What is it about Australian diplomacy that makes it so clumsy and dunderheaded? Is it the harsh delivery, the tactless expression, or the inability to do things with subtle reflection? On September 6, Australian diplomacy gave another display of such form with Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s remarks about the Solomon Islands elections.
Dunderheaded Diplomacy: Australia’s Funding Offer to the Solomon Islands
Previously:
Solomon Islands votes to delay election as opposition cries foul
Geopolitical competition has no limits. This is especially the case when superpowers with global ambitions compete. As long as the competition is fair, it could drive development (although it might still have its socio-political and economic discontents). But when competition itself is projected as a phobia, it becomes more of an anomaly than a driver of growth and development. The most recent example of the super-power rivalry being framed in terms of ‘Sinophobia’ and ‘Russophobia’ is Washington’s newly revealed ‘Africa Strategy’ – a document that seeks to insert the US in Africa not as a competitor but as a country solely responsible for imparting ‘democracy’ and ‘openness’ to the so-called ‘backward’ societies of Africa. This is classical colonial statecraft reframed as a strategy for ‘engagement’ and ‘development.’ The document stipulates a US strategy to “foster … open societies”, “deliver democratic and security dividends”, and “support conservation, Climate Adaptation, and a Just Energy Transition.” This is an ambitious agenda with very ambitious objectives. But are these the real objectives?
Washington’s Africa Strategy Seeks to Counter Russia and China
Rahul Gandhi – The Most Establishment Populist
This ambitious attempt to reconnect with the masses fails to take into account what Gandhi himself acknowledged in London: that the INC was central to building the structures that it now claims have been captured by the BJP and RSS. Gandhi also ignores that the INC [Indian National Congress] itself was central to corrupting these structures.
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Banerjee’s criticism gets to the heart of the problem that Gandhi faces with the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Looking to the people of India for support to oppose the BJP makes sense, it will indeed take a large supporter base to remove the BJP and release its grip from the tools of power. The INC and Gandhi, however, cannot expect to build such a support base on an anti-corruption and anti-state capture march. As Gandhi himself acknowledged, the INC was central to putting in place the structures of independent India. What he fails to recognize, or acknowledge, is that the INC also has its own very real and recent history of exploiting these very same structures, whether to suspend the rule of law and hold on to power or simply to extract wealth while in power. In the multiparty contest to dethrone Modi, the INC cannot easily pivot from embodying the Indian state itself to campaigning on a populist charge to oppose the deep state.
Related:
India’s main opposition protests rising prices, lack of jobs
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of Indians rallied on Sunday under key opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, who made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over soaring unemployment and rising food and fuel prices in the country.
Notes for Self:
Read More »Read More »Aug 31, 2022 – The US government through one of its organizations, the US Institute of Peace, has recently called for more aid to opposition groups fighting the central government of Myanmar.
What is the rest of the story and why has the US invested billions over decades to interfere in Myanmar’s internal political affairs. Are we watching another case of US interference as part of a wider proxy war – this time instead of Russia, against China?
US-backed Proxy War Against China Rages in Myanmar (Odysee) via The New Atlas
Dozens of social media accounts operating for years in an attempt to influence people in the Middle East and Asia have been shut down. Now a major new study believes the US is likely behind it
US accused over huge ‘covert pro-Western’ digital campaign targeting Middle East
Related:
CONOPs
Evaluating Five Years of Pro-Western Covert Influence Operations
The US government got caught using sock puppets to spread propaganda on social media
The data analyzed came from 146 Twitter accounts (which tweeted 299,566 times), 39 Facebook profiles, and 26 Instagram accounts, along with 16 Facebook pages and two Facebook groups. Some of the accounts were meant to appear like real people and used AI-generated profile pictures. Meta and Twitter didn’t specifically name any organizations or people behind the campaigns but said their analysis led them to believe they originated in the US and Great Britain.
For anyone who’s ever been within 15 feet of a history book, the news that the US is using covert action to push its interests in other countries won’t come as a surprise. It is, however, interesting that these operations were uncovered just as social media companies are gearing up to deal with a wave of foreign interference and misinformation in our own elections.
The report also comes right on the heels of a bombshell whistleblower report from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, which accused the company of lax security practices and misrepresenting the number of bots on its platform (something the US government is investigating and that Twitter has strongly denied).
The Rothschild Trust Financed Khodorkovsky’s Anti-Russian Political Projects
As is known, despite the public promise not to engage in political activity after his release from prison, former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been actively involved in the financing of various media and political projects. The structures of Khodorkovsky actively communicated with the international fraudster William Browder and helped to lobby for the adoption of anti-Russian sanctions in the US Congress. However, the projects of Khodorkovsky, as it turned out, have more high patrons and sponsorship streams than only the means of the former oligarch.
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The “Institute of Modern Russia”, along with “Open Russia” was recognized by the State Office of the Public Prosecutor as an undesirable organization. The structure is closely associated with a number of American NGOs specializing in conducting propaganda activities against Russia, and is affiliated with organizations such as, for example, the “Free Russia Foundation”. The NGO was founded in the US in early 2015 to “promote democracy in Russia”. By the way, if to look at the personnel of the administrative board of the NGO – [Ilya] Ponomareva, [Vladimir] Milova, [Sergey] Aleksashenko – it immediately becomes clear what kind of democracy they are trying to promote in our country from overseas.
And the fact of cooperation between ISR and the US government agency BBG [now USAGM], the specialties of which include anti-Russian propaganda, speaks for itself.
It is a big check written by middle America to rich people who run Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
As America Crumbles Our Leaders Are Sending Billions More to the Ukraine
Ivan Loshkaryov
Since the early days of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the diplomacy of the Сollective West has been striving to isolate Moscow, punishing it for resolving the conflict in Donbass. However, one cannot talk about isolation without accounting for the position of developing countries: Alongside the golden billion, there are another 7 billion people living in the world. It is then only natural that the eyes of Western strategists and diplomats have turned to states and regional organizations reluctant to join the anti-Russian rhetoric, seeing no point in imposing economic and political restrictions against Moscow.
How Russia and the U.S. See Africa’s Place in the World
The CIA has played a role in controlling South African media from the days of apartheid to the present.
In recent weeks, South African public discourse has been focused on concerns about alleged Chinese influence in the country’s media landscape. However, these conversations have tended to overlook the already existing spheres of influence within South African media. Politically motivated sponsorship of prominent South African media outlets by the United States dates back decades to the apartheid era. According to internal U.S. government documents, the aim of these operations was “to counter the strong Marxist campaigns” in the country. This funding was circulated by the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization created by the Reagan administration in order to re-brand U.S. covert operations that were previously carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency. Today, as Washington becomes fixated on combating Beijing’s influence around the world, the National Endowment for Democracy and its private sector partners continue to penetrate large swathes of the South African media ecosystem. This web of influence has caught major publications, including Mail & Guardian newspaper and amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Manufacturing Consent: How the United States Has Penetrated South African Media
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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