oD Plugs

Egypt: Writing at Open Democracy, Egyptian Tarek Osman says watching the Olympics held in China leaves Egyptians with a 'sweet and sour' taste in their mouths.

Russian war and Georgian democracy August 22, 2008 openDemocracy August 22, 2008 Ghia Nodia The war leaves Russian ambitions for regime change in Tbilisi intact. But the Georgian nation and its society have survived a great test to emerge the moral victor, says Georgia's minister of education, Ghia Nodia.

Russia and the Georgia war: the great-power trap, by Ivan Krastev - Open Democracy Russia's flawed understanding of 21st-century international politics means that its military success in the war with Georgia could be followed by its strategic defeat, says Ivan Krastev.http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/russia-and-the-georgia-war-the-great-power-trap

Russia and Iran: crisis of the west, rise of the rest Paul Rogers Moscow's war in Georgia and Tehran's nuclear challenge highlight the failings of United States and European security policy, says Paul Rogers 21 - 08 - 2008

Georgia and citizen war reporting 22 Aug 2008 16:13:00 GMT Written by: Andrew Stroehlein Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. Evgeny Morozov has a great piece over at openDemocracy dealing with citizen journalism in the Georgia-Russia conflict. It confirms my opinion of citizen journalism -- which in short tends to be the same as my opinion of citizen dentistry. Some things should be done by professionals. A sample from Morozov’s article, “Citizen war-reporter? The Caucasus test”: [The conflict] was a perfect opportunity for citizen reporters to fill in the gaps [of official claims and counter-claims by belligerent parties]. The fact that they didn’t in the first days of this quick war may reveal that - in war reporting at least - the great promise of citizen journalism is often an empty one. He goes on to say that there has been plenty of blogging about the war, but it was mostly propaganda shouting and hardly much in the way of fact-based reporting. (journalist Goga Aptsiauri’s blog from Gori is an exception)

The historical echoes with Russia's entry into Georgia have been repeatedly heard in recent weeks in the European press. On openDemocracy.net, the Bulgarian think-tanker Ivan Krastev writes on the conflict and notes that Russia's “punitive incursion into Georgia is not a remake [of 1968]; its conditions, motives, driving certainties and governing justifications are different”.

Russia, Iran: Crisis of the West Image: NATO Moscow's war in Georgia and Tehran's nuclear challenge highlight the failings of United States and European security policy, says Paul Rogers. By Paul Rogers for openDemocrac

Abkhazia and South Ossetia: heart of conflict, key to solution by George Hewitt (George Hewitt is professor of Caucasian languages at London's School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS). Among his many works are "Peoples of the Caucasus" (in F. Fernández-Armesto, ed.), Guide to the Peoples of Europe (Times Books, 1994) and (as editor) The Abkhazians, a handbook (Curzon Press, 1999).The Georgia-Russia war of August 2008 carries a vital lesson: the small territories that broke from Georgia's control in the early 1990s have their own voice, identity, and interest. They must be active participants in deciding their own future, says George Hewitt, the leading scholar of Abkhazian linguistics and history. (This article was first published on 18 August 2008) - Open Democracy

In Open Democracy, George Hewitt, professor of Caucasian languages at London's School of Oriental & African Studies, wrote: "The torrent of media commentary on the Georgia-Russia war has been characterised by near-obsessive geopolitical calculation, which - as so often where Georgia and the region is concerned - tends by default to view Georgia's 'lost' territories (if they are viewed at all) as nothing more than inconsiderate and irritating pawns on a global chessboard. For this reason - but mainly because Abkhazia and South Ossetia matter in themselves and are central to any resolution of the issues underlying the Aug 2008 war - it is useful to consider the arguments for taking them and their claims seriously.

South Ossetia Once again, I want to strongly recommend OpenDemocracy, this time for its series of articles on South Ossetia and its consequences. Today's article is by my good friend Ivan Krastev, arguing inter alia that Russia may be a loser as well. At the start of the war they ran a good piece by Caucasus vetern Tom de Waal, "An Avoidable Tragedy". See also these pictures by the children of South Ossetia, and the various other pieces they have done on the region. And in general, keep an eye on the open_democracy feed, or however you prefer to read it.

claimed Ossetians only appeared in Georgia on the coat-tails of the Red Army's invasion in 1921

Welcome to the party: US convention follies The party conventions and the choice of vice-presidential running-mate are key events in any United States election. They do not always go according to plan, recalls Godfrey Hodgson. By Godfrey Hodgson for openDemocracy (19/08/08)

Lots of excellent comment on the above on OpenDemocracy Russia.

Russia: ideology becomes a mash-up Solzhenitsyn's death triggered a battle on the Internet as bloggers rushed to accuse, dismiss him or defend him. The Kremlin has found a powerful propaganda machine for its brand of ambiguous authoritarianism, argues Evgeny Morozov

LIENS ET RESSOURCES EXTERNESPar sa fonction de mise en débat et d’interface entre différents milieux, l’Institut cherche à proposer une diversité de liens et de ressources. Les sites suivants sont en lien plus ou moins direct avec l’IRG et constitutent selon nous des lieux de réflexions intéressants pour les lecteurs.

Tony Curzon Price at Open Democracy sums up Zittrain’s position below:

Tony Curzon Price described how openDemocracy functions as a community of editors, and not of writer-consumers or activists. He explained that editors in this context are people who “solicit information and bring the best out of authors”, with the central community of openDemocracy being a community of people who seek out writers for a particular topic.

iSummit2008: A Quick Recap

International Law On Trial - Part TwoBy John Lloyd Published: July 26 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 26 2008 03:00 function floatContent(){var paraNum = "3" paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName("div").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}}On July 14, in a separate trial, Moreno-Ocampo boldly indicted Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and murder committed in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first serving head of state to be so indicted (Milosevic had lost power the year before his arrest); and even many of al-Bashir's critics, believe that, whatever guilt he may carry for Darfur, he is crucial to any peace deal. Alex de Waal, a journalist who has covered the issue for the past decade, writes on the website Open Democracy, that, "the prosecutor is striking an immense blow for universal jurisdiction. He is seeking to demonstrate that no one can enjoy impunity for crimes. He is taking a step towards a world constitution in which the barriers of national sovereignty are swept away in favour of the rule of law with global reach." He adds, however, that the issue is not so simple - and quotes a Sudanese political leader, known for publicly supporting the ICC in principle, as saying that this is "a classic case in which justice and stability are at loggerheads". De Waal calls the decision "controversial and fraught with danger", and asks: "Will this be a historic victory for human rights, a principled blow on behalf of the victims of atrocity against the men who orchestrated massacre and destruction? Or will it be a tragedy, a clash between the needs for justice and for peace, which will send Sudan into a vortex of turmoil and bloodshed?"

The question goes to the root of the present ambiguous position of the international courts, poised between what de Waal describes as the "rule of law with global reach" and the deal-making, power-broking, face-saving manoeuvres by which mediating states and institutions induce monsters to stop their horrors. If the rule of international law is to be embedded, it must find a working relationship with realpolitik - while gradually supplanting it. This is a long way from its declarative ideals. With luck, the idealistic step taken will not be taken back. It will need more than luck - it will need substantial political will - for another step forward.

Best of the web 1. openDemocracy: Argentina, a crisis of riches The unresolved tensions of Argentina's modern political history return to confront its leaders