompting Western countries – led by the United States – to declare their intention to bomb Syria to somehow save it from itself. The reasons for the declared intention of launching air strikes on Syria was to punish the Syrian government, to uphold international law, and to act on the 'humanitarian' values which the West presumably holds so dear.
George Orwell discussed this in his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language, written two years prior to the publication of 1984. In his essay, Orwell wrote that, "the English language is in a bad way" and that language is ultimately "an instrument which we shape for our own purposes." The decline of language, noted Orwell, "must ultimately have political and economic causes… It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." Still, Orwell suggested, "the process is reversible."[1] To reverse the process, however, we must first understand its application and development.
When it comes to words like "democracy," Orwell wrote: "It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different."[2]
In our time, wrote Orwell, "political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties." Thus, he noted, "political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness." Orwell provided some examples: "Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification." This type of "phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them."[3] Today, we use words like counterinsurgency and counterterrorism to describe virtually the same processes.
Thus, noted Orwell: "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms… All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia… But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can be spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better." Political language, wrote Orwell, "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."[4]
These critiques are arguably more valid today than when Orwell wrote them some 67 years ago. Today, we not only use political language to discuss 'democracy' and 'liberty,' but to justify war and atrocities based upon our 'humanitarian' interests and 'values.' I have previously discussed the uses and abuses of political language in the context of the European debt crisis, using words like 'austerity,' 'structural reform,' 'labour flexibility' and 'economic growth' to obfuscate the reality of the power interests and effects of the policies put in place, spreading poverty, misery and committing 'social genocide.'[5]
When it comes to empire, language is equally – if not more – deceptive; hiding immoral, ruthless and destructive interests and actions behind the veil of empty words, undefined concepts, and make-believe 'values.' I firmly believe that in order to understand the world – that is, to gain a more realistic understanding and view of how the global social, political and economic order actually functions – we need to speak more plainly, directly, and honestly to describe and dissent against this system. If we truly want a world without war, destruction, empire and tyranny, we must speak honestly and openly about these concepts. If we adopt the language of deception to describe that which we are given no accurate words to describe, we run a fool's errand.
In other words, if you are against war and empire in principle, yet engage in the concocted debates surrounding whatever current war is being pushed for, debating the merits of the one of usually two positions fed to the populace through the media, punditry and pageantry of modern political life, then you simply reinforce that which your own personal values may find so repulsive. If you are not given a language with which to understand issues and the world in a meaningful way, then you are curtailed in your ability to think of the world in a non-superficial way, let alone articulate meaningful positions. By simply adopting the political language which makes up the 'discourse of empire' – allowing for politicians, pundits, intellectuals and the media to justify and disagree to various degrees on the objectives and actions of empire – your thoughts and words become an extension of that discourse, and perpetuate its perverse purposes.
In the recent context of Syria, for example, those who are 'in principle' against war, and hold personal values akin to those 'humanitarian' values which are articulated by the political elites in the name of justifying war, may then be succumbed into the false debate over – "what is the best course of action?" – "to bomb or not to bomb?" – and while the horror of chemical weapons use may trigger an impulse to want to end such usage, the media and political classes have framed the debate as such: should we let Syria get away with using chemical weapons? Should provide more support to the 'rebels'? How should we try to end the conflict in Syria?
This is a false debate and empty, for it poses answers as questions instead of questions looking for answers. In other words, the question is not – " what can we do to help Syria?" – the question is: "what have we done in Syria?" When you ask that question, the answer is not appealing, as the strategy of the West – and specifically the United States – has been to prolong the civil war, not stop it. Thus, when you have asked the right questions, and sought more meaningful answers, then you can ask – "what can we do to help Syria?" – and the answer becomes simpler: stop supporting civil war. But one must first learn to ask the right questions instead of choosing from one among many pre-packaged "solutions."
Mark Twain once wrote, "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uniformed. If you read the newspaper, you're misinformed." If you view yourself as 'politically conscious' or 'engaged,' and yet, you engage only with thoughts and words presented to you by the corporate-owned media and politicians – who allow for a very limited spectrum of variation in views – you're not "politically conscious," but rather, politically comatose. Though your own personal values, interests and intentions may be honourable and sincere, they are made superficial by adopting superficial language and thoughts.
To rectify this, we must speak and think honestly about empire. To think and speak honestly, we must look at the world for what it is, not to see what we want to see, that which supports our pre-conceived notions and biases, but to see what we want to change. We have at our fingertips more access to information than ever before in human history. We have the ability to gather, examine and draw explanations from this information to create a more coherent understanding of the world than that which we are presented with through the media and political pandering. In establishing a more accurate – and ever-evolving – understanding of the world, we are able to reveal the lies and hypocrisy of those individuals, institutions and ideologies that uphold and direct the world we live in. The hypocrisy of our self-declared values and intentions is exposed through looking at the real actions and effects of the policies we pursue under the guise of political language.
If the effects of our actions do not conform to the values we articulate as we undertake them, and yet, neither the language nor the policies and effects change to remedy these inconsistencies, we can come to one of two general conclusions. One, is that our political leaders are simply insane, as Einstein defined it – "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results" – or; they are liars an deceivers, using words for which they hold personal definitions which are not articulated to the populace, attempting to justify the indefensible, to promote the perverse and serve interests which the general population may find deplorable. While I think that – in many cases – it would be presumptive to rule out insanity altogether, it strikes me as more plausible that it is the latter.
Put in different terms, politicians – if they rise high enough to be in positions in which they become advocates and actors in the propagation of empire – are high-functioning sociopaths: they deceive and manipulate for their own selfish interests, hold no hesitations to act immorally and knowingly cause the suffering and destruction of others. Imagine what our world would look like if serial killers were running countries, corporations, banks and other dominant institutions. I imagine that our world would look exactly at it is, for those who run it have the same claims to moral superiority as your average serial killer; they simply chose another path, and one which leads to the deaths of far more people than any serial killer has ever – or could ever – achieve.
So, let's talk about Empire.
Mafia Principles and Western 'Values'
Renowned linguist, scholar and dissident Noam Chomsky has aptly articulated Western – and notably American – foreign policy as being based upon 'Mafia Principles' in which "defiance cannot be tolerated." Thus, nations, people and institutions which "defy" the American-Western Empire must be "punished," lest other nations and peoples openly defy the empire. This principle holds that if a smaller, seemingly more insignificant global actor is able to "successfully defy" the empire, then anyone could, and others would likely follow.[6]
Thus, for the empire to maintain its 'hegemony' – or global influence – it must punish those who detract from its diktats, so that others would not dare defy the empire. As Chomsky has suggested, this is akin to the way the Mafia would punish even the smallest of vendors who did not pay their dues, not because of financial loss to the 'Godfather,' but because it sends a message to all who observe: if you defy the Godfather, you will be punished.
Extending this analogy to 'international relations,' we can conclude that the United States is the 'Godfather' and the other major Western states – notably Britain, France, and Germany – are akin to the Mafia 'capos' (high-level bosses). Then you have China and Russia, who are significant crime bosses in their own right, though far from holding anywhere near the same weight of influence as the 'Godfather.' Think of them as separate crime families; usually working with the Godfather, as there is a relationship of co-dependency between them all: the Godfather needs their support, and they need the Godfather's support in order for all parties to have a significant influence in their criminal racketeering and illicit markets.
As with any crime families, however, cooperation is often coupled with competition. When the Godfather steps on the personal turf of the other crime families – such as Syria in relation to Russia and China – then the other families push back, seeking to maintain their own turf and thus, maintain their leverage when it comes to power and profits.
Now, for those who believe American and Western political leaders when they discuss 'values' that they uphold, such as 'democracy', 'liberty', the 'rule of law', or any other 'humanitarian' notions of life, justice and peace, I have two words for you: grow up. The Western world has no precedent for upholding values or acting on the basis of 'morality.' One of the central issues we face when dealing with modern empire is that we have very little means – or practice – in communicating honestly about the nature of the world, or our role within it. Language is undermined and inverted, even destroyed altogether. Waging war in the name of 'peace' undermines any meaningful concept of peace which we may hold. Supporting coups in the name of democracy reveals an empty and inverted concept of what we may typically think of as democracy. Yet, this is common practice for the West.
When Cuba had its revolution in 1959, brining Castro to power on a little island just south of the United States, overthrowing the previous American-supported dictator, the U.S. implemented a policy of covert, military and economic warfare against the tiny and desperately poor nation. The main reasoning was not necessarily that Cuba had become 'Communist', per se, but rather, as a 1960 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate noted, Cuba had provided "a highly exploitable example of revolutionary achievement and successful defiance of the U.S."[7] For the 'Godfather,' such an example of "successful defiance" could spur other nations to attempt to defy the U.S. Thus, Cuba had to be made an example of.
When the Eisenhower administration imposed economic sanctions upon Cuba (which have been extended through every subsequent administration to present day), the objective was articulated within internal government documents of the National Security Council (NSC) and other U.S. agencies responsible for the maintenance and expansion of American imperialism (such as the State Department, CIA, Pentagon, etc.).
Noting that the sanctions "would have a serious effect on the Cuban people," denying them medical equipment, food, goods and necessities, President Eisenhower explained that the "primary objective" of the sanctions was "to establish conditions which bring home to the Cuban people the cost of Castro's policies," and that, if Cubans were left hungry, "they will throw Castro out." Under the Kennedy administration, a top State Department official stated that, "every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba… to bring about hunger, desperation and [the] overthrow of the government."[8]
In other words, the intentions of sanctions are to punish populations in order to undermine support for regimes that "successfully defy" the empire. No concerns are paid to the actual suffering of human beings, though, as these policies are articulated by the political class – and their supporters in the media and intellectual establishment – they were justified on the basis of a grand struggle between the "democratic" West and the "threat" of totalitarian Communism, of upholding "values" and supporting "freedom" of peoples everywhere.
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, was appointed by President Reagan in the early 1980s to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America (known as the 'Kissinger Commission') which was created to assess the strategic threat and interests to the United States in Central America, as many nations had been experiencing revolutions, leftist insurgencies against U.S.-backed dictators, and large social movements. The Reagan administration's response was to undertake a massive war of terror in Central America, killing hundreds of thousands and decimating the region for decades. Kissinger provided the imperial justification for the U.S. to punish the tiny Central American countries for their "defiance" of the Godfather, when he wrote in 1983, "If we cannot manage Central America… it will be impossible to convince threatened nations in the Persian Gulf and in other places that we know how to manage the global equilibrium."[9] In other words, if the Empire could not control a tiny little region just south of its border, how could it be expected to wield influence elsewhere in the world?
Henry Kissinger and former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski co-chaired President Reagan's U.S. National Security Council-Defense Department Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy, outlining U.S. imperial strategy and interests over the long term, publishing the report, Discriminate Deterrence, in 1988. They wrote that the U.S. would continue to have to intervene in conflicts across much of the Third World, because they "have had and will have an adverse cumulative effect on U.S. access to critical regions," and if such effects cannot be managed, "it will gradually undermine America's ability to defend its interest in the most vital regions, such as the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean and the Western Pacific."[10]
Noting that most Third World conflicts were "insurgencies, organized terrorism, [and] paramilitary crime," which included "guerrilla forces" and "armed subversives," referring to revolutionary and resistance movements, the U.S. would have to acknowledge that within such "low intensity conflicts," the "enemy" is essentially "omnipresent," meaning that the U.S.-designated enemy is essentially the population itself, or a significant portion of it, and thus, "unlikely ever to surrender." But it would be necessary for the U.S. to intervene in such wars, the report noted, because if they did not do so, "we will surely lose the support of many Third World countries that want to believe the United States can protect its friends, not to mention its own interests."[11]
In other words, if the U.S. does not intervene to crush insurgencies, uprisings, rebellions or generally steer the direction of 'internal conflicts' of Third World nations, then its proxy-puppet governments around the world will lose faith in the ability of the Godfather/Empire to support them in maintaining their dictatorships and rule over their own populations if they ever get into trouble. It would also damage the 'faith' that the Godfather's 'capos' (or Western imperial allies like France and Britain) would have in the U.S.'s ability to serve their imperial interests. If client states or imperial allies lose faith in the Godfather, then the U.S. likely won't remain the Godfather for long.
An internal assessment of national security policy undertaken by the Bush administration in 1991 was leaked to the media, which quoted the report's analysis of U.S. imperial policy for the future: "In cases where the U.S. confronts much weaker enemies, our challenge will be not simply to defeat them, but to defeat them decisively and rapidly… For small countries hostile to us, bleeding our forces in protracted or indecisive conflict or embarrassing us by inflicting damage on some conspicuous element of our forces may be victory enough, and could undercut political support for U.S. efforts against them."[12] In other words, the weaker the "enemy," the more "decisive and rapid" must be their defeat, so as not to "embarrass" the empire and undermine its reputation for maintaining power and punishing those who defy its power. Imagine a small-time crook standing up to the Godfather in defiance: his punishment must not only be quick, but it must be severe, as this sends a message to others.
It has since been acknowledged by top imperial strategists and government agencies that the Cold War was little more than a rhetorical battle between two behemoths to advance their own imperial interests around the world. Samuel Huntington, one of the most influential political scientists of the latter 20 th century, closely tied to the American imperial establishment and served in high-level government positions related to the running of foreign policy, commented in a 1981 discussion, when reflecting upon the "lessons of Vietnam," that "an additional problem" for strategists when they decide that there is a conflict in which "you have to intervene or take some action," he noted, "you may have to sell it in such a way as to create the misimpression that it is the Soviet Union that you are fighting… That is what the United States has been doing ever since the Truman Doctrine [of 1947]."[13]
In other words, the concern of the 'Cold War' was not really the Soviet Union, it was the populations across the 'Third World' who were seeking independence and an end to imperialism. However, to intervene in wars where the interests were about repressing popular uprisings, revolutions, crushing independence movements, maintaining imperial domination and subjugation, one cannot – if you proclaim to be a 'free' and 'democratic' society upholding grand 'values' – articulate accurately these interests or the reasons for intervening. Thus, as Huntington noted, the United States would "create the misimpression that it is the Soviet Union that you are fighting." So long as the domestic population was made to fear some outside malevolent enemy – formerly the Soviet Union and today 'terrorism' – then strategists manage to justify and undertake all sorts of atrocities in the name of fighting "communism" or now "terrorism."
When the Cold War was coming to an official end and the Soviet Union was collapsing in on itself, President George H.W. Bush's administration released the National Security Strategy of the United States in 1990 in which it was acknowledged that following decades of justifying military intervention in the Middle East on the basis of a Cold War struggle between democracy and communism, the actual reasons for intervention "were in response to threats to U.S. interests that could not be laid at the Kremlin's door." Further, while the Soviet Union collapses, "American strategic concerns remain" and "the necessity to defend our interests will continue."[14]
In 1992, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote an article for the establishment journal, Foreign Affairs, in which he bluntly assessed the reality of the 'Cold War' battle between America and the USSR – between the causes of democratic 'liberation' versus totalitarian communism – writing: "The policy of liberation was a strategic sham, designed to a significant degree for domestic political reasons… the policy was basically rhetorical, at most tactical."[15]
America's imperial interests had long been established within internal government documents. In a 1948 State Department Policy Planning document, it was acknowledged that at the time the United States controlled half the world's wealth with only 6.3% of the world's population, and that this disparity would create "envy and resentment." The task for American in the world, then, was "to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming," and instead focus "on our immediate national objectives," which were defined as managing foreign policy in such a way as "to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security." With such an objective in mind, noted the report, "We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction."[16]
In other words, to maintain the "disparity" between America's wealth and that of the rest of the world, there was no point in pretending that their interests were anything otherwise. Imperial planners were direct in suggesting that "we need not deceive ourselves" about their objectives, but this did not imply that they did not have to deceive the American population, for whom internal documents were not meant to be read.
In the Middle East, imperial interests were bluntly articulated by the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, who defined the region as "an area in which the United States has a vital interest." The oil wealth of Saudi Arabia and the region as a whole was said to "constitute a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history," and that controlling the oil would imply "substantial control of the world."[17]
Threats to these interests were quick to arise in the form of Arab Nationalism – or "independent nationalism" – most effectively represented by Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt, where nations sought to pursue a policy both foreign and domestic in their own interests, to more closely address the concerns of their own populations rather than the interests of the Godfather, and to take a 'neutral' stance in the Cold War struggle between the US and USSR.
A 1958 National Security Council report noted that, "In the eyes of the majority of Arabs the United States appears to be opposed to the realization of the goals of Arab nationalism," and rather, that the US was simply "seeking to protect its interests in Near East oil by supporting the status quo" of strong-armed ruthless dictators ruling over repressed populations. This, the report noted, was an accurate view that Arab peoples held of the U.S., stating that, "our economic and cultural interests in the area have led not unnaturally to close U.S. relations with elements in the Arab world whose primary interest lies in the maintenance of relations with the West and the status quo in their countries." Further, because the U.S. was so closely allied with the traditional colonial powers of the region – France and Britain – "it is impossible for us to avoid some identification" with colonialism, noted the report, especially since "we cannot exclude the possibility of having to use force in an attempt to maintain our position in the area."[18]
Thus, a key strategy for the U.S. should be to publicly proclaim "support for the ideal of Arab unity," but to quietly "encourage a strengthening of the ties among Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq," all ruthless tyrants, in order to "counterbalance Egypt's preponderant position of leadership in the Arab world." Another strategy to "combat radical Arab nationalism and to hold Persian Gulf oil by force if necessary" would be "to support Israel as the only strong pro-West power."[19]
In Latin America, long considered by U.S. imperial planners as America's 'backyard,' the "threat" was very similar to that posed by Arab nationalism. A 1953 National Security Council memo noted that there was "a trend in Latin America toward nationalistic regimes maintained in large part by appeals to the masses of the population," and that, "there is an increasing popular demand for immediate improvement in the low living standards of the masses." For the U.S., it would be "essential to arrest the drift in the area toward radical and nationalistic regimes" which was "facilitated by historic anti-U.S. prejudices and exploited by Communists." To handle this "threat," the NSC recommended that the United States support "the development of indigenous military forces and local bases" to encourage "individual and collective action against internal subversive activities by communists and other anti-U.S. elements." In other words: the U.S. must support repression of foreign populations.[20]
American strategy thus sought to oppose "radical and nationalistic regimes" – defined as those who successfully defy the U.S. and its Mafia capos – and to "maintain the disparity" between America's wealth and that of the rest of the world, as well as to continue to control strategically important resources and regions, such as oil and energy sources. America was not alone in this struggle for global domination, as it had its trusted Mafia capo "allies" like Britain, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent, Japan, at its side. Concurrently, other large powers like Russia and China would engage in bouts of cooperation and competition for extending and maintaining influence in the world, with occasional conflicts arising between them.
The International Peace Research Institute (IPRI) in Oslo, Norway, compiled a dataset for assessing armed conflict in the world between 1946 and 2001. For this time period, IPRI's research identified 225 conflicts, 163 of which were internal conflicts, though with "external participants" in 32 of those internal conflicts. The number of conflicts in the world rose through the Cold War, and accelerated afterward.[21] The majority of conflicts have been fought in three expansive regions: from Central America and the Caribbean into South America, from East Central Europe through the Balkans, Middle East and India to Indonesia, and the entire continent of Africa.[22]
Another data set was published in 2009 that revealed much larger numbers accounting for "military interventions." During the Cold War era of 1946 to 1989 – a period of 44 years – there were a recorded 690 interventions, while the 16-year period from 1990 and 2005 had recorded 425 military interventions. Intervention rates thus "increased in the post-Cold War era." As the researchers noted, roughly 16 foreign military interventions took place every year during the Cold War, compared to an average of 26 military interventions per year in the post-Cold War period.[23]
Interventions by "major powers" (the US, UK, France, Soviet Union/Russia, and China) increased from an average of 4.3 per year during the Cold War to 5.6 per year in the post-Cold War period. Most of these interventions were accounted for by the United States and France, with France's numbers coming almost exclusively from its interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. During the Cold War period, the five major powers accounted for almost 28% of all military interventions, with the United States in the lead at 74, followed by the U.K. with 38, France with 35, the Soviet Union with 25, and China with 21.[24]
In the post-Cold War period (1990-2005), the major powers accounted for 21.2% of total military interventions, with the United States in the lead at 35, followed by France with 31, the U.K. with 13, Russia with 10, and China with 1. Interventions by Western European states increased markedly in the post-Cold War period, "as former colonial powers increased their involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa," not only by France, but also Belgium and Britain.[25]
Meanwhile, America's actual share of global wealth has been in almost continuous decline since the end of World War II. By 2012, the United States controlled roughly 25% of the world's wealth, compared with roughly 50% in 1948.[26] The rich countries of the world – largely represented by the G7 nations of the U.S., Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada – had for roughly 200 years controlled the majority of the world's wealth.[27] In 2013, the 34 "advanced economies" of the world (including the G7, the euro area nations, and Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea) were surpassed for the first time by the other 150 nations of the world referred to as "emerging" or "developing" economies.[28]
Thus, while the American-Western Empire may be more globally expansive – or technologically advanced – than ever before, the world has itself become much more complicated to rule, with the 'rise' of the East (namely, China and India), and increased unrest across the globe. As Zbigniew Brzezinski noted in 2009, the world's most powerful states "face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people."[29]
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a 26-year old researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada. He is Project Manager of The People's Book Project, chair of the Geopolitics Division of The Hampton Institute, research director for Occupy.com's Global Power Project, and hosts a weekly podcast show with BoilingFrogsPost.
[1] George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Andrew Gavin Marshall, "Austerity, Adjustment, and Social Genocide: Political Language and the European Debt Crisis," Andrewgavinmarshall.com, 24 July 2012:
[6] Seumas Milne, "'US foreign policy is straight out of the mafia'," The Guardian, 7 November 2009:
[7] Andrew Gavin Marshall, "Economic Warfare and Strangling Sanctions: Punishing Iran for its "Defiance" of the United States," Andrewgavinmarshall.com, 6 March 2012:
[8] Ibid.
[9] Edward Cuddy, "America's Cuban Obsession: A Case Study in Diplomacy and Psycho-History," The Americas (Vol. 43, No. 2, October 1986), page 192.
[10] Fred Iklé and Albert Wohlstetter, Discriminate Deterrence (Report of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy), January 1988, page 13.
[11] Ibid, page 14.
[12] Maureen Dowd, "WAR IN THE GULF: White House Memo; Bush Moves to Control War's Endgame," The New York Times, 23 February 1991:
[13] Stanley Hoffmann, Samuel Huntington, et. al., "Vietnam Reappraised," International Security (Vol. 6, No. 1, Summer 1981), page 14.
[14] National Security Strategy of the United States (The White House, March 1990), page 13.
[15] Zbigniew Brzezinski, "The Cold War and its Aftermath," Foreign Affairs (Vol. 71, No. 4, Fall 1992), page 37.
[16] George F. Kennan, "Review of Current Trends U.S. Foreign Policy," Report by the Policy Planning Staff, 24 February 1948.
[17] Andrew Gavin Marshall, "The U.S. Strategy to Control Middle Eastern Oil: "One of the Greatest Material Prizes in World History"," Andrewgavinmarshall.com, 2 March 2012:
[18] Andrew Gavin Marsha, "Egypt Under Empire, Part 2: The 'Threat' of Arab Nationalism," The Hampton Institute, 23 July 2013:
[19] Ibid.
[20] Andrew Gavin Marshall, "The American Empire in Latin America: "Democracy" is a Threat to "National Security"," Andrewgavinmarshall.com, 14 December 2011:
[21] Nils Petter Gleditsch, Peter Wallensteen, Mikael Eriksson, Maragreta Sollenberg, and Havard Strand, "Armed Conflict 1946-2001: A New Dataset," Journal of Peace Research (Vol. 39, No. 5, September 2002), page 620.
[22] Ibid, page 624.
[23] Jeffrey Pickering and Emizet F. Kisangani, "The International Military Intervention Dataset: An Updated Resource for Conflict Scholars," Journal of Peace Research (Vol. 46, No. 4, July 2009), pages 596-598.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Robert Kagan, "US share is still about a quarter of global GDP," The Financial Times, 7 February 2012:
[27] Chris Giles and Kate Allen, "Southeastern shift: The new leaders of global economic growth," The Financial Times, 4 June 2013:
[28] David Yanofsky, "For The First Time Ever, Combined GDP Of Poor Countries Exceeds That Of Rich Ones," The Huffington Post, 29 August 2013:
[29] Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Major Foreign Policy Challenges for the Next US President," International Affairs, 85: 1, (2009), page 54.
Global Power Project, Part 2: Identifying the Institutions of Control
Global Power Project, Part 2: Identifying the Institutions of Control
By: Andrew Gavin Marshall
The following is Part 2 of my exclusive research series for Occupy.com
Part 1: Exposing the Transnational Capitalist Class
The Global Power Project, an investigative series produced by Occupy.com, aims to identify and connect the worldwide institutions and individuals who comprise today's global power oligarchy. In Part 1, which appeared last week, I provided an overview examining who and what constitute the global ruling elite – often referred to as the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC). In this second part, I will attempt to identify some of the key, dominant institutions that have facilitated and have in turn been supported by the development of this oligarchic class. This is not a study of wealth, but a study of power.
In an article for the journal International Sociology, William K. Carroll and Jean Philippe Sapinski examined the relationship between the corporate elite and the emergence of a "transnational policy-planning network," beginning with its formation in the decades following World War II and speeding up in the 1970s with the creation of "global policy groups" and think tanks such as the World Economic Forum, in 1971, and the Trilateral Commission, in 1973, among many others.
The function of such institutions was to help mobilize and integrate the corporate elite beyond national borders, constructing a politically "organized minority." These policy-planning organizations came to exist as "venues for discussion, strategic planning, discourse production and consensus formation on specific issues," as well as "places where responses to crises of legitimacy are crafted," such as managing economic, political, or environmental crises where elite interests might be threatened. These groups also often acted as "advocates for specific projects of integration, often on a regional basis." Perhaps most importantly, the organizations "provide bridges connecting business elites to political actors (heads of states, politicians, high-ranking public servants) and elites and organic intellectuals in other fields (international organizations, military, media, academia)."
One important industry association, according to researchers Carroll and Carson in the journal Global Networks (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2003), is the International Chamber of Commerce. Launched by investment bankers in 1919, immediately following WWI, the Paris-based Chamber groups roughly 7,000 member corporations together across 130 countries, adhering to largely conservative, "free market" ideology. The "primary function" of the ICC, write Carroll and Carson, "is to institutionalize an international business perspective by providing a forum where capitalists and related professionals… can assemble and forge a common international policy framework."
Another policy group with outsized global influence is the Bilderberg group, founded between 1952 and 1954, which provided "a context for more comprehensive international capitalist coordination and planning." Bringing together roughly 130 elites from Western Europe and North America at annual closed meetings, "Bilderberg conferences have furnished a confidential platform for corporate, political, intellectual, military and even trade-union elites from the North Atlantic heartland to reach mutual understanding."
As Valerie Aubourg examined in an article for the journal Intelligence and National Security (Vol. 18, No. 2, 2003), the Bilderberg meetings were organized largely at the initiative of a handful of European elites, with heavy financial backing from select American institutions including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the CIA. The meetings incorporate leadership from the most prominent national think tanks, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment and others from across the North Atlantic 'community.'
Hugh Wilford, writing in the journal Diplomacy & Statecraft (Vol. 14, No. 3, 2003), identified major philanthropic foundations such as the Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie foundations as not only major sources of funding but also providers for much of the leadership of the Bilderberg meetings, which saw the participation of major industrial and financial firms in line with those foundations (David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan is a good example). Bilderberg was a major force in helping to create the political, economic and strategic consensus behind constructing a common European market.
With the support of these major foundations and their leadership, the Bilderberg meetings became a powerful global tool of the elites, not only in creating the European Union but in designing the process of globalization itself. Will Hutton, a former Bilderberg member, once referred to the group as "the high priests of globalization," and a former Bilderberg steering committee member, Denis Healey,once noted: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair…we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing."
The large industrial foundations have played a truly profound – and largely overlooked – role in the shaping of modern society. The 'Robber Baron' industrial fortunes of the late 19th century – those of Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Vanderbilt, etc. – sought to shape a new order in which they would maintain a dominant influence throughout society. They founded major American universities (often named after themselves) such as Vanderbilt, or the University of Chicago which was founded by John D. Rockefeller.
It was through their institutions that they sought to produce new elites to manage a new society, atop of which they sat. These universities became the harbingers of modern social sciences, seeking to "reform" society to fit the needs of those who dominated it; to engage in social engineering with the purpose of social control. It was in this context that the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and later the Ford Foundation and others were founded: as engines of social engineering. One of their principal aims was to shape the development of the social sciences – and their exportation around the world to other industrial and imperial powers like Great Britain, and beyond. The social sciences were to facilitate the "scientific management" of society, and the foundations were the patrons of "social control."
The Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford foundations were instrumental in providing funding, organization and personnel for the development of major American and international think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations, which became essential to the emergence of a dominant and entrenched U.S. business class linking academia, political, strategic, corporate and financial elites. The Rockefeller and Ford foundations in particular constructed the field of modern political science and "Area Studies" with a view to educating a class of people who would be prepared to help manage a global empire.
They were also prominent in developing the educational system for black Americans designed to keep them relegated to labor and "vocational" training. They helped found many prominent universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to train indigenous elites with a "Western" education in the social sciences, to ensure continuity between a domestic and international elite, between core and periphery, empire and protectorate.
Another major policy planning group is the Trilateral Commission, created out of the Bilderberg meetings as a separate transnational think tank and founded by Chase Manhattan CEO (and Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations) David Rockefeller along with academic-turned-policymaker Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1973. The Trilateral Commission linked the elites from Western Europe, North America and Japan (hence "trilateral"), and it now also includes members from China, India and a range of other Pacific-East Asian countries.
Consisting of a membership of roughly 350 individuals from finance, corporations, media, think tanks, foundations, academia and political circles, the Trilateral Commission (TC) has been immensely influential as a forum facilitating the development and integration of a "transnational elite." The aim of the TC was "to foster closer cooperation among these core industrialized areas of the world with shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system."
The most famous report issued by the Trilateral Commission in the mid-1970s suggested that due to the popular activism of the 1960s, there was a "crisis of democracy" that it defined as an "excess of democracy," which needed to be reduced in order for "democracy to function effectively." According to the Trilateral Commission, what was needed was increased "apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups" to counter the "crisis" being caused by "a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society."
Moving elsewhere, the World Economic Forum, founded in 1971, convenes annually in Davos, Switzerland and was originally designed "to secure the patronage of the Commission of European Communities, as well as the encouragement of Europe's industry associations" and "to discuss European strategy in an international marketplace." The WEF has since expanded its membership and mandate, as Carroll and Carson noted, "organized around a highly elite core of transnational capitalists (the 'Foundation Membership') – which it currently limits to '1000 of the foremost global enterprises'." The meetings include prominent individuals from the scientific community, academics, the media, NGOs and many other policy groups.
Another major policy planning group emerged in the mid-1990s with an increased focus on environmental issues, called the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which "instantly became the pre-eminent business voice on the environment" with a 1997 membership of 123 top corporate executives, tasked with bringing the "voice" of big business to the process of international efforts to address environmental concerns (and thus, to secure their own interests).
Among other prominent think tanks and policy-planning boards helping to facilitate and integrate a transnational network of elites are many nation-based organizations, particularly in the United States, such as with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), among many others. The advisory boards to these organizations provide an important forum through which transnational elites may help to influence the policies of many separate nations, and most importantly, the world's most powerful nation: the United States.
The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, refers to itself as "an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher," with roughly 4,700 members. It is largely based in New York with affiliate offices in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. The CFR is, and has been, at the heart of the American foreign policy establishment, bringing together elites from academia, government, the media, intelligence, military, financial and corporate institutions.
The CFR worked in close cooperation with the U.S. government during World War II to design the post-War world over which America would reign supreme. The Council was active in establishing the "Grand Areas" of the American Empire, and in maintaining extensive influence over the foreign policy of the United States.
As Carroll and Carson noted, there is a prominent relationship between those individuals who sit on multiple corporate boards and those who sit on the boards of prominent national and transnational policy-planning groups, "suggesting a highly centralized corporate-policy network."
Studying 622 corporate directors and 302 organizations (five of which were the major policy-planning groups: ICC, Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum and World Business Council for Sustainable Development), Carroll and Carson assessed this network of transnational elites with data leading up to 1996, and concluded: "The international network is primarily a configuration of national corporate networks, integrated for the most part through the affiliations of a few dozen individuals who either hold transnational corporate directorships or serve on two or more policy boards."
Out of the sample of 622 individuals, they found roughly 105 individuals (94 "transnational corporate linkers" and 11 others "whose corporate affiliations are not transnational but who sit on multiple global policy boards") making up "the most immediate structural contributions to transnational class formation." At the "core" of this network were 17 corporate directors, primarily European and North American, largely linked by the transnational policy groups, with the Trilateral Commission as "the most centrally positioned." This network, they noted, "is highly centralized in terms of the individuals and organizations that participate in it."
In undertaking a follow-up study of data between 1996 and 2006, published in the journal International Sociology (Vol. 25, No. 4, 2010), Carroll and Sapinski expanded the number of policy-planning groups from five to 11, including the original five (ICC, Bilderberg, TC, WEF, and WBCSD), but adding to them the Council on Foreign Relations (through its International Advisory Board), the UN Global Compact (through its advisory board), the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), founded in 1983, the EU-Japan Business Round Table, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, and the North American Competitiveness Council.
The results of their research found that among the corporate directors, "policy-board membership has shifted towards the transnationalists, who come to comprise a larger segment of the global corporate elite," and that there was a growing group of elites "made up of individuals with one or more transnational policy-board affiliations." As Carroll and Sapinski concluded:
"The corporate-policy network is highly centralized, at both the level of individuals and that of organizations. Its inner circle is a tightly interwoven ensemble of politically active business leaders; its organizational core includes the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Conference, the European Round Table of Industrialists and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, surrounded by other policy boards and by the directorates of leading industrial corporations and financial institutions based in capitalism's core regions."
Organizations like the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) are not think tanks, but rather, industry organizations (exclusively representing the interests and individuals of major corporations), wielding significant influence over political and social elites. As Bastiaan van Apeldoorn wrote in the journal New Political Economy (Vol. 5, No. 2, 2000), the ERT "developed into an elite platform for an emergent European transnational capitalist class from which it can formulate a common strategy and – on the basis of that strategy – seek to shape European socioeconomic governance through its privileged access to the European institutions."
In 1983, the ERT was formed as an organization of 17 major European industrialists (which has since expanded to several dozen members), with the proclaimed objective being "to revitalize European industry and make it competitive again, and to speed up the process of unification of the European common market." Wisse Dekker, former Chairman of the ERT, once stated: "I would consider the Round Table to be more than a lobby group as it helps to shape policies. The Round Table's relationship with Brussels [the EU] is one of strong co-operation. It is a dialogue which often begins at a very early stage in the development of policies and directives."
The ERT was a central institution in the re-launching of European integration from the 1980s onward, and as former European Commissioner (and former ERT member) Peter Sutherland stated, "one can argue that the whole completion of the internal market project was initiated not by governments but by the Round Table, and by members of it… And I think it played a fairly consistent role subsequently in dialoguing with the Commission on practical steps to implement market liberalization." Sutherland also explained that the ERT and its members "have to be at the highest levels of companies and virtually all of them have unimpeded access to government leaders because of the position of their companies… So, by definition, each member of the ERT has access at the highest level to government."
Other notable industry associations include the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), formerly called the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), a group comprised of Canada's top 150 CEOs who were a major force for the promotion and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The CCCE remains one of the most influential "interest groups" in Canada.
In the United States there are prominent industry associations like the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, and the Financial Services Forum. The Business Council describes itself as "a voluntary association of business leaders whose members meet several times a year for the free exchange of ideas both among themselves and with thought leaders from many sectors."
Likewise, the Business Roundtable describes itself as "an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $7.3 trillion in annual revenues," which believes that "businesses should play an active and effective role in the formation of public policy."
Finally, the Financial Services Forum proclaims itself to be "a non-partisan financial and economic policy organization" which aims "to pursue policies that encourage savings and investment, promote an open and competitive global marketplace, and ensure the opportunity of people everywhere to participate fully and productively in the 21st-century global economy."
These are among some of the many institutions which will be researched and examined in greater detail throughout the Global Power Project. In the next installment, I will be examining not only the societal and economic results of these dominant institutions of power, but the specific individuals — and in some cases family dynasties — that wield significant influence nationally and globally.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada. He is Project Manager of The People's Book Project, head of the Geopolitics Division of the Hampton Institute, Research Director for Occupy.com's Global Power Project and host of a weekly podcast show at BoilingFrogsPost.


text:
Biologists call the area a bio-fortress. The park is so impassable and uncharted, in fact, that every time a team goes on an expedition there, they find approximately five new species. They're literally tripping over entirely unseen life-forms -- a photographer for National Geographic documented these creatures, presumably while picking crocodile-headed lizards out of his canteen and shaking bizarre, dancing crimson bugs out of his sleeping bag.
National Geographic
Sometimes a forest of daggers just isn't enough.
It shouldn't be surprising: 90 percent of all species found on Madagascar are endemic, so if we go vaulting over the Earth's barbed-wire fence on the Island of Extremely Rare Shit, we're probably going to see some new things. And yet despite all of that sweet groundbreaking science temptation, the vast majority of the park remains completely unexplored to this day.
Olivier Lejade
So yeah. There are definitely dinosaurs in there.

subset: commoncrawl