Category Archives: Political Theory

The future of American power

Kaiwan Bahroz

By Kaiwan Bahroz: The twenty-first century began with a very unequal distribution of power resources. With five percent of the world’s population, the United States accounted for about a quarter of the world’s economic output, was responsible for nearly half of global military expenditures, and had the most extensive cultural and educational soft-power resources. All…

What do we know about dictators? Totalitarianism and authoritarianism

Dr Daniel P

By Dr. Daniel P.: Democracy means freedom of the people in a nation to choose. The people have the power over the entire nation. It is up to the majority what the fate of the country will be. The exact opposite of this is the authoritarian and totalitarian types of governance. These have only one person…

Restore US democracy: Limit the power of invisible hand

US democracy

By Rauf Naqishbendi: In a representative democracy the power of the people is delegated to their representatives mandating that, for the period of their incumbency, they act in unison with the good of the great body of people. When sympathy with a class of citizens or the influence of invisible hands is substituted for the…

‘…But what kind of Kurd are you?’

Dilar Dirik

By Dilar Dirik: One thing that the hegemonic powers that separated and dispersed Kurdistan have accomplished is not only the geographic division of the Kurds, but also the far-reaching discrepancies in our perceptions of identity. Obviously every nation has its socio-economic divides, but it is remarkable that a culture that is portrayed by outsiders as…

Majority voice or the voice of oppressor?

Diar Shareef

By Diyar Aziz Shareef: Is majority rule a function of democracy, a technique to promote the public interest or, on the contrary, is it a tool to fulfill the interests of a political minority? Can the Kurdistan parliament be able to live up to its name (as the ‘people’s council’) if it is permanently dominated…

Democracy: Egypt’s 21st century pyramid built on sand

Dr Fereydun Refiq Hilmi

By Dr F R Hilmi: The US and international Occupy movements were modelled on the Egyptian and Arab spring revolutions which is why I see it as necessary to highlight the pitfalls of those movements and the pessimistic outcome they seem to bring about. The results of the Egyptian Presidential elections were announced on international…

I’m Kurdish, if I’m not political then what am I?

Kurdistan

By Veene Sulaivany: It goes without saying that, as Kurds, we are a highly politicized people. What I mean by this is, we are born into politics and become married to it at a very young age. How can we not be this way? And, in particular, how can those who have been and continue…

For as long as you stay silent

By Dr F R Hilmi:  Only a few days ago I used the official public records to prove that British Democracy, if it ever existed, has been assassinated by the political elite and the establishment. Today I will show that this crime is international and has been the hallmark of the political gamesmanship passing for…

Murder of the mother of all democracies

Dr Fereydun Refiq Hilmi

By Dr F Hilmi: I will be brief in this article because I want readers to concentrate on the amazing facts and figures which prove without any shadow of a doubt that what is passed by western political elites as Democracy, Majority Rule, the Rule of the People is by no means so according to…

‘The Road Map to Negotiations’, by Abdullah Öcalan

road-map-to-negotiations

Review by Mufid Abdulla: 13 years on and Öcalan is still in a Turkish prison on Emrali island. Öcalan’s ‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ is a collection of his writings that provided the basis for secret negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leadership from 2009 until they broke down in mid-2011….

Secularism, religion and women’s rights: a suggestion

religion-and-politics

By Razaw Abas Salihy:  The reason we have human rights is to protect every individual in society, whether they’re part of a group or not. Individuals are very often part of two parallel groups within a society e.g. female and Muslim. Therefore, it would make no sense for rights to have a hierarchy of importance,…

Evolution and the theory of God (part 2)

Dr Fereydun Refiq Hilmi

By Dr Fereydun Rafiq Hilmi: Political use of evolution theory Evolution theory as it stands, like Freudianism and Machiavellianism, has been utilised for political dogma and ideology to control the minds of the public. Most believers in evolution blindly recite a few slogans such as “Survival of the fittest”, “Natural Selection”, “Missing links”, “Our ancestor apes”…

Secularism and minority rights in Turkey

Secular rally in Turkey, 2007

By Ahmet Abidin Ozbek: In general, if religion is in good hands it can be good medicine but in bad hands it can be disastrous for millions. This is often an unfortunate reality of the practice of Islam – and often likewise of Christianity, Judaism and other organized religions. Most Muslim leaders, groups, organizations and…

Kurdistan – a viable state (part 3)

kurdish flags

By Mufid Abdulla: Developments in Kurdistan and Iraq The Kurdish issue has been a central question confronting Iraqi governments ever since the state of Iraq was established in 1920. This problem has had both internal and external aspects. On the basis of our history, our Kurdish nation is differentiated from the Arab nation – linguistically,…

Kurdistan: a viable state (Part 2)

international_law

By Mufid Abdulla: Part 2 of a 3-part historical study International law developed to deal with newly-arising states The French monk Émeric Crucé (1590-1648) elaborated the idea of having representatives of all countries meet in one place to discuss their conflicts, so as to avoid war and preserve peace. He suggested this in his Nouveau Cynée  (1623) and…