Articles by Pepe Escobar
We found 230 results.
Non-Aligned to… Nowhere?
Pepe Escobar | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2016
22 Sep 2016 – The summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) came and went in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, virtually invisible to Western corporate media. NAM nowadays congregates every African nation except South Sudan; most of Latin America – except Brazil, Argentina and Mexico (they are observers); and most of Asia and the Middle East (China is an observer).
→ read full articleMade in China: G20 and Its Geoeconomic Significance
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
12 Sep 2016
5 Sep 2016 – What has just taken place in Hangzhou, China, is of immense geoeconomic importance. Beijing from the start treated the G20 very seriously; this was designed as China’s party, not the declining West’s. And much less Washington’s.
→ read full articleHow Silicon Valley Follows the Money
Pepe Escobar | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Sep 2016
There’s way more in common between Wall Street and Silicon Valley than meets the untrained eye. They are two of the key strategic hubs of hyperpower global domination. The others are the industrial-military-surveillance-security complex – of which Hollywood and corporate media are the soft power extensions – and the petrodollar racket/tributary system.
→ read full articleThe Whole Game Is About Containing Russia-China
Pepe Escobar | Uprooted Palestinians – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Sep 2016
29 Aug 2016 – The next BRICS summit, in Goa, is less than two months away. Compared to only two years ago, the geopolitical tectonic plates have moved with astonishing speed. Most BRICS nations are mired in deep crisis; Brazil’s endless political/economic/institutional debacle may yield the Kafkaesque impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. BRICS is in a coma.
→ read full articleThe Real Secret of the South China Sea
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Aug 2016
The US is all about Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny. As it stands, more than Russia’s western borderlands, the Baltics or “Syraq”, this is where the hegemon “rules” are really being contested. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. That’ll be the day when the US Navy is “denied” from the South China Sea; and that’ll be the end of its imperial hegemony.
→ read full articleBetween a Rock and a Hard (South China) Place
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
18 Jul 2016
Beijing argues that all the attention over the South China Sea revolves around conflicting sovereign claims over islands/rocks/reefs and related maritime delimitations – over which the court has no jurisdiction. Attributing territorial sovereignty over maritime features in the South China Sea goes beyond the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
→ read full articleRussia-China Strategic Partnership: On the Road to United Eurasia
Pepe Escobar |Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jul 2016
Whenever President Vladimir Putin stresses Russia’s “all-embracing and strategic partnership” with China, one can hear the proverbial howls of anger emanating from the neocon/neoliberalcon axis in the Beltway.
→ read full articleWhy the UK Said Bye Bye to the EU
Pepe Escobar – Sputnik News,
27 Jun 2016
24 Jun 2016 – The irrepressibly mediocre Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, posing as a “historian”, had warned that Brexit, “could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but Western political civilization in its entirety”. That’s foolish. Brexit proved that it’s immigration, stupid. And once again, it’s the economy, stupid (although the British neoliberal establishment never paid attention).
→ read full articleKill List: Smashing the ‘B’ in BRICS
Pepe Escobar – The International Reporter,
20 Jun 2016
The stakes could not be higher. Not only the future of the BRICS, but the future of a new multipolar world is in the balance. And it all hinges on what happens in Brazil in the next few months.
→ read full articleTarget Russia. Target China. Target Iran
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 May 2016
28 May 2016 – Not a day goes by without US Think Tankland doing what it does best; pushing all sorts of scenarios for cold – and hot – war with Russia, plus myriad confrontations with China and Iran. That fits into the Pentagon’s Top Five existential threats to the US, where Russia and China sit at the very top and Iran is in fourth place – all ahead of «terrorism» of the phony Daesh «Caliphate» variety.
→ read full articleDilma Out: Brazilian Plutocracy Sets 54 Million Votes on Fire
Pepe Escobar – The International Reporter,
16 May 2016
13 May 2016 – Never in modern political history has it been so easy to “abolish the people” and simply erase 54 million votes cast in a free and fair presidential election. This is a day that will live in infamy all across the Global South – when what was one of its most dynamic democracies veered into a plutocratic regime, under a flimsy parliamentary/judicial veneer, with legal and constitutional guarantees now at the mercy of lowly comprador elites.
→ read full articleThe Real Target of the Panama Papers
Pepe Escobar – teleSUR,
16 May 2016
What the Panama Papers may succeed in is to eliminate competition. From now on, your fiscal paradise of choice must be in US, UK and Dutch jurisdictions. We control every global financial flow—legal or otherwise. Defy us—or else.
→ read full articleThe Calm before the Coming Global Storm
Pepe Escobar | The International Reporter - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 May 2016
6 May 2016 – They have seen what Washington does offer; endless war; the progressive smashing of the nation state; democracy blasted to smithereens; and technocratic governance by the 0.00001%. Yet all this is just the calm before the geopolitical/financial storm. Let’s review the current state of play via the dilemmas afflicting the House of Saud, the EU and BRICS members Russia, Brazil and China.
→ read full article“Neoliberal Restoration”: Hybrid War Hyenas Tear Brazil Apart
Pepe Escobar – The International Reporter,
25 Apr 2016
The coup has been sponsored by a certified crook, president of the lower house Eduardo Cunha; holder of 11 illegal accounts in Switzerland, listed in the Panama Papers and under investigation by the Supreme Court. Car Wash’s not so hidden agenda was always regime change. Who cares if in the process the nation is left on the verge of being controlled exactly by many of those indicted by the anti-corruption drive?
→ read full article(Italiano) La Cina Sta Gia’ Vivendo Nel 2020
Pepe Escobar – Come Don Chisciotte,
11 Apr 2016
Come una classica economia programmata, di un governo di stampo comunista, la Cina prepara un nuovo “piano quinquennale”. Quest’ultimo mira a rendere lo stato non solo la fabbrica del mondo, ma anche il principale bacino di innovazione tecnologica.
→ read full articleChina Is Already Living in 2020
Pepe Escobar – Strategic Culture Foundation,
11 Apr 2016
28 Mar 2016 – Consumed by myriad manifestations of its existential crisis, as usual the West neglected or underestimated the biggest show in Chinese politics: the famous «two sessions» – of the People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress, the top legislative body – which ended up approving China’s 13th Five-Year Plan. China is already thinking, and mentally living, in 2020.
→ read full articleBrazilian Democracy Thrown to the Dogs
Pepe Escobar – The International Reporter,
11 Apr 2016
Military coups are so Pinochet-era. It’s never enough to stress that what’s taking place in Brazil is advanced Hybrid War, a white coup/regime change operation organized by the Federal Public Ministry, corporate media (controlled by four families) and a significant part of Congress.
→ read full articleBrazil’s Revolution Starting to Reveal Its True Colors
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
28 Mar 2016
“Rule of law” in Brazil has now been debased to Turkey’s Sultan Erdogan levels – featuring business leaders with the “wrong” political connections arrested for months without trial. The Brazilian Constitution is being torn to shreds. The politicization of the Judiciary runs in parallel to the mainstream media spectacularization, criminalizing politics but only selected politicians. And forget about reading any of this on Western corporate media.
→ read full article‘Prime Minister’ Lula: The Brazilian Game-Changer
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
21 Mar 2016
Only three days after massive street demonstrations calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, and less than two weeks after his legally dubious four-hour detention for questioning, former Brazilian President Lula is about to spectacularly re-enter the Brazilian government as a Minister, actually a Super-Minister. This is Rousseff’s one and only chess move left amidst an unprecedented political/economic crisis.
→ read full articleIt Takes a Greek to Save Europa
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
22 Feb 2016
Yanis Varoufakis is resurfacing with a bang. On 9 Feb 2016 at the Volksbühne Theater in Berlin, Varoufakis launched a new project: the DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025), whose aim is to ultimately transfer power from Europa’s unaccountable, fiercely authoritarian elite and distribute it – fairly – among European citizens. He wants DiEM25 to be more than “just a think-tank and… an internet community”.
→ read full articleYou Have Now Landed in Geneva, Syria
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
15 Feb 2016
The alleged Syrian peace process now enters its Geneva charade stage. This could last months; get ready for lavish doses of posturing and bluster capable of stunning even Donald Trump… Geneva? That’s for tourists; the capital of the Syrian horror show is now Jarabulus.
→ read full articleSyria: Ultimate Pipelineistan War
Pepe Escobar – Strategic Culture Foundation,
14 Dec 2015
8 Dec 2015 – Syria is an energy war. With the heart of the matter featuring a vicious geopolitical competition between two proposed gas pipelines, it is the ultimate Pipelinestan war, the term I coined long ago for the 21st century imperial energy battlefields.
→ read full articleWill Chess, Not Battleship, Be the Game of the Future in Eurasia? Silk Roads, Night Trains, and the Third Industrial Revolution in China
Pepe Escobar – TomDispatch,
23 Nov 2015
The U.S. is transfixed by its multibillion-dollar electoral circus. The European Union is paralyzed by austerity, fear of refugees, and now all-out jihad in the streets of Paris. So the West might be excused if it’s barely caught the echoes of a Chinese version of Roy Orbison’s “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” And that new Chinese dream even comes with a road map.
→ read full articleParis: Who Profits?
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Nov 2015
14 Nov 2015 – There’s no evidence this is a false flag – at least for now. What this seems to be proving is that Daesh is a certified pro ops with badass connections. Scouring a ton of reports, I found a Danish citizen describing one of the attackers to a Paris café; ultra-pro, black-clad head to toe, AK-47, very well trained. These are not your usual al-Zawahiri underwear bombers; these are precision killers.
→ read full articleBlowback on a NATO Beach
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
7 Sep 2015
Hannah Arendt once wrote movingly about the banality of evil, referring to the mechanism of fascism and Nazism. Aylan’s lifeless body now illustrates the banality of an evil he was trying to flee: the “arc of instability”, a Pentagon self-fulfilling prophecy. So to put hell in perspective we must retrace some steps of the arc.
→ read full articleThe Eurasian Big Bang: How China and Russia Are Running Rings Around Washington
Pepe Escobar – TomDispatch,
27 Jul 2015
From now on, any possible future attack on Iran would essentially be an assault on the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union), the AIIB (the new Chinese-founded Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), and the NDB (the BRICS’ New Development Bank) — the emerging new order in Eurasia.
→ read full articleChina Rising – Have Grandmaster, Will Travel
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
22 Jun 2015
“The US cannot stop China’s rise. It just has to live with a bigger China, which will be completely novel for the US, as no country has ever been big enough to challenge its position. China will be able to do so in 20 to 30 years.”
→ read full articleAmerican Dreaming, From G1 to Bilderberg
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
15 Jun 2015
11 Jun 2015 – What’s the connection between the G7 summit in Germany, President Putin’s visit to Italy, the Bilderberg club meeting in Austria, and the TTIP – the US-EU free trade deal – negotiations in Washington? G1 plus junior partners? Bilderberg? Get a job; you’re not the only show in town, any town. WikiLeaks and a ton of BRICS.
→ read full article(Português) Sonhos norte-americanos, do G1 a Bilderberg
Pepe Escobar – Pravda,
15 Jun 2015
11 Jun 2015 – *Qual a conexão entre a reunião do G7 na Alemanha, a visita do presidente Putin à Itália, o clube Bildemberg reunido na Áustria e as negociações do Acordo de Parceria Transatlântica de Comércio e Investimento (APT) [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)] – o acordo de livre comércio entre EUA e União Europeia -, em Washington?
→ read full articleBRICS Trample US in South America
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
25 May 2015
Little by little, yet inexorably, BRICS members China – and in a smaller measure, Russia – have been no less than restructuring commerce and infrastructure all across Latin America.
→ read full articleU.S. Wakes Up to New (Silk) World Order
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
25 May 2015
15 May 2015 – The real Masters of the Universe in the U.S. are no weathermen, but arguably they’re starting to feel which way the wind is blowing. History may signal it all started with this week’s trip to Sochi, led by their paperboy, Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and then with President Putin.
→ read full articleThe Pentagon’s ‘Long War’ Pits NATO against China, Russia and Iran
Pepe Escobar – Sputinik News,
4 May 2015
Whatever happens with the nuclear negotiations this summer, and as much as Tehran wants cooperation and not confrontation, Iran is bound to remain — alongside Russia — a key US geostrategic target.
→ read full articleEurasia as We Knew It Is Dead
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
27 Apr 2015
Move over, Cold War 2.0. The real story, now and for the foreseeable future, is a new, integrated Eurasia forging ahead. China’s immensely ambitious New Silk Road project will keep intersecting with the Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union, a booming trade/commerce axis stretching from St. Petersburg to Shanghai.
→ read full articleUkraine: Donbass Struggle, European Shame
Pepe Escobar – Sputinik International,
13 Apr 2015
Seen from Donetsk, the plight of so many families, which look just like your average family in Manchester, Lille, Bologna or Valencia, displaced by a proxy war which they never wanted, demonized in block as “terra-rists”, threatened by fascists with deportation, and completely ignored by the “civilized” West, is as mind-boggling as the cosmic arrogance/ignorance of the “civilized” narrative which sees Ukraine only as good guys/democrats in Kiev against bad guys/rebels remote-controlled by evil Russia.
→ read full articleWestward Ho on China’s Eurasia BRIC Road
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
30 Mar 2015
The real story is not how China will collapse, as peddled by David Shambaugh, the so-called second top China expert in the U.S. (who’s the first? Henry Kissinger?) This is a line that’s been soundly debunked. The real story is how the myriad aspects of the New Silk Road will be configuring a new Eurasian dream. Have vision, will travel. Bon voyage.
→ read full articleWhat BRICS Plus Germany Are Really Up To?
Pepe Escobar – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Mar 2015
Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.
→ read full articleYear of the Sheep, Century of the Dragon?
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
2 Mar 2015
Seen from the Chinese capital as the Year of the Sheep starts, the malaise affecting the West seems like a mirage in a galaxy far, far away. On the other hand, the China that surrounds you looks all too solid and nothing like the embattled nation you hear about in the Western media.
→ read full articleEU Reeling between US and Russia
Pepe Escobar – Sputinik News,
2 Mar 2015
Minsk 2.0 agreement de facto shows that Germany and France, the leading European powers are trying to break away from the “American Chaos project.”
→ read full articleChina Pivots Everywhere
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
23 Feb 2015
Plenty to be excited about then as the Year of the Sheep (or Goat) starts. What’s certain is that the Chinese caravan, much in contrast with the dogs of war – and austerity – pivoting across the West, has already pivoted towards “win-win” pan-Eurasia integration.
→ read full articleFrom Minsk to Brussels, it’s all about Germany
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
16 Feb 2015
13 Feb 2015 – Germany holds the key to where Europe goes next. A fragile deal may have been reached on Ukraine, but there’s still no deal with Greece. In both cases, there’s much more than meets the eye.
→ read full articleRussia, China Mock Divide and Rule
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
29 Dec 2014
Essentially, the Empire of Chaos is bluffing, using Europe as pawns. The Empire of Chaos is as lousy at chess as it is at history. What it excels in is in upping the ante to force Russia to back down. Russia won’t back down.
→ read full articleWhat Putin Is Not Telling Us
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
22 Dec 2014
The perfect storm evolves in two fronts; an overt economic war – as in siege by sanctions – and a concerted, covert, shadow attack to the heart of the Russian economy. Washington’s endgame is clear: impoverish and defang the adversary and force him to meekly bow to the ‘Empire of Chaos’s’ whims. And bragging about it all the way to “victory.”
→ read full articleGo West, Young Han – As Washington “Pivots” to Asia, China Does the Eurasian Pirouette
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
22 Dec 2014
Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain.
→ read full articleThe New European ‘Arc of Instability’
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
15 Dec 2014
What these two think-tanks don’t – and won’t – ever acknowledge is that a new European “arc of instability” – from the Baltic to the Black Sea, as myself and other independent analysts have stressed – is exactly what the Empire of Chaos and its weaponized arm – NATO – are working on to prevent closer Eurasia integration.
→ read full article“Turk Stream”: Huge Win for Turkey – Big Win For Russia – Historic Loss for EU
Pepe Escobar – Russia Insider,
8 Dec 2014
So the EU “defeated” Putin by forcing him to cancel the South Stream pipeline. Thus ruled Western corporate media. Nonsense. Facts on the ground spell otherwise.
→ read full articleWashington Plays Russian Roulette
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
24 Nov 2014
The economically devastated EU is a joke; the only thing that counts for the US is NATO – and the overwhelming majority of its members are in the bag, sharing the prevailing mood in Washington of treating Putin as if he were Milosevic, Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi. There are no signs whatsoever Team Obama is willing to de-escalate.
→ read full articleLame Duck Out of the Silk Road Caravan
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
17 Nov 2014
Russia and China may not be proposing an alternative system – yet. Still, as the dogs of war, of hate, of inequality – bark, the China-Russia caravan passes. The caravan is selling Eurasia economic integration – not bombs. What APEC has shown is the spectacular implosion, in slow motion, of the former indispensable nation’s geopolitical dominance.
→ read full articleChina’s Silky Road to Glory
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
17 Nov 2014
APEC once again has shown that the more geopolitics change, the more it won’t stay the same; as the exceptional dogs of war, inequality and divide and rule keep barking, the China-Russia pan-Eurasian caravan will keep going, going, going – further on down the (multipolar) road.
→ read full articleThe Caliph Fit to Join OPEC
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
3 Nov 2014
The Caliph’s oil prices are to die (be beheaded?) for; after all, he’s implementing the same low-price strategy concocted by the people he wants to dethrone, the House of Saud. And oh, the irony Top customers for The Caliph’s cheap oil happen to be “Sultan” Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Earthly paradise, aka Turkey – a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally – and that King “Playstation” Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein’s domain impersonating a country, aka Jordan.
→ read full articleA Caliph in a Wilderness of Mirrors
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
27 Oct 2014
He’s invincible. He beheads. He smuggles. He conquers. He’s the ultimate jack-of-all-trades. No Tomahawk or Hellfire can touch him. He always gets what he wants; in Kobani; in Anbar province; with the House of Saud (which he wants to replace).
→ read full articleCan China and Russia Squeeze Washington Out of Eurasia? The Future of a Beijing-Moscow-Berlin Alliance
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
6 Oct 2014
Think of China as a magnet for a new world order in a future Eurasian century. The same integration process Russia is facing seems increasingly to apply to India and other Eurasian nations, and possibly to a neutral Germany. In the endgame of such a process, the U.S. might find itself progressively squeezed out of Eurasia.
→ read full articleWill NATO Liberate Jihadistan?
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
15 Sep 2014
Caliph Ibrahim, aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-declared leader of Islamic State, really sports a mean PR vein. So The Caliph is not exactly quaking in his Made-in-USA desert boots. He’s even dreaming of taking on the Slavic Caliph himself. How come Marvel Comics never thought about that?
→ read full articleNATO Set to Liberate ‘Jihadistan’?
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
15 Sep 2014
When the show seemed set for NATO to save Ukraine and Western civilization – at least rhetorically – from that evil empire remixed (Russia), the Caliph intervened with yet another “off with their heads” special.
→ read full articleCan You Smell What the Caliph Is Cooking?
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
8 Sep 2014
If they were really serious at targeting The Caliph, they’d be following the money. The Caliph is making roughly $2 million a day. No one knows who’s buying from the Islamic State, but the fact is the oil flows from Caliph-controlled “Syraq” to Turkey and Jordan.
→ read full articleNATO Attacks!
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
8 Sep 2014
You don’t need to be a neo-Foucault hooked on Orwellian/Panopticon practices to admire the hyper-democratic “ring of steel” crossing average roads, parks and even ringing castle walls to “protect” dozens of NATO heads of state and ministers in Newport, Wales. Once again, the battle lines are drawn. NATO vs SCO. NATO vs BRICS. NATO vs Global South. Therefore, NATO attacks!
→ read full articleWhy Obama Is Bombing the Caliph
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
18 Aug 2014
Obama also could not possibly explain why the US always supported ISIS in Syria and now decides to bomb them in Iraq. Oh, the perils of ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’. So a quick translation applies.
→ read full articleNATO Is Desperate for War
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
11 Aug 2014
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is desperate; it is itching for a war in battlefield Ukraine at any cost. Let’s start with Pentagon supremo, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has waxed lyrical over the Russian Bear’s “threat”:
→ read full articleCrime (Israel) and Punishment (Russia)
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
4 Aug 2014
Israel gets away with unlawful premeditated mass murder of civilians, while Russia gets framed for a (smaller-scale) airborne mass murder of civilians.
→ read full articleIt Was Putin’s Missile!
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
21 Jul 2014
And here’s the spin war verdict: the current Malaysia Airlines tragedy – the second in four months – is “terrorism” perpetrated by “pro-Russian separatists”, armed by Russia, and Vladimir Putin is the main culprit. End of story. Anyone who believes otherwise, shut up. Why? Because the CIA said so.
→ read full articleArab Spring, Jihad Summer
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
7 Jul 2014
So 13 years ago Washington crushed both al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Then the Taliban were reborn. Then came Shock and Awe. Then came “Mission Accomplished”. Then al-Qaeda was introduced in Iraq. Then al-Qaeda was dead because Osama bin Laden was dead. Then came ISIL. And now there’s IS. What’s not to like? If anyone thinks this whole racket is part of a new live Monty Python sketch ahead of their reunion gig this month in London, that’s because it is.
→ read full articleThe Future Visible in St Petersburg
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
2 Jun 2014
29 May 2014 – In more ways than one, last week heralded the birth of a Eurasian century at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum – the Russian answer to Davos. This is what Washington gets for over a decade of wars, incessant bullying, nasty sanctions and trillions of misspent dollars.
→ read full articleThe Birth of a Eurasian Century: Russia and China Do Pipelineistan
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
19 May 2014
And no wonder Washington is anxious. That alliance is already a done deal in a variety of ways: through the BRICS group of emerging powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa); at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian counterweight to NATO; inside the G20; and via the 120-member-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
→ read full articleObama’s ‘Strategy’ against ‘Pariah’ Russia
Pepe Escobar - Asia Times,
5 May 2014
The Kremlin, in a nutshell, has invited Washington to play realpolitik. Not Monopoly. The Obama administration, at best – and we are being very lenient here – plays checkers. Moscow plays chess.
→ read full articleUkraine and the Grand Chessboard
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
28 Apr 2014
Ukraine is for all practical purposes broke. The Kremlin’s consistent position for the past three months has been to encourage the European Union to find a solution to Ukraine’s dire economic mess. Brussels did nothing. It was betting on regime change to the benefit of Germany’s heavyweight puppet Vladimir Klitschko, aka Klitsch The Boxer.
→ read full articleThe US-Russia Ukrainian Deal
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
7 Apr 2014
4 Apr 2014 – By the time you read this Russia will have invaded Ukraine. Well, that’s what the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Philip Breedlove, is spinning. Breedlove Supreme says the Russians are “ready to go” and could easily take over eastern Ukraine. Western corporate media have already dusted off their Kevlar vests.
→ read full articleChina, Crimea and Pashtunistan
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
24 Mar 2014
At the center of the simultaneous tumult faced by both Afghanistan and Pakistan stands the ultimate taboo: Pashtunistan. How does the dream of a common Pashtun land connect to the secession of Crimea from Ukraine? And what does China think about all this?
→ read full article(Português) Ucrânia: como o blefe do Ocidente fracassou
Pepe Escobar, Asia Times – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Mar 2014
Sob influência dos “falcões” neoconservadores, Obama lançou-se a nova aventura arrogante. Nem toda histeria da mídia ocultará sua derrota.
→ read full articleRussia 1, Regime Changers 0
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
24 Mar 2014
The Obama administration’s “strategic” gambit to subcontract the State Department’s “Khaganate of Nulands” to extricate Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence – and ultimately annex it to NATO – by instrumentalizing a coalition of willing neo-nazis and fascists with a central bank veneer (prime minister “Yats”), is in utter shambles.
→ read full articleThe New Great (Threat) Game in Eurasia
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
17 Mar 2014
In Ukraine, the West supported an unconstitutional putsch against an elected government perpetrated, among others, by fascist/neo-nazi storm troopers (Svoboda, Right Sector) instrumentalized by US intelligence. This is just the latest instance in the serial rape of “international law”.
→ read full articleSpring Fails in Ukrainian Plunderland
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
10 Mar 2014
The endgame: Moscow controls an autonomous Crimea for free, and the US/EU “control”, or try to plunder, disaster capitalism-style, a back of beyond western Ukraine wasteland “managed” by a bunch of Western puppets and oligarchs, with a smatter of neo-nazis. So what is the Obama/Kerry strategic master duo to do? Start a nuclear war?
→ read full articleThe New US-Russia Cold War
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
17 Feb 2014
Meet the new (cold) war, same as the old (cold) war. Same same, but different. One day, it’s the myriad implications of Washington’s “pivoting” to Asia. Then, the denigration of all things Sochi. Yet Nulandgate – as in US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria “neo-con” Nuland uttering her famous “F**k the EU” – was way more serious. Not because of the “profanity” (praise the Lord!).
→ read full articleChina vs US ‘sea-to-shining-sea’
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
23 Dec 2013
The paper spelt it loudly; “If the American navy and air force always encroach near China’s doorstep, confrontation is bound to take place.”
→ read full articleThe Wahhabi-Likudnik War of Terror
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
25 Nov 2013
For the moment though, enough of Orwellian newspeak. What happened in Beirut was a terror attack, cheered by Israel, and fully enabled by Saudis; a graphic display by the Likudnik-House of Saud axis.
→ read full articleWhy France Is Playing ‘Stupid’ on Iran
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
18 Nov 2013
Torrents of bytes have already detailed how Israel routinely hijacks US foreign policy. Here’s yet one more graphic demonstration of how Wag the Dog works… Hollande is a joke. This week he’s on the cover of the Courrier International (headline: “The Art of the Fall”), with pan-European media judging him “incoherent”, “paralyzed” and “incompetent” (and these are the merciful epithets).
→ read full articleUS and Pakistan Locked in a ‘Drone Marriage’
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
28 Oct 2013
Obama didn’t even mention “drones” when talking to the media after his meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. So is it all Islamabad’s fault? Not really.
→ read full article‘Our’ Weaponized Wahhabi Bastards
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
21 Oct 2013
Life is good if you’re a member of the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, officially known as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). You can crush the Arab Spring at will. You can hire goons all across dar-al-Islam to advance a sectarian Sunni-Shi’ite divide. You can be deeply implicated in the destruction of Syria. You can treat a significant part of your own population as third-class citizens. Not only you get away with it; you get rewarded with expensive toys. And in one particular case – Saudi Arabia – even with a two-year seat at the UN Security Council.
→ read full articleA Crash Course in Somalization, from Syria to Kenya
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
30 Sep 2013
So what was Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen – the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali outfit – really up to in Kenya? Somalis who have nothing to do with al-Shabaab may and will pay the price – as much as Syrians who detest Al-Nusra Front are victims of the West’s blind, blank support of ‘rebels’. Dick Cheney must feel vindicated; the West is finally consolidating his ‘vision’ of Al-Qaeda as a mercenary shadow army disguised as global Terror Inc.
→ read full articleThe (Farcical) Emperor Is Naked
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
10 Sep 2013
There is nothing tragic about the Obama presidency, capable of drawing the analytical talents of a neo-Plutarch or a neo-Gibbon. This is more like a Pirandello farce, a sort of Character in Search of an Author.
→ read full articleHi, I’m Your New Axis of Evil
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
26 Aug 2013
The winner, as it stands, is the House of Saud/Israel/ Pentagon axis. How did they pull it off? With Israel possibly mulling another invasion of Lebanon; the Kerry “peace process” an excuse for more settlements in Palestine; Bandar Bush back practicing the dark arts; the pre-empting of any possible solution to the Iranian nuclear dossier; Egypt in civil war; Syria and also Iraq bleeding to death, what’s left is the certified proliferation of all kinds of axes, and all kinds of evil.
→ read full articleAl-Qaeda to the Rescue
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
12 Aug 2013
Imagine a rushed crisis meeting at the highest levels of the Orwellian/Panopticon complex: “Gentlemen, we have a golden opportunity here. We are under siege by defector spy Edward Snowden – liberated by the Soviets – and that terrorist hack Greenwald. Snowden may be winning: even among US public opinion, there’s a growing perception we may be more of a threat than al-Qaeda. So we must show we are vigilantly protecting our freedoms. Yes; we’re gonna scream Terra, Terra, Terra!”
→ read full articleWar against Iran, Iraq AND Syria?
Pepe Escobar - Asia Times,
29 Jul 2013
Britain, the Netherlands and France, have just branded the organization that is fighting jihadis on the ground in Syria/Lebanon “terrorists”, while the jihadis themselves get away with it. So much for European ignorance/arrogance.
→ read full articleAl-Qaeda Unleashed against Syria and Iraq with Acceptance of the West
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
29 Jul 2013
Now, with Syria as the new magnet of global jihad – once again a direct consequence of a US power play, via Barack “Assad must go” Obama – al-Qaeda is resurgent on both fronts. Washington has already destroyed the social fabric of Iraq. Now it’s helping to destroy Syria’s.
→ read full articleMeet a Moderate Syrian Insurgent
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
22 Jul 2013
You see how hard is the life of a moderate rebel? Not only we have to fight the despicable dictator in Damascus – we fight Shi’ite apostates and we even fight terrorists! Oh, Amrika! The terrorists are among us as well, just as they are among you.
→ read full articleBrazil Burning: The Story of an Illusion Gone Sour
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
24 Jun 2013
Brazil remained one the most (deadly) unequal nations in the world, peppered with retrograde landowning oligarchies and some of the most rapacious, arrogant and ignorant elites on the planet – inevitable by-products of ghastly Portuguese colonialism. The die is cast. Once again, it’s people power vs. institutional politics. Remember “Standing Man” in Taksim Square. The time to take a stand is now.
→ read full articleThe Chimerica Dream: Two Nations, Two Dreams, One Pacific
Pepe Escobar - TomDispatch,
24 Jun 2013
Beijing was very much aware of Washington’s deep plunge into China’s computer networks over the past 15 years. Yet Xi merrily allowed Obama to pontificate on hacking and cyber-theft as if China were alone on such a stage. Enter — with perfect timing — Edward Snowden, the spy who came in from Hawaii and who has been holed up in Hong Kong since May 20th.
→ read full articleMeet the ‘Friends of Jihad’
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
10 Jun 2013
Western politicos love to shed swamps of crocodile tears about “the Syrian people” and congratulate themselves within the “Friends of Syria” framework for defending them from “tyranny”. Well, the “Syrian people” have spoken. Roughly 70% support the government of Bashar al-Assad. Another 20% are neutral. And only 10% are aligned with the Western-supported “rebels”, including those of the kidnapping, lung-eating, beheading jihadi kind.
→ read full articleA Post-History Strip Tease
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
29 Apr 2013
Slavoj Zizek posed the key question in terms of the Decline of the West. The (closet) winner is “capitalism with Asian values’ – which has nothing to do with Asian people but everything with the tendency of contemporary capitalism to suspend democracy”. French philosopher Jean Claude Michea argues that post-modern politics has become a negative art – defining the least bad society possible. That’s how liberalism became, as neoliberalism, the “politics of lesser evil”. Well, “lesser evil” for who’s in control, of course, and damn the rest.
→ read full articleThe FBI Boston-Chechnya Charade
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
29 Apr 2013
The Boston bombing was major blowback. That much is certain. The question is, what level of blowback? The FBI, predictably, sticks to a convoluted screenplay worthy of those cocaine-fueled Hollywood nights in the 1980s; a couple of bad guys who ”hate our freedoms” because… they do. Welcome to the sweet abyss of an Orwellian vortex. 2013 increasingly looks like 1984.
→ read full articleIran, Pakistan, Syria, Qatar: Pipelineistan at Work
Pepe Escobar – Russia Today,
22 Apr 2013
Construction is nearing completion on a natural gas pipeline linking Iran and Pakistan, a project that portends a huge geopolitical shift. As regional powers strengthen ties in this key energy market, they’re looking to China, and away from the West.
→ read full article(Português) Os BRICS Afiam Suas Garras
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
8 Apr 2013
Ao se reunirem na África do Sul, os BRICS deram um passo que pode ter dimensões geopolíticas: montaram um pacote que prevê um banco de desenvolvimento, uma alternativa às agências de classificação de risco e uma opção ao dólar nas transações comerciais.
→ read full articleBRICS Go Over the Wall
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
1 Apr 2013
The BRICS meet in Durban, South Africa, this Tuesday [26 Mar 2013] to, among other steps, create their own credit rating agency, sidelining the dictatorship – or at least “biased agendas”, in New Delhi’s diplomatic take – of the Moody’s/Standard & Poor’s variety. They will also further advance the idea of the BRICS Development Bank, with a seed capital of US$50 billion (only structural details need to be finalized), helping infrastructure and sustainable development projects.
→ read full articleEl Comandante Has Left the Building
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
11 Mar 2013
How enlightening to watch world leaders’ reactions to the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica – a man who shuns 90% of his salary – reminded everyone how he qualified Chavez as “the most generous leader I ever met”, while praising the “fortress of democracy” of which Chavez was a great builder. Compare it with US President Barack Obama – in what sounds like a dormant cut and paste by some White House intern – reaffirming US support for “the Venezuelan people”.
→ read full articleAll That Pivots Is Gold
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
4 Feb 2013
What Beijing actually wants is to get rid of the US dollar peg. For that to happen, it needs vast gold reserves. So here’s Beijing pivoting from the US dollar to the yuan – and trying to sway vast swathes of the global economy to follow the path. Oh yes, this is a film noir worthy of Dashiell Hammett – involving the Pentagon, Beijing, shadow wars, pivoting and a lot of gold.
→ read full articleWar on Terror Forever
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
28 Jan 2013
Exit “historical” al-Qaeda, holed up somewhere in the Waziristans, in the Pakistani tribal areas; enter al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In Dempsey’s words, AQIM “is a threat not only to the country of Mali, but the region, and if… left unaddressed, could in fact become a global threat.” With Mali now elevated to the status of a “threat” to the whole world, GWOT is proven to be really open-ended.
→ read full articleBurn, burn – Africa’s Afghanistan
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
21 Jan 2013
Forget about spotting any Americans; these are – what else – contractors who do not wear military uniforms.
→ read full articleMr. President, Tear Down This Wall
Pepe Escobar – TomDispatch,
10 Dec 2012
On entering the Oval Office in Jan 2009, President Obama inherited a seemingly impregnable three-decade-long “Wall of Mistrust” in Iran-U.S. relations. To his credit, that March he directly addressed all Iranians in a message for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, calling for an “engagement that is honed and grounded in mutual respect.” Now, with the campaign Sturm und Drang behind us but the threats still around, the question is: Can Obama 2.0 bridge the gap between current U.S. policy and Persian optics?
→ read full articleHow Sexy Is Benghazi?
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
19 Nov 2012
The Love Pentagon – as in the Petraeus-Broadwell-Kelley-Allen-FBI shirtless torso guy – is the farce that keeps on giving. But this should really not be about sex, lies and emails. This should be about Benghazi. With frenemies like the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, Syria certainly does not need enemies. As for blowback, brace yourselves; what happened in Benghazi is just the hors d’oeuvres to be offered by increasingly rampaging frenemies of the US.
→ read full articleWhy Qatar Wants to Invade Syria
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
1 Oct 2012
He stressed Arab countries had a “military duty” to invade. So let’s assume the Emir is not exactly interested in turning Syria into Scandinavia. That opens the way to an inevitable motive – connected to, what else, Pipelineistan. It’s clear what Qatar is aiming at; to kill the US$10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline, a deal that was clinched even as the Syria uprising was already underway.
→ read full articleWar Fever as Seen from Iran
Pepe Escobar – Asia Times,
27 Aug 2012
So it’s time for something completely different – and totally absent from Western corporate media; sound Iranian minds rationally analyzing what’s really going on behind the drums of war – regarding Iran, Turkey, the Arab world and across Eurasia.
→ read full articleSyria’s Pipelineistan War
Pepe Escobar – Al Jazeera,
13 Aug 2012
This is a war of deals, not bullets. Deep beneath “Damascus volcano” and “the battle of Aleppo”, the tectonic plates of the global energy chessboard keep on rumbling. More than a year ago, a $10 billion Pipelineistan deal was clinched between Iran, Iraq and Syria for a natural gas pipeline to be built by 2016 from Iran’s giant South Pars field, traversing Iraq and Syria, with a possible extension to Lebanon. Key export target market: Europe.
→ read full article