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geopolitics

Nigeria says Ecowas studying ramifications of Morocco membership
25-Jul-2017 Bloomberg
Several Nigerian lobby groups, including an organization of retired ambassadors, are putting pressure on the Nigerian government to reject the application because of the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara and Morocco’s geographical distance.
Wine and the Canada-Israel free trade agreement
24-Jul-2017 Dissident Voice
Two weeks ago the worst fear of Canadian opponents of neoliberal ‘free trade’ agreements came true. Surprisingly, there has been almost no reaction from the political parties, unions, and other organizations that warned these agreements would be used to undermine Canadian law, even though this is exactly what happened.
Think the RCEP is about free trade? Think again
28-Apr-2017 Nikkei Asian Review
RCEP is aimed at saving China’s own economy via the Belt and Road
The political motivations of the United States’ bilateral investment treaty program
26-Apr-2017 SSRN
The United States has largely used BITs as a foreign policy tool to improve relationships with strategically important countries in the developing world.
EU and UK soon to be in a post-Brexit rush over free trade agreement with Australia
11-Apr-2017 European Sting
The European Union is eyeing to exclude the UK from trade talks with Australia amid concerns that “sensitive information” may be used by an almost ex-member, reports European Sting.
India, Russia to step up geopolitical and economic cooperation in 2017
27-Jan-2017 RBTH
At the bilateral level, Moscow and New Delhi are poised to make a trajectory shift, especially in the realms of two-way mutually beneficial economic linkages.
EU pushes for Dutch deal on Ukraine to fend off Russia
15-Dec-2016 Reuters
European Union leaders expressed confidence that they would clinch an agreement that addresses Dutch concerns over a deal establishing closer ties with Ukraine, mindful that any failure to do so would hand a victory to Russia.
Post-Brexit dreams of empire: arms, free trade and corporate conquest
14-Dec-2016 The Ecologist
A new era of corporate ’free trade’ colonialism looms, spearheaded by aid spending, with ramped-up arms exports to the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes
Taiwan to seek US support for investment, trade agreements
13-Dec-2016 Economy Lead
Taiwan will seek the support of the United States for signing bilateral and multilateral investment and free trade agreements, the Taiwanese President has said.
First season in Switzerland without occupation tomatoes?
9-Dec-2016 WSRW
From this winter on, Swiss supermarkets will probably, for the first time, no longer sell tomatoes from occupied Western Sahara.
Vietnam’s reluctance to ratify the TPP is bad news for Washington
28-Oct-2016 Nikkei Asian Review
Vietnam’s decision to hold off ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a further blow to the beleaguered trade pact and a setback for American economic ambitions in Asia.
Why Russia and China want to limit US economic influence in Asia-Pacific
2-Sep-2016 Russia Direct
Given new attempts by the U.S. to create economic integration structures that will restrain Chinese dominance in the region, Beijing is working on building deeper economic cooperation with other Asia-Pacific countries – including Russia.
Asean told to refocus on RCEP
27-Jun-2016 The Nation
Thailand and other Asean nations should review their stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and rather refocus on materialising the Regional Cooperation on Economic Partnership, said former WTO chief.
Conditionality in context - scenarios for EU relations with the Eurasian Economic Union
26-Jun-2016 CEPOB
The establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in January 2015 congealed EU-Russia relations in terms of geopolitics and trade policy.
An interview with Lauge Poulsen, author of Bounded Rationality and Economic Diplomacy
15-Jun-2016 IISD
Lauge Poulsen is a Lecturer in International Political Economy at University College London. His recent book explains why and how developing countries signed up to investment treaties.
Americanization of the BIT universe
9-Jun-2016 SSRN
Friendship, Commerce and Navigation (FCN) treaties are more than a historical precursor to international investment agreements (IIA) and continue to influence and inspire modern investment treaty design.
Renegotiation of Korea-US FTA may dent alliance: Seoul officials
16-May-2016 Korea Times
A demand to renegotiate the terms of a free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States may very well mean the end of the bilateral trade pact, if not the countries’ alliance.
Migrants from the South, the contemporary faces of exclusion and marginalization
4-Mar-2016 Alai
Today’s migrations, as macro international displacements of hundreds of thousands of people with or without documents — in many cases in precarious conditions of transit — have been and are one of the social processes that characterize what is happening in different latitudes of the earth since in the new century, in the global context of neoliberal economic restructuring directed by transnational enterprises and the capitalist countries of the first world.
Diplomats want treaties: diplomatic agendas and perks in the investment regime
1-Mar-2016 SSRN
Strategic foreign policy considerations have driven some investment treaty negotiations. Secondly, some diplomats have been successful in promoting investment treaties to further their own individual interests.
Obama to push trade agenda at summit with Southeast Asian nations
15-Feb-2016 The Japan Times
A summit between Southeast Asian leaders and President Barack Obama is unlikely to deliver any big economic prizes, but will allow the American side to press the advantages of joining a Pacific trade pact that doesn’t include China.