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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

18 Jan, 2021

51 Min Read

USA and Anti Globalist Policies of Trump

GS-II : International Relations U.S.A

The USA and Anti-Globalist Policies of Trump

  • Few Presidents have tried to alter the fundamentals of American foreign policy since the end of the Second World War like Donald Trump has done in the past four years.
  • Mr. Trump broke with the Washington consensus on what western policymakers and strategists call the liberal internationalist order. He put his ‘America First’ doctrine in the driving seat of his foreign policy wagon. He decried the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the bedrock of the trans-Atlantic military cooperation, pulled the United States out of international organisations and multilateral treaties, and launched tariff wars with both friends and foes alike.
  • Barring a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and some Arab countries, Mr. Trump does not have any major foreign policy achievement to his credit.
  • But he is more of a disruptor than an achiever. And he has caused disruptions in America’s foreign policy which could outlive his presidency.
  • When Joe Biden assumes the White House very soon, the biggest foreign policy challenge he faces is whether he could unmake the Trump legacy and take Washington back to its liberal international consensus.

America and isolationism

  • America’s isolationism did not start with Mr. Trump. He was rather harping on an old foreign policy doctrine that shaped and drove American policy before the Second World War when he pulled the U.S. back from the stage of global leadership.
  • Before the war, the U.S., an emerging economic and military power, was largely an isolated country that was focused on its own rise and expansion.
  • The economic catastrophe caused by the Great Depression and the losses it suffered in the First World War prompted the American isolationists, including progressives and conservatives, to push for a policy of non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts — a policy Washington had largely followed throughout the 19th century.

The Wilsonian imprint

  • The roots of the liberal internationalist order can be traced to the ideals of the 28th American President, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, who led the U.S. to the First World War, called for a rules-based global order governed by international institutions in which countries could cooperate and achieve peace (what he called “an organised common peace”) rather than going to war to meet their goals.
  • The Wilsonian principles on self-determination, rule of law within and between countries, liberal capitalist economic model and freer trade and emphasis on human rights would lay the foundations of the liberal global order which the West would wholeheartedly embrace after the Second World War, but they did not have many takers in the U.S. during the inter-war period. The U.S. was not even a member of the League of Nations.
  • Washington unearthed the values of Wilsonian globalism only after it suited America’s strategic interests during the Cold War. When the world was divided between the capitalist and communist blocs and when the communist and socialist parties (under the patronage of the Soviet Union) started making advances into Asian and European countries, the U.S. turned to liberal globalism and took up the leadership of the western world. It called itself and its allies the “free world”, claiming moral superiority over the communist and socialist dictatorships.
  • While this remained the larger narrative, it did not stop them from embracing the dictators who were opposed to the red bloc.
  • Basically, liberal internationalism embodied the transborder cooperation of western democracies and their allies in their fight against the socialist internationalism of the rival bloc.
  • When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many pundits and policymakers saw it as a triumphant moment for liberal internationalism. Some even predicted “the end of history”.
  • The U.S. stepped up its leadership role: It started wars to protect human rights, export democracy and defeat jihadists. But history did not proceed as the end-of-history theorists had prophesied.

Structural shifts

  • From a normative point of view, the geostrategic charm of the liberal moral argument about freedom has diminished in the post-Cold War world. On the other side, with the rise of religious terrorism, even liberal democratic governments started arming themselves with more powers that often clashed with civil liberties.
  • The liberal promise of ‘minimum government’ stayed confined to the economic realm, while the security state kept expanding its powers. On the global stage, the U.S.’s repeated military adventures have tested its own hard power superiority.
  • The U.S. effected a regime change in Yugoslavia in 1999, but the campaign eventually led to the disintegration of the country. In Iraq, the U.S. never won a conclusive victory.
  • In Afghanistan, after 19 years of war, the U.S. has struck a deal with the Taliban and is badly looking for an exit.
  • In Libya, the country “liberated by NATO”, there are two governments and two armies and many militias backed by rival regional powers.
  • When it comes to Iran and North Korea, the U.S. is not as confident as it was with Iraq and Afghanistan on using force.
  • This inability to win wars and prolonged military campaigns turned foreign interventions unpopular again.
  • The biggest blow to the western liberal order, however, came from within. The crisis in capitalism that broke out in 2008, has weakened the U.S. and western Europe (the guarantors of the post-war order) economically, and unleashed political changes.
  • The focus shifted away from human rights and civil liberties to fighting terrorism and stopping immigration in many of these countries. Illiberal, far-right and anti-immigrant Islamophobic parties started rising.
  • They challenged post-war internationalism, mobilised the public based on cultural nationalism and vilified immigration and the flow of refugees (which was in part triggered by the wars the globalists fought in poorer countries).

From Trump to Biden

  • The rise of Mr. Trump to power in the U.S., the leader of the western liberal order (and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom) was the sharpest manifestation of this tectonic shift that has been underway.
  • Unsurprisingly, Mr. Trump, a product of the crisis in globalised capitalism, took the U.S. back to pre-war isolationism. It may not be a coincidence that Mr. Trump is the first American President since Jimmy Carter who has not launched a new war.
  • Mr. Biden’s foreign policy would be different from Mr. Trump’s. He would seek to strengthen alliances and build a more consistent foreign policy approach to the myriad problems America is facing.
  • He could undo some of his policy decisions of Mr. Trump such as the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord or its exit from the World Health Organization.
  • But could Mr. Biden, a liberal internationalist himself, revive the western liberal international order?
  • Could he revert to liberal trade, embrace globalisation like, say, Bill Clinton did, or launch wars in the name of protecting human rights or exporting democracy?
  • Could he establish the U.S. hegemony over a fast-diversifying international system?
  • The forces of history are against him.
  • After the Second World War, there was a trans-Atlantic consensus among the ruling elites of North America and Western Europe on how to tackle the challenges of the Soviet Union. Now, there is no such consensus on how to tackle the challenges they face.
  • There could be broad agreements on issues such as climate change or the fight against COVID-19, but on critical strategic issues such as the rise of China and the challenges from Russia, there is a huge gap between the old globalists and the new populists.

Mr. Trump has been defeated, but not Trumpism and the anti-globalist politics it has unleashed. Even if Mr Biden overcomes the currents of isolationism at home, he could face similar challenges across the Atlantic where a bunch of illiberal populist leaders and cultural nationalists such as Marine Le Pen of France, Matteo Salvini of Italy, Norbert Hofer of Austria and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands are on the ascent. Like Mr. Trump, none of them represents the old order.

Source: TH

UK invites PM Narendra Modi to G7 Summit

GS-II : International organisation

UK invites PM Narendra Modi to G7 Summit

  • G7 are the IMF declared 7 largest economies of the World – they are USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, UK and Japan.

  • It represent 40% of global GDP and 10% of World population.
  • G7 Summit 2019 happened in Biarritz, France. India was a participant.
  • 2020 Summit is in USA and 2021 summit is in UK.

What is the news?

  • The United Kingdom has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the G7 summit that is scheduled to be held in June.
  • Apart from India, Australia and South Korea are also invited to participate in the proceedings of the summit as “guest countries”.
  • “U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the first in-person G7 summit in almost two years to ask leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to seize the opportunity to build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous,” a statement issued by the British High Commission announced on Sunday.
  • The summit will be held in Cornwall from June 11 to 13.
  • The invitation came days after Mr. Johnson cancelled his visit to India in the last week of January because of a new wave of COVID-19 in Britain. He said he will visit India “ahead” of the G7 summit.
  • Cooperation between the U.K. and India is significant this year as India is a non-permanent member at the UN Security Council, where the United Kingdom will take over the presidency in February.

Source: TH

Analysis of Whatsapp Privacy Policy

GS-III : Internal security Privacy Vs Security

Analysis of Whatsapp Privacy Policy

  • WhatsApp’s decision to delay the update of its privacy policy, following a backlash from its users, is an implicit acknowledgement of the increasing role played by perceptions about privacy in the continued well-being of a popular service.
  • Problems for the Facebook-owned app started earlier this month when it announced an update to its terms of service and privacy policy, according to which users would no longer be able to opt out of sharing data with Facebook.
  • February 8 was kept as the deadline for the new terms to be accepted. This triggered a mass exodus from WhatsApp, the likes of which it has never encountered, not even in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which did bring a lot of bad press to its parent, or when the messaging app’s co-founders called it quits a few years ago.
  • The WhatsApp policy update has clearly spooked many users, who, concerned about their privacy getting compromised, have shifted to alternative platforms such as Signal and Telegram.
  • In recent weeks, according to media reports, messaging app Signal has topped the app store charts in India and many other countries.
  • Interestingly, WhatsApp uses the same end-to-end encryption protocol as Signal.
  • An under-fire WhatsApp, on its part, has tried to allay fears about privacy being compromised because of the updates. It has put out numerous messages and taken out advertisements to convey that the changes are “related to optional business features on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data”.
  • Millions of business interactions take place every day on WhatsApp, and the new privacy updates are supposedly to make these easier while also enabling personalised ads on Facebook.
  • After all this, WhatsApp has pushed the update to May 15. The change will ultimately be inevitable, given that WhatsApp, bought by Facebook for a whopping $19 billion and having subsequently given up plans to charge its users, would be betting on its handling of business interactions to make its big monies.
  • Even then, it cannot force these changes on its users in Europe. For, Europe’s stringent General Data Protection Regulation, more popularly called GDPR, prevents such sharing between apps.
  • Users, there are in control of their data much more than anywhere else in the world. India could do with such a law. All it has is a draft version of a law, and it has been so for a few years now.
  • The privacy of a billion citizens is too important a thing to be left just to the practices of a commercial enterprise.
  • It will be reassuring if it is guaranteed by a strong law.

Source: TH

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

GS-III : S&T S&T

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

  • CSIR is the largest R&D organisation in India. CSIR has a pan-India presence and has a dynamic network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, 3 Innovation Complexes and 5 units.
  • It was established in Sep 1942 with HQ at Delhi.
  • CSIR is funded by MoS&T and it operates as an autonomous body through the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
  • CSIR covers a wide spectrum of streams – from radio and space physics, oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology.

Organizational Structure

  • Prime Minister is the ex-officio President of CSIR.
  • Vice President: Union Minister of Science and Technology (Ex-officio).
  • Governing Body: The Director-General is the head of the governing body. Shekhar C Mande (Director General of CSIR)
  • CSIR Advisory Board: 15-member body composed of prominent members from respective fields of S&T.
  • Member terms are of 3 years.

Objectives of CSIR

  • Promotion, guidance and coordination of scientific and industrial research in India.
  • Establishment and assistance to special institutions or departments of existing institutions for the scientific study of problems affecting particular industries and trade.
  • Establishment and award of research studentships and fellowships.
  • Utilization of the results of the research conducted under the auspices of the Council towards the development of industries in the country.
  • Payment of a share of royalties arising out of the development of the results of research to those who are considered as having contributed towards the pursuit of such research.
  • Establishment, maintenance and management of laboratories, workshops, institutes and organisations to further scientific and industrial research.
  • Collection and dissemination of information in regard not only to research but to industrial matters generally.
  • Publication of scientific papers and a journal of industrial research and development.

CSIR Vision & Strategy 2022:

  • Pursue science which strives for global impact, the technology that enables innovation-driven industry and nurtures trans-disciplinary leadership thereby catalyzing inclusive economic development for the people of India.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology

  • It is named after the founder Director of the CSIR, the late Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. He played a key role in post independent S&T infrastructure and in the formulation of S&T Policies. He was also the 1st Chairman of UGC.
  • It was instituted in 1957 as the most coveted and revered prize in the field of S&T in the country.

CSIR Key Achievements

Strategic Sector:

  • Drishti transmissometer: It is an Indigenous - Innovative –Cost-effective visibility measuring system that provides information to pilots on visibility for safe landing & take-off operations.
  • CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) made a significant contribution by developing indigenous Head-Up- display(HUD) for Indian Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas. HUD aids the pilot in flying the aircraft and in critical flight manoeuvres including weapon aiming.
  • Design and development of Indigenous Gyrotron for nuclear fusion reactor have been accomplished. A gyrotron is a vacuum electronic device (VED) capable to generate high-power, high-frequency THz radiation.

Energy & Environment:

  • Solar Tree: It designed by CSIR- The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) lab in Durgapur. It occupies minimum space to produce clean power.
  • Lithium-Ion Battery: The Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, has set up the first indigenous Li-ion fabrication facility that has applications in defence, solar-powered devices, railways and other high-end usages.

Agriculture:

  • Enhanced cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in the country brought through the development of new varieties and agro-technologies.
  • Samba Mahsuri Rice Variety: CSIR in collaboration with ICAR developed an improved bacterial blight resistant Samba Mahsuri variety.
  • Rice Cultivar (Muktashree) for Arsenic Contaminated Areas: A rice variety has been developed which restricts assimilation of Arsenic within the permissible limit.
  • White-fly resistant Cotton variety: Developed a transgenic cotton line which is resistant to whiteflies.

Healthcare:

  • Johne's Disease Vaccine for Farm Animals: affecting Sheep, Goat, Cow and Buffalo so as to immunize them and increase milk & meat production.
  • Plasma Gelsolin Diagnostic Kit for Premature Births, and Sepsis-related Deaths: It is developed to diagnose premature birth and sepsis.
  • A programme called GOMED (Genomics and other omics technologies for Enabling Medical Decision) provides a platform of disease genomics to solve clinical problems.

Food & Nutrition:

  • Ksheer-scanner: It is a new technological invention by CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) to detect the level of milk adulteration.
  • Double-Fortified Salt: Salt fortified with iodine and iron having improved properties developed and tested for addressing anaemia in people.
  • Anti-obesity DAG Oil: Oil enriched with Diacylglycerol (DAG) instead of conventional triacylglycerol (TAG) developed.

Water:

  • Aquifer Mapping of Water Scarce Areas: in 6 different geological locations in Rajasthan (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
  • Understanding the Special Properties of the Ganga Water: An assessment of water quality & sediment analysis of Ganga from different parts being done.

Waste to Wealth:

  • Non-toxic Radiation Shielding Material for X-ray Protection: They are utilizing industrial waste like red mud (from aluminium industries) and fly ash (Thermal Power Plants). It has been accredited by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) for application in diagnostic X-Ray rooms.
  • Waste Plastic to Fuel: Process for conversion of waste plastics to gasoline/diesel or aromatics developed.
  • The Indelible Mark: The Indelible ink used to mark the fingernail of a voter during elections is a time-tested gift of CSIR since 1952 to the spirit of democracy. It is also exported to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Turkey and other democracies.
  • Skill development: covers Leather process Technology; Leather Footwear & Garments; Paints & coatings for corrosion protection; Electroplating & Metal Finishing; Lead Acid Battery maintenance; Glass Beaded Jewellery / Blue Pottery; Industrial Maintenance Engineering; Internet of Things (IoT); and Regulatory – Preclinical Toxicology.

Aviation:

  • The CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories has designed a plane 'SARAS'.
  • In 2011, successfully tested India's 1st indigenous civilian aircraft, NAL NM5 made in association with National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace.

CSIR has established the first-ever 'Traditional Knowledge Digital Library' in the world.

  • CSIR developed this in collaboration with Ministry of AYUSH.
  • It is accessible in 5 international languages( English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish).
  • CSIR successfully challenged the grant of patent in the USA for use of Haldi (turmeric) for wound healing and neem as an insecticide on the basis of traditional knowledge.

10% of CSIR staff exposed to COVID-19, survey finds

  • A first such pan-India survey tracking nearly 10,000 employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on the prevalence of COVID-19 found that nearly 10% of the staff were infected.
  • Key neutralising antibodies that protect against the virus waned after infection, but were at “detectable levels” even after six months — a proxy for the period of effectiveness of future vaccination and general immunity, the serology survey found.
  • About three-fourths of the respondents could not recall having experienced a single one of the symptoms commonly associated with the disease, and a vegetarian diet and smoking appeared to be “protective” against the infection.
  • In August, the CSIR announced a project to track 10,000 employees of the organisation for at least 30 years to track an array of health vitals and genes.
  • The overarching aim is to be able to build a medical cohort to give long-term perspective on the malaises that affect Indians, and determine if such a data bank can be used to help with predicting, say, the onset of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

‘Longitudinal study’

  • The CSIR has some 40 labs across the country in nearly every State and its staff — from scientific staff to contractual employees — is a microcosm of India, Shantanu Sengupta, Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), among the corresponding authors of the study, told The Hindu.
  • “This is a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study anywhere in the world in that we are tracking a cohort over time and will continue to do so. Some of the associations, of smoking and vegetarianism, are significant, but we can now only speculate on why this is so. We don’t yet have a cause,” he said in a phone conversation.
  • An association between smoking and protection against SARS-CoV-2, or lower odds of infection by the virus, has also been reported in studies in China and France.
  • CSIR staff and family members who volunteered to be part of the survey filled out questionnaires on their lifestyle, food and disease histories.
  • They were also tested with two different kinds of antibody tests to study the kinds of antibodies that were produced following infection.
  • It usually takes a week to a fortnight after being infected for antibodies to be detected in the blood.
  • A serology survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has estimated 7% exposure to SARS-CoV-2 until mid-August, and a modelling exercise by the National Supermodel Committee estimated that 30% may have been exposed by September.

Source: TH

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