Non-State Actors

By Péter MARTON In today's brief post I am invoking the spirit of the late scientist Carl Sagan. Citing his words, it is interesting to reflect on the implications of the ongoing bitcoin rush that may make you wonder if the bursting of the bitcoin bubble (anticipated by some) may be the worst thing that could happen. 1. You can read here from Carl Sagan , addressing the question of whether humanity should invest an effort into trying to find out about the presence or absence of alien life out there in the universe. Sagan quickly concludes that given the enormous distances in light years, interstellar monologue will in any case be more (twice as) likely than an interstellar dialogue. Even so, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that receiving a message from a superior civilisation may determine humanity's fate, for in that message one may find the answers as to how the period of "technological adolescence," with its dangers, could be survived by us. In his w...

By Péter MARTON I am always interested in experimenting with new formats (it helps creativity). Starting today, I will occasionally offer my take here on various subjects in a two-in-one scheme. I find this to be prospectively fruitful as it helps one identify connections between seemingly unrelated issues. What follows this time is a brief consideration of the legacy as well as the future of technological change, related to stuff I have recently come across in my virtual travels over the interwebz. (Picture: an image from the movie District 9.) 1. An interesting trend to observe these days is the increasingly explicit reference to disruptive technological change as a possible threat in the yearly Worldwide Threat Assessments from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) – and the US Intelligence Community, of course. "Cyber" is a domain discussed since a long time now, with its obviously relevant implications for (inter)national security – see th...

For unrelated projects I have been working on an assessment of the interaction between the media and terrorism. I don't really have the time to write a very thoughtful post now -- any useful thoughts of mine belong in the two papers I've been working on ( one of these is already available, though it's in Hungarian). I can, however, put together something (to which I can keep adding later on) that might be interesting. Here are some noteworthy cases connected to the topic in focus. These can serve as ammunition for some important debates -- perhaps in class, if you are a colleague. These are the cases I used as examples in my own work. 1. Burhan Ozbilici's photo (AP) of Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş as he is holding up his index finger, gun in the other hand, having just killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov. The victim is seen behind him, lying on the ground. This was named photo of the year in the World Press Photo 2017 contest. Altıntaş is in the ce...

By Péter MARTON Here's a short story. ------------- A man came to the village one day. A mysterious figure. No one could quite make out his face under the wide-brimmed hat he wore. He even kept his head tilted constantly downward as if reading patterns from the ground to be covered by his steps. The people of the village came out to greet him and to learn who he is. They were a curious folk -- not the kind that would bunker in and hunker down if once in a while a stranger comes by. "I am the Truthteller," announced the unknown person, speaking with the confidence of someone accustomed to winning over audiences immediately. "No, you're not," replied one of the village elders. "You're a teller of lies, that's what you are." Now the man was ready to look people in the eye! A frantic gaze, challenging everyone -- how dare they! "That is a lie concocted by my enemies, the powers-that-be in this land," he shouted. "...

Corporations can have a very clearly political role -- easily. But even when it is just their normal everyday operation, beyond politics, its impact on society and the world around you may still be very significant. On such occasions their being beyond politics is itself a problem so politics may have to get up, reach out and touch them, and do something about it. Recently in the news: Uber paid off hackers to get them to destroy stolen consumer data (belonging to some 57 million users), and even wanted guarantees from them that they will not disclose their theft. Facebook still can't handle (and consequently serves) advertisers in the housing sector who discriminate on a racist basis. After Kobe Steel, Nissan and Subaru, Mitsubishi turns out to have sold sub-standard products in large quantities, with the safety of cars, aircraft, buildings, and much else, affected by the dysfunctional quality control at the companies concerned. Just a couple of examples of corporations...

It may be a familiar thing by now on this blog: once again I am preparing to speak at an event, this time about the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar, and I am putting together some notes to share (relatively briefly this time) before I head off to do this. For a reminder, this ( see map ) is the part of the world we are talking about. No offense meant by including that map above. You may know more about Myanmar than me. But even as a non-Myanmar-specialist I will risk saying that in general people in the West know very little about the place. Many are not really sure if Myanmar should be Burma rather, because everyone heard of the military junta (so who knows if using one or the other name in reference to the country is appropriate or not). Many may have heard that there was some kind of "democratic" change but in pictures appearing in the media about the country generals in military uniform and military uniforms in general still proliferate. And there are those names for th...

By Péter MARTON Because I need to speak at an event about the situation in Iraq/Syria tomorrow, here are some of the recent trends and developments related to ISIS -- my digest of these. These are research notes, effectively. For starters: Aaron Zelin notes how much the ISIS media presence diminished since the fall of Mosul: "In particular, after the fall of Mosul in July 2017, the IS distribution of governance-related media dropped precipitously (by 66 percent) until the complete end of such media activity (on September 12 in Syria; September 16 in Iraq). For reference, at its apex, between June and August 2015, IS released 3,762 pictures related to governance activities in Syria and 3,305 in Iraq. When Mosul fell, between May and July 2017, IS only released 315 pictures related to governance in Syria and 171 in Iraq. And the most recent count prior to the mid-September 2017 rupture was 142 in Syria and 113 in Iraq, between July and September 2017." And yet......