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The Post-Cold War Hybridization of Geopolitical Concepts
On November 9, 1989, humanity registered an event whose concrete, yet symbolic value continues to echo to the present day: the wall that had split not only Berlin, but Europe and the whole world as well, started to crumble… Was the Cold War ending? Did the bipolar world not exist anymore? Were the spheres of influence disintegrating? What was going to happen to the US and USSR, the two superpowers? These questions were waiting for an answer. Scenarios such as The End of History (Fukuyama, 1992) and The Clash of Civilizations (Huntington, 1996) were trying to predict what the world would look like after the fall of the Berlin Wall while new phrases were starting to materialize gradually, first in the media, then, timidly in the academic circles, both as discourse and in university courses, after half a century of geopolitical “prohibition”. However, the great international events were not waiting. The start of a new geopolitical world and international order were foreshadowed. More
The Steering Wheel with Free Will
“The advent of AVs on the busy roadways of the world’s nations represents a sea change in the way human transportation is conceived and enacted. We are now witnessing an epoch of significant transition in which active control of the vehicle is being taken from the human driver and placed within the charge of the on-board computer systems themselves.”Hancock P.A. 1997. Essays on the Future of Human-Machine Systems. Eden Prairie, MN: Banta Information Services Group. More
The Anthropocene-Fallacy: Learning from Wrong Ideas
The Anthropocene is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. While it is not an academically established definition, as of yet, it is proposed to have begun in the 1950s. This article posits that the concept is erroneous in at least two ways. First, it relies on a normative, activist, appropriation of science. Second, it disregards the system-property of the ecosystem, which is marked by the continuous interaction between the system and its parts, or agents. But more than this, the idea of the Anthropocene is a case study for how activist agendas appropriate science and academia depriving it from an important academic feature, its skeptical method. More
Europe’s Self-Inflicted Energy Disaster
The European Union has many inherent advantages and a number of good policy decisions made over the years, to promote convergence and take advantage of its size for economies of scale. However, there are a few sore spots as regards major policy trends that produced significant damage to the fabric of the European Union and divided it. One such problem is that of energy, and the impact of the recently begun war in Ukraine and the response of the EU to the war throw these issues in stark relief. Having achieved a surprising unity of perceptions throughout the West as regards the illegality of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the need to both deter, discourage and punish those actions, a comprehensive set of sanctions was agreed upon and implemented. More
In Memory of Romania’s Last King: His Royal Majesty Michael I (1921-2017)
The life of King Michael I (Mihai I, for Romanians) embodies almost perfectly the tormented and tragic destiny of Romania, his country, in the 20th century. His quiet and reserved personality, almost a monument to stoicism, was testimony to a man who, in the face of great adversity, always tried to do everything right, but in the end to no avail. More
Technology and Ethics: Of Man and Wisdom
In Isaac Asimov’s Bicentennial Man, the fictional robot character of Andrew Martin spends centuries suffering many modifications in order to be accepted by humanity as one of their own.The story shows Andrew, whose name comes from the Greek Andras, meaning man, as an innocent being endowed with unique skills and creativity, one of a kind among his robot peers. His original name was NDR, but the young girl who was a member of the family that owned him called him Andrew. Andrew becomes sad once he is acquainted with idea of death, especially after the demise of his master, whom he called Sir. Soon after this acquaintance with death he starts wearing clothes, as he is changed by the experience and for some reason starts to feel bare without them. Slowly, he works towards transforming everything he is into what his master was, a human. The story ends with him making the ultimate sacrifice, trading his immortality for the right to be called human. More
The Grapes of Parnassos: Is the West Withering on the Vine?
The West – what Philip Rieff called “church civilization” – is succumbing to the false fruits of cultural revolutions which succeed in part because the passing of a single generation is all it takes to wipe the slate and in part because its custodians lack the requisite faith and courage to resist. First, the public memory fades or is subtly reinterpreted. Then, citizens fail to convey the wealth of their experience and tradition through nurturing, teaching, and testing. Finally, they even neglect to produce heirs to carry the enterprise forward. More
Ludwig Wittgenstein on Errors Made in Economic Language
You may be wondering why a philosopher like Ludwig Wittgenstein is so important in economics. We know how vital the ideas of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Francis Bacon, David Hume, Karl Marx, Keynes, Mises and Samuelson were in the history of the economic field and a name such as Wittgenstein seems uncommon. Yet, we have to admit that Wittgenstein was a philosopher who dedicated his entire life to shape the perfect arguments on the basis of pure logic. Moreover, a state of fact which is correctly observed is linked to logic. When it comes to the power of decisions, the truth is found in actions and is the only way which enforces the reasoning capacity of human beings. More
On Brexit and Other Exits
The United Kingdom has just spent its first days out of the European Union. The exit, completed by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson (the third British PM in a row, since Brexit began, four years ago) together with his political counterparts from the intricate EU institutional architecture, stands proof that in the age of multilateralism, unilateralism is far from a lost idea. More
Faux Treaty on Witch-Hunting
“Russia has invaded Ukraine! Russia must be punished!” Thus goes the most commonly expressed sentiment these days, postulating an imperative that seems, however, by far easier said than done. “Economically, politically”, the speech then emphatically continues, “...and militarily” in a rather light whisper. Yet, even if we were to content ourselves with “verba” without moving further to “facta”, a heady operational riddle is evident to those who pay close attention to the words being used (said usage being, in itself, a factum as much as an intended expression of facts). Which Russia are we referring to? All of Russia? Should V.V. Putin, the “ringleader” who originated this crisis, be condemned before anything and anyone else? Should we also not punish the (active and passive) accomplices of the now infamous head of state: the apparatchiks (who fill the ranks of the country’s political leadership); the oligarchs (from the pseudo-private business); the state-serving intelligentsia (with both its academic and artistic branches)? Maybe sanction the Russian nation itself, for surely it has democratically legitimized the tyrant, either involuntarily (through ignorance) or voluntarily (through deluded conviction)? Why not the Russian culture altogether, with its departed and unborn, since the racketeers have the same unhealthy origins as the Karamazov brothers and poor Karenina? More
Prospects for Russia’s Energy Market
Both during and after World War Two, analysts recognized the vital role played by energy resources – petroleum, natural gas, and coal – in calculating national power and a nation’s ability to endure an international crisis. Economic development and industrial production are largely determined by success in securing these crucial energy components. More recently, nuclear power has joined the ranks of essential energy resources. More
With Regards to Government Charity for the Private Sector
In a market economy, which is also presumed to function within a free society, generally, the goods and services needed for individuals are acquired through economic transactions (regularly through work and the processes around it – saving, investments and so on). Part of these goods and services are delivered by the state (more exactly, by the public sector of the state), the so-called public goods. The present intervention is intended to advance some considerations about the phenomenology of the public goods. It must be mentioned that there are two categories of public goods: More
