Carl Zha is back and I try to explain to him the hysteria of the accusations by the CSIS leaker in Canada of Chinese electoral interference. He can’t find a word of it in Chinese media which leads to the horrible possibility that Canada doesn’t matter very much to China. I try to explain to him what has been going on in the Canadian media and he reminds us that Australia has been concocting the same story – anonymous intelligence sources using the media to create a scandal around supposed Chinese electoral interference – since 2017. It’s hard to take seriously, so we don’t.
Audio
World War Civ 14a: Anglo-German Naval Race pt1 – Theorists and Practitioners of World Domination
Part 1 of 2 on the Anglo-German Naval Race. We start with a modern theorist, Paul Kennedy, and his thesis that industrial power translates to military power. Then some earlier imperialist theorists we’ve mentioned before: Mahan and Mackinder, who Justin finally read. Then, the practitioners of naval power, Admiral Tirpitz on the German side and Fisher on the English. The first of two parts on the Anglo-German Naval Race leading up to WW1.
In Real Time 10: A 5-year and a 50-year farm bill
Back with Stan Cox on the environmental file. Stan’s written a dispatch on the Farm Bill. How the 5-year Farm Bills used to have consensus but how even that might be breaking, and then we talk about Wes Jackson’s ideas about a 50-year farm bill, thinking on the scale we probably need to be thinking on…
AER 123: The fruit of 5 years of demonizing China in Canada
I’m joined by Dock Currie with another episode on the gift that keeps on giving, the CSIS-leaking China panic in Canadian politics. We talk about the recent walk-back from the most ridiculous allegations against Han Dong, the pivot to more aggressive demonization of China in Canadian culture starting in 2018, the Meng Wanzhou case and where things are headed. Dock is an articling student in BC and on twitter at Dock_Currie
AER 122: Attempts to arrest Imran Khan and the Lahore High Court rallies
Waqas is back to keep us up to date on the Imran Khan file. The entire Pakistan establishment is united in trying to keep Imran Khan from returning to power in an election through court cases, violent repression, and electoral delay; but the people’s protests don’t seem to stop. Pakistan and Imran Khan at an impasse. Waqas also presents his new research on how the coup unfolded last year.
AER 121: Multiculturalism is over in Canada
Sina’s back to talk to me about my latest Substack article, “Multiculturalism is over in Canada. It’s back to Sinophobia.” It’s about the scandal unfolding in the Canadian media since Fife & Chase broke their anonymous CSIS-leak-sourced story about Chinese interference in Canadian elections in February. I’m worried about racist incitement and scandal-mongering. Sina thinks I’m worrying too much.
World War Civ 13: The Bosnian Crisis 1908
First we announce Civ Books, where you can buy some of the best Civilizations Podcast transcripts in hard copy. Then, we reveal two of the most long-standing geopolitical disagreements that Dave and Justin have hitherto unresolved: one on the rights and wrongs of the Yugoslav war of 1999, and the other on the status of Russia in its neighbourhood. Do these affect the way we interpret events on things like the 1908 Balkan Crisis, when Serbia and Austria-Hungary almost started it all off? Perhaps it does. After our declarations of bias we talk about the unfolding of the crisis, how Bismarck would have handled it differently, how Lenin saw it all as theatrics to make socialists take their eyes off the prize, and how it all ended up leaving everyone learning the wrong lessons.
AER 120: Russia Ukraine Year 1: Who is winning? Who is lying? With Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter is back after a year as we build a chronology of events of the Russia-Ukraine war so far. What were Russia’s goals? Did they succeed or fail? What were NATO’s goals? Why did Russia’s initial offensive not bring a negotiation? Why did sanctions on Russia fail? How can we determine who is winning or losing when war propaganda is this thick? We even have a little debate about the issues around which an antiwar movement could try to reconstitute itself. Negotiations to end this war? Scott thinks no. Arms control? Scott thinks maybe.
AER 119: That time when Britain killed 10 million Indian people, with Amaresh Mishra
Talking to Amaresh Mishra, author of the giant book India 1857: War of Civilisations about the immense scale of the Indian revolution against British imperialism that year: the scale of Hindu-Muslim unity, the class aspect of the revoution, the scale of the genocidal British massacres that followed (Mishra’s estimate is that the British killed 10 million Indians), and the importance of the so-called “1857 line”: the spiritual, cultural, political and economic connection between Hindu and Muslim in South Asia and resistance to Anglo-American imperialism, the recovery of which is the only way for South Asia to take its place in the world. We analyze Modi’s politics since 2014 and the continuing weakness of pro-Western ideologies (whether of the Congress or Hindutva variety) when faced with revolutionary politics.
The Brief Episode 32: West Bank Escalation
I joined Nora and Jon from The Brief to talk about the new Resistance in the West Bank and Israel’s ongoing spiral out of control.