Is the Soviet Collapse Dragging the United States Down?
The mix of old and new in the United States's role as world leader creates ambiguity and confusion. The United States is looking for ways to regain its lost economic punch and to consolidate its world hegemony. At present, however, with no true enemy on the horizon, it is being dragged down by the Soviet collapse. The twentieth century was a period of transition but not from capitalism to socialism. The nonmarket alternative or challenge represented by the Soviet Union gave capitalism the means to overcome many obstacles to its reproduction and raise profits to new levels. The United States occupied a privileged position in that process. However, the twenty-first century demands new solutions for capitalism's inherent contradictions, and as a result the United States is apparently still trying to invent a new Soviet Union.
Bestia Devictus : The Shanghai Cooperation Organization , Eurasianism and the End of Liberalism
The SCO in a Nutshell The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was created in 2001 as a comprehensive regional institution focused on Asian security and economic development. Ideologically, it is social-nationalist featuring a strong state, cultural and regional nationalism and a spiritual focus in contradistinction to western materialism, capitalism and socialism. The social-nationalist movement is occasionally called “communist” or even “fascist” by clueless western journalists, who are worsted only by the useless field of “political theory” that has refused to even recognize its existence. In its Charter, the very diplomatically worded ideological component of Article II reads:
Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Challenges of Policy Leadership in a Hostile Environment
Randi Weingarten is the president of the most vocal and influential teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers. Since rising through the ranks to AFT president in just two years, Weingarten is now a major, if not the most prominent, nongovernmental player in national education policy. She has earned deep respect from many educational policy actors. Likewise, Weingarten elicits withering criticism from others. This fascinating profile explains why, in such a brief period, she has proved to be a fierce, fearless, and effective leader under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Her experience offers invaluable lessons applicable for others working in similarly intense policy arenas.