What If Trump Goes To War

(Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

At the end of his first mandate as POTUS [1] Donald Trump is shifting gears in the foreign policy of the USA, playing hardball on four different tables.

The AfPak riddle

The news about a new round of official peace talks between Taliban, the Afghan national government and US envoys are opening the door for some serious considerations about the future in one of the most troubled areas of the world. The Trump administration wants to get out of the country, without the American presence all the allies will withdraw as well, leaving the Afghan government on its own. By all means, Afghan armed forces aren’t ready to stand against the Taliban, nor they could be able to take back control from the warlords in the north.

A few days ago I was thinking about the worst case situation; a full reverse to 2001, with Taliban in control of most part of the country, with ISIS ready to set up shop in Kabul and Pakistan in the role of the unofficial nuclear-powered protector. By all means, it will be a nightmare.  Then I made up my mind, realizing that a significant number of changes had occurred in the last 18 years.

Stranded In A Dark Sea

All right, I’ll bite the bullet. Again. This post is about the current drama of the “Sea Watch 3”, with its payload of 47 migrants from Africa and the struggle with the Italian government. It will take a while, so get yourself comfortable.

Five reasons to say NO to the Global Compact for Migration

A few days from now (10-11 December 2018) will be held in Marrakesh (Morocco) a United Nations conference for the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration (from now on, GCM).  This will be the end of a long journey for GCM, and a very important step in the fulfilling of the  New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.

As previously stated in the title of this post, I’m all against this agreement. I’m also fully aware of the growing problem of forced migration all around the world, not to mention the growth of a number of endogen factors that will likely cause more migration in the near future.  To state the obvious, I’m not some kind of racist nutcase.

I’ve spent a bit of time reading the full GCM text, available here courtesy of the UN. Well, it’s not what the mainstream media are trying to sell.

The New Silk Road

There are projects, big projects, and empire-level projects. We have a global empire in the making, and this is one of most significant warning signs ever in human history. Ever heard of the Silk Road? Well, the remake will eclipse the original version this time.

12 Years To Change Everything

This is for all the fuss about climate change. It will not be pretty, but the situation is dire enough to authorize a bit of extra effort.

The myth of the Noble Savage and some unconvenient thruths

When it comes to talking about Africa, there’s a familiar story doing the rounds almost everywhere in Italy. Stop it if you already know it and directly go to the second part of this post.

The African story.

You see, Africa could be the paradise of our world. Without the evil interferences of foreigners and the horrible acts of the multinational companies, our African friends will be free to use wisely their valuable resources and be finally free. The worst of the worst are the European countries, that never stop to crush every hope for the Africans.

Does it sound familiar? Well, this tale is spinning since the ’60s, so I guess that you have heard it before. The subtext is that the white European monsters are the true enemies of the African countries and that before the start of the European colonialism the tribes and the nations of the black continent were in peace, free and happy. Modern-day companies, according to this tale, are no more than another evil scheme to oppress Africans. It’s the old myth of the Noble Savage.

I know for sure that studying history is not the favorite pastime of many people in my country, not to mention the absence of the most fundamental notions of geography, but now and then I like to speak out about this dull notions. You see, I’m getting older and my patience is becoming scarce, think about Einstenium to get the picture.

France and Africa: a matter of money

The recent hush-hush between Italy and France about immigration from Africa stirred many discussions in the ‘net, with a whole lot of rage and indignation for the harsh words used by the French President and other people related to the French authorities against Italy.

When it comes to Africa and to the complex history between African countries and the former European powers the name of France stands out for a decision made in 1945, right after the Bretton Woods Agreements. They created two brand new currencies, named CFA Franc and CFP Franc, for their colonies with a fixed exchange with the French Franc. The former was created for the African colonies, the latter for the overseas territories (French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna). To add a layer of bureaucratic redundancy, CFA Franc was split in West African Franc and Central African Franc.

Italy Standoff 2018 – a word from Jean-Claude Juncker

Politics are just wonderful. The more you know about it, the less it makes sense. Think about the current Italian situation, for instance. In the 80-plus days after the last round of political elections, we got every possible lecture from abroad, it looks like everybody wanted to put his or her finger in the pie.

It’s true that we got an unprecedented situation, with a party (the Five Stars Movement) that never had direct experience of nation-wide matters, partnered with another (the League, formerly known as The Northern League)  that is known for its Euroscepticism. So far, nobody knows for sure what the new government will do. To put it bluntly, they have the democratic right to push their own agenda ( for better or worse).

Italian Standoff 2018 – get ready for a new round

Welcome back to Italy, the country where the distance between tragedy and farce is shorter every day. As for the title of this post, the 2018 political standoff goes on with more and more shades of political degradation with no end in sight.

Yesterday our president Sergio Mattarella refused, once for all, to greenlight the start of a new government. In our constitutional laws, he was authorized to do that, but it is the first time ever that the motivation of such denial was tied to the possible destabilization of the Euro currency and to the general connection between our national economic system and the EU financial system. That’s thin ice at best.