Mediocre Perspectives

The Cuban missile crisis is probably the most important moment in World History in the 20 th century. In the aftermath of World War II, the world was divided between two large contours of capitalism lead by the United States and communism lead by the erstwhile Soviet Union. Tensions between them termed ‘Cold War’ lead to proxy wars and conflicts in many third world countries. If the Korean War of the 1950s was a crucial episode, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was its zenith. The USA through reconnaissance aircraft found that Soviets ships were ferrying ‘offensive’ missiles to Cuba, an ally of USSR which was off the coast of USA. Faced with a complex decision of blockading Cuba and preventing the takeover of West Berlin, which was Soviet’s plan if the USA launched an offensive on Cuba, JFK resorted to a combination of a diplomatic blockade and a stern warning to the USSR. As the Soviet’s plan was exposed its leader Khrushchev agreed to have a summit meeting in the month of November...

When the Cold war ended the USA became the undisputed super power of the world. Today, it is widely accepted that the world is heading towards a multi-polar world with many power centers. But even before the stage has reached the USA has some concerns. That is more than validated by the speculative US policy of ‘Pivot to Asia’. The US plans to station close to half of its troops in the countries of the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan by 2050. A superpower does not take such measures until there is a significant development. Two weeks ago Chinese currency Renminbi (Yuan) entered the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) currency grouping. Currently, USA holds 41.9 percent and China 10.92 percent in the revised SDR basket. SDR refers to the basket of currencies on which a debtor nation could receive loans from the IMF. China has been known as the ‘Workshop of the world’ for its manufacturing sector’s capability. But proceedings in the last few years have cemented China as the nation beyond a...

Procrastination is an integral part of human lives. We rarely miss that trait in people we come across every day. On the macro level, the same character is very much prevalent. It is no different with climate change. The world woke up to the grim reality of human induced ‘climate change’ in the last half of the 20 th century. Since then, there has been considerable progress through mechanisms like the Kyoto protocol with few countries accepting obligations to reduce their green house emissions. But it is well agreed among international organizations that it is not sufficient. If climate change is to have a minimal impact on human lives it is mandatory that world nations reach a concrete agreement in the COP in Paris which has begun yesterday. The convention during the Earth summit in Rio 1992 accepted that climate change is accelerated by human actions. It is accepted widely that the impact on the earth will be minimal if the temperature rise is kept below 2 degree Celsius. Henc...