Oriental Review

An Open Government Wrapped in the Internet

By ORIENTAL REVIEW

According to the dedicated page on the US State Department web-site, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) is ‘aimed at securing concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to make government more open, effective, and accountable’. A few lines below the text clearly names the nominal beneficiary: [...]

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What Missiles Are Threatening Europe?

By Vladimir EVSEEV (Russia)

The issue of creating missile defense boundaries in Europe is largely political in nature. The United States is developing the system more for ensuring national security — officially from Iran, but in reality from China and possibly Russia. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand its persistence in establishing a global missile defense system in Europe [...]

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Is BRICS Challenging the West?

By Alexander VISHNEVSKY (Russia)

The fourth BRICS summit representing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was held on March 28-29, 2012 in New Delhi. Despite the limited timeline, its results might be defined as outstanding. In any case it’s obvious that the leaders of the member countries had no intention to confine themselves to purely symbolic resolutions, so [...]

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BRICS: Going Strong to Change the World Scene

By Andrei AKULOV (Russia)

On 28-29 March 2012 a BRICS summit was held in Indian capital New Delhi. The theme was “BRICS Partnership for Stability, Security and Growth”. This was the fourth BRICS summit that brought together the leaders of the emerging economic powers to discuss a host of global issues. The event took place against the backdrop of [...]

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War, Pipelineistan-style

By Pepe ESCOBAR (Brasil)

United States Secretary of State Hillary “We came, we saw, he died” Clinton’s message to Pakistan was stark; try to go ahead with the IP (Iran-Pakistan) gas pipeline, and we’re going to take you out financially. Islamabad, its economy in tatters, living in power-cut land, and desperate for energy, tried to argue. Pakistan’s top official [...]

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The BRICs and the Construction of the Multipolar System

by Tiberio GRAZIANI (Italy)

Ten years ago, the acronym BRIC entered the lexicon of international economics and finance. Since then, cooperation among the emerging countries contained in that acronym has taken on an increasingly marked geo-economic and geopolitical record. The consolidation of relations among Brazil, Russia, India, China and, since 2010, South Africa has been possible not only because [...]

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BRICS Flame Continues To Shine

By Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR (India)

Just as the fizz seems to be going out of the BRICS grouping, the member countries have scrambled to put their act together. Apropos the crisis in Syria, which is arguably, the “hottest” issue in international politics today, the BRICS showed up worrying signs of an identity crisis of its own. Russia and China vetoed [...]

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Russia and the Changing World

By Vladimir PUTIN (Russia)

ORIENTAL REVIEW republishes the latest article by Vladimir Putin, Russian PM and front-runner of the presidential campaign due to culminate next Sunday, March 4, 2012. The article focuses on different aspects of the Russian foreign policy. In my previous articles I have discussed some of the key foreign challenges that Russia now faces. This subject [...]

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Russia – India: Expecting Positive Changes to Come

By Andrei VOLODIN (Russia)

December 15 Prime Minister of India Doctor Manmohan Singh starts an official visit to Russia. As assumed the nature of business is to be emphasized: the leaders of two countries are to sign a number of agreements of long term nature. Further extension of cooperation in the field of nuclear energy (energy security tops the [...]

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Investing Your Future In a Poison Peace Process

By Peter CHAMBERLIN (USA)

The Indian analyst who authored the following piece (SEE: India, Pakistan, and God’s geostrategic will) is probably giving an accurate assessment of his government’s opinion of the current status of the Pakistani military, even though both his opinion and the projected government position are probably miscalculations or misinterpretations of Pakistani gestures. He interprets recent moves [...]

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BRICS’ Rising Profile

By Aurobinda MAHAPATRA (India)

The 3-4 November 2011 G-20 summit at Cannes that grappled with various raging issues governing the world economy particularly the Euro zone crisis also brought into focus the rising profile of BRICS as a major player towards resolving global issues including the financial crisis. As rightly pointed out by Russia’s top economic advisor Arkady Dvorkovich [...]

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Mumbai’s Woes and their Implications

By Aurobinda MAHAPATRA (India)

Mumbai is India’s most prosperous as well as most cosmopolitan city. The city’s local trains everyday carry about 7 million diverse people, and to this gigantic fare is everyday added 1200 families who reach city from different corners of India in search of better life. Mumbai, also India’s tinsel town, is not only known for [...]

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