Eurasia 2023/9 - mobil

EURASIA

Ready for the future

Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation

Table of contents

FOREWORD

NEW SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS

18-19.

Maximum charge

– Gergely Salát

RHYMES IN HISTORY

28-29.

Geography 6.0

– Norbert Csizmadia

BRICS – BEYOND the West

2T2C: TALENT, TECHNOLOGY, CAPITAL, COGNITION

21. Regulation of AI in China

– Vilmos Gábor Rádi

22. The future of robotics

CULTURE AND INNOVATION

24. We need Herder

– Eric Hendriks

25. Highlights of Eurasia: United Arab Emirates

THE ECONOMICS OF GEOGRAPHY

14-15.

The West has a challenger, but it will be a long fight

– Dávid László 16-17.

How Bangladesh is catching up

– Martin Vilonya

26. Book reviews

ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE IN A MODERN WORLD

30-31.

The story of a Sumerian palace in Iraq

– Barbara Bene

This year's BRICS summit took place in South Africa between 22-24 August, bringing together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and this year's host, South Africa. The BRIC, founded in 2009 (and BRICS since 2011), reached a major milestone with the decision to add six new members – Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – but also announced that more than 40 countries have already applied for or expressed interest in membership. But why is there suddenly so much interest in BRICS, and what does BRICS have to offer?

In 2001, when the term BRIC was first used in a study by Goldman Sachs, the four countries accounted for “only” 8 per cent of world GDP. In 2011, when South Africa joined and BRICS was formed, they accounted for 19.6 per cent of world GDP. With the accession of the new members, although the population and GDP have not increased enormously, oil production has doubled, and world oil production has risen from 20.4 per cent to 43.1 per cent.

In the case of BRICS, it is important to point out that the members do not currently include countries belonging to the Western alliance system. Although in June Macron was still looking forward to being invited to the BRICS summit (according to a statement made by the French foreign minister at a press conference), the French president took a different tone after the summit, to which no French state leader was invited but a small French delega-

tion was allowed to attend: “This [BRICS expansion] shows a wish to establish an alternative order to replace what we call the world order, which today is seen as too Western.”

It seems that the 'non-Western' countries, which have grown economically and politically stronger by the 21st century, have had enough of the Western dominance of the last 500 years of the Atlantic era. They are thinking of a more harmonious, peaceful world order, where the world does not only mean the West but where all civilisations can participate as equals. BRICS is indeed a new system of international relations, a new alternative to the Western world order. The question is how the West will interpret this: will it continue to see the major powers of the East as competitors and launch an economic war, or will it try to change the old system and opt for peaceful cooperation. In other words, whether the transformation of the world order will be peaceful or warlike this time.

Levente Horváth, Ph.D., Director of the Eurasia Center, Editor-in-Chief of Eurasia

“BRICS must provide a united and clear voice in shaping a peaceful, balanced and stable world. We must harness each other's strengths, in knowledge, skills and resources.”

Narendra Modi

BRICS – beyond the West

Horváth

András Kosztur

Joakim Scheffer

Ready for THE FUTURE

by Mariann

THE DUBAI FUTURE FOUNDATION (DFF) WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2016 IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AND IS CURRENTLY LED BY CEO KHALFAN BELHOUL AND CHAIRED BY SHEIKH HAMDAN BIN MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM, CROWN PRINCE OF DUBAI HIMSELF. DFF’S AIM IS NOT ONLY TO PROMOTE FORWARD THINKING AND INNOVATION IN THE COUNTRY. IT IS CREATING AN ECOSYSTEM THAT WILL STRENGTHEN DUBAI’S AND THE UAE’S LEADING POSITION ON THE WORLD INNOVATION MAP THROUGH ITS VARIOUS START-UP SUPPORT (INCUBATOR) PROGRAMMES, KNOWLEDGE-SHARING PLATFORMS, LABORATORIES AND REGULATORY TESTBEDS (SANDBOXES) IN A FAST-GROWTH (ACCELERATOR) AND MARKET-SAFE ENVIRONMENT. WE SAT DOWN WITH KHALFAN BELHOUL TO DISCUSS HOW THE FUTURE WILL LOOK LIKE AND HOW WE SHOULD PREPARE FOR IT.

– What are the main reasons for the UAE’s success in the last decades, and what can Europe learn from this rapid development?

– The success story of the United Arab Emirates is not a story of today; it’s a story of the decisions the founding leaders of the country made fifty years ago. That mindset of creating hope, learning from mistakes, empowering leaders, entrusting us as responsible people. Giving us the opportunity to test new ideas. Who would have imagined the biggest airline would be in the United Arab Emirates? They believed that Dubai and the UAE are strategically located to connect the East and the West. So, the simple answer is that we have to think of constantly striving to be number one. It doesn’t mean that we will be number one in everything. But if you hope to be number one all the time, then you will be ready to experiment with new ideas. This is what we do at the Dubai Future Foundation, too.

– What was the main concept of the establishment of the Foundation?

– It’s about converting the way of thinking I mentioned into a process, this thinking of really making big decisions and thinking about the future. The message is that we need to be a leading city of the future. We need to institutionalize future foresight and be the most future-ready city in the world. We have a big team that focuses on research and foresight and produces reports on where the future is heading, and then we launch projects that

Őry – Luyi Pintér

Photos: Róbert Hegedüs

We have to constantly strive to be number one and experiment with new ideas

help create a better future. So there’s one side of the entity that focuses on thinking and foresight, and then we have project managers running projects that create outcomes out of that research and foresight.

– How do you expect the development and use of AI to proceed in the future?

– Whether we like it or not, AI will be part of our lives, and ChatGPT is only the beginning. Imagine this technology plugged into a robot using quantum computing, which is a hundred times faster than a normal computer! What beast are we creating? Is it good or bad? We don’t know. The question is, how can we really create the right process to manage the advancement of this technology? It is happening, and we need to embrace it as we did with other technologies.

– So AI and robots will be part of our everyday life?

– We see it on a day-to-day basis now. They’re advancing more and more. We have a robot in the

MEGATRENDS shaping our future in 2023 2023

MATERIALS REVOLUTION

The materials of the future will be designed and tested by machines and will come from sources and places undiscovered today. The latest digital technologies will be used to create these materials which, similarly to natural materials, will have highly specific properties.

DEVALUATION OF RAW DATA

The digital trade of goods and services represents the next frontier of profitable data use enhanced by greater sharing of aggregate data across industries and countries, generating greater economic returns.

TECHNOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES

Protection will be needed to counter risks; insurance coverage will be necessary to mitigate impacts. These markets will grow as more people and machines are connected to the internet. We’re only as strong as the weakest link in this complex web.

BORDERLESS WORLD-FLUID ECONOMIES

Super-apps are managing trade, money transfers and jobs. That trend is likely to speed up and draw millions into the gig economy and to operate across borders without them having to leave their countries.

DIGITAL REALITIES – IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL AND DIGITAL SPACES

Gaming is big business. If we include the metaverse investments seen in 2022, the amounts run into the hundreds of billions. These markets will continue to grow as games and online social interactions become more realistic and tied to product offerings in the virtual world.

LIFE WITH AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS

the cost of robots becomes more competitive, it will drive the integration of machines in all sectors. Leading the charge are small and medium-sized enterprises, which supply 80% of robots in the service sectors.

Museum of the Future called Ameca; you can have normal conversations with her, like with a human being. We need to pay attention to this trend because even if we decide that we’re not going to be part of it, the rest of the world will be. So we would only be delaying the inevitable. We need to embrace it and manage it in the best way possible.

ENERGY BOUNDARIES

Carbon-based energy will remain an important element in the energy mix but growth in investments is likely to be driven almost entirely by renewables and decarbonisation technologies.

SAVING ECOSYSTEMS

Investors, regulators and rating agencies are requiring large corporations to play their part in sustainability. Companies are taking the lead not just to reduce their carbon footprint but to become net-positive.

FUTURE HUMANITY

There are solutions to our shared challenges, but implementing them is hard. The greatest returns may be found among the least advanced countries and the least educated populations.

ADVANCED HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Advances in medicine and diet have transformed life expectancy. But these benefits are not enjoyed by everyone. Further progress is at risk due to under funding of interventions in non-communicable diseases.

Mariann Őry - the author is a managing editor at Eurasia

Luyi Pintér – the author is an international expert at Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary

We need to embrace

AI technology and manage it in the best way possible”

Signs of a new era

by András Kosztur

THE PAST YEAR AND A HALF HAS MADE IT CLEARER THAN EVER THAT THE UNITED STATES AND ITS ALLIANCE SYSTEM ARE NO LONGER THE ONLY DOMINANT ACTORS IN THE GLOBAL GEOPOLITICAL ARENA.

The BRICS - originally BRIC - was formed in the second half of the 2000s as an institutionalised group of states with the aim of bringing together the emerging economies of the time. Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Republic of South Africa already had significant economic, political and cultural potential, but this has become even more apparent today. Since 2020, the BRICS’ contribution to world economic growth has surpassed that of the G7 - who see/pretend to see themselves as the world’s economic leaders - and the gap will only widen in their favour in the years to come. No wonder that the group has attracted the interest of many countries in recent times, and many have openly declared their intention to join. In the run-up to this year’s 15th BRICS summit, a total of

23 countries have formally expressed their interest in joining the group, but South African foreign ministry officials say that there have also been a number of informal enquiries. The Summit finally decided to admit six countries to the group, bringing Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia to the BRICS from 1 January 2024.

What is more important than the fact of BRICS enlargement is what this process signals. The socalled Others, the states of the Global South, now consider it as important, if not more important, to coordinate with each other on regional and global issues as they do with the Western states. The BRICS could, therefore, become a global symbol of the changing world order, a platform that, by its very existence, signals that the period when the Western states could dictate to the rest of the world from a position of leadership is over and that the “Others” must now be treated as equal partners. This does not mean a break with the West, which is still a dominant economic power, and the G7 is one of the most important trading partners for most of the current and potential BRICS members.

One of the essential features of the current global processes is precisely that they cannot be interpreted as a simple bipolar confrontation along the lines of the Cold War (although bipolar and Cold War characteristics are clearly present in the current era). We must prepare for a multi-player geopolitical world where the global majors must take into account the interests and intentions of the regional majors. Otherwise, their efforts may fail.

The author is a senior researcher at the 21st Century Institute and external expert at the Eurasia Center

New BRICS in the wall

One thing can certainly be concluded from the BRICS enlargement: the geopolitical importance of the Middle East has increased. Four of the six new members – Ethiopia can be included to some extent – are from the region. “From a Middle East perspective, the process means that the region is finally emerging on the world stage not only as an object of international politics but as an active shaper of global processes”, wrote Máté Szalai, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ca’ Foscari, Italy in an article recently published on 24.hu. However, adding new members could make the group even more divided. While Iran is clearly anti-Western, the others are more balanced and do not expect a radical weakening of US power. The new Middle East countries are closely cooperating with China, but India is also a primary partner, not to mention the US, Szalai noted.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China’s President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

Photo: AFP, Alet Pretorius

Photo: XINHUA/AFP, Li Xueren

Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia are set to join the group.

by Joakim Scheffer

Photos: Róbert Hegedüs

CHINA ALWAYS LOOKS AT EU MEMBER STATES AS PARTNERS. WE HAVE MORE COOPERATION THAN COMPETITION, MORE COMMON SENSE THAN DISPUTES, CHUN DING, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES AT FUDAN UNIVERSITY TOLD EURASIA .

- What are the main drivers of the technological competition between the US and China?

- The technological war is more on the field of emerging or cutting-edge technology. More about ICT, semiconductors, and AI. If it were a normal competition, it would be welcomed because any innovation or technological progress needs this kind of competition. But nowadays, the situation is far from normal; it’s a vicious competition from the American side. Washington doesn’t want to lose its primacy. The US could have done so much more to invest in the domestic technology sector, yet they decided to impose sanctions and restrictions on Chinese firms like Huawei. I don’t think that this kind of policy is healthy, and that’s absolutely not fair competition.

- How similar is the current situation to the Cold War?

- I think it’s quite different, although there could be some similarities. The world has changed a lot since the Cold War; the international community is more globalised now than ever. If we talk about trade, economy or even technology, it is so closely integrated that these ties couldn’t be easily cut. The European Union became a very important entity, not only from the aspect of the economy but also from a high-tech point of view. In recent years, the EU has emphasised strategic autonomy and the sovereignty of technology. It’s true that the US and EU are allies, but I don’t think that they look at everything through the same lens. They are not very much on the same page regarding economic and technological issues; European countries have their own interests, especially business interests. If the US doesn’t put pres-

sure on the EU member states to follow its policy on China, then the sanctions will not have enough effect. That’s why I don’t think we would fall into a similar situation like the Cold War because this is not beneficial for the third or fourth parties.

- Could the EU-China partnership survive the growing US-China tensions?

- We always look at EU member states as partners. We have more cooperation than competition and more common sense than disputes. Of course, we don’t agree on every issue, but we have a lot of joint projects, for example, on climate change, green economy, renewable energy, and we cooperate for better global governance overall. That’s why we should keep these channels open and tighten our relations.

The author is an editor at Eurasia

We should keep these channels open and tighten our relations”

THE WEST HAS A CHALLENGER, BUT IT WILL BE A LONG FIGHT

by

THERE IS CHANGE IN THE AIR: TRENDS HAVE HASTENED THE SHIFT AWAY FROM A WESTERN-LED GLOBAL ORDER. A SIGN OF THIS IS THE RECENT BRICS SUMMIT, WHICH DECIDED TO EXPAND FURTHER, WITH ARGENTINA, EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, IRAN, SAUDI ARABIA AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES JOINING THE ORGANISATION FROM JANUARY 2024.

But this is only one side of the coin – a study published in Eurasia Review after the decision pointed out. They point out that the West – including the US, Europe, but also South Korea and Japan – is based on shared values, while China and India (or Saudi Arabia and Iran) are systematic rivals. Moreover, the Western economy will be larger than that of the BRICS+ members for decades to come, and it is projected to take up to 20 years to catch up.

They also warn that the much-talked-about dedollarisation of the global economy will certainly be slower than many expect. Indeed, the most important shift in the dollar’s power will occur once oil and gas prices are no longer set in dollars – which is probably the main reason why Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been invited. This is confirmed by the statistics: for example, 60 per cent of international foreign exchange reserves are held in dollars by central

by Dávid László

banks and their investment funds. The share of the euro as an alternative has fallen, rather than risen, to around 20 per cent, while the share of the Chinese yuan is only 3 per cent.

According to the study, there is no prospect of a replacement for the dollar in the foreseeable future; the trade volume between the BRICS is too small for this. They conclude that the most likely scenario is that the US dollar will indeed lose its importance but that the only alternative will be bilateral agreements, for example, between China and the Middle East, South America or Africa.

History teaches us this. It is worth recalling what happened to the British pound, which dominated world trade: its death throes lasted more than 50 years, from World War I to the humiliating IMF loan of 1976.

The author is a foreign policy journalist

“The announcement that six new countries will join the BRICS - especially key oil producer Saudi Arabia - will accelerate the trend away from using the USD in the settlement of international commodities trade. Further, the announcement that the BRICS bank will engage in non-conditional, local currency lending will undermine the power of Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.” – macroeconomist Philip Pilkington told Eurasia

”The most important shift in the dollar’s power will occur once oil and gas prices are no longer set in dollars”

Photo: iStock

Dávid László

How Bangladesh is catching up

by Martin Vilonya

OVER THE PAST DECADES, THE ECONOMIES OF MANY EASTERN COUNTRIES HAVE GROWN ON A MASSIVE SCALE. OF THESE, THE CATCHING-UP OF BANGLADESH IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTING.

Since gaining independence in 1971, the country has managed to increase its GDP per capita by a factor of 25 - without having the significant raw material resources, skilled labour or industrial capacity to do so when the young state was born. Indeed, the new country even risked not being able to feed its citizens without outside help.

Since then, the garment industry has played a key role in boosting the economy, with its various sectors now accounting for more than 90 per cent of exports. Three factors have proved particularly important to the success of the garment industry: successful collaboration between government and the private sector based on incentives and effective interventions; easy, duty-free access to developed markets; and a cheap, productive and abundant labour force. The garment industry has also helped the country in the area of employment policy, with high female participation in the labour market in the region

However, the rapid development of the textile industry has not been without its problems: deaths in factories have been widely reported in the international press, and the expansion of the textile industry has caused widespread pollution of the country’s waters. The former problem was addressed by improving safety standards after the tragic collapse of the Rama Plaza garment factory in 2013, which killed more than 1,000 people.

However, Bangladesh’s development story is not yet complete, for example in the area of digitalisation, where it is still lagging behind. This is reflected in the fact that, according to the local Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, only a little over a third of the adult population (around 60 million people) use the internet. A further problem is that half of the population still lack access to a hygienic toilet.

Despite these difficulties and shortcomings, Bangladesh’s progress can serve as a lesson for all developing countries. If the nation can successfully respond to the challenges of the 21st century, the vision of a Golden Bengal, envisioned at independence, may be within reach. The author is a student at John von Neumann University (NJE)

BRICS waiting list

Bangladesh was expected to be invited to the BRICS group, but the country could not make it this time. Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, International relations expert Prof Dr Imtiaz Ahmed suggested three reasons. „For the first time, BRICS set criteria to take new members. We need to see that criteria whether we match or not. Second, there were issues of consensus in inducting new members. If we don’t match with the criteria, then it’ll not come to the table,” he said. The third reason, according tot he expert, is that the Bangladeshi government took a “goslow strategy because of the upcoming general elections.” However, Bangladesh is a member of the “BRICS-bank,” the Shanghai-based New De

velopment Bank.

The garment industry has played a key role in boosting the economy

-

Photo: iStock

Photo: AFP, Kazi Salahuddin Razu

MAXIMUM CHARGE

by Gergely Salát

CATL HAS BECOME THE LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES IN LESS THAN A DECADE. HOW DID THE SMALL-TOWN SHIP ENGINEER’S BUSINESS BECOME A GLOBAL PLAYER?

development is research and development, with around 10,000 engineers now working in this field. On the other hand, they strive to control the entire production chain, from mine ownership to production and recycling.

CATL’s predecessor was founded in 1999 by Zeng Yuqun, better known abroad as Robin Zeng, who is now the third richest man in China and the 38th richest in the world, according to Forbes. He was well aware of the main trends of the time and, at the age of thirty-one, his company started producing batteries for the then fashionable portable devicesMP3 players, laptops - under US licences.

Two years after its launch, ATL (Amperex Technology Limited) was already producing one million batteries a year and had become known in the industry for its reliability and technical innovation. Zeng soon expanded the company’s activities to include the production of smartphone batteries, making it a supplier to Samsung and Apple, among others.

A new era was ushered in when, in 2009, China made the deployment of e-vehicles a government priority. This created a huge opportunity for the Zeng, who in 2012 spun off ATL’s car battery division into a new company, CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology).

In the 2010s, China was hit by EV fever. This was fuelled by huge government subsidies, which could be up to a third of the price of a new e-car. The incredible growth rate has been cleverly exploited by CATL, which became a partner for BMW, Daimler, Hyundai, Honda, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo, and of course a host of Chinese manufacturers. Its success is due to other factors besides state support. On the one hand, the main driver of CATL’s

From 2019, the Chinese government has phased out subsidies. CATL prepared for this eventuality, and their strategy was to make up for lost sales in China in foreign markets, and CATL embarked on a global expansion. It set up offices in its largest mar-

kets, acquired Western companies and opened its first foreign factory in the German province of Thuringia in early 2023.

A second will be built in Debrecen, Hungary, also primarily to serve German car manufacturers, and it was recently announced that Ford and CATL will jointly build a battery factory in Michigan. The latter, of course, has provoked Washington’s displeasure, and in a sign of changing times, the Beijing government is also looking into the investment, fearing that the plant could allow the Americans to steal advanced Chinese technology...

The author is a senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs and head of the Department of Chinese Studies at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University

CATL now accounts for about half of all Chinese production of vehicles and thirtyseven percent of global production

Photo: AFP/XINHUA, Lin Shanchuan

Photo: AFP/CPhoto

Regulation of AI in China

by Vilmos Gábor Rádi

AS CHINESE TECH COMPANIES EMERGED AS WORLDWIDE IMPORTANT PLAYERS IN THE IT INDUSTRY, THE LEGAL REGULATION OF THE SECTOR BECAME A MORE AND MORE PRESSING ISSUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT AS WELL. CHINA HAS TAKEN A NUMBER OF STEPS OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS TO DEVELOP DATA PROTECTION AND IT SECURITY REGULATION, AND FINALLY, THE TOPIC OF AI ALSO GOT THE ATTENTION OF THE STATE.

The regulator’s first steps concentrated on specific areas, which quickly became important: automated decision making processes and the widespread usage of algorithmic recommendations. Other state actors also stepped up in the area of AI.

It is worth mentioning that Shenzen - home to several tech giants, which are all leaders in AI de-

velopment - decided not to wait for the state-level complex legislation; instead it issued its own local, municipality-level regulation.

A recent AI legislation expects previous security assessments and content control of the software on the side of the service providers, anti-discrimination expectations in contrast to AI bias, requires intellectual property rights protection, and prevention of unfair competition, spreading misinformation, physical and mental harm of other persons; also sets out rules about the quality of the training data, privacy, complaint process, and expects the service providers to identify the end users and also educate them.

The author is a digital business lawyer and data protection expert, holds a Ph.D and LL.M

Photo: iStock

THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS

HUMANOIDS TOOK CENTRE STAGE AT THE WORLD ROBOT CONFERENCE 2023

The World Robot Conference 2023 was held between 16-22 August in Beijing, with nearly 600 robot products from more than 160 domestic and foreign enterprises on show. The humanoids arguably took centre stage, astonishingly enthralled visitors with mesmerizing dance routines, jaw-dropping somersaults and meticulously choreographed hand gestures, Shine reported. CyberOne, an emotion-detecting humanoid robot developed by Xiaomi, the renowned Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer, stood out among them. “Humanoids can integrate the functions of multiple single-purpose de-

vices like mechanical arms,” said Shao Yuanxin, Xiaomi’s project manager. Insiders said that numerous application scenarios and a fast-developing manufacturing sector have made China a world-leading market for robotics. According to Global Times, the country has the largest number of industrial robots. “With more homegrown robots being used in China’s manufacturing industry, Chinese robot brands and associated products will become increasingly popular in the global market,” said Zhu Jun, general manager of the market analysis department of Chinese robot company EFORT. (JS)

Photo: AFP/CPhoto

Photo: AFP/Xinhua, Wang Yuguo

Photo: AFP/CPhoto

We need Herder

by Eric Hendriks

THE ROMANTIC PHILOSOPHER

JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER (1744–1803), WHO PIONEERED CULTURAL PARTICULARISM, SHOULD BE AN INSPIRATION FOR OUR ERA OF EMERGING MULTIPOLARITY.

American-style liberal democracy or the European Commission’s European values, though inspiring, belong to particular cultural and world-regional constellations with contingent histories, internal contradictions, and specific cultural environments. We cannot expect Chinese, Indian, or Thai political thinkers to press copy/paste or submit uncritically and eternally to standards of legitimacy from Western civilisation. And there should be a lot of cross-cultural learning going in the opposite direction; Westerners have much to learn from non-Western others. Seems fair, right?

But liberalism plays a trick on us. In its most influential contemporary forms, liberalism presents itself as procedural rules of the game rather than as substantive cultural or ideological content. Overall, it plays a double game, taking positions on policy and ideology while claiming to represent a universalisable set of rules for managing ideological competition fairly.

The deeper diversity of the wider world needs to be recognised and managed. In the twenty-first century, the challenges of global regime diversity require us to proceed from a truly open-minded Herderian spirit.

Here is the quote from Herder’s Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität (Nr. 29): “Obviously it is the disposition of nature that as a man, so also a race, so also a people learn from and with the other, learn incessantly, until all have finally grasped the hard lesson: No people is the sole Godchosen people.”

The author is a Dutch sociologist and a visiting fellow at the Danube Institute

Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai. With a total height of 829.8 m and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 242.6 m spire) of 828 m, it has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009.

HIGHLIGHTS OF EURASIA

United Arab Emirates

Jabal Hafeet is a mountain in the region of Tawam, on the border of the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The sole mountain in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and one of the highest mountains in the country, it has given its name to a period in UAE history, the Hafit Period of the Bronze Age (3200 to 2600 BCE), because of the discovery of a cluster of important beehive tombs at its foothills.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is located in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The largest mosque in the country, it is the key place of worship for daily prayers. The Grand Mosque was constructed between 1994 and 2007. A smaller replica of the grand mosque exists in the Indonesian city of Surakarta.

“No country or regime represents the universal standard of political and ethical legitimacy”

Photo: iStock Photos: iStock

Abishur Prakash

Go.AI (Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence)

Stephen Roach

Accidental Conflict

Our recent volumes:

Publisher: Abishur Prakash

Publication date: 2018

ISBN: 9780995833944

Pages: 318

Abishur Prakash’s book outlines twelve groundbreaking scenarios for how artificial intelligence could take geopolitics in a new direction. The author explains that in July 2018, one of the most important developments since the Second World War took place: China revealed that it is developing artificial intelligence (AI) to shape its foreign policy. According to Prakash, if the world wants to understand what China is going to do, it must first understand how Chinese AI thinks. The author points out that countries around the world are using AI effectively, from Russia to Japan to the UAE. Increasingly, the potential for AI to change the way the world works is coming to the fore. As AI enters the picture, the balance of power in the world could change. With this in mind, it can be argued that AI can trigger alliances, but it can also lead to serious conflicts.

Publisher: Yale University Press

Publication date: 2022

ISBN: 9780300259643

Pages: 448

“A new approach is desperately needed,” warns Yale economist Stephen Roach in his new book. According to Roach, “conflict resolution is vital to preventing permanent damage from the clash of false narratives between America and China”. The author argues that the American political class is unable or unwilling to change its attitude towards China, and therefore the public is also being driven into the narrative that China is an existential threat to the United States. According to Roach, “underpinning many of America’s false narratives of China is the China-collapse scenario,” which is a recurring theme in the Western media. Roach’s warnings are partly in line with the theory of Thucydides’ Trap, which he also touches on. Whether the US and China choose to cling to false narratives or overcome them “could be the defining question for the world’s most important relationship of the 21st century”.

ROBIN WALL

KIMMERER: Szentperjefonat

CHARLES GOODHART, MANOJ PRADHAN: A nagy demográfiai fordulat

ELIZABETH KOLBERT: Fehér ég alatt

OZAN VAROL: Gondolkodj úgy, mint egy űrkutató!

GEOGRAPHY 6.0

by Norbert Csizmadia

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD, WE NEED TO TURN TO GEOGRAPHY. TODAY, EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT GEOPOLITICS, BUT WE APPROACH THE ISSUE MAINLY FROM THE DEFENCE SIDE, RATHER THAN FROM THE GEOGRAPHICAL - „GEO” - SIDE.

Why is a geographical perspective important? Geography is a tool for understanding the world, and geographical maps can help us to unravel the hidden and visible connections in our world. Geography is at once economy (geoeconomics), politics (geopolitics), technology (geotechnology), design (geodesign), and the laws of nature (geonomy), and it is at once vision, visionary and fusion. Geographical location is destiny itself!

The 3+1 most important passwords of our current era are interconnectivity, complexity, sustainability, and Eurasia. An interconnected Eurasia that is complex and sustainable. A long-term sustainable Eurasian era that is complex and interconnected. A complex world that is interconnected and built on sustainability. A 500-year long Atlantic era (1492 - 1996) - followed by a new, longterm, 500-year Eurasian era.

For a long time, geography was only a description and representation of our Earth and its environment (Geography 1.0), but with the age of geographical exploration it opened up to new areas (Geography 2.0). It became interconnected through trade and aimed to compare areas between them (Geography 3.0), then centuries later it integrated the territorial approach along your borders and created its own new subfields (Geography 4.0), such as social geography or economic geography, and towards the end of the last century it became

THE 3+1 MOST IMPORTANT PASSWORDS OF OUR CURRENT ERA ARE INTERCONNECTIVITY, COMPLEXITY, SUSTAINABILITY, AND EURASIA.

dominated by the geography of globalisation (Geography 5.0). Just as technological development follows industrial revolutions, so too does social development, so the new cycle of geography is about the geography of technology and fusion (geography 6.0).

Indeed, the new geo-fusion geography, through modern geopolitics and technological development, provides opportunities for small countries to become important players. Areas poor in natural resources have become rich in knowledge and innovation. The era of geofusion is about the rise of geoeconomics and geotechnology.

The author is geographer and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pallas Athene Domus Meriti Foundation and the John von Neumann University Foundation

Photo: Orsolya Egressy

The story of A SUMERIAN PALACE in Iraq

by Barbara Bene

THE REMAINS OF A SUMERIAN PALACE HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF GIRSU, IRAQ, IN THE DHI QAR GOVERNORATE. THE REMAINS DATE BACK TO 4,500 YEARS, MEANING THAT THEY MUST BE TRACED BACK TO THE THIRD MILLENNIUM BC.

The Girsu Project is led by the British Museum and funded by Getty. The project was set up in response to the destruction of several heritage sites in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, and focuses on the damage caused by early excavations and modern-day looting.

The most recent major news from the project came in February, when it was announced that the remains of a royal Sumerian palace and temple complex had been found in the town of Girsu (now known as Tello). It was already suspected last year that archaeologists would find something of value at the site, as preliminary remote sensing and drone photographs showed subsurface remains previously undiscovered at the site of Tablet Hill. The first mudbrick walls of the palace were identified last autumn, when more than 200 cuneiform tablets containing the city’s old administrative records were salvaged from the ruins. These were taken to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Furthermore, archaeologists also found the remains of a sanctuary dedicated to the ancient Sumerian god Ningirsu. Its ruins were found in the area of Urukug, which is considered a sacred precinct. The sanctuary, named Eninnu, is considered one of the most important temples in Mesopotamia, yet it has only recently been unearthed as part of the Girsu Project. Its importance is also shown by the fact that generations of archaeologists have been searching for it.

Dr Hartwig Fischer director of the British Museum said: “While our knowledge of the Sumerian world remains limited today, the work at Girsu and the discovery of the lost palace and temple hold enormous potential for our understanding of this important civilisation, shedding light on the past and informing the future.”

Dr Sebastien Rey, curator for ancient Mesopotamia and director of the Girsu Project emphasized that Girsu is one of the most important heritage sites in the world, yet little is known about it. He added that „It is also a unique site to deliver a training program on rescue archaeology for herit-

age professionals and students in Iraq in the context of a fully-fledged research project.” Girsu was a Sumerian city in ancient times, and is considered one of the earliest known civilisations in historic southern Mesopotamia. The settlement emerged as the capital of the Lagash Kingdom and then as a major administrative center during the Ur III period (2112-2004 BC). Girsu was only discovered in the 19th century, with the first excavations being carried out by French archaeologist Ernest de Sarzec in the 1880s. After that, the site has been ravaged by the excavation and conflicts, but now it may well be that undiscovered and undisturbed ancient remains could still lie there.

The author is a foreign policy journalist

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It is estimated that the BRICS countries have a combined population of 3.24 billion people, which means that two people out of every five people on the planet is from a BRICS country.

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