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Category Archives: Maritime Security
A Strategic Perspective for Change in the Navy
Posted on December 5, 2019 by strategicdialogues
(This article is forthcoming in the December 2019 issue of Geopolitics available at http://www.geopolitics.in)
The Act of Passage on the Sea
World change has set in motion a shift that will affect security of the Indian nation. In this churning, the context of revision and how the involved actors must relate to it is critical. Each step towards change will illuminate facets that will reveal the reality of their purport, challenges they characterise and the threats that they hold. In addition strategic thought in the Navy must transcend the temptation to consider these as a continuing current of the past. The question really is, how can we best recast the Navy without having to wait for the full exposure of the new world and not having to play catch-up-if-you-can?
Students of maritime history will not forget that at the turn of the 20th century it was thinkers like Mahan and Julian Corbett who set ablaze the maritime spirit of that century. The former identified principles that influenced naval forces during the first half of the twentieth century; he believed that national greatness was inextricably associated with the commercial use of the sea in peace and its control in war. Sea power was seen as the handmaiden of imperial expansion. This vision, although uncontroversial in his day, lost its strategic flavour in the post-war age of decolonisation. Corbett, on the other hand, believed naval influence to be a part of national policy and saw the fleet not merely an instrument of destruction of the enemy fleet but as an accompaniment to assuring the "act of relative passage on the sea." It was from this critical tenet that concepts of Sea Denial, Sea Control and Power Projection evolved. In 1915, his essay titled "The Spectre of Navalism" underscored the hazards of arms restructuring when attitudes considered "all power that was not one's own was a menace that force alone could remove" (a belief amongst Germanic people in the run-up to the First World War and may today be found to thrive in the region). Perhaps his abiding legacy to contemporary naval thought was the idea that "freedom of the seas was an irreducible factor in sane world politics" for in his outlook the sea was not territory that could be conquered; nor were the oceans defensible. What it constituted was a substantial factor in the growth of a nation and prosecution of war. He suggested, "…great issues of nations at war have always been decided … either by what your army can do against your enemy's territory, or else by the fear of what the fleet makes it possible for your army to do."
Context of Change
Within an international system that hovers between a facade of order and anarchy, variegated pace of growth among states engenders rivalry over access to resources, control of technology, flow of commerce and entry to markets; resulting in friction amongst competitors. At the same time, abstractions of national honour, prestige and other sovereign interests that separate the state from its citizenry are often at odds with the violence of the "Language" of war (Clausewitz). Experience of the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, East Pakistan, West Asia and Afghanistan will suggest that perceptions of the people that come face-to-face with the "language" of war learn to abhor it and eventually prevail. Add to this the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with their intrinsic menace of ending political purpose and we have the coming of indirect, relatively scaled down version of conventional wars albeit with high destructive potential and brutality fought under the overhang of a nuclear holocaust.
A Short Primer of Maritime Warfare
A fourfold classification of maritime forces has dominated naval operations since 1945. The grouping is largely task oriented. It comprises of aircraft carriers, denial forces, escorts and auxiliaries (the last include logistic and other support elements such as shore based aircrafts, landing ships, mine layers, tenders, space and cyber assets). In addition contemporary thought has given strategic nuclear forces a restraining role to define and demarcate the limits within which conventional forces operate. The principal demand of the theory is to attain a strategic posture that would permit control of oceanic and littoral spaces for a designated period of time in order to progress and influence the course of conflict, generally, on land. Upon the escorts depends our ability to accomplish control; while on the Aircraft Carrier and its intrinsic air power assisted by strike and denial forces depends the security of control. Control and security of control is the relationship that operationally links all maritime forces. If the doctrine of destroying the enemy's armed forces asserts itself as the paramount objective then, our maritime exertions would concentrate on the singular aim of dealing that knockout punch. However, the vastness of the hydrosphere is of a nature that encourages dispersion, at the same time the antagonist may hardly be expected to expose his main forces in unfavourable circumstances. As Corbett so eloquently put it "the more closely he induces us to concentrate to face his fleet, the more he frees the sea for the circulation of his own forces, and the more he exposes ours."
India's armed forces have traditionally evolved and trained to cope with operational scenarios. But the operational canvas (inexplicable not to have been apparent), is a transient that eschews futuristic force planning. So it was every-year-after-five years the planner was condemned to an exercise that perceived possible threats and/building forces that attempted to cope with those threats. It was, therefore, the instantaneous intimidation that drove plans which unfortunately is a pretender that serves to fill the strategic space and struggles to keep pace with a future that the planner neither sought to shape nor forecast.
The War in Shadows
Corbett's formulation, adapted for the present, of 'control-for-causes' is far more sophisticated and finds application in an era when calibrated escalation of power, coercive diplomacy and sanctions as opposed to a destructive and economically debilitating conflict; finds favour as a political tool. The current situation in Crimea, Syria, Iran, West Asia, North Korea, weaponising of space, access denial strategies, disruptive control of cyber space and indeed the South China Sea imbroglio are marked by just such a 'War in Shadows' where the principal tools are persuasive in their threat to dent the adversaries comprehensive power. Three factors play a disproportionate part in evolving such a strategy. First is generation of strategic capability in all dimensions. Second, is the resolve to power of national leadership. And lastly, is the state's ability to cope with and manipulate strategic outcomes. This blend of the abstract with the realist's point of view characterizes the 'War in Shadows'. The reader will no-doubt note shades of the South Asian Regional situation in this plot. It is against this canvas that the future development and structuring of Indian maritime power must be gauged.
Challenge of China
Of all the uncertainties, it is China, a stated revisionist autocratic power that will impact regional stability; particularly so, in the maritime domain. The planner must in the circumstance examine in some detail the challenge of China. Of significance is the shift in global balance to the Indo-Pacific intricately linked to the stunning growth of China as a contender for regional dominance. Its ascendancy is backed by military forces that are developed to the point where they expect to challenge any adversary that may attempt to deny its interests.
China's latest defence white paper of July 2019 describes "Taiwan, Tibet, and Turkistan as separatists that threaten national unity. While drumming the theme of "people's security" it persists with its re-education camps in Xinjiang revealed recently. It hammers home the brutal repression of Muslim ethnic minorities, mainly Uighurs, and their mass incarceration. The paper warns of the dangers of territorial conflicts erupting in the South China Sea and hazards of strategic competition for resources and control of the seaways."
The consequences of China enabling its Anti-Access and Area Denial strategy and moves to establish proprietary sources of raw materials, domination of sea lines of communication euphemistically called the "maritime silk route" and working to realise the String of Pearls (currently a patchy network of Chinese military and commercial facilities along its silk route). These manoeuvres in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Region evoke increasing anxieties and resistance by players in the same strategic settings. Debt traps that have been set by China to inveigle some of the hapless littorals of the Indian Ocean of their maritime facilities are symptomatic of a new form of colonial venture. The paradoxical effects of China's actions are to undermine its own strategic standing, hasten counter balancing alignments and urge a global logic of cooperative politics over imperial strategies.
Through all this, China remains quite oblivious to the legality of their discordant Air Defence Identification Zone, the 9-Dash line delineating their claim over most of the South China Sea, contravening the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea and breaching international law by constructing and militarising artificial islands. China appears to be challenging not just today's economic orthodoxy, but the world's political and security framework as well.
Defining the Strategic Space
With uncertainty driving geopolitical dynamics, the first imperative for India is to bring about policy coherence between strategic space, growth and security interests. It must factor regions from where trade originates, energy lines run, sea lines of communication pass, narrows therein and potential allies. The Oceanic body encompassing the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific provides the back-drop. It is dominated by ten important choke points and narrows. In essence the theatre gives to global trade efficient maritime routes and sea lines of communication that power the region's growth. It accounts for over 70% of global trade, 60% of energy flow and is home to more than 50% of the world's population; it also provides the context within which Indian maritime strategy must operate.
Determinants of Future Force Planning
The quest for strategic leverage in the maritime domain is inspired by policy declarations such as the 'Look East (and now) Act East Policy', the 'India Africa Forum Summit', and formation of alliances. Current membership of the original ten ASEAN grouping plus 6 is symptomatic of the shift in strategic centre of gravity to the East. From a security angle, the inclusion of India, USA, Russia, Japan and South Korea in addition to China provides the rationale for balance. India and China along with ASEAN are set to become the world's largest economic bloc. The grouping is expected to account for about 27 per cent of Global GDP and will very quickly overtake the EU and USA economies. The buoyancy of the Indo-ASEAN relationship (despite the RCEP) is backed by surging trade slated to hit USD 100 billion. With such burgeoning stakes strategic rebalancing in the region comes as a natural consequence. The expansion of the ASEAN and the creation of the ASEAN Regional Forum are also suggestive of the littoral's aspirations to counter poise the looming presence of China.
Having thus brought about a modicum of coherence between security dynamics, strategic space and growth, it would now be appropriate to derive the broad contours of our strategic objectives and how they may be achieved.
A Denial Strategy
Denial seeks to contest and discredit the ability of regional or extra regional countries to unilaterally engage in destabilizing activities. The instrument to achieve denial is by convincingly raising the cost of military intervention through the use or threat of use of methods that are asymmetrical in form and decisive in substance. To 'contest and discredit' would suggest a clear understanding of where the centre of gravity of the intervening forces lie. In China's case, it is the triumvirate of the Aircraft Carrier; nuclear attack submarine and security of the narrows and of its 'string of pearls'; these would have to be checkmated.
Leadership and Doctrines
Leaving aside, for the moment, material aspects of generating capabilities, the most critical issue is one of timing, that is, what would be the enabling circumstances that would trigger operationalizing (say) the Indian anti access denial strategy? While the short answer may be "when national interests are threatened" this does not in any way assist in formulating a doctrine empowering operational level leadership to plan and act. Leadership will note two considerations. First, initial moves must be so calibrated that the intervener is unequivocally made aware through diplomacy and notices from allies that a threshold is being approached and that the next rung in the escalatory ladder could well be a 'hot' exchange. This may take the form of 'marking' and surveillance. Second, initiating demonstrative action which may disrupt and disable operational networks or even measures instituted in some other theatre where correlation of forces would suggest Indian superiority. Under this order of things, we may in general terms define our 'red lines' as follows:
Any large scale military attempt to change the status quo in our territorial configuration.
Large scale military build-up either at Gwadar or on any of the "string of pearls" with the explicit purpose of threatening India.
Aggressive deployments that disrupt our own energy and resource traffic or dislocate command networks.
Any attempt to provide large scale military support, covert or otherwise, to promote an internal war against the State.
For obvious reasons details of ASAT batteries and cyber warfare teams along with NCA controlled strategic forces will remain discreet.
The next issue that requires our attention is what nature of technologies would have to be fielded to realise the strategy. In developing a technology plan two considerations will influence our approach; the first being an incremental approach to adapt and modernize existing tools, skills and hardware, while the second is to develop new technologies. Viewed in this perspective areas that would need the notice of our scientific community are identified below:
ASAT deployment.
Development & Deployment of seabed sensors for tracking attack submarines.
Development of non-lethal devices to disable merchant ships.
Deploying cyber warfare teams for both defensive and offensive tasks.
Development of high speed networks with failsafe firewalls for command and control and information sharing.
The Quadrilateral Cooperative Security Dialogue (Quad)
The Quad has evolved in response to increased Chinese revisionist trends and the need to lend stability in the Indo-Pacific. The founding countries United States, Japan, India and Australia driven by a concept of co-operative security, launched the idea in 2007. With early withdrawal of Australia the Quad almost "miscarried". It has been recently revived to counter China's unrelenting thrust for an exceptionable proprietary mercantile empire stretching across the region. The alliance, however, remains fragile. The only historical parallel to the Quad is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Established to contain Soviet expansionism; three remarkable articles are at the core of its Charter: Article 2, lays the under structure for non-military cooperation. Article 3, provides for cooperation in military preparedness while Article 5, the allies agreed "an armed attack against one or more of them be considered an attack against all". The Charter of the Quad is yet to be fleshed out; but conceivably it may follow the NATO template. It may have three objectives. First, to reinforce a rule-based regional Order that rejects nationalistic 'Navalism' of the kind that has emerged. Second, to promote a liberal trading regime and freedom of navigation. Third, to provide security assurances.
As the Quad pushes to get their initiative to fly, success will likely hinge on how they face pressure from China, nature of security architecture and an understanding of the peril-to-the-whole.
The reality of the international system is the place that power enjoys in the scheme of assuring stability. Uncertainty in international relations queers the pitch, in view of the expanded space of possibilities. India's relationship with much of the world is robust. India has shown itself, through restraint, pluralistic and popular form of governance to be a responsible State that upholds the status quo yet invites change through democratic forces. Its rise, in the main, is not only welcomed but is seen as a harmonizing happening that could counterpoise China.
China on the other hand is a declared revisionist autocratic power that will impact globally; particularly so, in the maritime domain where it appears to be challenging not just economic orthodoxy, but geo-political and security order without bringing about a change within. This cannot be allowed to pass without a strategic riposte.
Posted in China and the Pacific, Geopolitics and Strategic Impulses, Maritime Security, South Asia	| 2 Replies
China: National Defence in a New Era
Posted on August 20, 2019 by strategicdialogues
Linking Dreams with Reality
This article is forthcoming in the September 2019 issue of Geopolitics http://www.geopolitics.in/
The Chinese news agency Xinhua announced on 24 July 2019 that China had issued a white paper to "expound on its defensive national defence policy in the new era and explain the practice, purposes and significance of China's efforts to build a fortified national defence and a strong military." Titled "China's National Defence in the New Era," the paper was released by the State Council Information Office with a view, as the Council suggested, to helping the international community better understand China's national defence. It is the tenth white paper on national defence that the government has issued since 1998 and the first comprehensive one since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.
At a macro-level the Paper responds to a perceived shift in global strategies, as major players retract from a focus on counter-terrorism and extremism to an acute slant on competition, rivalry, and friction. It flags the fact that China in its bid to revise the global order on its terms is now a contender for regional dominance. Its ascendancy is backed by military forces that are developed to the point where they will be able to challenge any adversary that may attempt to deny its interests. The document describes Taiwan, Tibet, and Turkistan as separatists that threaten national unity and underscores the dangers of territorial conflicts erupting should there be intervention of any nature on this account. It notes in cavalier fashion "countries from outside the region conduct frequent close-in surveillance by air and sea, enter China's territorial waters and the airspace near China's islands and reefs undermining China's national security." Through all this, China remains quite oblivious to the legality of their newly established but discordant Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) of 2013, the 9-Dash (10-Dash after 2013) line delineating their claim over most of the South China Sea, contravening major tenets of the United Nations Conventions on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) and breaching of international law.
Unlike Chinese White Papers of the past which focused blandly on China's questionable "peaceful" intent and not very convincing views of 'win-win' cooperation, the 2019 edition highlights China's military development as a national riposte to what it considers as the challenges that it is faced with. The main body of the white paper is divided into six thematic sections:
The international security situation
China's defensive national defence policy in the new era
Fulfilling missions and tasks of China's armed forces in the new era
Reform in China's national defence and armed forces
Reasonable and appropriate defence expenditure
Actively contributing to building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Some statistics are featured in the 27,000-character document, 10 tables on topics such as a cursory breakdown of China's defence expenditure have been attached and listing of international cooperation activities is included in the appendices."
International Security & Visions of a New Global Order
The paper offers insights into how Chinese leadership conceives a world order characterized by greater multi-polarity and its aspirations to exercise control amongst what it perceives to be a "community of common destiny." It also outlines its strategic objectives, in the quest for which Beijing will neither accommodate nor soften its position. The paper, significantly, re-emphasises China's intentions to revise the current global order to create a future more favourable for its interests.
"National Defence in a New Era" is a continuum on the official narrative of China's emergence as a great power with global influence. In discussing the security situation in the Asia-Pacific, China makes a grand assumption that countries in the region are "increasingly aware of being members of a community with shared destiny" and then deduces that they are therefore in harmony with Beijing's ideological make-up. While the questionable nature of the 'grand assumption' throws up a flawed deduction; what comes next is disquieting. It is the illusory context of the document linking China's defence directly to the notion of a "community of common destiny for humanity" that provides a dangerous strategic underpinning for that very community. The question being, is the new era envisaged by China an emerging reality? And is its model of governance acceptable and appropriate for this reality? For if not (as it seems most likely) the prospects of friction and disruption loom large.
China's Defensive National Defence Policy
The Document links the creation of a new world order with Xi Jinping's discourse on the "China Dream," which urges the People's Republic to push forward the "great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics," and strive to achieve the dream of "great rejuvenation" of the Chinese nation to the status of the world's dominant power. The narrative is now expanded in the White Paper to argue that a more powerful Chinese military is essential to this global dream. The paper attempts to reframe the trajectory of Chinese military modernization by claiming: "A strong military of China is a staunch force for world peace, stability and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind." This assertion is intended to reassure China's neighbours about the rise of Chinese military power, which has progressed at a speed and scale that have often provoked concerns, arguing that this instead is a boon for the region. What is apparent is that the construct and its strategic linkages are short on specifics and niggardly on how to put the dream into practice.
Although China's aspiration to exercise a leading influence in global governance and contribute to reforms of that system are hardly surprising, this is for the first time that the military has been so directly and officially connected to the agenda of revisionism. However, declarations to "build a security architecture through partnerships rather than alliances" become confusing when one attempts to situate the deepening Sino-Russian defence linkages in the scheme of things. Nevertheless, this partnership is starting to take on certain features of a military alliance, involving "the development of exchange mechanisms at all levels, expanded cooperation, military training and technology transfers." Military cooperation had notably extended to the People's Liberation Army's participation in Russia's Vostok exercise in September 2018. It will be recalled that the war-game is Russia's annual strategic exercise spread over two months and across vast regional spaces to develop the ability to conduct large-scale combined arms war that correlate doctrines and coordinate Command and Control. To fully appreciate the scale of operations the 2018 edition involved over 300,000 personnel.
Fulfilling New Missions, Signaling of Red Lines and Resolve
"China's National Defense in a New Era" is clearly intended to send strong signals to a global audience. However, communication of redlines and resolve often stand in stark contradiction to the discourse on China's commitment to "world peace," and claims of its policies and strategic intentions being purely defensive. On Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and its territorial claims in the South China Sea the Paper states "We make no promise to renounce the use of force, and reserve the option of taking all necessary measures that target adversarial alliances, interventions and intimidating deployments". These threats are awkwardly juxtaposed with the assertion that China will "never seek hegemony, expansion, or spheres of influence." From Beijing's perspective, the notion of "reunification" and defending national sovereignty may be justified and described so, but such an objective is inherently offensive, unilateral and disruptive of the status quo.
Reforms and China's Concept of National Security
The Document notes that for this new era, concerns of political security remains critical to the Communist Party of China (CPC). It highlights the imperative for China's national defence to "assure political security, people's security and social stability" and in terms of national priority it is listed second only to "deter and resist aggression." In this context, the introduction of the concept of "people's security" which is seen as the "soul" and core purpose of national security, alludes to the factors required for improvement of the "people's well-being," reflecting underlying connections between national defence and continued development. Increasingly, there are also concerns about threats to social stability in new domains, especially cyberspace. The security and survival of the regime is an absolute imperative for the CPC, and China's armed forces are required to pre-empt and neutralize such eventualities.
As far as nuclear forces are concerned, its form and content have largely been consistent over the years. China has reaffirmed its commitment to a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China does not engage in any nuclear arms race with any other country and keeps its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security. It pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defence, the goal of which is to maintain national strategic security by deterring other countries from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against China.
Defence Expenditure: Reasonable or Unfathomable?
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the paper is a relatively more detailed treatment of the defence budget than the 2010 edition (statement on defence budget was absent from the 2013 and 2015 versions). The 2010 paper stated, China's defence expenditure mainly comprises expenses for personnel, training and maintenance, and equipment; with each budget group accounting for roughly one third of the total". In the 2019 Paper, subcomponents of the three groups of expenditure are updated slightly, but significant changes in distribution is apparent. Since 2015, as the PLA has reduced personnel, retired old equipment, and purchased new weapon systems, "equipment expenses" amount to over 40 per cent (approximately $62 billion) of the total budget of $151 billion while personnel expenses have fallen to about 31 per cent ($47 billion), and training and maintenance to 28 per cent ($42 billion). The reasons cited for budget increases are five-fold: enhanced salaries and troop welfare; equipment modernisation; support reforms (which include personnel and unit transfers); improved training; and conduct of peacekeeping, constabulary, humanitarian and disaster relief operations. This order appears consistent with the budgetary allocation, as the PLA has downsized by roughly 13 per cent. The reduced allocation for training may suggest that the PLA has cut back on 'mass' manoeuvres, concentrating on developing specialised task oriented battle groups and small-unit proficiencies. However what remains opaque is a breakdown of the budget for Capital, Revenue and Strategic expenditure.
As China compares itself with the other major powers in terms of defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP; at 1.3% it likens rather well from a pacific stand-point. However, what remains obscured is the expenditure on military related infrastructure, defense production and strategic programmes.
Xi's anti-corruption campaign in defence deals is hailed specifically as, "the struggle having won an overwhelming victory, establishing a positive environment of political and moral correctness." Pointedly calling out and cracking down on Generals Guo Boxiong, Xu Caihou, Fang Fenghui, and Zhang Yang for their "grave violations of Party discipline and state laws." However, it is hard to judge whether these generals were purged for corruption or for being potential challengers to Xi's authority.
Building a Community with a Shared Future
While the Paper attempts both to articulate a vision of global security in which China is a driving force for "world peace," and to establish unambiguous red lines as to what threatens China's sovereignty, security, and development; what is significant, nuanced or otherwise, is the absence of any details of separatist activities as indeed the nature and condition of 're-education camps' in Xinjiang. One wonders, what Xi's "new era" holds in terms of the shared future for the over 11 million Muslim Uighurs in China's restive western province of Xinjiang. According to un-verified reports over two million Uighurs and other minorities, including Islamic Kazakhs and Uzbeks, have been detained since April 2017. Outside of the internment camps, the eleven million Uighurs living in Xinjiang have continued to suffer from a decade-long ethnic cleansing and re-culturing by Chinese authorities. While inside the camps, having no legal avenues to challenge their detention, there is no way of assessing the extent of brutality or brain washing that they are subjected to including behaviour modification in exchange for a dim and doltish rehabilitation . The reasons that may bring about incarceration, according to media reports, include traveling to or contacting people from any of the twenty-six countries China considers sensitive, such as Turkey and Afghanistan; attending services at mosques; sending texts containing Quranic verses and often the inmate's only crime is being Muslim. One puzzles if this is the new era?
The Paper takes an aggressive no-compromise stand on the integration of Taiwan to the extent of the use of unequivocal military force with the ominous call that Taiwan "will and must merge and consolidate with the People's Republic of China (PRC)". Prominent is the strident nationalist bellow for the integrity of the country as a foundational interest of the Chinese nation essential to realizing national rejuvenation. Additionally the on-going disruption in the financial capital Hong Kong do not in any way inspire either success in assimilation or the idea of "one-nation-two-systems".
The White Paper makes much of China's contribution to UN peacekeeping operations and even goes on to declare that it is the largest troop contributing country among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). However it must be remembered that the other four permanent members have been rather artful in their choice of engagement and have hardly ever committed their troops in UN sponsored peace keeping missions unless their interests were directly involved or threatened; the United Nations Command established in 1950 to prosecute the war in Korea was led and comprised almost entirely of US forces , the US and Canada supported forces in Eygpt in the 1956 Suez crisis, the 1992 NATO involvement in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia Serbia and Herzegovina , France in Senegal and the Ivory Coast in 2013 or Britain in Afghanistan and Cyprus. All these examples are suggestive of permanent members being selective about their involvement. And so it is with China and therefore no surprises that their focus is on Africa where it has invested heavily and the Middle East for its energy security.
This "new era" of China's national defence is characterized by change and continuity in China's global outlook and expanding interests. At a time when the lone super power strategizes for a new era of great power rivalry, the 2019 Chinese posture may in parts appear to present a conciliatory picture. However, intentions to reform global governance, persistence with its claims in the South China Sea, a cavalier approach to international conventions and an illusory security architecture predicated on a "community with a shared future" revealed in the document are nonetheless disconcerting. China may soon be confronted by a rude awakening as this vision for a revised order, self-promotion and security is met with intense internal and external stresses. And all the while since 1998 when the key theme of China's defence policy was cooperation, Beijing's military today is inexorably being drawn into, what appears to be, an inevitable clash with forces that uphold the status-quo.
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Strategic Maritime Challenge of China: To Steer the Stream of Time
Vice Admiral (retd.) Vijay Shankar
This article is forthcoming in the December issue of Geopolitics.
The Language of War
Within an international system that hovers between a facade of order and anarchy, differentiated pace of growth in national power among states engenders rivalry over access to resources, control of technology, flow of commerce and entry to markets; resulting in friction amongst competitors and making the threat of armed conflict a reality (Mackinder). At the same time, abstractions of national honour, prestige and other national interests that separate the state from its citizenry are often at odds with the violence of, as Clausewitz so brilliantly put it, the "Language" of War. Experience of the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh and of the other conflicts of the second half of the twentieth century will suggest that perceptions of the people, that come face-to-face with the "language" of war, prevail. Add to this the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with their intrinsic menace of ending political purpose and we have the coming of indirect, relatively scaled down version of conventional wars albeit with high destructive potential fought in the penumbric shadows of a nuclear holocaust.
Verge Powers
The targeting of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs in August 1945 marked a watershed in the history of warfare, for it placed in doubt viability of the human race should a war with atomic weaponry ever be fought (Kennedy, Paul). And as the decades that followed witnessed transformation in the ebb and flow of national power, former great powers such as Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan gave way to the rise of the Soviet Union, a military giant economically deprived and unbalanced; and the United States of America. The surge in the latter's economy due wartime production and expenditure was of a magnitude near 100% in GDP. While a bi-polar world had arrived, it was abundantly clear that there was only one economic super power. For in a matter of less than half a century the grinding politico-socio-military confrontation (not forgetting the ever-so frequent nuclear brinkmanship) left a fragmented and exhausted USSR vanquished by the 'cold war' it's national power in tatters while it's relegation to the ranks of the second rate seriously dented Rodina-ma (mother Russia's) pride.
What is emerging today is a fluctuating plurality of on-the-verge-great powers. These Verge Powers are counselled at times and coerced at others, by the lone super power, the USA. In this setting the United States retains dominant influence over its European and Pacific allies, but finds itself in confrontation with China and Russia; while Germany, Japan, Australia and India; also Verge Powers, find an intuitive affinity towards the democratic covey led by America.
Power Transformations: Familiar Cadence
There is empirical evidence to suggest that the global economic crisis of the 1930s that in part set off the Second World War was at conclusion responsible for thrusting the US into astonishingly favourable strategic circumstances. This situation not only triggered the Cold War but ultimately in the late 1980s, forced the melt-down of the Soviet empire and set into motion another fall and rise in global power structure. The characteristics of the economic crisis of the thirties ring a cadence now familiar to contemporary conditions – discontent at the biases that govern international economic systems, protectionism, unfair trade practices, one-sided competition, restricted access to resources, creation of proprietary mercantile routes and nationalistic policies; all in contradiction to the demands of an increasingly globalised and networked world.
And those that subscribe to the belief that nations having had their fill of globally ruinous violence cannot be so irrational as to embark on power politics that increase the probabilities of more devastating wars, have only to study the strategic trends of the last three decades of the post-Cold War era to determine that power transformations will continue to occur and as long as it transpires within an international order that is influenced by uneven growth and shrinking natural resources, the quest for power will invariably be linked to the generation of military capabilities that can secure this mechanism.
Challenges in the Maritime Domain
The maritime domain has not been sequestered from change. It is discernable by the disorderly expectations of Verge Powers and the increasing tensions between the demand for economic integration and the stresses of fractured political divisions. These nations are persistently confronted by the need to reconcile internal pressures with intrusive external impulses at a time when the economics of raw military power and its efficacy to engineer desired political outcomes is in question. While most of the Verge Powers have sought resolution and correctives within the framework of the existing international order, China and to some extent Russia are anomalies that have angled for and conspired to re-write the rule book. India's primary challenge comes from China.
China's rising comprehensive power has generated an internal impulse to military growth and unilateral expansionism in its immediate neighbourhood in the South and East China Seas and its extended regions of economic interests. It has developed and put in place strategies that target the maritime domain to assure a favourable outcome to what it perceives to be a strategic competition for resources and control of the seaways. The consequences of China activating artifices such as the Anti-Access and Area Denial strategy and geo-political manoeuvres to constitute proprietary sources of raw materials, their ports of dispatch and control of routes euphemistically called the maritime silk route and the establishing the String of Pearls in the Indian Ocean Region evokes increasing shared anxieties and resistance by players in the same strategic settings. Debt traps that have been set by China to inveigle some of the hapless littorals of the Indian Ocean of their maritime facilities are symptomatic of a new form of colonial adventures. The paradoxical effects of China's contrivances are to undermine its own strategic standing, hasten counter balancing alignments and urge a global logic of cooperative politics over imperial strategies.
The Challenge of China
In the 18th century, China under the Qing dynasty enjoyed a golden age. It was a period of shengshi, an age of prosperity. Currently some Chinese nationalists say, thanks to the Communist Party and its economic prowess, another shengshi has arrived. Power, historically has changed the very character of nations as it transforms their outlook towards the world and places primacy to their beliefs and interests giving it new drive to shape global affairs in a manner that promotes their well-being. This search for geopolitical space that the emergence of a new revisionist power precipitates has been the cause for instability and tensions. Add to this that the principle of nationalism is inextricably linked, both in theory and practice, with war. We are, in the circumstance, faced with a situation when the military dimension of power will throw up conflicts. In this context the slogan of the Qing "the dream of a prosperous country and a strong army" has new connotations.
China's most recent Defence White Paper and current strategic posture announces the arrival of a self-confident China recognizing its own growing economic and military prowess. It perceives the first two decades of this century of being a period of strategic opportunity which China has sought to capitalize on through its loaded economic policies, financial enticements, and military coercion. Beijing's intended strategy of "a more active defence" places a premium on managing regional disputes, maritime combat preparedness and a thrust to attain first rate cyber warfare capability. At the same time, criticality of containment of various internal fissures that growth has precipitated remains on top of the agenda. Their posture significantly points out that struggles for cornering strategic resources, dominating geographically vital areas and tenanting strategic locations have, in fact, intensified. In this context the 'one belt one road' initiative provides the strategic sinews to their larger geopolitical ambitions. Control of proprietary maritime routes backed by vast economic investments in Africa, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka South East and Central Asia furnishes the framework within which resources of the region could be cornered and secured. Beijing goes on to underscore Power as a natural currency for politics and suggests that portents for friction are ever present and would therefore necessitate military preparedness, modernization and an orientation that advocates strategic readiness.
China's claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea; her territorial aggressiveness; her handling of dissent within Tibet and Sinkiang; her proliferatory carousing with maverick states such as North Korea and Pakistan are cases, amongst others, that do not inspire confidence in change occurring within that nation without turbulence. Progressively, China appears to be challenging not just today's economic orthodoxy, but the world's political and security framework as well without bringing about a change within her own political morphology.
With uncertainty driving geopolitical dynamics, the first imperative for India is to bring about policy coherence between strategic space, growth and security interests. It begins by defining the geographical contours within which a strategy can be developed to contend with challenges identified. The broad parameters of this definition must factor in the regions from where trade originates, energy lines run, sea lines of communication pass, narrows therein and potential allies. In this context the sea space encompassing the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific provides the canvas. This Oceanic body is dominated by ten important choke points and narrows. In essence the theatre gives to global trade efficient maritime routes and sea lines of communication that power the region's growth. It accounts for over 70% of global trade, 60% of energy flow and is home to more than 50% of the world's population; it also provides the context within which Indian maritime strategy must operate.
Determinants of Force Planning
The quest for strategic leverage in the maritime domain is founded on an oceanic vision backed by the development of a posture that characterizes our resolve to fulfil the quest. Inspiration may take the form of a policy declaration in relation to a geographic region such as the 'Look East (and now) Act East Policy', the 'India Africa Forum Summit', ratification of the UNCLOS and formation of alliances. Policy provides a frame of reference that not only has wide-ranging application but will remain central for purposes of force planning to develop a strategic posture.
Current membership of the original ten ASEAN grouping plus 6 is symptomatic of the shifting centre of gravity of geopolitics to the East. From a security angle, the inclusion of India, USA, Russia, Japan and South Korea in addition to China provides the rationale for strategic equilibrium. India and China along with ASEAN are set to become the world's largest economic bloc. The grouping is expected to account for about 27 per cent of Global GDP and will very quickly overtake the EU and USA economies. The buoyancy of the Indo-ASEAN relationship is backed by surging trade figures which is slated to hit USD 100 billion in the current year. With such burgeoning stakes strategic rebalancing in the region comes as a natural consequence and provides the settings for establishing strong and stable security ties. The expansion of the ASEAN and the creation of the ASEAN Regional Forum are suggestive of the littoral's aspirations to counter balance the looming presence of China. USA's presence will dominate activities in the region in the immediate and middle term. Flash points such as territorial claims both in the maritime and continental domain will remain a source of friction that would necessarily demand military capabilities and an orientation that assures mutual restraint. Having thus brought about a modicum of coherence between security dynamics, strategic space and growth, it would now be appropriate to derive objectives of a Denial Strategy as applicable to the larger Indian Maritime Military Strategy.
Denial seeks to contest and discredit the ability of regional or extra regional countries to unilaterally project military power to secure their interests either through aggression or through other destabilizing activities. The instrument to achieve denial is by convincingly raising the cost of military intervention through the use or threat of use of methods that are asymmetrical in form and decisive in substance. The strategy's first impulse is to avoid a hot conflict. To 'contest and discredit' would suggest a clear understanding of where the centre of gravity of power projection forces lie. In China's case, it is the triumvirate of the Aircraft Carrier; nuclear attack submarine force that provides teeth to their denial capability and security of the narrows and of its 'string of pearls'. Lastly the threat of 'use of force' must not only be credible but also the 'value exchange' in terms of potential losses must weigh against the power projecting force. At the heart of the Denial Strategy is deterrence and cooperative security.
The Quadrilateral Cooperative Security Dialogue
India, through restraint, pluralistic and popular form of governance has established itself as a responsible State that upholds the status quo yet invites change through democratic forces. Its rise, in the main, is not only welcomed but is seen as a harmonizing happening that could counterpoise China. But, of the uncertainties that influence regional stability, it is China a stated revisionist autocratic power that will impact globally. Particularly so, in the maritime domain where it appears to be challenging global political and security order.
The next step would logically be to establish a strategic framework in the maritime domain which includes the concerned Verge Powers and the USA if we are to contend with the challenges that are present. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) has evolved in response to increased Chinese revisionist trends and the need to lend stability in the Indo-Pacific. The founding countries United States, Japan, India and Australia driven by a concept of co-operative security, launched the idea in 2007. The alliance however appeared a non-starter with early withdrawal of Australia. It has been recently revived to counter China's intrusive military power and its unrelenting thrust for an exceptionable proprietary mercantile empire stretching across the region.
The only historical parallel to the Quad is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Established to contain Soviet expansionism, counter the revival of nationalist militarism and uphold advocacy of European integration, three remarkable articles are at the core of its Charter: Article 2, lays the under structure for non-military cooperation. Article 3, provided for cooperation in military preparedness while in Article 5, the new allies agreed "an armed attack against one or more of them be considered an attack against all". The Charter of the Quad is yet to be fleshed out; but conceivably, it will have three objectives. The first, to reinforce a rule-based regional Order that rejects nationalistic militarism of the kind that has emerged . Second, to promote a liberal trading regime and freedom of navigation, essential to secure passage of close to 60% of global trade. The third, to provide security assurances; however, just as behind the scenes machinations from Beijing splintered the Quad at inception, the entente faces similar fragmenting stresses that threaten the whole. India is locked into a long standing border dispute with China. Similarly, Japan has maritime disputes in the South and East China Seas while China's new Air Defence Identification Zone provides the recipe for mutual interference in the air. Australia on the other hand depends on China for approximately 22 % of trade. And there is China's assignee, the nuclear armed North Korea whose influence cannot be set aside.
As the Quad pushes to get their initiative to fly, success will likely hinge on how they hold their ground against pressure from China, nature of the security architecture and an understanding of the peril-to-the-whole. Key to the structure will be the constitution of Charter in terms of identifying the geographic entity within which it would operate, investments in cooperative security and apportioning responsibilities.
To Steer the Stream of Time
Bismarck suggested that great powers travel on the "Stream of Time" which they can neither create nor direct but upon which they can "steer with more or less skill". How they emerge from that voyage depends to a large degree upon the wisdom of leadership. Bismarck's sombre thoughts lead us back to our fundamental inquiry – whether motivation for conflict lies in the turbulence of the 'Stream of Time' or in the quest for power or piety is a moot question, but how India and the Verge Powers steer the stream is the crisis that leadership will have to contend with.
Posted in China and the Pacific, Geopolitics and Strategic Impulses, Maritime Security	| 1 Reply


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It's Official: Facebook Libra Will Not Launch in India
Shashank V July 10, 2019 0 Comments
Facebook has confirmed that the current regulatory situation in India does not allow it to launch its cryptocurrency project Libra in the country. A Facebook spokesperson told Economic Times over email that there are no plans to offer Libra in India.
The cryptocurrency industry has been dying a slow death in India with the RBI cryptocurrency ban. Many exchanges such as Zebpay and Koinex have shut shop and the trading volumes continue to go down putting pressure on existing exchanges. Moreover, recent reports from Bloomberg Quint on the 'Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019' have raised more questions about the future of cryptocurrency in India.
Calibra will respect the legislation. But we are looking to work with regulators to see if the legislation can be updated.
Alexandru Voica, Facebook representative to Economic Times
India is Facebook's largest market with an estimated 240 million active users. Without access to China, India and possibly Russia, Facebook Libra may look to other large markets such as Indonesia, Brazil and Thailand to fuel its ambitions, even as it faces increasing regulatory scrutiny from its home country the United States.
Not surprisingly, India is fast vanishing from the new world order of cryptocurrencies by losing opportunities that are coming its way. Libra was the perfect opportunity for the Indian government to test the waters as Facebook has shown a willingness to work closely with regulators. Libra can have a huge impact on the country that adopts its first, but sadly Indian regulators don't seem to be bothered at all!
We did an analysis of the news on our YouTube channel for our Hindi speaking viewers:
SEC Stops Telegram's $1.7 Billion Token Sale
Pomp Tells President Trump That China Is Planning to Buy 'All Bitcoins'
Tags: Facebook, Facebook coin, Facebook Libra, Libra

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


If waiting three years between each blog is wrong, I don't want to be right. Just kidding...I am in a deep shame spiral about the lack of record keeping I have done for this family.....these poor babies. They had forty million pictures taken of them from birth to age four and from 4- now, approximately seven. Life just gets in the way of writing and record keeping and memory keeping. I guess it's a good thing to be focused on the memory making instead of the memory keeping but still. I want them to have images of their little lives, but also my words. So here goes.....for the fourteen hundredth time.
We took the babies to the beach for a quick trip right after Christmas. The island was empty and foggy and so dreamy. We did a lot of sitting around, eating, and not a whole lot of anything else.
Mimi bought Hayden a "grown up coloring book"...not like adult content (I'm sure you can actually buy those) but one of those ones with the really intricate flower and paisley designs. Coloring those tiny designs with markers and then the fancy schmancy Prismacolors Mimi bought them took up most of their down time. We were telling Hayden she had to take care of her new colored pencils because we were pretty sure there were art majors in college who didn't have the big Prismacolor set yet.
Lots of laying around, playing on the iPads, and just relaxing in general. Mimi and Popo were there too and we were all equally worthless as far as activity level goes.
Mimi, Shawn and I decided we would have cocktail hour down by the water and let the littles play and get some energy out. We were busy enjoying our drinks until Mimi and I noticed that the fog was settling into tiny little water drops all over our bodies.....and we cracked up about having a "fog mustache".
This little one is one of the main reasons I felt motivated to blog again. Those top two teeth fell out during her Christmas break, and yesterday she got her ears pierced. If those two things don't make you feel like your baby is getting ready to pack a trunk and move to college, I don't know what will.
Despite the water being roughly 16 degrees (or something) these kids can't hardly be kept out of it.
I love that they are big enough to make me laugh every day with the things they say, but also little enough to still look for treasures wherever we are. Half a sand dollar is a pretty big deal for a beach that's pretty low on shells.
I'm glad we decided to go down for a few days during their break....it makes me happy to be down there when no one else is and the town is totally asleep. It makes me feel like it's our little secret, but mainly we like not having to wait at restaurants, because: priorities.
Things are rolling right along here, and I was really proud of myself for having all manner of healthy snacks and fruit cut up and ready for amazing breakfasts and snacks and lunches and more snacks, and more snacks, because there's so much eating going on around here it would curl your hair. The first few days I got up twenty minutes before them and had my coffee brewing and lunches made and a smile (ish) on my face when they came into the kitchen. By the time day four rolled around, I was begging them to do the hot lunch line and to "just have cereal" for breakfast. I know I'm not talent-less, but early morning Martha Stewart-ing isn't my thing. It doesn't matter that I have to this morning routine roughly 200 something times this year, I'm pretty sure I'll be horrible at it every day. I'm much peppier in the afternoon, so hopefully that's the part they'll remember. I'm just not even trying to keep up a charade of enjoying waking up this early.
Mostly, I am proud of their fearlessness, and how adaptable they are. They're so willing to just DO things, and I hope it's always like this. (At least when it comes to the good stuff) I just love that they are brave, and sweet, and kind, and confident enough to think they're going to go change some kids' life.....I'm inclined to think they're just awesome enough to do it.
I don't know about my littles, but I'm somewhere between elation and panic at school starting again. Elation because YAY, we love each other but there has been enough togetherness to sink a ship around here, and we're ready for some separation, structure, and bathing once a day.
Panic because GETTING UP EARLY. Seriously, I am not even going to tell you how late I have slept on occasion during this summer break. You would throw your shoe at the computer screen, especially if you have a child under two who won't sleep. Let's just say this: my kids wake up, eat a breakfast bar, and entertain themselves. I am left to wake up whenever I want, which is really the worst because it's just going to be sad when that alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m. in two weeks. SIX THIRTY. Ugh.
Elation because I am so excited for the twins to start at Cambridge in first grade. First grade was a year I loved to teach, and I am so ready to see them do their thing. They are lovers of books (thank you, Jesus) and I hope that always sticks.
Panic because I hate packing school lunches. Mostly because there is nothing that sets my hair on edge like unpacking a lunchbox and finding a hot apple with one bite out of it. ONE BITE. How many times we have to have the "if you aren't going to eat your apple, don't bite it at all" conversation is beyond me.
Elation because I need a routine. I am a little too loosey goosey in the summer, so before I transition fully into a feckless fraternity boy who needs a haircut, I gotta get back into the real world.
Panic because I still have two things on their school supply list I need to track down before the first day. I know, I know, I really dropped the ball by not buying the pre-packaged school supplies from the PTO. I'd like to say I had a reason for not ordering the pack by the deadline, but if we're being honest, it was probably because I was sleeping in and lumbering around with my coffee watching HGTV until noon on the deadline day. I thought it would be kind of fun....who doesn't love school supply shopping? Crayons that smell amazing? Brand new everything? Let me tell you when school supply shopping took a really nasty turn...when EVERY SINGLE ITEM on their list had a specific BRAND listed next to it. I mean, I taught kindergarten, so I know that Crayola crayons are VASTLY better quality than the ones that come with the coloring menu at a Mexican restaurant, but spiral notebooks? Unless the papermaking technology has changed in the nine years since I have taught school, I am pretty confident in saying that a spiral notebook is a spiral notebook. I'm fairly sure of it. I tried to play by their rules and get the correct brand name for every item, but after shopping HEB, Target, Wal Mart AND Office Max and still not finding the right items, and then loading an Amazon shopping cart only to notice that the shipping was $43 dollars for six items, I gave up. Sorry, first grade teachers. Please do not hate my children because they are erasing with the Pink Pearl eraser and not the Staples brand, organic, latex free pink eraser. It's their momma that is the lawless rule breaker, not them.
Any who.... we're conflicted about school starting, but we're ready. In the words of Sis "I hope there are nice girls in my class, and not girls like that one in my Pre K class who told everyone they had hairy arms." Word up, sister.
We're all a year older.....what can I say? I can't believe it's been a year since I've written anything, but I hope to change that. I am sad to look back and see all these memories I used to document on this blog, and how now it's nothing but cyber crickets.
I wish I had a good reason for not blogging, but I don't. I guess Instagram is so quick and easy, and I've sort of let that take the helm on family memory keeping. Sad, I know. Pictures are amazing, but I love to look back and read what I was thinking in the very first few years of this family building journey.
Since my (not so) littles are 5 and 7 now, I guess we're on the move more.....let's be honest, there's a part of me that misses the days we were more homebound and they took two naps a day. Now our days are filled with playdates, camps, swimming, and a bunch of other activities that generally run us all ragged.
I'm slowly starting to wrap my head around having "children" rather than babies, and realizing these three are probably going to be it. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty amazing. It just takes some mental adjusting to realize you are indeed, shutting down the baby making factory.
I'm all about adjusting to having "children" because frankly, fixating on missing the baby phase pulls my focus away from enjoying my kids as they are now.....smart, and SO funny. Ya'll, they are pretty cool people, and that's all on them. I fed them and diapered their little baby butts, but now they are becoming their own little hilarious, unique selves. More than once a day, one of them makes me belly laugh, out loud. For real.
It's an honor to get to watch these tiny humans become people from the ground up. I can just now see glimpses of the kind of adults they're going to be, and I can tell you, I'm totally going to want to hang out with them. They're going to rock.
We have one trip left lined up for the summer, but looking at my calendar, I'm reminded that this magical time is quickly ending. We've had a long, fun summer and I'm sad to see it go. Gone are the days of sleeping in, laying around lazily, getting in the pool three times a day, and doing whatever we want. We've filled these days with zoo trips, beach trips, snow cones, floating the river, late nights, fireworks, s'mores, time with friends, and playing outside. I know there won't be many summers in our future that are this relaxed, and this much "ours". My big babies start kindergarten in two weeks, and I know the summers in our future will include commitments and camps, sleepovers and trips away from mommy.....sigh. I know I can't hold it off for too long....but I'm going to fight to keep them mine, to keep them little for as long as possible.


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Noel von Grünigen (born 17 April 1995) is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer.

He is the son of the Swiss alpine skiing champion Michael von Grünigen.

National titles
Swiss Alpine Ski Championships
Slalom: 2021

References

External links

1995 births
Living people
Swiss male alpine skiers
Competitors at the 2015 Winter Universiade
Noel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Brooks Whittington
AJ Fernandez, Cigars, Limited Edition, Nicaragua, Reviews
Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero
Almost exactly one month after the Guardian of the Farm Guapo H-Town Lancero hit the shelves of Houston-based STOGIES World Class Cigars, the 14th addition to the Houston-based retailer's most popular series was released.
STOGIES' H-Town Series—named after the store's home city of Houston, which has long been known as H-Town—is the brainchild of store co-owner Jorge Ahued, who is known for his love of the lancero vitola. To that end, in 2013 he commissioned a number of different manufacturers to produce lanceros in various blends to be sold exclusively at his store. Interestingly, while the series was originally scheduled to end after just 10 releases, it has continued past that point and now constitutes 14 different cigars, all of which measure one of three different lancero sizes: 7 x 38, 7 x 40 or 7 1/2 x 38.
The newest addition to the series is the A.J. Fernández Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero, a brand new 7 x 38 box-pressed lancero that is the first new vitola since the regular production line was originally introduced during the 2016 IPCPR Convention & Trade Show. According to the company, the cigars incorporate tobacco that is aged for at least three years. However, while the box-pressed lancero vitola is unique in the Bellas Artes line, the H-Town Lancero features the same blend: a Nicaraguan wrapper covering a Nicaraguan Havana 92 binder and filler tobaccos sourced from Brazil, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The cigars were rolled at Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A. factory in Estelí, Nicaragua and were put on sale at STOGIES on Dec. 8, 2018.
There are now five different vitolas in the Bellas Artes line.
Bellas Artes Robusto Extra Robusto (5 x 52) — 2016 — Regular Production — $8.80 (Boxes of 20, $176)
Bellas Artes Robusto Extra Short Churchill (6 x 48) — 2016 — Regular Production — $8.30 (Boxes of 20, $166)
Bellas Artes Robusto Extra Toro (6 x 54) — 2016 — Regular Production — $9.50 (Boxes of 20, $190)
Bellas Artes Robusto Extra Gordo (6 1/2 x 60) — 2016 — Regular Production — $10.50 (Boxes of 20, $210)
Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 2018 — 100 Boxes of 10 Cigars (1,000 Total Cigars) — $9.50 (Boxes of 10, $95)
Prices above are the prices when the cigars were originally released.
In addition, there have now been 14 different cigars released in STOGIES H-Town Lancero Series.
Room101 Namakubi Ecuador H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — Dec. 19, 2013 — 500 Boxes of 20 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars) — $9.50 (Boxes of 20, $190)
Alec Bradley Nica Puro H-Town Lancero (7 x 40) — August 2014 — 500 Boxes of 20 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars) — $7.95 (Boxes of 20, $159)
Fratello H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — February 2015 — 500 Boxes of 20 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars) — $8.50 (Boxes of 20, $170)
Quesada España H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — March 2015 — 300 Boxes of 20 Cigars (6,000 Total Cigars) — $8.95 (Boxes of 20, $179)
La Palina H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — June 2015 — 500 Boxes of 10 Cigars (5,000 Total Cigars) — $8.95 (Boxes of 10, $80.55)
Tatuaje H-Town Lancero (7 x 40) — September 2015 — 500 Boxes of 20 Cigars (10,000 Total Cigars) — $10 (Boxes of 20, $190)
Four Kicks H-Town Lancero (7 1/2 x 38) — 500 Boxes of 12 Cigars (6,000 Total Cigars)
Nomad H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 200 Boxes of 10 Cigars (2,000 Total Cigars)
Illusione H-Town Lancero (7 x 40) — 300 Boxes of 15 Cigars (4,500 Total Cigars)
Laranja H-Town (7 1/2 x 38) — 200 20-count boxes and 200 10-count bundles (6, 000 Total Cigars) — $8.50 (Boxes of 20, $170; Bundles of 10, $85)
Neanderthal OM H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 333 Boxes of 15 Cigars (4,995 Total Cigars) — $9.50 (Boxes of 15, $128)
Herrera Estelí Edición Limitada H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 500 Boxes of 15 Cigars (7,500 Total Cigars) — $12 (Boxes of 15, $180)
Guardian of the Farm Guapo H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 200 Boxes of 10 Cigars (2,000 Total Cigars) — $8.90 (Boxes of 10, $88.95)
Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero (7 x 38) — 100 Boxes of 10 Cigars (1,000 Total Cigars) — $9.50 (Boxes of 10, $95)
Cigar Reviewed: Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Factory: Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua (Quilalí Havana 92)
Filler: Brazil (Mata Norte), Honduras & Nicaragua (Estelí, Condega and Jalapa)
Length: 7 Inches
Ring Gauge: 38
Vitola: Lancero
MSRP: $9.50 (Boxes of 10, $95)
Release Date: Dec. 8, 2018
Number of Cigars Released: 100 Boxes of 10 Cigars (1,000 Total Cigars)
Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 3
No matter how many times I see one, a box-pressed lancero still seems odd when held in my hand, and the Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero is no exception. The cigar is covered in a medium brown wrapper that is exceedingly smooth to the touch and features a noticeable amount of oil and is quite spongy when squeezed. The aroma from the foot is a combination of sweet hay, manure, sawdust, cedar, earth and raisins, while the cold draw brings flavors of cinnamon, citrus, leather, dark chocolate, cedar and a slight, indeterminate sweetness, along with a noticeable amount of spice on my tongue.
Starting out, the first third of the newest H-Town Lancero features a strong cedar note as the dominant flavor on the palate, followed by notes of sweet hay, leather, salted peanuts, espresso beans, anise and cinnamon in various amounts. A very nice caramel sweetness is noticeable on the retrohale, although it is a bit harder to pick up for the first 10 puffs or so due to the amount of black pepper that is also present. There is also some very aggressive spice on my tongue that is stronger than the pepper for the entirety of the first third but seems to be calming down after that. Construction-wise, the draw is excellent after a straight cut, while the burn is uneven but non-problematic so far and smoke production is extremely dense off of the foot. The strength starts off fairly low, hitting a point a bit higher than halfway between the mild and medium marks by the end of the first third.
Thankfully, both the black pepper on the retrohale and the aggressive spice on my tongue recede significantly by the time the second third of the Bellas Artes Lancero begins, allowing more of the caramel sweetness to become noticeable. The dominant flavor on my palate has also morphed into a buttered popcorn note, interspersed with other flavors of rich espresso, creamy oak, earth, peanuts, leather and a touch of floral. Both the burn and the draw continue to impress, while the smoke continues to emanate from the foot like a house on fire. Finally, while the overall strength has increased, it still comes just short of hitting the medium mark by the time the second third comes to an end.
The final third of the Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero has few new changes when compared to the second third, although that is not a bad thing at all: both the buttered popcorn and caramel sweetness are dominant on the palate and retrohale respectively, with other flavors of cocoa nibs, leather, espresso beans, earth, hay and creamy peanuts flit in and out. While there is still a bit of black pepper noticeable on the retrohale, it is reduced quite a bit from its high point in the second third, and the spice on my tongue is long gone, never to return. In terms of construction, the draw is as good as ever, but the burn becomes problematic enough that I am forced to touch it up twice in rapid succession, while the smoke production remains extremely high. Strength-wise, the H-Town Lancero does hit the medium mark—and even goes a bit further than that—by the time I put the nub down with about an inch left.
The cover leaf on the Bell Artes line is fairly unique: basically, it is a hybrid wrapper named rojita that is a cross between Connecticut 8212, corojo 99 and Havana 2000 seeds, all of which are grown in Nicaragua.
In addition to the above, the Brazilian filler is sourced from the Mata Norte region of the county and is said to be high in nicotine content with prominent sweetness.
One sample had a very tight draw; while it was far from unsmokable, it was tight enough that it obviously affected the flavors in the profile that were fairly consistent between the other two cigars.
Editor's Note: The difference between the score of that one sample and the other two was roughly 20 points. — CM.
The Bellas Artes Maduro that was introduced at last year's ICPPR Convention & Trade Show took the 10th spot in halfwheel's 2018 Top 25 awards.
Somewhat interestingly, I have reviewed the last four entries in the H-Town Series, going all the way back to October 2016 with the Neanderthal OM H-Town Lancero.
Ash falling quickly on a cigar this thin is not exactly shocking, but even so, I was a bit surprised that the ash fell about every quarter inch or so. This blend also produces smoke like a house on fire; not quite Liga Privada levels, but enough that it annoyed me a bit when I was smoking inside.
The cigars smoked for this review were sent to halfwheel by STOGIES World Class Cigars.
STOGIES World Class Cigars advertises on halfwheel.
The final smoking time for all three samples averaged one hour and 43 minutes, although that number is a bit inflated due to the one cigar that had a tight draw and therefore took longer to smoke.
If you would like to purchase any of the cigars, the only place you can get them is STOGIES World Class Cigars here.
84 Overall Score
As I mentioned in my recent review of the Guardian of the Farm Guapo H-Town Lancero, I hate it when one sample out of three has construction issues that are bad enough to lower the score significantly, but that was the case with the Bella Artes H-Town Lancero. While two cigars I smoked featured nice transitions and very enjoyable flavors that included buttered popcorn and creamy cedar along with a caramel sweetness on the retrohale, the tight draw one my second review cigar really affected the entire experience. Even with the draw issue, I can easily recommend these cigars, especially if you are a fan of both box-pressed lanceros and medium-bodied, full-flavored blends.
AJ Fernandez Bellas Artes Bellas Artes H-Town Lancero Lancero Nicaragua STOGIES H-Town Lancero Stogies World Class Cigars Tabacalera AJ Fernandez Cigars de Nicaragua S.A.
I have been smoking cigars for over eight years. A documentary wedding photographer by trade, I spent seven years as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I started the cigar blog SmokingStogie in 2008 after realizing that there was a need for a cigar blog with better photographs and more in-depth information about each release. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars. I am a co-founder of halfwheel and now serve as an editor for halfwheel.
La Palina H-Town Lancero Arriving Next Week
Tatuaje H-Town Lancero


Obv.: CAESAR AVG F DOMITIANVS, Domitianus head, laur., r. (usually with an annulet below the neck truncation).
Rev.: FIDES PVBI, clasped r. hands holding winged caduceus between two crossed corn-ears and two poppies.


As your heart pumps blood around your body, the resulting pressure on your veins defines your blood pressure.
Very high blood pressure creates strain on your heart and arteries and can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes.
High blood pressure (also known as hypertension) is not always apparent and clearly defined symptoms or signs will not necessarily be obvious. Therefore a blood pressure reading is the only way to measure and monitor the pressure exerted on your veins by your heart. For an adult a normal blood pressure reading is roughly 120/80. Persistently high blood pressure may cause damage to the delicate blood vessels of the kidneys, brain and heart.
The unit of measurement for blood pressure is millimetres of mercury, shortened to mmHg. Blood pressure measurements are written as one number over another, for example, 140/90 mmHg. This indicates the highest and lowest points of your blood pressure.
Cramp Bark, Dandelion Leaves, Garlic, Hawthorn, Lily of the Valley & Valerian. These are just a few herbs that have been traditionally used for high blood pressure treatment.
Please be aware that cases of severe hypertension (that which is higher than 180/110) should not be treated exclusively with natural approaches. You will need prescription drugs from your GP for high blood pressure treatment at the outset to help bring your pressure down and to avoid harm to blood vessels caused by prolonged hypertension. Any natural remedies used for high blood pressure sought be prescribed by a qualified practitioner.
About the Author: Patricia Ferguson is a consultant medical Herbalist and the owner of Greenleaves Herbal Healthcare, a herbal medicine practice in South London, near Croydon. For help with high blood pressure, call 0845 468 0823 or fill in a consultation form.


Zombie Tsunami is a well-liked Arcade game that are available that is published by Mobigame S.A.R.L.. This company design large amount of great games. If you're a fan of Arcade Games, I believe you will definitely the same as this Zombie Tsunami amazing game.


text:
Air Zimbabwe COO's profile in demand
A chat has started circulating urging Air Zimbabwe's newly appointed chief operating officer to release his profile so that people can compare with Kenya Airways COO's profile.
Below is the message:
Jan de Vegt - Chief Operating Officer
Jan de Vegt became the airline's Chief Operating Officer on 1st August 2016. Jan joined Kenya Airways from Cobalt Ground Solutions in the UK where he was the Managing Director. He has been at Senior Managerial level for the last 22 years. Jan started with KLM in 1978 in accounting, from there he moved to IT. In 1988 he got his Master's degree in Dutch Law. He became involved in the operation of cargo, worked on development of new cargo buildings and got involved with procurement. He became Director of Operations for the Benelux, UK and Ireland in 1994.
In 1999 he moved back to the Netherland and became Vice President Worldwide Cargo Operations, amongst others responsible for running KLM's hub at Amsterdam, exploitation of freighter and trucking network, introduction of the new 747-400F, procurement for the whole Cargo division. During this period he also became vice-chairman of AEA Cargo. He was also chairman of the board of CSC India (Cargo handling company in BOM/DEL) and Blue Crown (KLM in-house broker). In 2006 he moved to Singapore again, this time as Vice President Asia Pacific for Air France Cargo/KLM Cargo and Martin air Cargo. In 2012 he moved to the UK to manage Cobalt Ground Solution, a handling company jointly owned by KLM and Air France. Jan de Vegt holds a Master degree in Dutch Law with special subject: Air and Space Law.
tamirira profile yewedu!/ sesilinde owethu!
Source - whatsapp
More on: #Air_Zimbabwe, #Kenya_Airways, #COO
1acre stand in sunninghill
Reigate serviced stand measuring 600sqmtrs


text:
  /**
   * Merges the specified observable sequences into one observable sequence by using the selector function whenever all of the observable sequences have produced an element at a corresponding index.
   * @param arguments Observable sources.
   * @param {Function} resultSelector Function to invoke for each series of elements at corresponding indexes in the sources.
   * @returns {Observable} An observable sequence containing the result of combining elements of the sources using the specified result selector function.
   */
  Observable.zip = function () {
    var len = arguments.length, args = new Array(len);
    for(var i = 0; i < len; i++) { args[i] = arguments[i]; }
    if (Array.isArray(args[0])) {
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    var first = args.shift();
    return first.zip.apply(first, args);
  };

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


	What is your personality based on your photo ? ~ Find out best in yours.
What is your personality based on your photo ?
What is your personality based on your photo ? is a funny facebook application which lets users to See What is your personality based on your photo ? by allowing a facebook application.


text:
› Government & Politics › Record of Press Briefing by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson held on 17th September 2015
Record of Press Briefing by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson held on 17th September 2015
Web Desk September 17, 2015 Comment Closed Government & Politics
Islamabad, September 17, 2015 (PPI-OT): There are no Opening Remarks
The Floor is open for Questions
Two questions related to Afghanistan. First, IS for the first time, reportedly, claimed attack inside Pakistan on our border with Afghanistan? Has Pakistan taken up this issue with the Afghan government? What is the status of IS inside Afghanistan because Pakistan has not been able to confirm whether IS exists there or in Pakistan through their agents?
Secondly, reportedly all Taliban's factions, even the family of deceased Mulla Omar, have expressed their allegiance to Mullah Mansoor. Has Pakistan renewed its efforts to put all Taliban's factions on one side and urge them to go into dialogue with the Afghan government? (Syed Mohsin Raza – Such TV)
I have seen media reports about what you have referred to. Our border posts have been attacked many times in the past from the Afghan side. We wish to have peaceful border with Afghanistan. Accordingly, measures to keep the border peaceful are invariably discussed by both sides during meetings of the concerned officials.
As far as presence of Daesh is concerned, you are aware that there is no footprint of Daesh in Pakistan. However, there are reports of presence of Daesh in Afghanistan, but I will not comment on that. Our policy on countering terrorism is very clear. In this regard, the success of Zarb-e-Azb in eliminating terrorists is well-known to you and the world. We have been extending cooperation to Afghanistan in countering terrorism and will continue to do so.
As to your second question, I have seen media reports about allegiance to Mullah Mansoor that you have referred to. It is an internal matter of Tehrik-e-Taliban Afghanistan (TTA). However, we hope that TTA will give up violence and join intra-Afghan dialogue for peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan will facilitate the dialogue, as before.
I would like to have your comment on the issue of Israeli soldiers entering Al-Aqsa mosque and Pakistan's position on Palestine. What is the official stance of Foreign Office on this? (Saima Shabbir- A-Jazeera TV)
Pakistan has always condemned the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israeli violence against peaceful worshippers.
Pakistan supports an independent, viable and geographically contiguous Palestinian State, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al Sharif as its capital. This is the only way to guarantee lasting peace and stability in the region.
Comparing Pakistan's relations with US over the past three decades, would you say that now Pakistan has better relations with the US or is there any tension in some areas? (Khawaja Nayyer Iqbal-Kashmir Post)
Pakistan enjoys close relations with the US. We discuss all issues of mutual interest and concern during bilateral meetings, including under the Pak-US Strategic Dialogue. However, we also have difference of opinion on some issues which is natural in interstate relations.
In your opinion what impact did the visit to Kabul of Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sartaj Aziz, has had on the reduction of attacks from Afghanistan on Pakistan?
Secondly, what steps are being taken to control the people coming to Pakistan without proof of the residence? Reportedly, fifty thousand Afghans are coming to Pakistan and some of them are also carrying Pakistan national ID cards. (Zarghoon Shah- Geo TV)
The Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs had visited Kabul on 4 September to attend RECCA-VI meeting. He had availed the occasion to call on the President of Afghanistan and meet with Foreign Minister and National Security Advisor of Afghanistan. All the meetings were helpful in enhancing understanding of the issues of interest and concern to both sides. During the last two briefings, we had talked about some messages that the Advisor had carried with him. The key message related to the need to restore trust between the two countries.
We have said repeatedly that Afghanistan is a brotherly and neighbouring country. Peace in Afghanistan is important not only for the people of Afghanistan but also the people of Pakistan and the region. We remain committed to enhancing our cooperation with Afghanistan in all fields of mutual interest. We also want a peaceful border with Afghanistan which is in the interest of both countries.
I am not in a position to respond to your second question regarding entry of large number of Afghans into Pakistan on a daily basis as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not deal with this issue. However, you may be aware that Pakistan is taking measures to regulate its border with Afghanistan.
It was reported in the media that the Indian Home Minister in his meeting with DG Rangers had said that the part of Kashmir under India is an integral part of India and during discussions with Pakistan on Kashmir, India will only discuss the part of Kashmir that is "under Pakistan's occupation". What is our stance on this?
Secondly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is going to attend UNGA session in New York on 23rd September. We hope that his address to UNGA session would have been finalized by now. Can you please tell us what issues will be raised in his address? (Fida Hussain- Radio News Network)
To answer your first question, I wish to highlight that, according to our information, no such assertion about Kashmir was made by the Indian Minister for Home Affairs during DG Rangers' call on him. However, I wish to underscore that Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute. Statements from India cannot change its status.
The visit program and speech of the Prime Minister are being finalized. The Prime Minister is likely to address UN General Assembly on 30 September 2015. The Ministry will issue a curtain raiser on the visit of the Prime Minister prior to his departure for New York.
The Indian Home Minister said in his meeting with DG Rangers that India will not be the one to fire the first bullet across LoC. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Ufa had also assured that there will be no ceasefire violation at the LoC. However, ceasefire violations at the LoC and Working Boundary intensified after Ufa meeting and, barely two days after the Indian Home Minister's assurance, ceasefire violation by India took place, resulting in martyrdom of a Pakistani soldier. My question is that the political leadership in India makes an assurance that they will respect ceasefire while the Indian military resorts to firing despite that assurance. Is there any disconnect between the two? (Shaukat Paracha- Aaj TV)
Certainly there is a disconnect between what is told to us and the ground realities. Let me emphasize that we expect India to honour the commitments given to Pakistan regarding observance of ceasefire.
Media reports have been circulating about the sale of Pakistan High Commission's Building in UK. Can you please confirm whether this is true? (Majid Jaral- News One)
I have seen the media reports. A committee was constituted to look into the matter. Its recommendations are under consideration. However, the allegations against our High Commissioner to the UK in this regard are baseless.
I wanted to draw your attention towards reports coming from Jeddah where travel agents are charging money from Pakistanis for issuing Hajj visas which are supposed to be free. Reportedly, Pakistani Consulate General in Jeddah has also advised Pakistanis not to make any payment for visa. Could you please clarify this situation? (Waqas Rafique- capital TV)
To the best of my knowledge, Hajj visas are issued in Pakistan by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia. They are not issued in Jeddah.
Yesterday, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy had capsized. Reportedly, some Pakistanis also died in the accident. Could you please tell us how many Pakistanis were killed in that incident and what steps are being taken to repatriate their dead bodies? (Amjad- PTV News)
You are aware that it takes time to gather necessary details after such tragic incidents. I will try to get details regarding your question from our concerned Missions.
What are the impediments in Pakistan's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Who is opposing Pakistan's membership?
Pakistan wishes to become a member of the NSG. However, you may be aware that acceptance of a new member requires consensus among NSG member states. Pakistan, therefore, is engaged with them. Pakistan's non-proliferation measures and the steps taken to further strengthen its export controls are well recognized by the international community. Pakistan is fully committed to non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and their delivery systems. Based on its credentials, Pakistan qualifies to join export control regimes including NSG.
Is there a possibility of Pakistani and Indian Prime Ministers' meeting in New York?
I do not have anything to share with you in this regard.
UN General Assembly has adopted a decision to continue discussion on reform of the UN Security Council. What is our viewpoint on this?
There is an ongoing Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) process at the United Nations on the issue of UN Security Council reform. The objective of this process is to achieve a negotiated solution on Security Council reform with the widest possible consensus. As you are aware, there are varying positions and proposals of member states and groups on Security Council reform. There is no agreement so far on any particular reform model.
Pakistan, along with other members of the like-minded Group called "Uniting for Consensus", supports a comprehensive reform of the Security Council to make it more representative, democratic, and transparent and accountable to the UN general membership. We are opposed, in principle, to addition of any new individual permanent member in the Security Council, because we believe that permanent membership is anachronistic and runs counter to the very objectives of reform.
Recently, four Indians were arrested in UAE on charges of having links with Daesh. How do you see this development? I also need your comments regarding the presence of Daesh in India. (Anwer-Waqt TV)
It is for the UAE and Indian authorities to comment on the reasons for arrest of Indian nationals in UAE. I have no comment. I also have no comment on the presence of Daesh in India.
A Pakistani named Khalid has been arrested in Bangladesh on charges of being a Pakistani agent. What is the latest status regarding his release and repatriation to Pakistan?
Secondly, you have clarified that allegations against Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK regarding the sale of High Commission's Building are baseless. However, Pakistani High Commissioner's Residence in London remained closed for two to three years during Wajid Shams-ul-Hassan's tenure and he had rented a flat at a very high cost for his residence. Are investigations going on in this regard? (Essa Naqvi-Dunya TV)
I do not have any information to share with you regarding both the questions. I will try to seek details.
Mr. Aizaz Ahmad Ch
Tell: +92-51-9205494
Website: www.mofa.gov.pk
Pakistan and China agree to expedite negotiations on China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement-II
― September 17, 2015
Illegal gateway exchange raided in Bahawalpur
Asim	 ―	January 15, 2021 | No Comment
A delegation of the World Bank headed by Country Director called on Provincial Minister for Education Shahram Khan Tarakai in
Hafeez urges to ensure transparency in auction process of NGMS Spectrum
RUD project will provide residential facilities of international standard: Imran Khan
President invites Turkish investors to capitalize on investment opportunities in Pakistan
PM has clear vision of elimination of corruption: Imran Ismail


text:
Q: how to get XFile populated with images from flutter project assets?
how to get XFile populated with images from flutter project assets?
how to get XFile populated with images from flutter project assets?

A: You can use rootBundle from the services.dart package. Import the package like this:
import 'package:flutter/services.dart' show rootBundle;

And call the following function to get the image from asset and populate XFile:
Future<XFile> getImageFileFromAssets() async {
    final byteData = await rootBundle.load('./assets/image.png');

    final file = File('${(await getTemporaryDirectory()).path}/image.png');
    await file.writeAsBytes(byteData.buffer
        .asUint8List(byteData.offsetInBytes, byteData.lengthInBytes));

    XFile xFile = XFile(file.path);

    return xFile;
  }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Topolivka (în ) este un sat în comuna Pohorilți din raionul Semenivka, regiunea Cernihiv, Ucraina.

Demografie

Conform recensământului din 2001, majoritatea populației localității Topolivka era vorbitoare de ucraineană (%), existând în minoritate și vorbitori de rusă (%) și belarusă (%).

Note

Topolivka, Pohorilți, Semenivka, Cernihiv
Topolivka, Pohorilți, Semenivka, Cernihiv
Topolivka, Pohorilți, Semenivka, Cernihiv


text:
In dubio pro reo (latin ungefär "vid tvivel, för den anklagade") är en rättsprincip som betyder att den utpekade inte ska fällas av rätten när det finns tvivel om dennes skuld.

Den engelska "Rule of lenity" (ungefär "Regeln om nåd") är en doktrin som säger att tveksamheter ska lösas till fördel för ett mildare straff.

Den på svenska liknande hellre fria än fälla är en straffrättslig princip som säger att man vid tvivel hellre bör fria än fälla. Den brukar uttryckas med den latinska frasen in dubio mitius ("vid tvivel till det mildare").

Att döma till fördel för den anklagade är samstämmigt med oskuldspresumtionen som säger att den som är misstänkt ska betraktas som oskyldig tills motsatsen har bevisats.

Se även
 Blackstones förhållande, att "Det är bättre att tio skyldiga personer undkommer straff än att en oskyldig person tar skada."
 In dubio
 Justitiemord

Referenser

Juridiska termer


text:
Iran Foreign Ministry Insists Prisoner Exchange Offer Is Serious
By Radio Farda
Freed Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian (C) chats with US Secretary of State John Kerry during the inauguration of the Washington Post Headquarters on January 28, 2016 in Washington, DC.
The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, Abbas Mousavi, says Iran's offer of prisoner exchange with the United States is "serious and with precedent." Meanwhile he charged that the United States "lacks a proper understanding of the concept of negotiations."
On Wednesday April 24, when Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran was ready to swap prisoners with America, an unnamed U.S. Department of State official had written to a reporter that the Iranian regime can demonstrate its seriousness regarding consular issues, including Iranians who have been indicted or convicted of criminal violation of U.S. sanctions laws, by releasing innocent U.S. persons immediately.
Zarif Says Iran Ready To Swap Prisoners With U.S.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday that the United States' reaction has been a "hurried decision" that demands "unilateral release of U.S. prisoners." He charged that "U.S. officials do not have a proper understanding of the concept of negotiations and agreements."
He added that "if there is a will [for negotiation] in America, the Iranian Foreign Minister's suggestion is clear and straightforward."
This could mean that as human rights activists have charged, Iran may be using prisoners, mainly dual nationals, as pawns or hostages in the negotiations they hope to start with the United States.
Zarif had said in New York on Wednesday that he is authorized to negotiate a prisoner swap with America, adding that he had made the same suggestions six months earlier but he has not received any response from the American side.
Zarif's claim about being in a position to start talks about prisoner exchange contradicts his previous claims about Iranian Judiciary being independent of the executive branch. He even repeated that claim yesterday when he was asked about other prisoners including Canadian-Iranian dual nationals in jail in Iran.
Meanwhile, Hadi Ghaemi, of the Iranian human rights watchdog ICHRI, tweeted on Thursday that in his remarks Zarif made three glaring admissions: "That Iran is holding dual nationals as political hostage, that Iran's Judiciary is not independent from the government, and that Iran does recognize dual nationality. "
Previously, Iranian officials including Zarif have denied all of these three statements.
Hours after Zarif's statement, the unnamed State Department official had written that he is aware of the Iranian Foreign Ministers' remarks about U.S. Citizens "wrongfully detained in Iran."
The official said that he noted Zarif's reference to a humanitarian resolution of those cases." However, he suggested that Iran should release those prisoners immediately in order to prove its seriousness.
The official has named some of those unjustly detained U.S. persons as Xiue Wang, Siamak Namazi, Robert Levinson and Nizar Zakka among others.
U.S. Officials including President Donald Trump have said repeatedly that in order for Iran to become a normal country with which they could cooperate, Tehran needs to meet 12 conditions. Secretary Mike Pompeo has also said that If Iran wishes to come to the negotiating table it should first meet those 12 conditions, including respect for human rights.
Nevertheless, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday he would not begin any negotiation before all the pressures on Iran are removed and the United States apologizes for its actions and begins to treat Iran with mutual respect.
Meanwhile, Zarif had suggested swapping British Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghary-Ratcliffe with an Iranian prisoner in Australia, Negar Qods Kani. The United States has called for Kani's extradition on charges of violating US sanctions against Iran.
But in his interview with Reuters later, Zarif said he did not suggest swapping Zaghari-Ratcliffe with an Iranian in jail in Australia, adding hw was talking only about American prisoners.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, however, described the way Zarif handled the issue as generally "appalling."
Although prisoner swaps between Iran and U.S. are not totally unprecedented, some Western analysts maintain that such behavior encourages further hostage taking of dual nationals by Iran, which usually detains them arbitrarily for political gain.
The Trump administration has criticized policies of his predecessor when deals were made to release prisoners.