It’s hardly a secret that Americans will soon head to the polls to render their verdict on the Donald Trump presidency. So, who’s going to be trying to hijack the election process in the US this time around?

The big question is can Trump still win re-election, after going through hell and high water during his first term.

Last time, the Trump team managed to pull ahead largely due to a series of scandals that surrounded his opponent – Hillary Clinton, which allowed him to steal the so-called swing states of Florida and North Carolina, while coming on top in a number of the traditionally Democratic states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. However, the electorate, just like the internal situation in the US, has undergone drastic changes since 2016. The general election isn’t just about the presidency, it’s about the way how the country is going to be governed and what goals the United States is going to pursue, including its economic and social development goals. The daily life of an average American is going to depend on the ability of the winning candidate to deliver on the promises made during the election campaign. During Trump’s term in office, the US got itself involved in a massive arms race together with the so-called trade wars, so navigating the country through the troubled waters would certainly be a challenge in the post-election years.

Even though the election cycle has been revving up since last January, the acting president filed his paperwork to run for re-election on his inauguration day.

There’s no wonder that Washington’s truth-lovers are coming out of the closet these days, sensing that easy money can once again be made by spreading fake stories and propaganda. All of the worn-out Russophobic cliches are put on repeat by the majority of American TV stations, together with the allegations about Kremlin election meddling. It matters not that Muelller’s two-year probe failed to provide any comprehensive results, exposing those that were spreading anti-Russian election-meddling allegations as media speculators. As it’s been stated by Fox News, the Democrats are still clinging to the Russia probe because it’s all they’ve got.

Against the backdrop of media personalities claiming that there will certainly be cyberattacks on election infrastructure, it’s been announced that better cyber-security hygiene practices are going to be employed during this race. The military’s Cyber Command has also been put on alert.

However, Washington’s truth-lovers changed their tactics for this campaign, replacing their crusade about Trump’s “collusion with Russia” with a new effort to define Trump as a racist, while describing racism as the greatest problem in America.

At the forefront of this effort is the New York Times that, according to Fox News, launched the 1619 Project that is designed to rewrite America’s history. In particular, it’s been stated that:

It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

At the same time, an essay published by this media source criticizes Asian Americans who want their civil rights protected, which paints the whole initiative in an insincere light.

In turn, the truth-lovers from Project Syndicate have made an attempt to draft an instruction to the Democrats, using the Obama-Biden duo as a successful example of the race card being at play. While admitting that race plays an important part in the American culture wars, the publication warns those that “believe that a coalition of non-white minorities is best placed to oppose Trump’s white chauvinism.” It proceeds with stating that a significant number of African Americans and Latinos are religious and socially conservative.

However, those truth-lovers must have misunderstood those behind the recent anti-Trump racism hysteria push, as they would state that:

Former Vice President Joe Biden is far from an ideal candidate for the Democrats. He is too old and not quick enough on his feet.

Clearly, this was hardly the best possible attempt to promote Biden’s nomination bid, unless somebody believes that Americans are going to root for a candidate that will be both docile and supine. It’s true that special interests may be looking for a man that fits this description, but that’s not exactly the same thing.

With the failing Russian meddling narrative and the equally unconvincing racist card, the only question is what are those Washington’s truth-lovers going to push next? More Russophobia or even Sinophobia?

It’s clear that an average American gets no attention in all this, with the list of the challenges he faces in his day-to-day life growing, all he sees is the show that the financial elites staged to keep him entertained. The Democrats against the Republicans, the great divide, that is only there to allow one group of super-rich profiteers to settle their differences with yet another group of such profiteers in a “civilized manner.”

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook“.

Как подчеркивает в своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Жан Перье, в США уже стартовала новая выборная президентская кампания. Но кто теперь будет вмешиваться в выборы президента США?

Сегодняшние всеобщие выборы — это не только президентские выборы, но и выбор политических, социальных и экономических векторов, которые будут способны на ближайшие годы удержать «на плаву» не только усиленно беднеющего «среднего американца», но и выдержать развязанные Вашингтоном в последний период финансовые, санкционные штормы, гонку вооружений на Земле и в космосе, многочисленные вооруженные конфликты в мире.

Поэтому многочисленные «фабрики троллей США», отрабатывающие «серебряники» своих политических заказчиков, уже включились в работу. Ими в режиме «проветривания» уже развешаны изъеденные молью баннеры русофобии, «вмешательства Кремля в очередные выборы в США», хотя комиссия Мюллера, как известно, так и не смогла подтвердить эти факты.

«Тролли США» сегодня активно настроены на внесение в свою пропагандистскую деятельность определенных корректив, изображая, в частности, Трампа расистом, а расизм назвав главной бедой Америки. И одним из флагманов этой «новации» уже стало издание New York Times.  

К изданию уже присоединился другой флагман «троллей США» – Project Syndicate. Однако издание явно недостаточно четко поняло для себя политическую установку «троллей США» в нынешней пропагандистской кампании. А посему допустило явный политический ляп, указав: «Бывший вице-президент Джо Байден весьма далек от идеального кандидата для демократов. Он слишком старый и недостаточно сообразительный». Как отмечает автор, вряд ли после таких слов издания можно рассчитывать на массовую поддержку избирателями кандидата с такой характеристикой, если только не исходить из того положения, что бездеятельный и управляемый глава страны может быть кому-то особо выгоден для прокручивания тайных схем.

Но что же произойдет, когда и эти корректировки «троллей США» не сыграют, задается вопросом автор. – Возврат к русофобской карте? Разыгрывание синофобской карты?

Или же обращение внимания на нужды «среднего американца» и на необходимость решения его растущих проблем?

Хотя, признается автор, «демократия по-американски» вряд ли позволит сделать последнее. Ведь она создана для обеспечения лишь интересов крупного американского бизнеса, разыгрывающего «спектакль теней» перед простыми американцами в виде якобы предвыборной конкуренции «демократов» и «республиканцев», защищающих на деле интересы все тех же денежных мешков, только разных их кланов.

С полным содержанием статьи можно ознакомиться здесь.

At the present juncture, basically nobody would be surprised to hear that military conflicts and political crises revolve around strategic resources and transport corridors. Washington doesn’t make a big secret out of the fact that its foreign policy is driven by its craving for hydrocarbons together with a number of other resources. So if at any given moment bombs or cruise missiles start raining from the sky, you can be confident that the self-proclaimed “champions of democracy” have come to steal something valuable from your country.

As the technological progress keeps rushing forward at breakneck pace, the world economy discovers that it is in dire need of resources that previously weren’t considered to be of strategic importance. Thus, rare earth minerals have become a top priority for such companies as Tesla, Apple, Google, Toyota, BMW, General Motors, Nissan, Ford and the list goes on. However, Washington didn’t anticipate this shift that is why it’s going to make an attempt of establishing control over the largest discovered deposits of this resource, so you can be confident that tanks are going to get rolling pretty soon.

According to economic analysts, world prices for rare earth minerals have been skyrocketing for over a decade now, as they are at least 20 times more expensive these days than they were back in 2008.

It’s curious that China is the leading producers of rare earth minerals and that it holds a sort of a monopoly on their production. As for the US, it depends on overseas suppliers of this resource, with China being in control of the majority of shipments of processed rare earth minerals to the US.

Among the regions where there’s an abundance of discovered deposits of rare earth minerals one can name Africa, with the Republic of South Africa alone occupying sixth place on the list of states with largest discovered deposits. So it’s only natural that this continent is going to become a new center of geopolitical struggle between the leading international players.

However, if relatively poor states are to going to find themselves in possession of deposits of rare earth minerals it doesn’t mean that they’re going to get rich overnight. In fact, one can safely expect quite the opposite, as it means that those states are going to be plunged in a state of perpetual chaos with bloodshed and famine becoming a daily occurrence for their inhabitants. At this point, the struggle for rare earth minerals is capable of provoking a global conflict, as it’s safe to say that one state that is going to establish control over this resource is going to dominate the global economy.

Previously, yours truly has already made an attempt to take a look at what Washington was up to in Africa. The fact that the US recognizes the strategic importance of rare earth minerals can be derived from the order that the Pentagon issued to the Defense Logistic Agency‘s Strategic Materials department, demanding it to ensure availability of rare earth minerals for American military contractors at all times. That is why Washington is in a hurry to expand its influence across the African continent with new US bases emerging here and there with each passing month. Additionally, the number of military conflicts where US servicemen are directly engaged in armed hostilities across African keeps rising. The US is determined to increase its mining operations around the world, thanks to a constant infusion of intelligence from the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency.

However, it seems that British intelligence agencies were far ahead of their American counterparts, as UK’s Rainbow Rare Earths started producing rare earth minerals in Burundi as early as in 2017. At the same time, the struggle over the control of discovered reserves in Zimbabwe is still ongoing.

As for the Republic of the Congo, the struggle for control over its natural resources attracted such players as Rwanda, Uganda, Israel, Japan, China and, of course, the United States. Those players are fighting each other both economically and politically in a bid to come out on top, while a number of them keeps arming local tribes that are fighting each other over other people’s money.

However, the Republic of the Congo is not the only one to suffer, as similar struggles can be observed across all of the central African states, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. It turned out that at least 64% of all discovered world reserves of Cobalt are shared among the above mentioned states. That’s where the exploitation of minors comes into play, as child labor is a common occurrence around here, as it’s used extensively in the extraction of those minerals. 

As it’s been revealed in an extensive research conducted by the Washington Post, Apple happens to be among the ones responsible for those deadly mines. In particular, it states:

The Post traced this cobalt pipeline and, for the first time, showed how cobalt mined in these harsh conditions ends up in popular consumer products. It moves from small-scale Congolese mines to a single Chinese company — Congo DongFang International Mining, part of one of the world’s biggest cobalt producers, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt — that for years has supplied some of the world’s largest battery makers. They, in turn, have produced the batteries found inside products such as Apple’s iPhones — a finding that calls into question corporate assertions that they are capable of monitoring their supply chains for human rights abuses or child labor.

Thus, you can be confident that every iPhone sold bears a trace of child sweat and blood.

All this shows that the struggle for Africa is just picking up steam, as large corporations are going to stop at nothing in a bid to establish control over the increasingly valuable resource. It’s been reported that intelligence agencies all across the globe started monitoring the use of such words as Europium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Yttrium, Samarium along with other rare earth minerals in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage over other international players.

As the world becomes more and more dependent on high-tech, it’s only natural that the struggle for Africa is going to get much more brutal. And you can be confident that the self-proclaimed “champions of democracy” are going to ride this wave of bloodshed and suffering, just like they usually do.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

В своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Жан Перье акцентирует внимание на возросшую в последнее время конкурентную борьбу ведущих стран мира на рынке редкоземельных минералов.

Сегодня регионом, располагающим большими запасами редкоземельных элементов, является Африка. Поэтому, отмечает автор, не удивительно возросшее в последнее время стремление многих ведущих мировых игроков добиться именно на африканском континенте устойчивых главенствующих позиций в области добычи и контроля распределения редкоземельных минералов.

Частично автор уже ранее затрагивал тему, чем сегодня занимаются США в Африке. Исходя из стратегически важного не только экономического, но и военного значения редкоземельных металлов для США, понятно стремление Вашингтона расширить зону «своего влияния в Африке», выражающееся в увеличении американских баз на африканском континенте, количества солдат США и вооруженных конфликтов, которые проходят при их участии.

Автор приводит конкретные примеры обострившейся сегодня конкурентной борьбы за редкоземельные минералы с участием различных стран в Бурунди, Зимбабве, Демократической Республике Конго, где обнаружены огромные месторождения кобальта и других редкоземельных минералов, которые разрабатываются с помощью рабского, в том числе и детского, труда. Газета The Washington Post подробно показала, как дети работают там в смертельных условиях, а владельцем предприятий по добыче кобальта является корпорация Apple.

Все это свидетельствует  о том, что страны и компании начали жесткую конкуренцию за получение рычагов влияния на рынке редкоземельных минералов в Африке. Она, по убеждению автора, будет только возрастать с вполне реальной возможностью перерастания в горячую фазу, на острие которой, как и всегда, мы увидим Соединенные Штаты с их уже ставшей традиционной агрессивной деятельностью.

С полным содержанием статьи можно ознакомиться здесь.

Back when ISIS was in control of vast expanses of land in Iraq and Syria, there was no shortage of smaller militant groups willing to pledge allegiance to this terrorist quasi-state. In fact, the power of ISIS propaganda was so compelling that tens of thousands of people from across 80 nations around the world would travel to the Middle East to join this organization, says the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. Of course, the majority of those who joined ISIS had some sort of Middle Eastern background, which doesn’t negate the fact that there’s been thousands of Europeans fighting under ISIS’ black banners as well.

So what must a person who abandoned his home to fight for radical ideas be like? Most of those were condemned to a life in slums on the outskirts of large European cities, with some of those being the offspring of Middle Eastern migrants who failed to find a better life they were looking for in this far-away land, while others were alien to the Muslim faith but couldn’t come up with a better idea of making it in this life. According to statistics, Germans formed the most numerous group of outcasts in ISIS, followed in numbers by Frenchmen and Brits.

After suffering a series of rather devastating strikes made by the anti-terrorist coalition, ISIS as a quasi-state ceased to exist, however this doesn’t mean that one can confidently celebrate a victory over this terrorist organization. There’s no shortage of Jabhat al-Nusra militants operating in both Iraq and Syria who were closely affiliated with ISIS. Moreover, a fair number of militants managed to escape their doom by relocating to Afghanistan and Libya. If you were following regional affairs closely, you would know that Western powers played a major role in evacuating the commanding cadres of ISIS to Central Asia.

However, a fair number of ISIS militants decided to return home to Europe after witnessing the collapse of the monstrous entity they supported. Most of them have already managed to acquire a fair share of fighting experience in Syria, Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan.

Thus, according to a number of British MSM sources, MI-5 has been monitoring some 20,000 former militants for years. In France, there’s at least 16,000 of such people living in different cities, while Germany hosts some 10,000 Salafists on top of up to 40,000 former radical militants. It means that there’s at least some 80,000 people with a terrorist background dwelling in those three states alone, a veritable army that has enough experience to take down any force it may face should those militants be summoned.

As it’s been revealed in a briefing prepared for the European Parliament, between 2000 and 2018, 753 people lost their lives in terrorist attacks in the EU, and 1,115 EU citizens fell victim to terror in non-EU countries.

A number of attacks that were prevented by the local security agencies were designed to exact massive death tolls due to the fact that attackers were planning to use deadly chemical substances as their weapons of choice. At the same time, as it’s been pointed out in the above mentioned paper, some radicalized individuals attacked ordinary people or police forces in their own countries after pledging allegiance to ISIS on their own. Such lone-wolf attackers, with only a loose link to the Islamic State may be expected to use everyday tools such as knives or cars, and have become a growing concern as it’s getting increasingly difficult to prevent them from fulfilling their plans.

According to Die Welt, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service is confident that Germany is going to experience the largest number of attacks launched by former ISIS militants, together with the UK, France, Belgium and Spain.

If the Sunday Times is to be believed, ISIS is planning to establish a “Bureau of Foreign Relations for the Department of Operations in Europe” to organize, arm and fund atrocities. The files obtained by this media organization show ISIS plans new attacks in Europe, as it has planted sleeper cells across the continent which are busy forging papers, stockpiling explosives and training suicide bombers.

It’s highly disturbing that Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has revealed that it’s going to “lead the effort” aimed at preventing terrorists from obtaining mass-casualty weapons such as nuclear dirty bombs, but experts in the US intelligence community warn that operators can’t do it alone.

However, this wasn’t the first time such a daunting possibility was mentioned in the media. Previously, the Conversation would reveal that individuals affiliated with ISIS were surveilling a Belgian nuclear research facility. This announcement gave birth to speculations about the group’s nuclear ambitions resulting in Belgian authorities launching their own investigation into the matter. Yet, back in 2016 when this scandal surfaced, the EU would tell its population that terrorists could only aspire to get their hands on a dirty bomb, which wouldn’t be as devastating a device as a regular nuclear bomb anyway. A number of nuclear scientists would come forth to attest that it would take ISIS a long time to build a device similar to those that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

However, it must be pointed out that even if dirty bombs don’t produce nuclear explosions, they are still as dangerous for the general population as any other nuclear device is. Such a device exploding in a densely populated area will result in radioactive contamination that will produce mutations, an abrupt spike in cancer cases and deaths. There’s been reports of people dying within a couple of hours after receiving high doses of radiation.

It’s noteworthy that even back in the days when Bin Laden was alive, radical militants of the organization that preceded ISIS – Al-Qaeda were dreaming about building a nuclear device the size of a suitcase. Bin Laden called such devices the “doomsday weapon against the infidels” as he was convinced that with enough funding and expertise radical militants would be able to produce a number of such devices some day.

Sure, one could easily dismiss such concerns by pointing out that security agencies would never allow something resembling a nuclear terrorist attack to take place. However, one cannot dismiss the fact that as production costs keep getting lower due to technological advancements there’s nothing at this point preventing a well-funded group from building anything it knows how to build.

And extensive funding is among the things that ISIS continues to enjoy even after being destroyed as a quasi-state. Oil and drug smuggling together with human trafficking have always been extremely profitable ventures. There’s no shortage of those willing to use ISIS as a tool of subversion in the West, as it’s clear that in order to receive funding for producing even more weapons you must come up with an enemy you’re going to use these weapons against.

This shows that in spites of the defeats ISIS suffered in Iraq and Syria, this organization continues representing a major threat to a long list of state actors, including those in Europe, as almost anyone who has access to the Internet may turn out to be a member of this terrorist organization one day.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Как подчеркивает в своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Жан Перье, хотя после сокрушительных ударов по запрещенной в РФ террористической организации ДАИШ это квазигосударство и перестало существовать на территории Ирака и Сирии, говорить о полной победе над терроризмом пока рано. Уже возникли очаги напряженности в Ливии, Афганистане, а ведь именно в Афганистан была вывезена большая часть командиров ДАИШ.

Нельзя также забывать, что в  Европе уже живет целое войско исламских радикалов, часть которых воевала в Ливии, Сирии, Ираке или Афганистане.

Ряд сорванных атак джихадистов показывает, что угроза террористических атак со стороны ДАИШ в Европе по-прежнему сохраняется, сообщает Европол. По убеждению немецкого издания Die Welt, в 2019 году Германия, наряду с Великобританией, Францией, Испанией и Бельгией, войдет в число стран с наивысшим риском совершения терактов в Европе.

О планировании террористической группировкой ДАИШ деятельности в европейских странах написало и британское издание The Sunday Times.

Рупор Пентагона — издание Military.com сообщило, что Командование специальных операций США (SOCOM) начинает усиленно готовиться к террористическим актам с применением атомной бомбы. При оценке этой информации нельзя забывать, что еще Усама бен Ладен, долгое время возглавлявший запрещенное в России террористическое формирование «Аль-Каида», призывал к созданию полноценной атомной бомбы, в идеале — «чемоданного типа». Он называл её «оружием Судного дня для неверных» и верил, что однажды большие деньги и знания обученных в лучших западных университетах террористов воплотят его страшную мечту.

Все это доказывает, что с разгромом ДАИШ в Сирии и Ираке опасность со стороны этой организации для Европы не сводится к нулю, так как это очень жизнеспособная сетевая структура.

С полным содержанием статьи можно ознакомиться здесь.

Africa remains the fastest growing continent on the planet, with its high birth rates, booming economies and an abundance of natural resources. With some 1.2 billion living all across Africa it’s predicted that this number will double in just two decades. Moreover, with a number of other regions of the world depleting their natural resources, Africa will become a pivotal exporter for them. That’s where the significance of this continent lies on top of the fact that its sheer vastness allows local players to control most trade routes, neighboring countries and entire regions of the world. Of course, it goes without saying that most of those are in no position to control anything, as they lie in ruins, completely devastated by the so-called superpowers. For centuries, colonial powers have waged wars both for these territories and against their indigenous population. And this struggle continues to this day.

For instance, Washington has recently learned the hard way there’s no easy way to plunder strong countries, as their population seem to be reluctant to live in misery and poverty for the sake of Western special interests enjoying super-profits, that’s why it prefers to plunge nations less capable of defending themselves into a state of perpetual chaos and bloodshed, as it remains a highly profitable venture.

According to data revealed by VICE News, there’s well over a hundred military operations being conducted by the Pentagon across Africa, with some of those being conducted in such regions that Washington itself refuses to recognize as war zones. According to retired US Army General Donald C. Bolduc, who served for a period of four years from 2013 to 2017 at AFRICOM, he witnessed US troops being deployed in a total of 13 African nations, namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tunisia. He also noted in one of his statements that in at least six of these states he witnessed US servicemen being wounded or killed.

In fact, we’re witnessing an unprecedented increase in America’s military presence on the continent, with the number of US servicemen deployed across Africa surpassed only by the number of soldiers the Pentagon has stationed across the Middle East. However, the general public knows very little about this build up, as the MSM prefers to keep quiet about such things.

For instance, no more than 1% of all US special forces units stationed abroad were deployed to Africa back in 2006. By 2010, this number increased to 3%, and by 2016 it reached 17%, nearing the ratio of one in five units. As it’s been revealed by the Intercept:

Documents obtained from AFRICOM by The Intercept, via the Freedom of Information Act, however, offer a unique window onto the sprawling network of U.S. military outposts in Africa, including previously undisclosed or unconfirmed sites in hotspots like Libya, Niger, and Somalia.

According to a 2018 briefing by AFRICOM science adviser Peter E. Teil, the military’s constellation of bases includes 34 sites scattered across the continent, with high concentrations in the north and west as well as the Horn of Africa.

It’s clear that with US President Donald Trump taking office, a number of restrictions previously imposed on the US military by the Obama administration in Africa were lifted, like the number of allowed air strikes conducted by the US Air Force or the scale of military operations they are allowed to conduct.

Even though Washington tries to excuse itself by citing terrorist activities across Africa as a pretext for its massive military presence, arguing that such activities are “among the deadliest on the planet”, it’s quite possible that it wants to re-colonize Africa while it still has a chance to do so.

At the same time, the US would try to argue that it’s China and Russia who are expanding their influence across Africa, saying that Russia is exerting influence in as many as 10 different African nations and China likely to open more bases across the continent. According to the Intercept, the new AFRICOM commander, Stephen J. Townsend:

Badmouthed China’s efforts on multiple fronts, including arms sales, and explained that the U.S. needed to emphasize the shoddy nature of Chinese military technology to African countries.

Not a day goes by without the United States National Security Advisor John Bolton bashing Russia and China for their attempts to increase their influence in Africa. During an address he made last year at the Heritage Foundation, Bolton stressed the fact that China and Russia would try to increase the scale of their financial and political influence in Africa, trying with their aggressive investments in the region to get a competitive advantage over the US. According to this senior US official, combating Russia and China in Africa is the new geopolitical focus of Washington.

However, Bolton had to recognize that back in 2016-2017 Washington provided some 17 billion dollars in assistance to African countries, while Beijing only committed just one third of this sum in direct investments over the same period of time. American companies invested some 50 billion dollars in various joint projects in Africa over the course of 2017. This and the sheer scale of the US military presence there tells us the tale of who is engaged in “aggressive expansion” in Africa these days.

Some two decades ago there was virtually no state that could challenge the influence that the US, UK and France enjoyed across Africa. However, in recent years both China and Russia have managed to renew the traditional ties they used to enjoy with a number of African countries in the past, while taking the initiative by working with individual African states directly. The foundation of China’s influence in Africa is the direct investments Beijing makes into massive infrastructure projects, including those that are going to become a part of its global One Belt – One Road initiative, while Russia improves its relations with local players by directly assisting them in addressing the most pressing challenges they face.

As for the US, it’s clear that it is far more interested in the natural resources that Africa has than in building ties with local players, as the trade war with China that Trump started has put the US in a situation where it may face an acute shortage of rare-earth metals. The US economy needs them badly, but in a situation where China produces more than 90% of the world’s supply of rare earth materials, Washington has found itself in a difficult situation. But then Africa, on top of its vast oil and gas deposits has an abundance of rare-earth metal deposits. For instance, South Africa alone ranks six in the list of discovered rare earth deposits.

However, Russia and China are not alone in approaching African players, as India too tries to establish good ties with certain African states. There are also such states like Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and Israel who are trying to replace the traditional influence that the former colonial masters of Africa, namely France and the UK used to enjoy.

All this is the direct consequence of the waning economic power of the United States, as Washington is reluctant to let go of the concept that it is at the center of the world economy and is bound to dominate the world one way or another. That is why it’s trying to present the growing economic potential of Russia, China and a number of other states as a threat to individual countries in different regions of the world, including those in Africa.

However, US analysts are fully aware of the fact that there’s no way for Washington to prevent the deepening ties between Moscow, Beijing and a growing number of African states, just as they are unable to stop India and Brazil, as all four states participate in one third of all the deals taking place on the continent, and that’s just the beginning.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Как отмечает в своей новой статье постоянный обозреватель НВО Жан Перье, Африка в последний период становится одной из ведущих арен противоборства США за мировое господство, особенно с Китаем и Россией.

В США, в частности, давно установили, что хорошо заработать сегодня можно на войне, крови и нищете. А посему африканский континент по вине США и их западных союзников постоянно находится в очагах военных конфликтов.

Согласно военным документам США, опубликованным сайтом VICE News, в Африке сегодня происходит активная военно-политическая американская экспансия. Здесь США постоянно проводится около ста военных операций. Рост американского военного присутствия на континенте является беспрецедентным: Африка стоит на втором месте по количеству находящихся в ней американских спецподразделений после Ближнего Востока. Как отмечает автор, не исключено, что США таким образом реализуют стратегию по постепенной колонизации Африки в долгосрочной перспективе.

15 лет назад влияние Соединенных Штатов, Великобритании и Франции на африканском континенте было практически абсолютным, однако буквально за последние годы Китай и Россия действительно не только восстановили свои прошлые связи с Черным континентом, но и упрочили здесь свое положение, перехватив инициативу у США и их западноевропейских союзников. Основа китайского влияния в регионе — прямые инвестиции, инфраструктурные проекты, в том числе в рамках инициативы «Один пояс — один путь». Россия укрепляет свое положение на этом континенте решая актуальные проблемы африканских стран, привлекая экспертов — военных, гражданских, технических.

Помимо военно-стратегического аспекта, сегодня Африканский континент интересен для Вашингтона с точки зрения добычи полезных ископаемых, в том числе и редкоземельных, в чем крайне нуждаются Соединенные Штаты, особенно на фоне ответных угроз Пекина Вашингтону по ограничению экспорта редкоземельных минералов (РМ) в США.

Однако, как подчеркивает автор, США вряд ли смогут сдержать развитие отношений африканских стран с Москвой и Пекином, потому что уже сейчас на новых партнёров Африки — Россию, Китай, Индию, Бразилию — приходится 1/3 всех экономических связей континента, и этот процесс будет развиваться и в дальнейшем.

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Among those major geopolitical challenges the world faces these days, the so-called arc of instability that stretches from North Africa to Pakistan is by far the most pressing one. The volatile situation in the Middle East has turned those states that used to enjoy relative stability into potential war zones due to Washington’s extensive meddling in Iraq, Libya, Syria and even Egypt. Should this region be plunged into the depths of a wider regional conflict, the repercussions for the rest of the world are going to be grave, including such developments as soaring global oil prices, a massive migrant influx, along with an ever increasing number of those young men opting to stay in the region in a bid to join those radical terrorist organizations that do not seem to experience any shortage of capital no matter what.

However, in a bid to carry on enjoying their super profits US military contractors carry on pumping weapons into the region, refusing to defuse the potentially catastrophic situation, as Washington makes one bold statement against individual regional players after another. This conviction of the US that there’s no peace on the table in the Middle East can be witnessed in its continuous attempts to establish the so-called Sunni Arab “NATO”

Last February, in its typical fashion Voice of America would try to create a favorable media buzz by solemnly announcing to the rest of the world that the US would summon high-profile representatives of 60 states in Warsaw to discuss the prospects of its new Middle Eastern military block. However, there was no mention of the fact that Mike Pompeo had to change the agenda of the summit, as there was no more than a handful of participants willing to discuss “Iran’s destabilizing role.” Yet, the number of states that would participate in the summit re-branded as the discussion aimed at the promotion of peace and stability in the Middle East shows that most international players have no interests in searching a casus belli against Tehran. Nevertheless, the US Secretary of State couldn’t prevent himself from revealing the original plan behind the Warsaw summit, as he would outline the steps that Washington was going to make in its opposition against Iran.

However, those were hardly a secret as new weapons shipments continue arriving at a number of Middle Eastern states without delays, which blows the lid off an active phase of war preparations. According to the data presented by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the sheer volume of the arms trade between certain regional players and the West is large enough to fuel an all-out regional conflict for years.

In particular, it’s been revealed that Middle Eastern arms imports accounted for 35% of global arms imports in the 2014–18 timespan. Over the last five years the number of small arms, armored vehicles and munitions purchased across the region has almost doubled.

It should be noted that a total of four regional players entered the list of top 10 largest importers of weapons over the five year span: Saudi Arabia (1st place in the global rating with a share of 12%), Egypt (3rd place in the global rating with a share of 5.1%), the United Arab Emirates (7th place with a share of 3.7%) and, curiously enough, there’s Iraq on that list (8th in the global rating with a share of about 3.7%).

The ever increasing number of arms deals being signed by the leading players of the region is of particular concern against the backdrop of the possible development of the situation in the region. Thus, the growth of arms imports in 2014–2018 compared to the period of 2009–2013 showed that Egypt has more than doubled its arms imports with a 206% increase, Saudi Arabia coming second with its 192%, with Iraq (139%) lagging slightly behind. However, over the same period of time, Qatar showed an increase of 225%, while Israel is topping the charts with its 354%.

What that essentially means is that even those regional states that had no original intention of fighting anyone are getting more susceptible to being drawn into a shooting conflict. It goes without saying that the absolute majority of American, French and British weapon systems shipped to the region are being delivered to the Persian Gulf that remains riddled with internal contradictions.

It’s hardly a secret that the United States remains the world’s biggest exporter of weapons that controls 36% of the market. Over the last five years it has shipped its weapon systems to some 98 countries of the world, with pretty much every single conventional item of its arsenal being for sale, starting with modern armored vehicles and ending with short-range ballistic missiles. At the same time, France wants its own piece of the market, increasing its weapons sales by 43% over the last five years.

Of course, it’s hardly a secret that well over 50% of all the weapon systems sold by the above mentioned players are being shipped to the Middle East, with Britain selling some 60% of its fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and Oman.

It’s safe to say that these days nobody wants to know where those weapons Washington, Paris and London sold are going to be deployed, as long as they are being paid for in hard cash. However, with the Middle Eastern region remaining the most unstable part of the world it’s simply irresponsible to carry on dumping weapons into this conflict-ridden land. The US behavior starts looking even more morally bankrupt if you take into consideration the fact that to this very day Washington remains the self-proclaimed world gendarme that is engaged in virtually every single military conflict that breaks out across the globe, which means that it has a vested interest in protracting those instead of assisting the parties involved in their attempts (however genuine) to find a peaceful solution.

Back in the Cold War days communist countries would typically accuse the West of being a “war arsonist” that sets a country on fire on one day and then pretends to act as a firefighter squad on the other. No matter what you attitude towards socialist ideas may be, it’s hard to describe both the US and UK in any other terms than the one used by the Soviet propaganda some three decades ago.

It’s safe to say that once a wider regional conflict in the Middle East is triggered, there’s no predicting its outcome or the damage it may cause to both the regional players and the rest of the world, especially in a situation when there’s no shortage of modern weapons.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

Как отмечает в своей новой статье французский обозреватель НВО по странам Ближнего и Среднего Востока Жан Перье, среди текущих геополитических рисков последних лет самым серьезным является большая дуга нестабильности, протянувшаяся от стран Магриба до афгано-пакистанской границы. Разгорающийся конфликт на Ближнем Востоке является одним из самых опасных геополитических рисков, ведь война в этом регионе станет причиной перебоя не только поставок нефти, но и увеличения миграционного потока в Европу, появления нового поколения отчаянных джихадистов.

Преследуя сугубо корыстные цели обогащения на войне и продаже оружия, нынешняя военно-политическая элита США открыто демонстрирует свою приверженность не разрядке напряженности на Ближнем Востоке, а дестабилизации ситуации в районе Персидского залива и в целом всего региона, играя мускулами. Это, в частности, выражается в форсированном стремлении США создать так называемое «арабское НАТО», военные коалиции против Ирана, дополнительно напичкать регион смертоносным оружием.

Сегодня, согласно данным, приведенным в исследовании Стокгольмского международного института исследования проблем мира, продажи оружия на Ближний Восток достигли 35% от мировых продаж вооружений.

Серьезный рост закупок вооружений в ведущих странах Ближнего Востока вызывает, безусловно, особую тревогу в отношении возможного дальнейшего развития ситуации в регионе.

В эпоху холодной войны широко использовалось клише “поджигатели войны”. Приходится признать, что этот сомнительный титул США и по меньшей мере один из самых ближайших из его союзников – Британия сегодня заслужили вполне правомерно. И разговоры о якобы продаже ими некоего “оборонительного оружия” не соответствуют истинному положению вещей, а также размерам неоправданной гибели по их вине мирных жителей в Йемене и других странах региона.

Взятый Вашингтоном курс на дестабилизацию ситуации в районе Персидского залива и в целом всего региона очень опасен. США стоит, пока не поздно, остановиться в своем стремлении нагнетать обстановку.

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