Polyhedral by Kaarle Varkki

POLYHEDRAL PAST

RE:COORDINATORIAL

Coordinatorial This is a magazine published for, during and because of ASK 2014: Agora on Security Kyiv. We are discussing this topic because security is problematic – in fact, it has always been. Hacking old paradigms, eh? Well, we are not the only ones doing so. There are hackers fighting both for and against security, being always one step ahead of the ones hacked. Hackers, you see, have an advantage, as they exist further in spacetime than the object of their attention – they only need to look into the past to see what is already there and how it works. When one understands how something works, they can fully understand the effect of the past on the present. It is the fleeting and ever-evolving „now“ when the past reveals itself and pushes us in various seemingly chaotic directions. The slightest push in the past could have ended up becoming a powerful force in the present, that in turn becomes the past, having new influences, silently kindling the existence of potential futures. In the case that the push is lacking, nothingness can wildly burst into flames, creating all the more nothingness and reduce the lack of security. The ASK Media Team will go on a ride through space and time, through culture and nature. The first magazine will do what we, hackers, always start out with – look into the past. The second issue will observe the present, and the third issue – together with your collective help – will go beyond and bravely gaze into the future. Fasten your seatbelts and, please, do enjoy the ride! Your Media Coordinators

kaarle olav varkki nataliia kalyn

RE:TEAM

Brought to you by

Media team Caroline widmer Simon Forsgren monica maurelli Amy Campo McEvoy annemari sepp

justine leitarte

laura kapitza

valentina semenikhina

RE:LEARNING

Learning from the past:

The walk through the League of Nations (LoN) By Justine Leitarte Security now faces more issues than ever owing to globalization and complex international politics stage. Countries tend to seek the ways for achieving safety through interdependence. International institutions are often the way to bring the benefit for all because the more sides hold self-interest, the more cooperation between sides there will be. Throughout history there have been international institutions that, one may argue, are differing not only in the features of decision making but also in the concept itself. Evaluating empirical evidence and connecting them with political theories that explain why actors

involved in the issue tend to do what they do, what they do can help to understand that is the rationale and interest that stands by the decisions regarding security. Correlation between main beliefs of realist and liberal school and context in which institutionalism came about are both significant in order to understand the differing perspectives in which these theories view nature of international organisations. One’s identities and interests forms a relatively stable structure on which institutions are built upon. Organisations are structurally subjective establishments that do not subsist without one’s ideas and explanations about how the world works (Wendt, 1992, p. 399). On that account it can be assumed that international in-

stitutions are creations based on political theories like liberalism and realism in order to utilize their views and beliefs of the world (Grigorescu, 2005, p. 35). To illustrate the previously stated argument it is possible to analyse United Nations (UN) and the League of Nations (LoN) by distinguishing between the main focuses of both organizations. Using the context of the time in which these institutions were formed it is possible to explain why one of them seems more liberal while the other is usually perceived as driven by realism. It is argued that the League of Nations as international institutions’ blueprint was built upon liberal ideas because the League’s main focuses were to encourage international cooperation as well as safeguard collective security and peace (Benes, 2004, p. 66). 1920s was post World War I therefore priorities of LoN were to minimize violence though global governance. Former President of the USA, Woodrow Wilson is believed to be one of the founding fathers of LoN. Notably, he is considered to be liberal. Critiques of liberalism denounce the League as a failure because it did not manage to serve its purpose – to prevent yet another world war. It is argued that the failure occurred when Britain and France were unwilling to take action towards fascist Italy and Nazi Germany which at the time had illegally invaded Abyssinia, even though Britain and France, by being part of the League, had committed to

RE:LEARNING fight the aggressor (Forbes, 2003, p. 33). Conflicts like these led to misunderstandings and mutual distrust between the world powers which Khodnev (2001, p. 24) believes caused WWII. Nonetheless, LoN did have success stories where with its liberal approach it managed to prevent conflicts. Liberal success can be exemplified by LoN Council’s direct intervention in the conflict between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925. Greek government issued orders that its Army Corps could invade Bulgarian territory (Davies, 2012, p. 417). This incident was of dangerous nature because Balkans have history of major conflicts like the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913 which considerably initiated the Balkan crisis of 1914 and therefore was a prelude to the World War I (Hall, 2000, p. 21). Consequently, if this Greek and Bulgarian dispute had not been resolved it was very likely to escalate quickly and become another Balkan crisis. LoN was aware of this unwanted and potential outcome so the Council took immediate steps through negotiations and settled Balkan disagreement. Although, realist critique the League based on its failure, it is essential to recognize its successes and the fact that United Nations as its more successful

descendant was advantaged in a way that it could learn from LoN’s mistakes. Therefore, the founders of the United Nation’s took the League’s model as a starting point. The structure of UN consisted of LoN features – council and an assembly, but on the other hand, founders decided to replace the procedures of decision

making that were believed to have caused the failure of the League (Stein, 1999). Also, some partially blame LoN’s failure on the United States absence as member state. Therefore, UN headquarters were built in New York City. It was a symbol of America being a part of the international body and stepping out of its isolationism

RE:LEARNING (Forbes, 2003, p. 33). As the UN was built upon LoN model with changed features that would most likely prevent another failure, it can be argued that UN is owing its success to the LoN’s failure because UN could learn from LoN’s mistakes. The argument that, United Nations is realist organisation can be illustrated through one of its five main bodies – Security Council.

tions on the Sudanese government as a response to genocide in the Darfur region, were blocked by China. China’s self-interest was unity with the aggressor because ‘’veto’’ state is a big buyer of Sudanese oil. Furthermore, when analysing case studies on Rwanda and Sierra Leone crisis realist explanations of UN’s ineffective response was the fact that these states had little interest in the hegemonic powers at the time. In contrast, the Korean War had significant support from United Kingdom, United States and several European countries because their interests were at stake. Therefore, UN acted operatively to make sure that security in Korea is restored (Weiss, Forsythe, Coate, & Pease, 2007, p. 93). Therefore, it can be estimated that UNSC, by applying realist measures, can successfully deal with conflicts, thus only, once it is in major states’ interests to do so.

For the realists, international organizations are a tool in order to implement their power politics and gain maximal self interest (Rittberger & Zangl, 2006, p. 15). To demonstrate this realist assumption in practice – UN Security Council (UNSC) consist of non-permanent and permanent members also known as P5. The permanent members which are US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China all hold power of ‘’veto’’, which is immediate block to any UN security related action. Some see the ‘’veto’’ To what extent international power as logical, because if P5 institutions can affect the ways gives its approval, institution is how global issues are dealt with? sure that when it acts, it does so with support of strongest powers in international system (Frieden, Lake, & Schultz, 2010, p. 194). However the counterargument is that ‘’veto’’ is a power tool for dominating nation priorities (Mammadova, 2013, p. 37). UN is unlikely to attempt missions that can undermine powerful states’ self-interest. To illustrate, UN efforts to enforce economic sanc-

RE:ASK

Words to feed

the mind

By Amy Campo McEvoy The Opening Ceremony yesterday evening celebrated the start of ASK in the best of ways it can be done. We were lucky to count with the participation of “friends of EYP” and “friends of EYP Ukraine,” as described by the Project Leader, Anya Suprunenko. All speakers emphasized the uniqueness of this event, of the location and of each participant, and some had their say on security.

“We know what is happening in Eastern Ukraine, it reminds us of former Soviet Union (…) things are being repeated” “Europe’s security situation seemed stable – but recent events show that political discontent can lead to a security problem” Gabriele Baumann, head of the KAS Office in Ukraine.

“The risk of losing your electronic identity is also a problem, it may not be now, but it will be in the fu- Let these thoughts be a source of inspiration. Re:conture” sider your views. Be challenged. Oleh Malkin, chairman of “Open Hearts Foundation.” Re:think security.

RE:ASK

ASK the President By Simon Forsgren

ple of years ago, and started working as a business consultant, while ASK 2014 is in full motion, and all these years I did a lot of youth at this point the general idea be- work, mainly EYP. I started workhind ASK is clear to all, however, ing as a business consultant, and there are ideas and visions behind then decided to still do another ASK that have not yet been fully voluntary service in media educaunveiled. Martin Hoffmann is the tion, that led me to start a Master’s President of the session and the program in that field this year. man behind the innovative structure of ASK. How do you relate your background to the session and the To find out more about Martin’s session topic? ideas and hopes for the session, as well as hopefully share some of his I would definitely relate it to the rigorous intellect and background session from the conceptual perwith the people involved with spective. I would not consider ASK, I sat down with Martin in myself to have a strong academic the cafeteria of the Kyiv Olympic background in terms of structure. Stadium for fifteen minutes and I am not a good researcher, but asked him a few questions. what I have learned is to see, analyze, read, and change systems. What is your academic and pro- How people get together and crefessional background? ate structure, in whatever formalized way, and how to change them. I graduated from a Bachelor in This is why I got this combined cultural engineering which is passion with my youth work for composed of cultural studies, education and educational design. knowledge management, and logistics. It is a rather interdisciplin- How do you suit the needs of ary field that is not super academic the people, how do you actually in the traditional sense, but teach- change things, and this is very es you how to think systematic, to much reflected in the process of deconstruct things, to put things the whole event. Security was together, and to understand that one of the topics the organizers most things, culture, economics approached me with and which at etc. is interconnected. that point made sense to me because it is a very systematic issue. And so I graduated in that a cou- The major question we were striving to answer with the event and the concept was what do people need in the 21st century to feel secure.

ple, you put up a border and some soldier to make people feel secure. In our modern globalized world it doesn’t work like that anymore. You can’t formalize a feeling of security anymore, so you need to relate it to personal needs, dialogue and participation. When you say security most people would think you mean security policy making, for me it has more to do with a human interaction based level, how interaction between society and the individual works. What do you want to do differently with ASK compared to a regular EYP session? I have done EYP since 2003, and although I haven’t been that active in the last years I still have done pretty much everything you could do. I like how EYP works and the basic principles of it, however, having done a lot of EYP events I have realized, not only for myself that I want to experience something different in that framework. Also I believe that some things, I don’t want to say necessarily be improved, but that don’t fit with my values anymore. One of these things is the traditional system in EYP with selection conferences, as they are very competitive.

Usually you would be in your committee, working on your topic for a week, and only then actually going to the GA and talking to other groups, so the exchange only actually takes place during the GA, however this GA format I believe personally that back in is very competitive, you have the the 20th century it was very sim- attack and defence speeches, open

RE:ASK debate, and then there is a voting, and it’s all very competitive. I find this a pity because we have all these young bright people and interested people from all over Europe, who have so many ideas.

ing. All the groups should be understood and there should be a statement saying that we as the participants of ASK say that this is something that we mutually have created, instead of saying that we were in different committees. Why don’t we then create a forum These topics are strongly interconwhere people can exchange all of nected, and having the format this these ideas, passions, and inter- way will make people understand ests beforehand already, which that this is all interconnected. is both an enrichment for them personally, but also for the group What are your hopes for the seswork they do. This is why we said sion? we were going to do the barcamp, the world café, as well as other This is most of all an educational formats. The second thing is that event, and I mainly hope that all I believe that this is very much a of the participants can take a mesvalue based question, I moved sage with them, so first of all to personally a bit away from the understand how important denotion that because that the ma- constructing it, and the imporjority thinks something, and that tance of interconnection, and because something is right some- knowledge sharing. If everything else is wrong. body have understood that, that would be my first aim, Any kind of decision we make as and also that some mankind is a negotiation process, of the ideas that and a decision process, and deci- are produced sions should be based on the best already show information we have, but we will that people never be able to know the truth. have taken Because our knowledge as human that first step, beings is limited, and this is why who knows, we said that we will still have mainly we discussions, however only to en- will really rich the product and the process come up with that people have gone through. i n n ov at i v e The final report is not consensus solutions. I based but instead documentation, know that so instead of the committee saying this is that they will write what they all dif f icult agree on, we can say that to some because issues there are many sides to it, t h e and saying that we don’t know the best thing to do, but these solution would have these different consethings we are quences and they would have to talking about have balance each other out. been on political agendas before, and there are hardly any experts This is a way that is much more among participants which is fine, honest, deep, and understand- but I still believe in the collective

power of knowledge, and this might spark some enlightenment at some point. Nevertheless, I hope that people enjoy this exchange on a content level but also on a personal level, because this is an amazing session in terms of its organization, so I hope that people have fun and enjoy their time here and take something with them.

RE:IDENTITY

IDENTITY FOR

SAFETY By Amy Campo McEvoy

On the 14th of March 1948, the British mandate ended and the establishment of the state of Israel was declared. This decision had immediate consequences on the peoples of Palestine and the surrounding areas, but the consequences are ongoing and continue to threaten national and international security every day. THE DIARY OF A PALESTINIAN BOY:

15TH March 1948 Today mummy and daddy didn’t wake me up, which is strange because mum and dad always wake me up when it’s my birthday and bring my presents to my bed, so I decided to wait for them for a bit. Then I heard mummy coming up the stairs and I thought she would be bringing a big cake with 8 candles, so I hid under my covers and started snoring so that she thought I was sleeping. But when she came upstairs, she forgot to say happy birthday to me and was looking really sad. I went to hug her and she was just throwing all my clothes into a bin bag she had. I think that she was sad because yesterday I gave daddy a longer hug than her, so I hugged her and she just looked at me sadder. I said: what is the matter mummy? She said “Yosef, we are going somewhere that is not home for a while” and now we are in a strange person’s house. I am worried about my teddy bear, but I think we will come back tomorrow. The impact of the formation of Israel on Yosef was a change of house, country and a loss of his teddy bear, but events like this one, which were triggered by the imperialist drive of European powers, also led to serious security challenges which have lasting

impacts to the day.

protectorates, which had been the means by which imperialist powers retained control over their colonies, an unviable idea. The result were mandates, which were supported by the League of Nations and had the aim of helping these countries become free nations, have a constitution and a free government in the shortest delay possible.

European powers had had economic, political and even military presence in the Middle East, to a larger or smaller extent, since the 19th century, and had prevented the development in the region in the sense that selfgovernment was not permitted nor were any decision making tasks delegated to native officials. However, Wilson’s It was clear that the final aim of “pronouncements on the virtues of this decision was to build nations self-determination” in 1918 made in the Middle East, which are

RE:IDENTITY defined by the Oxford dictionary as “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory,” and to allow these nations to have selfrule, however the colonial powers failed in their task of building nations, an example being France’s failure to promote independence in Syria and Lebanon or Britain’s maintenance of control in Transjordan even after they had physically left the country. However, the international community’s biggest mistake was arguably considering that a nation could be designed and created, ignoring the language, culture and history factors. When Yosef, the ten year old Israeli, had to emigrate to a new land, he became a citizen of a place with which he shared no background. The borders had been created by European orientalists, who knew nothing of the region and failed to consider the tribal system, the religious divisions or the class system, amongst many factors. It did not allow people to know what their identity was. The need to build a sense of self and have some self-awareness was not fulfilled, and instead, what was left on the colonial states’ departure was a collection of artificially created states with no unifying point other that resentment towards the European colonial powers, and hundreds of problems to deal with. This lack of common identity has led to

problems in the region since. The rise of nationalism, such as when Nasser was in power, has threatened the economic stability of countries, and continues to do so. Internal instability due to the different religious communities living within one state has led to war and conflict being a constant feature of the Middle East, and this is then always followed by migration and disease. The lack of democracy has led to political discontent, and the combination of these factors has made the Middle East an area defined by conflict, turmoil and political discontent. Yosef grew up to live in a state hostile towards his birth country, Israel, and wars over the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon,

the Gaza Strip or the Golan Heights became a common feature in his life. Identity has always been essential, and a sense of belonging primordial. A state needs to incorporate all the ethnicities and, if they fail to do so, security will always be at risk. *Disclaimer: The characters in this story are fictitious and created solely for the purpose of this article.

RE:THINKING

Re:thinking

the term crisis compared to Second Cold War By Caroline Widmer

step to do so is declaring war to Eastern Ukraine and in this way A comparison of the Cold War to mark the beginning of the Secand the situation in Ukraine. Has ond Cold War. Die Zeit, another the Maidan been the origin of the German newspaper, describes Second Cold War? the situation with the following words: “Back into the future. The 20th century was marked by several wars, most lately and im- Another opinion concerning portantly by the Cold War. One the current situation between distinctive element of it was the Ukraine and Russia, and the Cold military security dilemma. The War is that the Cold War has nevmain elements of a security dilem- er really ended, or how the French ma are fear, prevention and mis- newspaper Dernière Nouvelles understanding. During the Cold d’Alsace writes: “The Cold War War the United States of America (…) is defrosted again (...)”. Their (USA) increased their weapons main argument is that the current and in this way strengthened their situation represents the first attack army. The Soviet Union consid- of the Cold War, which includes ered this behaviour as a threat and military actions after 25 years of as a counter-reaction they tried economic and political actions, to overreach USA’s actions. In the such as Russia granting asylum end it led into the vicious circle of to Edward Snowden even though the Cold War. the USA demanded his extradition. As a counter-reaction, the Not even 25 years later, in 2013 a meeting which would have taken Second Cold War starts accord- place to strengthen the co-operaing to the German newspaper Der tion between Russia and the USA, Spiegel. They explained the change was cancelled by the side of the in the relation between Russia and USA. However, Russia was not Ukraine with the following: Rus- the only one that interfered in the sia does not only want to have crisis taking place in Ukraine. Yet the Krim back but to re:establish also the USA did so as they wantthe former Soviet Union. The first ed to reduce Russian impact on Ukraine. Legal and illegal methods were used to achieve this goal. Several eastern businesspeople reported that Ukrainian people were paid by the USA government for participating in the Maidan protest. The aim of the USA was alleged to be that the protests would

RE:THINKING not stop, and in the end, ideally, Ukraine would not be under any influence from Russia. One of the official methods of the USA was to impose sanctions against Russia. In March 2014 they declared an entry ban for the prime minister, which was followed by several more sanctions. It is probable that more sanctions will follow due to the controversial voting in the East of Ukraine. But is it adequate to call the situation right now taking place in Ukraine the Second Cold War? Personally, I am convinced that it is not. My first argument is that the USA did not work on its own but together with other States or Unions. The United Nation (UN) openly declared to condemn the shooting of the Malaysian airplane. The European Union (EU) also imposed sanctions against Russia such as a fortune ban for certain Russian people, and is willing to expand the sanctions as the newspaper Die Zeit says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The EU will give Russia one weekâ&#x20AC;?. Furthermore there has never been a threat for the whole world or for Europe, which was a crucial characteristic of the Cold War where an important element was fear of the outbreak of an atomic ware. Even though Putin mentioned this September that he would not be afraid to use atomic weapons, I never considered it as a real danger. Worldwide, there are five official nuclear powers in the world, among whom is also Russia. Therefore, I do not consider the

threat as innocu o u s due to a lack of resources. My opinion is based on the consequences the use of an atomic weapon would have for Russia. The action would be convicted by most of the countries which would make Russia isolated. This would be unacceptable for them. This opinion is the most common worldwide. Most important for me is that the main target of the USA is not to expand their power inside Ukraine, but to find a friendly solution, including Ukraine and Russia. In case they wanted to expand their power in Ukraine, they would have sent troops in or supported the Ukrainian side directly. Therefore I would call the situation in Ukraine definitely not a Second Cold War but a crisis.

RE:DEFINING

Our Matryoshka identity By Monica Maurelli

According to an ancient biblical tradition, the inhabitants of the city Babel tried to build a tower in order to reach Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s height. In the mindset of feeling superior to all the other populations, they pursued their arrogant aim to the point that they forgot to be respectful and comprehensive to each other during the progress of the project. For that reason, God decided to punish their ambitious nature by mixing their languages; all of a sudden, the inhabitants of Babel were no longer able to understand each other and were therefore obliged to abandon the construction of the tower. The legend exemplifies how the act of creation should necessarily result from different factors. Even if diversity might lead to some misunderstandings, it is essential, as it represents the salvation from the potential fanaticism that can come from lack of diverse thought, influence, and dialogue. Europe perfectly embodies the importance of diversity; our different languages, traditions and national identities inspire us to cooperate and improve our willingness to understand each other, and unite

in diversity. If we imagine our identity like a Russian Matryoshka doll, namely a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other, we can say that our common European culture is the wood from which our identity is created. Dante as well as Cervantes, Shakespeare, Kafka, Hugo and Bergson belong to our cultural heritage. The multiple faces of our Matryoshka identity perfectly embody the richness of diversity in our life: our identity is at the same time regional, national and international: different social environments and knowledge combine together to build our personality. In the same way â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as positive feedback - the chaos of our personality should allow us to benefit from and understand the complexity of our European identity. This shows that the key concept of the diversity of Europe is the expression of the individual, and the European integration is the effect of the construction of each citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personality. The UE, as a democratic institution, mirrors individual behaviours. As individuals, we always feel a deep need to change as time goes by and to broaden the spectrum of values which concur to the

RE:DEFINING

What does “being European” mean to you? building of our personality. We are rarely satisfied by our skills and competences, since every time we achieve one of our aims, we establish a new target to reach. Our instinct urges us to always take a step forward with a deeper consciousness of our weaknesses and our strengths. Curiosity and innovation represent the basilar elements of the progress of the humankind; throughout history, the hunger for knowledge has brought us to find new things, to connect them in various ways and to share our discoveries. The European project is now working in the same way, still aiming to enhance integration through shared, innovative ideas. As soon as the European project was born, the French diplomat Jean Monnet affirmed that “the cooperation between nations does not provide, on its own, a solution for the big problems that hound us; what is needed is a real fusion of the interests of the European peoples and not only the mere maintenance of the balance between these interests”. Nowadays, in the globalised world, based on interconnections on a large scale, the Member States (MS) of the EU

should deeply understand how their well-being depends on the relations with the other European countries. As Karl Popper pointed out during the first twenty years of the European integration, democracy is the product of a common activity, of a community formed by people who come together like the intertwined pieces of a puzzle. One individual, on his own, cannot solve a complex problem; but 5 millions of citizens, together, can not only face it, but also create something more. This is the reason why participating in a European project such as a session of the European Youth Parliament is like becoming one of the instruments of a “European orchestra”, in which different tones and rhythms blend in order to create a melody, always able to maintain its harmonious equilibrium within the diversity of the sounds. The European reality can be actually compared to a Jackson Pollock’s artwork; as the artist said, “you should not watch the canvas, you have to go in the canvas” to really understand it. You have to be one of the little spots that create the colourful painting to really experience the value of cooperation.

Thank you!

INITIATED BY: