{"id":60803,"date":"2022-11-03T11:14:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T09:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/diari-de-les-idees-71\/"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:42:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T10:42:26","slug":"diari-de-les-idees-71","status":"publish","type":"newspaper","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/diari-de-les-idees-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Diari de les idees 71"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This issue of Diari de les Idees<\/em> highlights the Russian army tactical change in war in Ukraine by using mass kamikaze drone attacks to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Turning to international affairs, we focus on the presidential election in Brazil where Lula da Silva’s narrow victory reflects a deeply divided country along social, economic, racial and religious lines. We also underline the results of the legislative elections in Israel where everything indicates that Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud will get the majority to be able to govern with the far-right and ultra-religious parties. We also pay attention to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China in which the President Xi Jinping almost established himself as a lifetime in the style of Mao Zedong. Other highlights include the resignation of Liz Truss as short-lived Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and her replacement by Rishi Sunak; the signs of a structurally high inflation and financial restraint for the coming years in the economic sphere; the social, economic and human impact of climate change in Africa and the applications of virtual reality in the world of education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the field of international politics, after the narrow victory of Lula da Silva in the presidential elections in Brazil, Manuel Carvalho points out to the Portuguese newspaper P\u00fablico<\/em><\/a> that Bolsonaro’s defeat is a relief for democracy. He also argues that it is legitimate to ask how it is possible that a candidate who tolerated a scandalous case of corruption during his term was re-elected. As it also makes sense to wonder about the causes that have led almost half of Brazilians to support an incompetent, mediocre president and admirer of the military dictatorship (1964-1985). A possible answer is that, despite everything, Lula’s two previous terms showed that he guarantees democracy, respect for minorities, pluralism, preservation of the environment and multilateralism, while Bolsonaro fights against all this in the name of an authoritarian, violent and illiberal far-right ideology. However, the task before the new president will not be easy at all: he has half the population against him, the governments of the most powerful states are in the hands of Bolsonaro’s supporters and he will have to work with a hostile Chamber of Deputies and Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the analysis of results, five key factors explain Lula’s victory: his turn towards the centre; the fear caused by a possible increase in authoritarianism in the event of Bolsonaro’s victory; the outgoing president’s mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic; the loyalty of the vote towards Lula in the north-eastern states and the determined support of the main leaders of the liberal democracies. First of all, Lula’s victory took place in a very adverse context that forced him to forge alliances outside the tradition of the Workers’ Party (PT) and turn towards the centre. Thus, he forged an agreement with Geraldo Alckmin, the former governor of the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, at the same time that this approach to the center-right paved the way for a reconciliation of circumstances with former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003), a reference name for Brazil’s financial elites. Second, the fear of an announced radicalization by Bolsonaro, with a more important impact on the institutional and social life of the country, not only scared part of the political centre, but also the media and a not inconsiderable sector of the business world. Thus, as the retired captain increased the tone of his threats, Lula strengthened his status as a lesser evil. Third, the defeated president failed to implement effective policies aimed at the 33 million Brazilians who live below the poverty line. In addition, his disastrous management of the health crisis unleashed by COVID-19 is largely responsible for the 680,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus that for months he had described as a simple flu. Fourth, the Lula myth began to be forged in the northeast, the poorest region of Brazil, and the massive vote achieved in these states has allowed him to compensate for the defeats in the south-eastern regions, Rio de Janeiro and S\u00e3o Paulo. Finally, during Lula’s first two terms, Brazil became the sixth largest global economy, its diplomacy played the active role required of a regional power, and Lula led South American attempts to establish autonomy relative to the United States. Thus, during the electoral campaign Lula was able to count on the explicit support of the United States led by the rival of Donald Trump, former ally of Bolsonaro, and of the European Union, which has always maintained very tense relations with the outgoing president, especially about the issue of environmental protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable elections are those that have just taken place in Israel, the fifth in just over three years. Everything indicates that the bloc led by Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud will obtain around 65 seats out of the 120 in the Knesset, thus achieving the necessary majority to govern. With the highest turnout in the last 22 years\u2014more than 70% of the electorate\u2014Israeli society has expressed the rightward drift that polls had already announced, with a sharp increase in far-right and ultra-religious parties (Shas and United Judaism of the Torah), especially the Religious Zionism party\u2014openly racist, homophobic and anti-Arab\u2014which with its 14 or 15 deputies has become the third largest force in the country. On the other hand, the outgoing coalition would only add between 54 and 55 seats, far from the 61 needed to form a government and left wing formations such as the Labor Party have just managed to overcome the 3.25% threshold to get some seats while Meretz failed. Ultimately, the worst results in its history stage the troubling demise of the historic Israeli left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his part, Denis Dresser warns in Foreign Policy<\/em><\/a> <\/em> of the dangers that the presidency of L\u00f3pez Obrador represents for democracy in Mexico. When he took office 4 years ago, AMLO\u2014as he is known to his supporters\u2014 claimed that he would fight corruption and eradicate endemic poverty. But the reality is that it has eliminated checks and balances, weakened autonomous institutions and seized discretionary control of the budget. Arguing that the police forces cannot stop the country’s growing insecurity, he has replaced them with the army and endowed it with unprecedented economic and political power. Also, L\u00f3pez Obrador seems determined to restore something similar to the dominant party system that characterized Mexican politics from 1929 to 2000, but now with a militarized twist. With questionable actions, L\u00f3pez Obrador is polarizing Mexican society and endangering the fledgling democracy with his repeated attacks on civil society organizations, his desire to dismantle key institutions and his attacks on and members of the opposition. On the other hand, AMLO has reshaped the Mexican political ecosystem so rapidly that defending democracy has become extremely difficult, both for civil society groups and opposition parties. In fact, L\u00f3pez Obrador is eroding, in word and deed, the democratic norms and rules that Mexico had developed since the PRI lost control of the political system. Ultimately, Mexican politics is increasingly driven by fear and resentment rather than fact-based debate, deliberation, and arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journal Le Grand Continent<\/em><\/a> <\/em>analyses Xi Jinping’s speech, delivered in front of some 2,296 delegates of the Communist Party of China gathered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The report presented by Xi gives a political and even geopolitical direction to the hegemony he exercises over the Party. Now that the spectacular economic growth of the Hu Jintao era is coming to an end\u2014through the filmed dramatization of his physical evacuation from the podium\u2014 a new way of doing politics is emerging, based on a renewed draft pact between China and the Communist Party. In the new framework of war-torn globalization, with overlapping crises, the growing impact of climate change and the latent \u201ccold war\u201d with the United States, the Communist Party is changing its tune. Until now, the source of its legitimacy was the impressive enrichment of Chinese society led by the Party. Today, the Party wants to show that the game has changed: what determines its legitimacy is the promise of the restoration of China’s imperial rank, guaranteed by Xi Jinping and his new bureaucracy. To make China a modern country in all aspects, Xi pointed out that a two-phase strategic plan has been adopted: first, fundamentally realize socialist modernization from 2020 to 2035, and then build China as a modern socialist country, prosperous, strong, democratic, and culturally advanced, before the middle of this century. In this context, Xi has decreed that China’s overall development goals for the horizon of 2035 are to significantly increase economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities, and substantially increase per capita GDP to match that of a country medium level developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenda Schaffer highlights in Foreign Policy<\/em><\/a> the role of ethnic minorities in the wave of protests that has shaken Iran since mid-September. Ethnic grievances in the non-Persian provinces dominated by Tehran add further fuel to an already highly combustible mix, and the harsh crackdown in recent weeks in Baluchistan and other regions suggests the regime is aware of this. The multi-ethnic nature of Iran is also an important part of Iranian politics and a source of potential conflict that has been out of focus in analysis from abroad. Indeed, Western analysts tend to look at Iran through the eyes of the Persian political elite, just as the West looks at Russia through the eyes of Moscow. These other realities are therefore ignored – and their potential for internal conflict and disintegration. Ethnic minorities (Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Baluchis, etc.) represent more than half of Iran’s population and dominate large regions of the country beyond the area near Tehran. Most of these minorities live in the border provinces and share ties with their co-religionists from neighbouring states, such as Iraq, Azerbaijan and Pakistan. For its part, the regime in Tehran forbids minorities to educate their children or receive public services in their languages, but still, according to data from the Iranian government itself, 40% of the country’s citizens do not even speak Persian. On the other hand, ethnic minorities face even more severe hardships than Persians, such as poverty, poor access to public services, environmental degradation and drinking water shortages, which reinforce their sentiment of discrimination As anti-regime activity continues to progress, everything indicates that the role of ethnic minorities will play an increasingly important role. At the same time, the government knows that if many opponents of the Persian majority hate the regime, they hate the idea of \u200b\u200blosing control of the provinces even more. Thus, Tehran is already appealing to Persian nationalist sentiment to try to divide the opposition, arguing that only the current government can maintain control of the regions where ethnic minorities live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In La Vanguardia<\/em><\/a>, Alexis Rodr\u00edguez-Rata reviews the soft power strategies carried out by Russia in Africa through the intermediary of the Wagner paramilitary group. He points out, for example, that the Russians first arrived in the Central African Republic in 2018 legally as instructors since Russia had provided weapons to the national army. Soon after everything changed: the instructors were supposed to be officers of the Russian army but it was discovered that they were mercenaries of the Wagner group. So, for years, the Central African Republic has been the perfect place to test new propaganda techniques and new projects instead of being limited to the usual military or mining activities. For instance, the Russians brought tons of sugar into the country and distributed it all over the country, especially among the elderly and children, all under the control of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the group who has direct connections to the Kremlin. Other more classic strategies were the demonstrations with Russian flags in the streets, which have recently been reproduced in Burkina-Faso and Mali. Or also the control over the local press through the general repression against the media and freedom of expression. Rodr\u00edguez-Rata warns that the Wagner group is different from all other private military companies: it is a network where armed forces coexist; it is dedicated to the extraction of minerals such as diamonds and gold and also acts in the field of counter-intelligence. Wagner therefore makes up a galaxy of different societies that work together to achieve different goals in many countries and that Russia uses for its own benefit because it costs less than military presence, there are no official human losses and if they are accused of something, they argue that the group does not exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the war in Ukraine, Mira Milosevich-Juaristi addresses in an article published at the Real Instituto Elcano<\/a> the impact of the war in Ukraine on the conflicts taking place in the post-Soviet space. The resumption of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan and on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as the ongoing tensions in the frozen conflicts of Transnistria (Moldova) and South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia), have again put the focus on the post-Soviet space, raising the question of whether the war in Ukraine is the cause of the recent increase in hostilities and whether it could have a domino effect and create more instability in the region. Milosevich-Juaristi considers that, on the one hand, the war in Ukraine is not the main cause of the hostilities since these are previous and, on the other hand, the invasion of Ukraine shows how a frozen conflict can quickly turn into an open war. Thus, more than a domino effect, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict reflects Russia’s loss of influence in the post-Soviet space since 2020, which has been worsening since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Russia’s aggressions against Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine (since 2014) have contributed to regional instability and strengthened both countries’ national resilience against the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s support for Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus has increased EU and US support for the Belarusian opposition; and Turkey played an important role in the peace negotiations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020, at the expense of Russia. So, although countries in the region continue to see Russia as the guarantor of security in an unstable Afghanistan after the US withdrawal, recent events show that it will be very difficult for Russia to maintain the little credibility and influence it has if they remain in a context of rivalry with the EU, China, Turkey and Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewisem Tony Barber expresses in The Financial Times<\/em><\/a> that as Russia encounters more difficulties in its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin is losing influence throughout the post-Soviet space, from Moldova to the Central Asia. Unease is increasingly pronounced among Russia’s neighbours (not counting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are already members of the EU and NATO). Although Moldova and Georgia have Moscow-backed separatist regions that make them vulnerable to Russian pressure, Moldova has already submitted its candidacy to the EU and Georgia also aspires to join. As for Armenia and Azerbaijan, there have been renewed clashes after wars in the early 1990s and 2020. But in recent weeks some signs have emerged suggesting that both countries could reach a peace deal before at the end of the year. The interesting point is that any solution would no longer go through Russia, the traditional power broker in the South Caucasus, but through the EU and the US. Armenia, in particular, is very disillusioned with Moscow and is increasingly seeking Western support. This is not the only sign that the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) \u2013 which, from Moscow’s point of view, is an instrument to exert its influence on its neighbours \u2013 is facing a serious crisis, which completely changed the situation in January, when the CSTO fulfilled its collective defence role for the first time since its creation in the nineties. At the request of Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokaiev, a Russian-led force entered the country to end the unrest that killed more than 200 people. At the time it seemed that Tokaiev’s dependence on Russian aid could make him a junior partner to Putin. However, none of this has happened, insofar as Tokaiev has refused to support the invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly denounced Russian threats against Kazakhstan. In addition, with large numbers of Central Asian migrants working in Russia, fears have spread throughout the region that they could be affected by the partial mobilization decreed by Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a European perspective, it is significant the importance that the European Commission gives to the Cohesion Policy<\/a> as the main investment tool in Europe, with a total budget of half a billion euros for the period 2021-2027. It has been one of the main tools in the fight against the impacts of COVID-19, and to respond to the social and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, and will play a key role in resolving the energy crisis by supporting the SMEs and vulnerable households. It also responds to the long-term goals of enabling EU countries to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels and prepare Europe for the next stages of the green and digital society, while ensuring economic and social cohesion. In this sense, the Commission highlights five fundamental aspects of the Cohesion Policy: 1) energy security and the Green Deal<\/em> since the cohesion policy has been the EU’s main investment tool in terms of energy saving, development of renewable energies, energy infrastructures and gas networks; 2) broadband and digital services for all Europeans. Thanks to the investments of the cohesion policy, Europe is today more suitable for the digital age. Digital investments aim to overcome the social, economic and geographical aspects of the digital divide, making sure that all regions of the EU take advantage of the benefits of digitalisation; 3) that no one in Europe is left behind. The green and digital transition is underway, but it will only really work when it is fair to people and businesses; 4) the protection of social balance since providing a basis for people’s prosperity and well-being means creating jobs and supporting those who need to acquire new skills; and 5) an instrument of GDP convergence since the cohesion policy allows the less developed regions to grow and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the internal market. For example, in 2019 the Central and Eastern European countries that became EU members after 2004 had reduced the difference between their GDP and the EU average from 41% to 23%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the CIDOB<\/a>, Pol Morillas argues that the inaugural summit of the European Political Community (CPE) held at the beginning of October should be understood as an attempt to maintain the unity of the entire European population \u2014of countries belonging to or not the European Union\u2014against Russia’s aggressive policies. However, the emergence of the CPE once again highlights the endless debates about differentiated integration and a Europe of concentric circles. European leaders have been quick to couple Russia’s aggression against Ukraine with the birth of a geopolitical European Union. The EU’s response to the war has been a success in different spheres of foreign policy, security and defence. Sanctions packages against Russia have been adopted with a remarkable degree of unity, even by Orb\u00e1n’s Hungary, which continues to combine negotiations in Brussels with proximity to Moscow. Remarkable progress has also been achieved at the energy level, reducing dependence on Russian gas to less than 10% (when before the war it was more than 40%). In the area of \u200b\u200bsecurity and defence, the EU has provided arms to Ukraine and many member states have significantly increased defence capabilities and investment in military matters. Even so, many unknowns remain to be resolved in the face of the future consolidation of a geopolitical Union. Some European capitals are reluctant to provide full support to Ukraine in the event that Russia’s war of aggression escalates and increases the risk of a nuclear confrontation. Member states such as France and Germany insist on the need to reach some kind of political agreement with Russia in the future, while the countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are convinced that in the coming years Russia will continue to represent a threat existential for its national security. Finally, the strengthening of NATO and its role as a more effective guarantee of security for Europeans (especially from the incorporation of Finland and Sweden) could divert attention from strategic autonomy in matters of security and defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Flinders analyses in The Conversation<\/em><\/a> <\/em> the reasons that have led to the resignation of Liz Truss, the most short-lived Prime Minister in the history of the United Kingdom. Truss began his term by presenting a radical agenda designed to boost economic growth but had to retract these plans almost immediately after the opposite happened. Her proposals triggered an economic collapse from which she never recovered. Flinders suggests five key elements in its rise and subsequent fall. First, Truss practiced the wrong policy from the start of his tenure. She refused to appoint anyone who had not supported her campaign, which left her with a limited pool of talent and after less than two months she had to fire the Minister of Economy and the Minister of Interior, the two most important positions after the Prime Minister. Second, a poor selection process due to the system used by the Conservative Party to elect its leaders. Truss reached the final round of the contest more by rejection than by anything else and did not have the enthusiastic support of his parliamentary group. To get the leadership, she proposed to the members of his party fiscal policies adapted to their needs, instead of taking into account the needs and priorities of the country. Third, her management was a failure as the gap between her proposal and reality was clear from the moment her budget proposal was announced. It was impossible that removing barriers to bankers’ bonuses and reducing corporate taxes were well-accepted measures in the midst of an energy crisis and with galloping inflation. Fourth, poor staging as if politics were not a matter of communication, connection and empathy. The most relevant intelligence for a Prime Minister is not intellectual or financial, but emotional. The fact is that Truss had never shown herself to be able to connect with the public. Finally, what happened to Truss reveals a certain danger inherent in the British political system as it continues to concentrate power in a very small number of people who can make very important decisions with little or no control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her part, Ruth Ferrero explores in El Per\u00edodico<\/em><\/a> what can be expected from the appointment of Rishi Sunak as the new Prime Minister. She points out that the country, but especially the Conservative Party, urgently needs to recover its self-esteem and credibility. When the exit from the EU materialized two years ago, the supporters of Brexit believed that pragmatism, British common sense, would be enough to put the United Kingdom back in the place that according to them it belongs. They thought that nostalgia would serve to recover the position of great imperial and maritime power of the 19th century, while consolidating its position as a financial centre already in the 20th with its famous City. The pride of individualism led them to Brexit, through disinformation campaigns and hidden interests, because they thought that, as in the past, the British would be able to cope with all adversities. The no less famous ‘Keep calm and carry on’. However, the decline of Britain had already been observed for some time. The attempts of the nineties, with the slogan ‘Cool Britannia’, which drew a kind of resurgence of what is British as a marker of cultural and political trends, remained a mere attempt. This new strategy, embodied in figures such as Lady Di or the Oasis band, and in the political proposal of the social-liberal third way, devised by Anthony Giddens and implemented by Tony Blair’s New Labour, was reduced to ashes in the face of its incapacity of bringing back a battered and fractured society during the Thatcherism period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the economic field, Russell Napier warns in The Market<\/em><\/a> <\/em> that we are approaching a phase of 15 to 20 years of structurally high inflation and financial restraint. It also predicts the increase in control of the economy by the states, since the different governments will justify the increase in their weight in the economy due to emergency situations that will become more and more frequent. Thus, it concludes the years of stability that we have known so far and ensures that the states will occupy the role that in the last 40 years both private banking and central banks have played in matters such as the control and issuance of money, which was already common in the period between 1939 and 1979. Napier also believes that this will lead to a boom in capital investment and a re-industrialization of Western economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Financial Times<\/em><\/a>, Ruchir Sharma points out that now that he is entering his third term, Xi Jinping’s goal for the next decade is to turn China into a middle-level developed country, which implies that the economy should grow at a rate close to 5% per year. But the underlying trends \u2014declining demographics, high debt, and declining productivity\u2014suggest that the country’s overall growth potential is about halved. The implications of growth around 2.5% have not yet been fully analysed. On the one hand, assuming US growth of 1.5%, with inflation rates similar to today and a stable exchange rate, China would not overtake the US as the largest economy in world until 2060, if it ever does. On the other hand, long-term growth depends on more workers using more capital and using it more efficiently (productivity). China, with a declining population and productivity, has been growing by injecting more capital into the economy at an unsustainable rate. China is now a middle-income country, with a per capita income of $12,500, a fifth of that of the US. It is clear that China can achieve any target the government sets, but forecasts have missed the pace of China’s slowdown in recent years, including this 2022, when growth is likely to fall below 3 %. Around 2010, many analysts thought that China’s economy would overtake that of the US in nominal terms by 2020. By 2014, some economists claimed that China was already the world’s largest economy in terms of parity purchasing power, a statement based on theoretical currency values \u200b\u200bwith no meaning in the real world. Anyway, 2.5% growth is an optimistic forecast that downplays risks, including rising tensions between China and its major trading partners, growing government interference in the more productive private sector \u2014technology\u2014, and the increasingly important weight of the debt burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding sustainability and climate change, Mathieu M\u00e9rino argues in the journal Conflits<\/em><\/a> that the climate issue is a key aspect in the development of Africa. Access to drinking water, soil degradation, the protection of forested areas, are some of the main challenges for Africa in the 21st century. This in a context where the effects of climate change are starting to be felt strongly: heat waves and fires in North Africa, droughts in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and southern Africa, cyclones more and more frequent on the eastern coast, coastal erosion in West Africa, rising sea levels, extinction of animal species, etc. These examples underline the extent to which the African continent has become one of the most vulnerable regions in the world with respect to environmental degradation, in particular due to its complex climate system and its interaction with the socio-economic problems that characterize it. By causing a degradation of drinking water resources and soil quality, a decline in agricultural production, an increase in extreme phenomena or even new migratory movements, climate change acts as a catalyst for challenges for a continent marked, since the period of independence, by great transformations linked to the increase in its population and its needs, as well as numerous political crises. However, in this new context where threats related to environmental degradation are increasingly diversified, states do not have the same means to deal with them. According to the World Bank, Africa is still characterized by a high proportion of poverty, with an average rate set at 35% in 2022, and the rapidity of climate change calls into question the ability of states to adapt to these shocks, thus accentuating the areas of fragility and tension. According to the United Nations, more than 100 million Africans will be threatened by global warming by 2030 and the continent will have to face, in the coming years, worsening insecurity, the food crisis, the poverty and population displacement. Climate change therefore poses a threat to economic growth and sustainable development, as well as to poverty reduction and security. In short, if the contemporary challenges facing Africa are numerous and complex, the acceleration of climate change and the continent’s current geopolitical context should require both national governments and their technical and financial partners to systematically address environmental problems in their development and security strategies. This paradigm shift, already underway, will probably have to go through a better management of the climate crisis by African states, both at national and regional level, with the establishment of efficient seasonal forecasting and early warning systems, as well as the definition of impact, mitigation mechanisms (better water management and food insecurity, common forest management policy, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, Breno Bringel analyses in OpenDemocracy<\/em><\/a> the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South<\/a> that was created in the first months of 2020, after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of launching an ecosocial transition for Latin America. The platform aims to articulate, amplify and systematize local experiences linked to community control, territorial autonomies, food sovereignty, agroecology, community energies and ecofeminisms, among other struggles. The birth of the initiative was motivated by the urgency of providing answers to the different crises that the contemporary world is going through. But also because of the need to offer alternatives, in Latin American terms, to socio-ecological transition proposals and Green Deals that have appeared in recent years. Bringel considers that, although considerable progress has been made on all continents in various local experiences, hegemonic pacts are insufficient, if not problematic, given that they end up reproducing the status quo and increasing deep geopolitical asymmetries and North-South inequalities. Indeed, more than two years have passed and the overall situation has worsened. We are immersed in a context of war that has exacerbated the energy and food crisis within the framework of the acceleration of the climate crisis. In addition, the war has contributed to the increase of both traditional extractivisms and new extractivisms associated with hegemonic green transitions. In addition, many of these proposals have ended up reducing the ecosocial transition to a mere energy transition, where the vision of a corporate energy transition, mobilized from the North to the South, predominates, as the continuity of a model with the same logic of concentration and business of the fossilist regime and which perpetuates the vertical scheme of territorial intervention, characteristic of predatory extractivism. In short, an energy transition that does not address the inequality in the distribution of energy resources, that does not promote decommoditization, decolonization and does not strengthen the capacity for resilience and regeneration of civil society, will only be a partial reform that will not change the causes structural aspects of the current collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, and after the recent controversies generated by Elon Musk with the purchase of Twitter and his proposed peace plan in the Ukrainian war, Asma Mhalla argues in Le Grand Continent<\/em><\/a> <\/em> that to understand the Musk system, it is necessary to deconstruct its great principles. Through the deactivation of Starlink in Ukraine or his chaotic purchase of Twitter, the billionaire is building a formal geopolitical power, complementary to the current prerogatives of the United States, a power based on a new cocktail: trolls, total technology and technopolitics. From an economic point of view, Musk is reinventing what Donald Trump had started on Twitter a few years earlier. From \u201cpost-truth politics\u201d, Musk is leading us into the era of \u201cpost-truth economics\u201d by inventing an unprecedented ability to cause economic damage. The most striking illustration of this phenomenon is the psychodrama that has accompanied the purchase of Twitter, a real game of lying poker whose real motivations no one could know. On the other hand, economic trolling allows it to alter the codes of the global financial market and the institutions that frame it. Thus, Musk can destabilize the Big Tech financial market, which today has the highest stock market valuations: all it takes is one tweet and the irrational market can collapse. Elon Musk’s conception of total technology is based on an ideology that is both libertarian and technocentric. Two examples illustrate Musk’s worldview, a hybrid form of libertarianism tinged with neoconservatism: his plan to take over Twitter and its Starlink satellites as the ultimate answer to all the world’s problems. The Starlink low-orbit satellites are one of the cornerstones of Musk’s technology project. Through the control of the new infrastructures of global connectivity, it aims to reinvent the panopticon on a global scale. And it exploits its satellites to try to solve almost any problem: winning the war in Ukraine, fighting deforestation in the Amazon or overcoming poverty and hunger in Africa. Contrary to what is expressed too quickly in the public debate, Big Tech are not “parallel states” but, on the contrary, are located in the same functional continuum of states. The author concludes that the Musk system must push us to question the role and the necessary redefinition of the state as a political and legal construct in the face of hybrid actors of a new type, who are both private companies, geopolitical actors and, sometimes, public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Bruno Arnaldi states in The Conversation<\/em><\/a> <\/em> that the concepts of virtual reality and augmented reality have received a lot of media attention in recent years. The main reasons are the important democratization of technologies and the very strong investments made by GAFAM in this area. Among the fields of application likely to benefit from these developments is training, a field for which virtual reality or augmented reality offers many advantages. Without being exhaustive, the following advantages can be highlighted: the possibility of carrying out experiments without any danger to the student or to the material used; an easy simulation for students, even in critical situations, such as malfunctioning equipment that can become dangerous; a quality analysis without advertising, every day in the email; total control of the learning situation and follow-up of the learner. This allows the trainer to have at any time the progress data of a student and, in some cases, all the actions performed by the student through the virtual “playback” of the training sequence. Recently, a new terminology has appeared: the metaverse, which is increasingly present in the media and in industrial marketing. However, the concept and scientific works on the subject date from the beginning of the 90s and the technical heart of the metaverse is built on very old technological elements such as virtual reality, virtual humans, networks… Putting the focus on this subject will bring the companies and testing laboratories to invest a lot of resources, and therefore everything indicates that in the coming years this concentration of means will produce effects, that is to say new developments and innovations from which training will benefit. However, it is also worth asking the question of the risks that metaverses entail for the evolution of society: is this really the society of the future that we want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illustration: Vasily Kandinsky, ‘X Composition’, 1939.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montserrat Viv\u00f3 and Mart\u00ed Serra, trainee students at the CETC, participated in the elaboration of this issue of Diari de les Idees<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This issue of Diari de les Idees highlights the Russian army tactical change in war in Ukraine by using mass kamikaze drone attacks to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Turning to international affairs, we focus on the presidential election in Brazil where Lula da Silva’s narrow victory reflects a deeply divided country along social, economic, racial and religious lines. We also underline the results of the legislative elections in Israel where everything indicates that Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud will get the majority to be able to govern with the far-right and ultra-religious parties. We also pay attention to the 20th Congress of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60762,"template":"","category_newspaper":[454],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-60803","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-454"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiari de les idees 71 – IDEES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/diari-de-les-idees-71\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diari de les idees 71 – IDEES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This issue of Diari de les Idees highlights the Russian army tactical change in war in Ukraine by using mass kamikaze drone attacks to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Turning to international affairs, we focus on the presidential election in Brazil where Lula da Silva’s narrow victory reflects a deeply divided country along social, economic, racial and religious lines. We also underline the results of the legislative elections in Israel where everything indicates that Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud will get the majority to be able to govern with the far-right and ultra-religious parties. We also pay attention to the 20th Congress of\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/diari-de-les-idees-71\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IDEES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-30T10:42:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/revistaidees.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kandinsky_Composicio-X_1939.jpg?fit=994%2C681&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"994\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"33 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/\",\"name\":\"Diari de les idees 71 – IDEES\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/Kandinsky_Composicio-X_1939.jpg?fit=994%2C681&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-03T09:14:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-30T10:42:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/Kandinsky_Composicio-X_1939.jpg?fit=994%2C681&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/Kandinsky_Composicio-X_1939.jpg?fit=994%2C681&ssl=1\",\"width\":994,\"height\":681},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/diari-de-les-idees-71\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Inici\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Diari de les idees\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/analisis\\\/diari-de-les-idees\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Diari de les idees 71\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/\",\"name\":\"IDEES\",\"description\":\"Contemporary global issues\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/revistaidees.cat\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Diari de les idees 71 – IDEES","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/diari-de-les-idees-71\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Diari de les idees 71 – IDEES","og_description":"This issue of Diari de les Idees highlights the Russian army tactical change in war in Ukraine by using mass kamikaze drone attacks to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. 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