Understanding The Russian Sphere Of Influence Politics Essay

Understanding The Russian Sphere Of Influence Politics Essay The aim of this chapter is to bring out the elements behind Russias quest to maintain a sphere of influence around itself. In doing this, one should not just look at present Russian politics and recent attempts by Russia to restore its former sphere of influence. One has to look briefly into the history of Russia from the time of the Tsars and during the Communist regime. The Tsars had always desired to create a sphere of influence which would act as a belt of protection for Russia. One has to look at Russias geography to understand this key element in Russian foreign policymaking throughout the centuries. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia lost various regions which were the ex-Soviet Republics. Since then, Russia has retreated progressively. NATO expanded eastward in Europe since 1994 causing Russia to be suspicious and resentful. After the September 11 attacks, the USA established military bases in Central Asian countries to support its military operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and initially Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his support, though he would resent long-term American military presence in what Russia perceives its sphere of influence. In the Far East, Russia faces a rapidly rising China as a potential superpower. So, it is understandable that Russian foreign policymakers have to counterbalance all these factors. Russia is not just a European power but also an Asian power. All these factors contribute to the multivector characteristic in Russian foreign policymaking. One must not forget that Russia also has its economic interests i n the Central Asian region and not just military and political interests. The setting-up of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) show how Russia is trying to adapt to its loss of empire. One must not forget that the collapse of the Soviet Union took place twenty years ago and that Russia is still going through what is called its imperial syndrome. This chapter has the aim of demonstrating the change and continuity in Russian foreign policy through its history to the present day. 2.1 The Tsarist roots When Russia began to expand as an empire, the Tsars always had the intention to use to newly conquered lands as belts of protection around Russia. This can be traced back to the time of Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great. He started by what historian call the collecting of the Russian lands which was followed by wars with Poland in the West (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 18). Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, conquered lands from the Tatars and Russia reached the Caspian Sea (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 19). In 1613, Mikhail Romanov was elected Tsar, hence starting the 304-year Romanov dynasty. Under his reign and his sons reign, Russia fought eight wars with Poland and it retook Kiev, which had the capital city of the first Russian state, the Kievan Rus (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 19). So, in this time frame, one can see Muscovy expanding its territory and sphere of influence. The ascension of Peter I, known as Peter the Great and his subsequent reign (1689-1725) had a lasting effect on Russian foreign policy. He is known for his secularization and modernization of the Russian Empire along European lines (Hosking, pg 76). He too focused on expanding Russian territory and had one of his first successes when he captured the fort of Azov from the Turks, thus giving Russia access to the Black Sea (Hosking, pg 76). He then proceeded to war with Sweden and the victories he attained there such as the capture of the river Neva in 1703, Narva and Dorpat in 1704, gave Russia access to the Baltic (Freeze, pg 114). The Treaty of Nystad with Sweden in 1721 crowned Russias achievements in the Baltic and Sweden lost its place as a European great power to Russia (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). With these conquests, Peter the Great brought Russia closer to Europe as he had always desired and Russian foreign policy took a new dimension from then on. In 1689, there was the Nerchinsk Treaty between the Russian Empire and China where the two powers agreed to divide their spheres of influence which led to China keeping Mongolia under its dominion and Russia keeping land north of the Amur river (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). After the death of Peter the Great, there was the Kyakhta where Russia and China agreed to set up formal diplomatic relations and paved the way for trade between the two powers (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). Under Catherine the Great, Russia continued to expand its territory and this is seen in the partitions of Poland which brought Belarus (White Russia), Lithuania and Western Ukraine under the Russian realm (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). Russias military forays southwards resulted in two wars with Turkey and these culminated in the treaties of Kutchuk Kainardji (1774) and the Treaty of Jassy (1792) which gave Russia control of the north Black sea coastline from Azov to Odessa (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). After the victory against Napoleon in 1815 and the Congress, Russias Tsar Alexander I was able to demonstrate Russian power to Europe (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21) and Russia added Finland and lands in the south and Central Asia to its dominion. Nicholas Is reign (1825-1855) saw Russia turning its attention on the Ottoman Empire which was referred to as the sick man of Europe and this is seen in the Russian ambition to take Constantinople and get naval access to the Mediterranean Sea and the base at Sevastopol (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21). However, one can see the role of ideology behind Russias expansionism such using the protection of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire to justify its wars with Turkey, which one of them resulted in the independence of Greece (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21). In the second half of the 19th century, Russia began looking eastwards again and started to violate the Treaty of Nerchinsk by penetrating deeper into Chinas territory. In 1860, Vladivostok was founded and in 1860, the two powers signed the Treaty of Peking where Russias new gains in the Amur region (legalized since 1858) were consolidated and China and Russia agreed on the new border along the Ussuri river (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). In Central Asia, Russia took Tashkent in Uzbekistan in 1865 and Merv in Turkmenistan in 1884 (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). To reassure Britain that it was not going to pursue its conquests south to India, Russia signed an agreement with Britain that it was going to limit itself to northern borders of Afghanistan (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). One must not exclude the ideology of Pan-Slavism from Russian foreign policymaking during the time of the Tsars which had considered Moscow as the Third Rome and the Tsar as the protector of all Orthodox Christians (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 25). This led to tensions with the Ottoman Empire resulting in a war in 1878. In the early twentieth century, Russia had tension with Japan over territories in the Far East and this culminated in a Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905, which to Russias humiliation, Japan won (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 27). So, Russias ambitions in the Far East were limited to the northern part of Manchuria, the northern half of Sakhalin island and had to accept Koreas incorporation in the Japanese sphere of influence (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 27). What was the motivation behind the Tsars aim of expanding their realm? Robert H. Donaldson and Joseph L. Nogee give a variety of reasons. The geography of Eurasia may be one of the explanations for Tsarist Russia to acquire all those land to create a protective barrier around itself. Russia also wanted ice-free harbours which led to its ambitions to take harbours in the Black Sea and the Baltic as well as Pusan in modern South Korea culminating in the war with Japan in 1904-1905 (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 29). The autocratic ideology of the Tsarist system is also listed as a reason. The Tsars expressed their autocratic character by pushing for conquering of new lands and military expeditions (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 30). Even Henry Kissinger, in his book, Diplomacy, agrees with the view that Tsarist autocracy led Russia to behave in that way in the international relations of the time (Kissinger, pg 140) 2.2 Continuity under the USSR The continuity with the Tsars thinking was most clear under Joseph Stalins rule. In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed an agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact where they agreed to share Eastern Europe between their spheres of influence. Through the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Russia regained those lands such as Eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (Kenez, pg 135). The motivation to expand Russias territory could not be clearer. In October1944, there was the Percentage Agreement between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to divide spheres of influences of their states in Eastern Europe (Dunbabin, pg 87). The element of continuity with the Tsars thinking of expansionism is clear. After the Second World War, the USSR did not make it a secret that it wanted to keep Eastern Europe under its orbit as well as export its Communist ideology throughout the world. The USSR was using the banner of Communism and proletarian internationalism to spread its influence around the globe. The West responded by the enactment of the Truman Doctrine which had the intention of containment (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 220). In June 1947, the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan was launched in order to help Europe recover and stem the tide of Communism (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 222). This was part of the containment policy. On the 4th of April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was set up to challenge Soviet hegemony (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 223-224). The Soviet response was to create the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, COMECON in 1949 to create sociaist planned economies in Eastern Europe (Best, Hanh imaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 219). In 1948, the USSR expelled Yugoslavia of Jozip Broz Tito because Tito did not want to have Stalin dictating to him how to govern the country (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 219). In May 1955, the USSR set up the Warsaw Pact as a response to NATO as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said we wanted to make an impression on the West (Dunbabin, pg 221). In 1956, Hungary under Imre Nagy rebelled because it did not want to remain under Soviet domination and left the Warsaw and the Soviets response was to send tanks to crush the uprising (McCauley, pg 340). In 1968, Czechoslavakia, under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek, attempted to create socialism with a human face, unlike the rigid Soviet communism which is known as the Prague Spring. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was alarmed by this since he feared it could spread and create a domino effect and the USSR would lose its sphere of influence in East-Central Europe. The USSR tried to exert pressure on Dubcek (Dunbabin, pg 568) but when it saw that it was not enough, it launched a military invasion on 20th August 1968 to crush the Prague Spring and remove Dubcek from power (Dunbabin, pg 569). This showed that the Sov iet Union feared that different interpretations of Marxism among its satellites would lead to collapse of Communism and lose its strategic sphere of influence. Due to the upheavals that took place, the Brezhnev leadership came up with the Brezhnev Doctrine which claimed that it was the sole right of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact to take action against socialist countries which deviated from Soviet Communism (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 274). The message the USSR sent to the rest of the world was that it will not tolerate any changes to the political-economic system it had created in East Europe, its sphere of influence. This was because it felt highly threatened by those changes. The West gave its response in the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 where it accepted the Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe but the USSR agreed to accept the human rights basket, which would have serious consequences for the USSR in the 1980s (Dunbabin, pg 571). 2.3 Post-Communist Russia and Sphere of Influence Thinking in Current Russian Foreign Policy At the collapse of the Soviet Union, many former Soviet Republics which were also part of the Tsarist Empire became independent. Russia had lost those lands which had provided a belt of protection for Russia for centuries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991and up to the late 1990s, the newly constituted Russia began to use the term near abroad for its former Soviet republics (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 163). In this part, the setting up of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Russias participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their usefulness to Russia in maintaining its sphere of influence will be analyzed. This part aims to put under focus Russias aims and aspirations behind the setup of these organisations. The interests Russia has in keeping Central Asian states, Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-Soviet states will be analyzed. Russia has and still claims that it uses multilateralism to achieve its aims of maintaining its sphere of influence and checking other powers such as China in the East. To analyze this in more detail, the focus will be on Russias behavior both in the institutions it is part of and leads and its behavior towards the smaller ex-Soviet republics. Russias activities in the CSTO and SCO will also be analyzed as well as its successes and failures in preserving its sphere of influence. 2.3.1 What are Russias interests and motivations, and how does it view itself and the countries surrounding it? The best way to start the subject is to look into Russias interests. Historically, the ex-Soviet republics were part of the USSR and before the October Revolution of 1917. It is not restricted to this reason though. Russia has economic interests as well as competing new powers for influence. This is most felt in the Central Asian region. For Russian political analyst Dmitri Trenin, this is sphere of interest rather than sphere of influence, as he points out in his article in The Washington Quarterly. Trenin outlines three types of interests that Russia has the ex-Soviet states. The first includes the military and security reasons, secondly, Russias economic interests and thirdly, the cultural aspect. Regarding Russias security and military interests, Trenin mentions the CSTO as a way for Russia to maintain its influence and dominance in most of the ex-Soviet republics and also to combat Islamic extremist movements (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Trenin goes on to refer to t he fact Russia would like the CSTO to on the same level with NATO and that this would create the new European security architecture thus leading to the legitimization of the primacy of Russia in its former Imperial and Soviet subjects (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Trenin maintains that Russias intention is halt US and NATO encroachment in its perceived zone of responsibility and he refers to the August 2008 war with Georgia. By taking a heavy-handed attitude towards Georgia, Trenin suggests, Russia was sending a clear message to NATO that it would accept anymore intrusion in the ex-Soviet space (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). So, the real reason behind the war was Mikhail Saakashvilis explicit intention to get NATO membership for Georgia. Russia also thinks that the USA is using democracy encouragement in order to draw the ex-Soviet states away from Russias influence (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). The second reason, the economic interests of Russia, also cannot be ignored. Russia has millions of foreign workers who come from the CIS member states, a factor which gives Russia an upper hand in dealing with its neighbours (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Another important economic factor is energy. The ex-Soviet states around the Caspian Sea are rich in energy resources and Russian energy companies such as Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas corporation, would like to be the ones that have control over these resources especially oil and natural gas (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Russia has also worked towards economic integration in Eurasia and this is seen in the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and Russia has made no secret of its wish to have a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). So Russia also uses economic means to preserve its influence and its interests. In the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, Russia has forked out billions in funds to help the economies of the former Soviet Republics to recover (The Washington Quarterly). Thirdly, there is the cultural aspect. Dmitri Trenin makes a reference towards the presence of millions of Russian inhabitants in post-Soviet countries and how the Kremlin tries to use the case of Russian minorities for its political advantage. This has been listed as one of the objectives of Russian foreign policy in the Russian Foreign Policy Concept of 2008 signed by President Dmitri Medvedev (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 12th July 2008). This objective of Russia protecting ethnic Russians in the neighboring countries has also one been one of the first objectives of Vladimir Putin since he first came to power as Russian President in 2000, as outlined by Ingmar Oldberg in his article for the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 2010). Russia has been taking advantage of its cultural predominance to use the Russian minoriti es in the neighboring countries to preserve its influence and has used many methods to try to achieve its objective such as the media, issuing of passports and backing pro-Russian political parties in these states (The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 2010). One has to appreciate the fact that Russian culture, especially the language is a very strong factor. 2.3.2 Organisations which Russia uses as part of its objective of preserving its sphere of influence In this section, the focus is on organisations such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The aim of this part of the chapter is to give a short history of each of these organisations and more importantly, Russias role in them and what Russia hopes to achieve by being active in these organisations. Is Russia using these organisations as a new way to portray itself as upholding the principles of multilateralism while at the same times keeping the post-Soviet republics under its influence? Does Russia behave as an equal partner or is it the dominant member due to its military strength? The best way to answer these questions is to analyse these organisations and Russias role in them. 2.3.2.1 Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was born out of the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed, 15 newly independent states emerged. Russia wanted to use the CIS in order for it to be able to maintain its influence in the newly independent states (Nogee and Donaldson, pg 165). It wanted to create The Baltic states kept away from joining and Georgia left the organisation after its August 2008 war with Russia. Ukraine, which in the early 1990s was under the leadership of Leonid Kravchuk did not want much integration in the CIS in order to preserve Ukraines independence (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 166). As a sign of continuity with the Tsarist and Soviet foreign policy thinking, Russia placed huge importance to the CIS as way of protecting itself with friendly countries, and this was mentioned in the 1993 Russian Foreign Policy Concept (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). With the establishment of the CIS, Russia was aiming for a common econ omic space, a common market, co-ordinated customs policies, cooperation in the environmental protection, developing communication and transport systems and combating organized crime (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). Much of these ambitions aims were not achieved and in 2005, President Vladimir Putin himself complained that the CIS did not achieve what Russia envisioned a decade earlier (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). Stina Torjesen, in a contribution to the book The Multilateral Dimension of Russian Foreign Policy, lists some reasons why Russia did not achieve as much as it hoped for in the 1990s regarding the CIS and CIS integration. Torjesen mentions reasons such as that coordination was not executed well, that when it came to implementing policies, Russia was either slow or didnt implement them at all, causing the other partners to be irritated, Russia in the 1990s was going through economic hardship which led to difficulty in implementing proposals and that Russias behavio r was still zero-sum instead of being a multilateral partner (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 155). Russia still sought to be the dominating party and sought primacy over other partners. So Russia deserves part of the blame for the failure to achieve the earlier objectives behind the creation of the CIS. Lilia Shevtsova, in her book Lonely Power, believes that Russia does not treat its neighbours as equals and cares about its primacy (Shevtsova, pg 90). Shevtsova makes a reference to a speech by President Dmitry Medvedev at the Council of Foreign Relations where the Russian President stated that Russia had a sphere of privileged interests (Shevtsova, pg 89). There were attempts by some post-Soviet republics to try to lessen their dependence on Russia and this is seen in organisations they set up such as GU(U)AM (Mankoff, pg 247). This consisted of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan (which left the organisation), Azerbaijan and Moldova. GUAM as organisation was first set up in October 1997 (Tsygankov, pg 126). Uzbekistan left the organisation in May 2005 (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 173). After the summit in Kiev on 23rd May 2006, GUAM had a new name: Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM (Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM). The August 2008 war with Georgia also spoke volumes about Russias efforts to preserve its sphere of influence. Moreover in May 2009, Russia sent in extra 1,800 troops into Abkhazia and South Ossetia which inflamed suspicions in the West that Russia was up to its tricks again, that pursuing its domination of its neighbours as well as punishing Georgia for the pro-Western path it had taken (The Jamestown Foundation, 6th May 2009). After all, President Medvedev had made no secret of Russia wanting to be responsible for what he described as Russias privileged sphere of influence (The New York Times, 31st August 2008). US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US President Barack Obama did not agree with Dmitry Medvedevs position (OpenDemocracy, 20th April 2009). Russias cutting of the gas supply due to a crisis with Ukraine was interpreted as Russia using its energy resources to punish those countries which took positions against Russia such as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, claims which Russia denied and Russia counter-attacked by claiming it was a quarrel over payments (Valdai Club, 13th January 2009). Lately, Russia has had problems over gas with Belaruss President Alexander Lukashenko but analysts claim that Russia uses its position of energy supplier to bend its neighbours to its will. This was the case with Belarus in June 2010 since Russia had been very irritated with Lukashenkos lack of recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and retaliated by banning milk from Belarus (The Economist, 24th June 2010). 2.3.2.2 Collective Security Treaty Organisation The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is the military organisation Russia uses in order to maintain its influence in the post-Soviet states. One has to remember that out of all the former Soviet states, Russia is the most militarily and economically powerful and these factors do give it primacy in the CSTO. From the beginning, Russia intended that the CSTO will be used to create protection and security for Russia by having an organisation which included the former Soviet states (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 182). Before the CSTO was established in 2002, there was an agreement, the Collective Security Treaty (CST), signed in May 1992 at Tashkent by Russia, Armenia and the former Central Asian Soviet republics but Turkmenistan remained out (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). After the fall of the USSR, Russia and the former Soviet states began discussing how to have a single military space under the CIS (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). So the CST, and later the CSTO, was to work under the CIS. The objective of a creating one military structure was not achieved because each state chose to have its national army but the CST helped to bring the new states armies to cooperate when a threat emerged (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). Throughout the 1990s, there were discussions on what type of military organisation the CST members national armies were going to set up (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). The discussions were between whether there should be a decision-making structure similar to the one of NATO, which the majority of CST members wanted, or having a hierarchical structure, as Russia and Uzbekistan wanted (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183-184). In the end a mixture of both was chosen. One can remark that the fact that Russia wanted a hierarchical structure tells much about what its role in the CST was going to be. It sought to be the leader and not an equal with the other partners. By the mid-1990s, the CST had been successful in dealing with many challenges and Russia, through its military advantage, played a central role in helping Central Asian states to safeguard their borders and training their armies (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 184). But there was still no proper organisation of a supranational nature and this was seen in the civil war in Tajikistan in 1992, when the CST members did not work together and Russia and Uzbekistan helped the Tajik government (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 184). In 1993, peacekeeping troops from CST and CIS states Russia, Kazak hstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan did come to Tajikistan aid, but Russia was the dominant partner and its actions, such as supporting militarily the Tajik government of the day, were not multilateral (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In this incident, one can see Russia acting as the dominant partner and this is something which the other states took note of. So Russia had some part of the blame for the failure to develop a fully-fledged multilateral military organisation. Its actions contradicted its objective of collective action. The maintenance of its sphere of influence was what mattered most. However, in the late 1990s, there was military cooperation between the CST members which was led by Russia such as military exercises in 1999 and 2000 (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In October 2000, the CST members proceeded to cooperate on the issue of terrorism and this culminated in an agreement in Bishkek between Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to create an anti-terrorist center where they could share intelligence on terrorists (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). On May 25th 2001, cooperation increased and this led to the creation of the Rapid Deployment Forces to deal with security in the region (Eurasianet, 25th May 2001). This increase in cooperation led to the creation of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in May 2002 with Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia being the members (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In October 2002, the Charter of the CSTO was signed and it came into effect from the 18th September 2003 (CSTO Official Website). In 2003, Russia began to improve on the already existing facilities at the airbase at Kant in Kyrgyzstan, and in 2006 added more personnel at the base (Mankoff, pg 268). After the 2005 Tulip revolution, the USA had to pay $200,000,000 yearly to keep its airbase at Manas while Russia did not have pay any rent, though it did provide military hardware to Kyrgyzstan (Mankoff, pg 268). In August 2008, after the war with Georgia, Russia asked the CSTO members to recognize South Ossetia (The Times, 30th August 2008) after China and four Central Asian countries had refused to recognize South Ossetia. This is another proof of how Russia wants to use the CSTO to be on par with NATO and trying to stop NATO from encroaching in its neighbourhood. In 2009, the Kyrgyz government announced to the USA that it was going to close down Manas airbase and this was soon after Russia promised more than $2 billion in aid to Kyrgyzstan on condition that the Kyrgyz government tells the US to leave the Manas Airbase (San Francisco Chronicle, 22nd February 2009). The Russia aim to keep Kyrgyzstan under its sphere of influence could not be clearer. On February 4th 2009, at a CSTO summit in Moscow, Russia and the other member states set up the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) and it must be pointed out that Russia was once again the dominant player because it had the greater military power and it provided all the weapons, as Aleksei Malashenko from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Moscow) argued (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 4th February 2009). This shows again how Russia uses the CSTO for its central objective of maintaining its sphere of influence. It claims that the CSTO is there to fight terrorism but Russia uses the war on terrorism to make the CSTO one of its foreign policy tools. In fact, one can see this when in the same summit, Uzbekistan demanded special concessions for itself as a condition to join the CSTO (RIA Novosti, 4th February 2009). In May 2010, Belarus decided to contribute over 2,000 personnel to the CRRF after its ratification of the Moscow agreement (RIA Novosti, 26th May 2010). Si nce then, the CRRF members have practiced military exercises in October 2010 (RIA Novosti, 22nd October 2010). However, there were some disappointments and the latest one has been during the political upheaval in Kyrgyzstan when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown. Russia did not send peacekeeping troops as Medvedev said that Russia and the CSTO would not participate in Kyrgyzstans domestic unrest (Global Post, 15th June 2010). Russia caused disappointment by its behavior because it showed a lack of consistency and did not act with its CSTO partners to send a peacekeeping mission to Kyrgyzstan. This shows that Russia uses organisations such as the CSTO to give an image that it is working multilaterally with its partners, but in reality it does the opposite. 2.3.2.3 Using economic means to protect interests and maintain sphere of influence The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) Russia does not only create military organisations to preserve its sphere of influence, but it also uses economic means. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has tried hard to create customs union and foster economic integration in the CIS and recently it seems to have had some successes. Russia wants to follow the example of European integration and apply it to the CIS. The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) is Russias tool to achieve this objective. Some of the objectives behind creating the CIS were to create a common economic space and a common market and deepening cooperat

Position Paper on Typology in Education Essay

A. Ventura Structures and Organization of Higher Education in the Philippines (DEASOHEPN) Position Paper Subject: Towards Rationalizing Philippine Higher Education by Dr. Allan B. Bernardo I. Background of the Issue A. A significant number of reasons and purposes have been articulated concerning the creation of typologies or classification scheme both in the Philippines and abroad since the 1960s. In the House Bill number 363 of the 15th Congress, introduced by Hon. Marcelino A. Teodoro, it was explained that the provision of a definite system for determining the number and distribution of different types of HEIs is necessary in rationalizing the SUCs and all other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines for allocating resources and for developing interventions for various types of HEIs . Another, and one of the original reasons, is to develop support in research on higher education by providing sound/viable basis for classifying an increasing number of HEIs which on the part of policy-makers will enable them to target policies and programs to categories of similar and related institutions. For students, they will be better able to identify the appropriate institutions for them and make better informed choices. Business and industries would be able to determine which institutions to partner with. A typology that helps HEIs position themselves in the academic market was proposed by Zemsky and Massy (cited in Finn 1998). The mushroom-like proliferation of public HEIs charging extremely cheap tuition and fees but are actually substandard in terms of the quality of academic learning they offer to students is an addition to the concerns. Since these public HEIs offer basically same programs with the private HEIs, despite this aspect on quality, private HEIs are given unfair competition. As a result, there is an influx of students to public HEIs, thus, a greater demand for subsidized higher education and the sad outcome is that all of these, at the expense of basic education. B. According to Dr. Bernardo (1998), a classification scheme should be seful and could be utilized in order to obtain significant statistical values/data on the distribution of different types of HEIs in selected or assigned regions of the country. This could be used as a reference by CHED in rationalizing standards and making developmental interventions necessary to improve the present status or condition of our HEIs. To give concrete examples, he enumerated some parameters which includes library holdings, research outputs of faculty, faculty development programs, research programs development, to name a few. According to Dr. Bernardo, a certain caveat should be heeded if only to further refine the current typology being used. He likewise proposed the adoption of a typology by the Commission itself for quality purposes. Dr. Bernardo opposes the opinion of some of the discussants that says Philippine universities cannot be typed for reasons that SUCs have been established for a variety of reasons such as politically while private schools are established religiously and academically. Dr. Bernardo stresses that even in the United States where the Carnegie 2000 is being employed, some colleges exist as a result of land grants, some are state-funded and some which are funded for religious purposes. Dr. Bernardo agrees to the fact that indeed, simply typing HEIs is difficult that is why according to him, there should be a reckoning of the non-quantitative aspects of typing. He stated that funding is not solely limited to marine research but as a matter of fact, a significant number of funding exists for various types of social science research, technological and agricultural research. He reiterated that there are so many funding for research worldwide but an institution definitely and logically needs to position itself first if it desires to be a Research University. II. Zemsky and Massy (Finn 1998) proposes a typology that helps HEIs position themselves in the academic market. According to Teichler (2003), the various HEIs may be grouped in terms of â€Å"types† which may be viewed as points in a spectrum. This means that in the classification scheme, related types differ in terms of certain dimensions and that it is important to note that the relationships among types is regarded as a vertical dimension, emphasizing quality or status. Shulman said that the Carnegie 2000 Classification of Higher Education Institutions was originally intended to support research in higher education but was later on used for unintended purposes such as to establish rankings of HEIs, make decisions about institutional funding and guide allocation of grant programs. Phil Baty , editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, and editor at large of Times Higher Education reported that in Europe the introduction of classification in HEI created some fear that Europe-wide university classification will hamstring institutions since for a long-time it has been hailed as an antidote to traditional league tables – a transparent and fair way to compare a university’s performance with that of its peers. As a result there was an influx of criticisms raised about U-Map, the European Commission’s project to categorise every European university under a single classification system. Critics have warned that the plan could â€Å"pigeonhole† universities, limiting if not disrupting their development during this period of globalization accompanied by rapid change which commences to a dramatic shake-up of the student market across Europe. Ray Land, professor of higher education at the University of Strathclyde, organised a conference on U-Map under the title â€Å"Towards a Classification of European Higher Education†. His opinion and findings parallels that of Fr. Roderick Salazar when he told Times Higher Education that while the system could have obvious benefits in promoting diversity and raising the Continent’s global profile as the European Higher Education there had to be a proper debate about its potential effects. He added that this particular project which the European ministers of education and the European Commission have endorsed called for a great financial expense in the country, but unfortunately, not enough discussion about it have been conducted in the UK. U-Map emerged from an August 2005 report, Institutional Profiles – Towards a Typology of Higher Education Institutions in Europe, part of a project led by the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. The U-Map team said the system â€Å"will not rank institutions league table-style, but will position them on a number of dimensions, each representing an aspect of function and performance†. This stand is similar to the point of view of the discussants and critics of Dr. Bernardo. In the European system, six dimensions have been proposed: the educational profile (looking at degree levels and the subject areas covered); the student profile (including total enrolments and part-time numbers); research involvement (measuring research income, peer-reviewed publications and the like); involvement in knowledge transfer (judged by elements such as patents and licensing income); international orientation (including a measure for overseas academic staff); and regional orientation. Professor Land said that the classification would have clear benefits which includes allowing one to compare like with like. He clarified that an authority would not compare Harvard University with Broken-Neck College, Missouri, for example and therefore it will provide information that is more useful and relevant. However, he added that there were pros and cons, as there will always be unintended consequences. Thus, he suggested that once an institution had been categorized, funding agencies and other stakeholders could start treating it according to that classification. As he mentioned, universities might not like to be categorized, or have their wings stocked in any direction. It is expected that if you are entrepreneurial, you will not want to be pigeonholed. For that reason, the classifications would need to be kept under review since higher education sectors are not static, and Europe’s diverse institutions change their status and missions. This is a common opinion among authorities in education both in the Philippines and abroad. The challenges of globalization and increased competition have led to institutions developing new and innovative courses in areas where previously there had not been demand. This is true not only in Europe, the United States but also in Asia including the Philippines. These continuing changes may affect an institution’s place in the system. Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the Million+ think-tank, said that the proposed classifications have all the arbitrary factors of any league table and will not at all help or contribute to the European research base or European Union institutions to compete globally. Professor Land also said that U-Map could possibly have significant effects on the student market. For example, UK students might start to see courses taught in English in Europe as a better option. They may see that it is cheaper to do a similar degree course with a better reputation in Sweden than in the UK. It alters the rules of engagement. Wendy Piatt, its director-general of the Russell Group of large research-intensive institutions was more positive when she welcomed publications that improved information for students in order to move away from fixed hierarchies to capture huge and positive diversity. But she that there is a need to wait for more details to determine exactly how useful the classification will be. F rederick So Pada, one of the consultants of PASUC, saw certain similarities and disparities on the program offerings and enrollment per program vis-a-vis charter mandate and areas of specialization using the SUC Leveling criteria. He likewise noted that although he does not question the result of the study on typology, he was surprised to know that some universities were inappropriately classified. In other words, their classification did not match their actual behavior. III. Considering the various point of views presented, I would say that adopting a typology for the Philippine HEI’s is sound but I agree with the opinion of Fr. Roderick Salazar when he said that we must constantly be conscious and careful to see that the typology we are using is not final and accurate. Therefore, it must not be used immediately as it is as basis for planning. We should be prepared and a lot open in making our own revisions or modifications for such classification in order to tailor-fit it to the needs of our local HEIs. This is considering what some of the experts, both locals and foreigners have accounted, that is, the Carnegie 2000 has its own set of flaws or weaknesses which showed up since its application in the United States. As a result, it yielded some criticisms or negative comments through the years. I likewise agree with another comment Fr. Salazar gave when he reminded the discussants in one of the fora he attended that at some point, instead of merely focusing on rationalizing our higher education, our HEIs should instead get in the job of being and becoming what the institution was originally called to be. Dr. Bernardo also had a similar opinion when he said that the concern does not lie much on how CHED rationalizes the university system by type but more on the quality of that HEI. It really does not matter whether an institution is a Doctoral Research University, a Specialized institution a technological/agricultural College or a Community College. If it is excellent in doing what it should be doing, then so be it. Otherwise, all it has to do is to continue to seek to improve in all aspects. Most schools in the Philippines start very modestly and grow into institutions that eventually develop and turn out to become what our country perfectly needs at that particular time considering its nature or resources. A very good example of this is the UP Los Banos, which up to present, continues to serve not only the country’s agricultural needs but even those of our neighboring countries needs as well. We cannot deny the fact that our Philippine HEIs have a lot of improvement to undergo but the way this outcomes and typology is proposed, it would generate much disappointments and negativity in the higher education community if such a system as the Carnegie is to be introduced as it is. It would be best to introduce it prospectively – for all new colleges and all new universities. It would also be helpful to allow several models of universities, and not just the one-size-fits-all university type – which in fact doesn’t fit many long-practicing universities in the country. Dr. Allan Bernardo clearly explained on how the granting of the HEI types, would be possible to evaluate the HEI outputs based on HEI types. Schools would choose their types based on the review of their own respective missions. A school which originally aims to serve based on a mission to respond to the needs of an LGU community would choose to be a community college. A school that was created to significantly contribute to the development of technical skills of our people would choose to be a professional college. Thus, the resulting outputs of a particular HEI based on type would be a result of realigning itself as stated on its mission/vision. Because of this, those institutions who would like to focus on professional development need  not worry about research and research publication in peer-reviewed journals. Therefore investments in institutional development would be better placed based on type/classification. The output quality would then be measured according to the inputs according to type. Assessment would be gruesome and confusing. This education sector concerned would as a result metamorphose to become what originally it was called and created to be, that is an excellent HEI. Simply making use of parameters such as how many laboratories are existing, academic degrees, facilities that are inputted into an instructional system as the main tool for assessing an institutional type, is definitely not a very reliable basis for classification. One has to take the trouble to assess an instructional system in terms of what it actually produces, not on a one-time study, but it has to be a long-term assessment if it wishes to be accurate and reliable.

Problems Associated With The Financial Crisis - 1165 Words

Credit Bubble The end of 2007 confirmed the conventional view that the initial financial problems were concentrated in institutions exposed to mortgage securitization. But how it is that financial imbalances were transmitted into macroeconomic disruptions? What mainly channeled the crisis to other sectors was the resulting contraction in credit, of banks and other financial intermediaries. It is important to differentiate between the loss of financial actors associated with mortgages, which was the initially crisis, and the losses caused by the after effects, also called second-round effects, which had significant consequences on the supply of credit. It will be analyzed in detailed above, how the problems associated with the housing bubble resulted in the contraction of credit supply by financial institutions. Modern financial intermediaries assess risk through certain practices. They manage their balance sheets (assets and liabilities position) steadily in response to changes in the anticipated risk and asset prices. Fluctuations in asset prices are variations in net worth that cause reactions of intermediaries. Furthermore, fluctuations in the valuation of risk assets translate into reactions from leveraged institutions. Financial intermediaries react very differently to fluctuations in wealth compared with the reaction of individuals, families or non-financial institutions. Families tend to not change much their balances even when they experience changes in asset prices.Show MoreRelatedThe Global Financial Crisis And The Crisis Essay1244 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction The Global Financial Crisis, also known as The Great Recession, broke out in the United States of America in the middle of 2007 and continued on until 2008. 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Should Minimum Wage Be Paid - 903 Words

Donald Trump, the favorite candidate for this years election, recently claimed that wages are too high in America. One may wonder if he was lost in some sort of day dream or maybe he was talking about his own wages? As someone who has never had to worry about money, considering his families wealthy background, how would he possibly know what its like to live barely get by living off the federal minimum wage? Consider someone who is able to work a full time job being paid minimum wage, after taxes are taken out of their paycheck they would be looking at approximately a $13,000 salary per year. $12,000 is the poverty line in America for an individual. This is the life of a working class citizen in America. Constantly struggling to pay the bills and having to worry about how they are going to feed their children every week. The numbers show that minimum wage is clearly not sufficient to sustain a normal way of life and a raise would not only benefit millions of americans lives but also boost the economy. Wealthy people in America are incapable of understanding the fact that the actual minimum wage, after being adjusted for inflation has continued to fall in the past 50 years. After adjusting for inflation the calculated minimum wage of the late 60’s would be $10.90, which is significantly more than todays $7.25. The unemployment rate of 1969 was 3.5 percent compared to today’s unemployment rate of 5 percent. So that alone lays to rest all the arguments claiming that a higherShow MoreRelatedMinimum Wage Should Be Paid2347 Words   |  10 Pagesthemselves, solely on the income from a minimum wage job. With federal minimum wage sitting just over seven dollars an hour, those tasked with budgeting these kind of meager earnings have begun to question why they dont deserve more pay. Some states have their own laws with discretion over minimum wage pay, and 29 states and DC all currently have minimum wage standards higher than the federal standard, but not necessarily by much . Those working labor jobs, where minimum wage is the compensation they receiveRead MoreMinimum Wage Should Not Be Paid Essay1910 Words   |  8 PagesIn 1938 congress instituted minimum wage with 25 cents an hour being the first wage. After 78 years seven dollars has been the increase of minimum wage, stated by the article listed on, Heritage.org . Every year the cost of living and surviving in this country increases. You would think after 78 years, minimum wage would not be at $7.25. Many college students work part-time jobs that pays minimum wage to have some extra cash in their pockets or pay a few minor bills. Having a part time job is perfectlyRead MoreThe Minimum Wage Should Not Be Paid Essay1951 Words   |  8 PagesThe federal minimum wage shouldn’t be higher because it doesn’t contribute to society, the people of America should be paid more because an average person in today s society cannot survive, and parents can’t provide a stable environment for their children, the work being done is worth than what is being received, the underpaid are made to have multiple jobs just to make ends meet. l minimum wage has been one of the most talked about social issues since it was in was introduced in the year of 1938Read MoreThe Minimum Wage Should Be Paid845 Words   |  4 Pagesearning the increased minimum salary to earn the same amount of compensation as CEO Doug McMillon. The answer? It would take more than 2.8 million hours of earning $9 per hour to reach the roughly $25.6 million in compensation McMillon earned in 2014, his first year on the job.† (Huddleston) This is just one glimpse into the reality of the problem America is facing by not raising the minimum wage and investing money back into Americans. Arizona s lack of action to raise minimum wage from $8.05 keepsRead MoreShould The Minimum Wage Be Paid?993 Words   |  4 PagesMany case in USA suffering from the very low hourly payment according to Talk poverty: As wages go down, the percentage of workers relying on public assistance gets higher: 60 percent of workers earning less than $7.42—only slightly higher than the $7.25 federal minimum wage—receive some form of means-tested public assistance. 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