EWI Chief Operating Officer James Creighton, and Vice President and Director of the Regional Security Program Martin Fleischer appeared on the Pakistani television program "Defence and Diplomacy" to discuss EWI's Afghanistan Reconnected Initiative, and Pakistan's vital role in rebuilding and modernizing Afghanistan's economy.
How can economic development increase not only prosperity, but also security and stability in post-2014 Afghanistan and the region? Can Afghanistan reclaim its unique position as a transit route between resources in Central Asia, Southwest Asia and the booming Far East? And what are Pakistan’s challenges and opportunities in this scenario?
These were the dominant themes of the EastWest Institute’s advocacy and outreach mission to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad from March 18-20, 2015, conducted as part of the Afghanistan Reconnected initiative (also referred to as the Abu Dhabi Process). The mission was carried out by a delegation of parliamentarians, former ministers and private sector experts from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the United States and Turkey. First convened by EWI in 2012, this distinguished group has continued to meet in order to address the region’s need for reforms and develop concrete recommendations for improving cross border cooperation in the fields of energy, trade and infrastructure.
President of Pakistan H.E. Mamnoon Hussain expressed sincere appreciation for EWI’s long standing commitment to the region. A series of intense exchanges with several high-level governmental policy-makers of Pakistan focused on the challenges of regional infrastructure construction and cross-border trade facilitation, including the development of a functioning regional network of roads, air and railway transportation as a prerequisite for further developments in trade, energy and mining. The relevant ministries of Pakistan also received the recommendations in writing and assured that these will be carefully considered.
All meetings took place in a frank and friendly manner and were off the record, except the inauguration which drew great attention from the media. Speaking at that opening, Ambassador Martin Fleischer, EWI’s vice president and director of its Regional Security Initiative, underlined that the Afghanistan Reconnected Process is based on the conviction that security and economic development are interdependent. Fleischer also asserted that unlocking the economic potential of the region is dependent not only on Afghanistan’s own transformation and institution-building, but also on reforms in Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and cooperation between them.
In his keynote speech, H.E. Sartaj Aziz, advisor to the prime minister on foreign affairs and national security, termed Afghanistan a vital connector for regional energy, communication and transmission corridor. Discussing his government’s efforts to link these corridors, Aziz referred to recent agreements on the Peshawar-Kabul Road and Chaman-Qandhar railway lines, affirming that these links would not only improve trade relations between the two countries, but would also help connect Central Asia with South Asia. The extension of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) to Tajikistan and other regional countries would be a great step in the right direction. Aziz stressed his government’s fundamental conviction that only peace and development in Afghanistan can bring stability to the region. Pakistan would continue to support the reconstruction of Afghanistan, particularly in a post–NATO situation. This would include bilateral and regional projects, such as the Kunar dam, with its capacity to generate 1500 MW of hydro-electricity, and the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project CASA-1000 and its upgrade to CASA- 1300 with addition of 300 MWs.
H.E. Sayed Tariq Fatemi, special assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Foreign Affairs, lauded EWI’s initiative and stressed the imperative role of the business community and private sector in expanding Pakistan-Afghanistan economic cooperation and advancing the shared goals of regional connectivity and economic integration. “A peaceful neighborhood is a pre-requisite for Pakistan’s economic development” he stressed and added that since the establishment of a new national unity Government in Afghanistan, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan had substantially improved.
H.E. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, federal minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources urged Pakistan, Afghanistan and neighboring countries to engage in intensive partnerships to meet their growing energy demands, and to harness the massive economic opportunities provided by energy trade. He said that the region is at the early stages of a transition toward an energy economy in response to a global trend toward prioritizing energy security. Abbasi stressed that there are no political obstacles to the implementation of major regional energy projects such as TAPI and CASA-1000. As a gateway to resource rich Central Asia, Afghanistan holds the keys to unlock a prosperous regional economy by acting as a transit route for energy supplies from Central Asia to energy markets in South Asia—a “scenario with win-win potentials for all stakeholders,” Abbasi said.
H.E. Eng. Khurram Dastgir Khan, minister of Commerce, outlined Pakistan’s plans for massive investment to improve infrastructure on the border with Afghanistan and India, and initiatives to upgrade port capacities at Karachi, port Qasim and port Gawader, in order to provide opportunities for Afghanistan and other Central Asian Republics to expand access to regional and international markets. Khan affirmed that new land-ports will be constructed at the Torkhan and Wagah borders to expedite Afghan exports and imports across Pakistan.
H.E. Mohammed Zubair, minister of Privatization, was briefed on the Turkish experience with private sector engagement in border management, which has led to substantial improvement in Turkey’s border posts at little or no cost to the government. The minister expressed a desire to explore the applicability of this innovative model in Pakistan.
A cross-cutting theme in all talks was the need to normalize relations with India, or at least put political issues aside, so as to foster cross-border economic cooperation. The next advocacy mission of EWI’s Afghanistan Reconnected series will take place in New Delhi mid-June this year.
Afghanistan Reconnected is funded by the governments of Germany and the U.A.E., as well as private donors. The mission to Islamabad was supported by the Pathfinder Group and its Chairman Ikram Seghal, who is also a member of EWI’s board of directors, and the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR). EWI’s Chief Operating Officer Mr. James Creighton signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KCFR to sustain the cooperation between the two institutes.
1. Dawn
2. The News
5. Daily Times
8. Jang
Advocacy meeting with H.E. Eng. Khurram Dastgir Khan, Pakistani Minister of Commerce
Speech at opening session by H.E. Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and
Foreign Affairs, Pakistan
Exchange of gifts between EWI CEO James Creighton and Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi, Secretary General
and CEO, Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR)
EWI delegation leaving the Presidency after meeting with President Hussain
In The Daily Times, EWI Board Member Ikram Sehgal recaps a recent delegation to Pakistan and India hosted by EWI, and discusses the past, present and future of the Afghanistan Reconnected Process.
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The East West Institute (EWI) US, which was founded in 1980 with Ross Perot Jr as chairman, is an international, non-partisan organisation with offices in New York, Brussels, Moscow and Washington. Its track record has made the EWI a global go-to place to build trust, influence policies and deliver solutions. This prestigous think tank seeks to make the world a safer place by addressing seemingly intractable problems that threaten regionaland global stability.
A composite delegation of business leaders is meeting in Islamabad today, with the Pathfinder Group assisting the EWI in facilitating discussions with members of the private sector, parliamentarians from the region and relevant governmental institutions in Pakistan about the EWI’s Afghanistan Reconnected Process (ARP). This was previously called the Abu Dhabi Process because it was, at one time, being funded solely by Abu Dhabi. Now, it has the additional support of the German government to address opportunities and challenges for economic growth in Afghanistan and the rest of the region, comprising India, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and China. The UAE, US, Europe and various regional and international organisations are supporting the process. According to Ambassador Martin Fleischer, the vice president and director of the EWI’s Regional Security Initiative, ARP is based on the conviction that security and economic development are interdependent. Afghanistan’s future is dependent not only on its own transformation but also on reforms in its neighbouring countries, unlocking the region’s economic potential. The EWI’s advocacy and outreach missions are aimed atfosteringa demand driven reform process, from which Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan, could greatly benefit.
The EWI’s present advocacy and outreach mission to Pakistan is a follow-up to the high-level consultations held from 2013 to 2014, addressing the region’s need for reforms and crossborder cooperation in the fields of energy, trade and infrastructure. The mission focuses on regional infrastructure and connectivity, such as developing a functioning regional network of roads, air and railway transportation as a prerequisite for further developments in trade, energy and mining. The first consultation, ‘Afghanistan reconnected: Afghanistan’s potential to act as an economic land bridge in Asia’ was held in Istanbul from April 9 to April 11, 2013. The second, ‘Afghanistan reconnected: linking energy suppliers to consumers in Asia’, was held in Islamabad from September 2 to September 4, 2013, to address the possibilities for regional energy trade between suppliers and the energy markets, especially in South Asia, focusing on Afghanistan’s potential not only as a transit country but as a future producer of energy. Held in New Delhi on November 19 and 20, 2013, the third consultation emphasised the need to invest in Afghanistan’s potential and facilitate the transition from an aid-based economy to a sustainable market economy.
The fourth consultation, ‘Afghanistan reconnected: creating momentum for regional economic security’ was held in Berlin from April 8 to April 10, 2014. The consultation reviewed progress on regional economic cooperation to develop an agenda of targeted activities to be implemented in 2014 and 2015. Based on the Istanbul recommendations (in the fifth consultation, held on November 26-27, 2014), the private sector was recruited to advocate the implementation of the priority reform measures identified.The EWI has engaged with prominent business leaders, parliamentarians and senior government officials from the region to develop a sustainable partnership for efficient trade expansion. The Istanbul conference identified bottlenecks in regional trade and developed practical recommendations to unlock trade potential. The recommendations included adopting long-term multi-entry visa regimes to facilitate themovement of entrepreneurs in the region, establishing cross-border free trade zones,reducing smuggling and informal trade, and adopting single window customs clearance systems to streamline customs’ procedures.
The EWI’s advocacy paper has a three-pronged purpose: to lay out macro issues affecting regional cooperation and development in Afghanistan and its neighbours. To analyse in greater detail select areas of regional economic security, with good prospects for progress in the short term and help generate momentum and facilitate breakthroughs in dealing with more difficult issues.To make a case for the private sector’s proposal on regional trade and transit policy reforms.Opportunities for regional cooperation exist in various sectors including, border management, security, narcotics and trade and transit facilitation, transport infrastructure and trade facilitation, narcotics production and trafficking,electricity trade, hydropower generation and energy issues. Given the political obstacles to such progress, there is a need for political initiatives aimed at building mutual confidence, easing political concerns, attaining donor support and helping increase benefits from regional cooperation.
Obstacles to trade include infrastructure costs arising from the lack of proper legal and regulatory systems, restrictive trade policies, poor border management and the absence of effective transport facilitation. They also include inadequately harmonised trade and customs procedures, lack of transparency, high levels of corruption, illegal trade, a weak private sector and the absence of vital services such as trade, finance and telecommunication facilities. While the second tier of obstacles can be resolved relatively quickly, effective cooperation is necessary amongst regional players and within each country to overcome these issues. Once addressed, these systems can pave the way to resolving the more daunting obstacles holding back growth and stability.
Increased regional transit trade will boost private investment and growth in the short term, helping realise the long term vision for Afghanistan as a trade and transit hub. Sustained peace in Afghanistan, open trade and private sector growth, facilitated by supportive public policies, institutions and social and infrastructure investments, will help secure higher growth and reduce the risk of future economic insecurity. In order to promote long distance and continental trade with landlocked Central Asia, the development of ports serving the Indian Ocean is critical. Afghanistan’s trade is now mostly via Pakistan, through Karachi and Port Qasim. Together these two ports have a total of 40 berths that are largely underutilised. With the new Gwadar deep water port becoming increasingly functional, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) can become a major force to facilitate as much as 50 percent of the total transit from Central Asia. CPEC is a game changer for the region; with increases in efficiency and trade facilitation, the capacity of all these ports could be enhanced. The prerequisite to peace and prosperity in the region is understanding and cooperation between landlocked Afghanistan and Pakistan because Pakistan provides the gateway to the Indian Ocean and the world. Ashraf Ghani’s election as Afghanistan’s President had an extraordinary effect in bettering the relations between the two countries. In the words of this visionary, “we cannot let the past bury the future”.
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Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and EWI Advisory Group member Joseph Nye says rumors of the United States' decline are grossly exaggerated, in a recent interview with the Harvard Gazette. In his new book, Is the American Century Over?, Nye argues that despite obstables in domestic politics, America's continued dominance in global soft power is assured for decades to come.
GAZETTE: Explain what you mean by “the American Century” and why has it been fashionable to declare that the U.S. as the superpower is over?
NYE: Henry R. Luce, the former editor of Time and Life, proclaimed the American Century in 1941. He proclaimed it because he wanted to get America involved in World War II, and he particularly wanted America to be central to the global balance of power. So I use the term “American Century” in terms of what Luce proclaimed, and ask the question whether in 2041 the Americans will be central to the global balance of power. My conclusion is “yes,” but it won’t be in the same way that Luce expected.
Americans have a long history of believing they’re in decline. And it tells you more about our psychology than about our reality. In the 1960s and ’70s, we thought the Russians or the Soviets were 10 feet tall. Then, in the 1980s, we thought the Japanese were 10 feet tall. And today, many people think the Chinese are 10 feet tall. What I try to do is to show that reflects trends and moods of psychology more than it reflects the realities of world politics. The latest trend of belief that the United States is in decline really starts with the Great Recession of 2008, where people see the declining economy as something that’s going to go on for a long time, or forever, rather than a cyclical change.
GAZETTE: You say America’s dominance is not necessarily a direct result of economic power or military might and that we still have significant soft-power advantages over other countries, including China. What are some of those advantages, and how might we lose our ability to influence world events in the coming years?
NYE: Soft power is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payment. It’s an important component of America’s role in the world. It doesn’t replace the hard power of military capability or economic capability, but it can be what’s sometimes called a “force multiplier,” something that, if used in a smart way with your hard power, can make you more powerful by having hard and soft power reinforce each other. If we were to turn inward, to be less accepting of the rest of the world, [or] if we were to, in contrast, overextend ourselves as I think we did in the Iraq War, we could damage that soft power and undercut our ability to help lead coalitions and networks and alliances that are necessary for being able to provide leadership in the world.
GAZETTE: What challenges does China’s largely internal political focus and the increasing upward mobility of many more of its citizens pose for it?
NYE: The good news for China is that they’ve raised hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and developed a large middle class. The bad news is they haven’t figured out how to bring that middle class into political participation. What we know is that when countries get to about $10,000-per-capita income, there are increased demands for participation. China hasn’t quite figured out how to accommodate that. So that’s one problem they face, what you might call the political transition. Another problem they face is a demographic transition. China’s population is getting older as a result of the one-child policy. And many Chinese say they “fear they’re going to grow old before they grow rich.” A third problem is: Can they adapt their growth model, which has been heavily reliant upon export industries based along the coast, and become more innovative and more oriented toward their domestic market? Their plans are to do that, but they haven’t yet fully accomplished that. They may be able to do this—that’s sometimes called the “middle-income trap,” that you reach a certain level on the growth model that’s worked so far, and then you don’t develop the institutions and the capacity for innovation that take you to the next level.
GAZETTE: You write: “The real problem for the United States is not that it will be overtaken by China or another contender, but that it will be faced with a rise in the power resources of many others—both state and non-state actors,” and that “the U.S. will be less able to control others.” Who are some of these actors, and how will this diffusion of power likely play out?
NYE: Some of the actors are other large states like India, which will be the largest country in the world by population by the middle of this century; Brazil; Indonesia, which is the largest Muslim country in the world; perhaps Nigeria or South Africa—we don’t know how their fates are going to turn out. But the point is there will be many more states that will have more power than they’ve had in the past. In addition to those state actors, there are a lot of non-state actors who are empowered by the information revolution. Perhaps the most dramatic of these would be cyber actors—“hacktivists” and even cybercriminals and other such groups—who are able to do things that often in the past were reserved to governments. So the combination of more state actors and more powerful non-state actors makes a world in which it’s harder to get things done. This is sometimes called entropy, the inability to get work done. ISIS is a very good example of such a non-state actor. But I worry more about entropy than I worry about China.
GAZETTE: Does it dilute America’s overall power, or will it force us to rely on other strategies?
NYE: If we rely on other strategies, we can overcome this. If we see that our role is to organize coalitions and networks to get things done, then we can repair the problems that this creates for American power. But if we think that we can either do it ourselves or opt out of anybody doing it, then we’ll suffer the consequences along with others. If you think of problems like global financial stability or dealing with climate change or dealing with pandemics or dealing with transnational terrorism, these are not problems that we can solve by ourselves. Our ability to manage those problems depends on our ability to organize coalitions with others.
GAZETTE: What are some of the “new transnational issues” that will require the U.S. to exert power with others rather than power over others, and what should the U.S. do to build and bolster our continued primacy?
NYE: One of the things we have to do is to make sure that we support international institutions. We have issues of trade agreements that are coming up before the Congress, some of which are controversial. We have issues like the international Law of the Sea Convention which is very much in our interests, but which has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate because of the opposition of some senators who say it gives away too much of our sovereignty. You have an agreement that was reached in 2010 to increase the emerging markets’ share of the voting quota in the International Monetary Fund, and Congress has not gone ahead and passed that. These are the sorts of things where taking a very narrow view of our self-interest interferes with our being able to accomplish our larger self-interest.
GAZETTE: In the last decade, the U.S. has taken two very different positions regarding foreign policy under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. How has that swing affected our ability to influence others, and how will the domestic and foreign policy views of our next president affect our standing globally in the coming decade?
NYE: It’s sometimes said that America swings between maximalist policies and retrenchment policies, which is a little different from isolationism in the sense that retrenchment doesn’t mean pulling back as thoroughly as we did in the 1930s. For example, [Dwight] Eisenhower was a president who followed policies of retrenchment. but nobody would call him an isolationist. The question is how far these cycles go, if the extent to which we pull back from the world and pay less attention to the development of international networks and coalitions undercuts our ability to get things done that are in our own interest. We’ll have to see in the 2016 presidential debate(s) how these issues are brought to the public for discussion. I don’t think we’re in danger of isolationism; what we are, though, is in danger of what’s sometimes been called “American exemptionalism,” of giving us a pass on things, like the Law of the Sea ratification or like this new quota for the International Monetary Fund, of opting out. It’s not exactly the same as isolationism, but it’s a failure of international leadership [that] plays well to populist, demagogic pressures.
GAZETTE: In the essay, you say you “guess” the U.S. will “still have primacy in power resources and play the central role in the global balance of power among states in 2041.” What events, actions, or policies could undermine that probability?
NYE: If you had a series of major terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction, it’s conceivable that Americans might turn inward [and] become very isolationist. I don’t think it would solve our problems, but that would obviously undercut our ability to lead. Or if we thought that, given the problems in the Middle East, somehow if we just went in there and tried to rule those countries that we would be able to do so, that could lead to the type of setback which we suffered in Iraq, but even more so. And that would also greatly hinder our capacity to lead. Nobody can predict the future, but the swings in mood that we have tell us more about psychology than reality. So what I’ve been trying to do in this work is to get people to look at some real factors and also some potential strategic choices that we face that can make the outcome one way rather than another.
This interview was originally published in the Harvard Gazette.
For a review by Jonathan Freeman of Nye's recent book, click here.
EWI Fellow and cybersecurity expert Merritt Baer discusses a range of national security topics on the Rational Security podcast, hosted by Benjamin Wittes of The Brookings Institution and Shane Harris of The Daily Beast.
From March 3 to 6, 2015, the EastWest Institute (EWI) convened the 5th meeting of its Joint U.S.-Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking. This group seeks to find ways for the United States, Russia, Afghanistan and other countries in the region to work together to combat the trafficking of narcotics from Afghanistan. In Washington, DC, the working group held internal discussions that will inform its consensus reports and met with U.S. government officials. In New York, EWI organized a roundtable discussion on Afghan narcotrafficking at EWI's New York Center, where the working group was joined by representatives of the Permanent Missions of Afghanistan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia to the United Nations; the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the staff of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control; and other prominent experts on the substantive topics.
Click here to read the working group’s latest report, Afghan Narcotrafficking: Post-2014 Scenarios.
Click here to read the working group’s first report, Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment.
Asila Wardak of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN and Ambassador Zahir Tanin,
permanent representative of Afghanistan to the UN with EWI Vice President David Firestein
Roundtable on Afghan Narcotrafficking at EWI’s New York Center
Representative of the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN with EWI Vice President David Firestein
EWI Working Group member H. Douglas Wankel with Zhao Ningning of the Permanent Mission
of China to the UN
Deputy Chief of Mission M. Ashraf Haidari of the Afghan Embassy in New Delhi and Farhad Basharyar of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Vladimir Ivanov, director of EWI’s branch in the Russian Federation
5th Meeting of the Joint U.S.-Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking at the
George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
EWI Working Group members Konstantin Sorokin, David Mansfield and George Gavrilis with
EWI Vice President David Firestein
EWI Board Member and German Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger reviews Henry Kissinger’s “tremendously valuable” World Order for the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs.
“To call World Order timely would be an understatement,” Ischinger begins, “for if there was one thing the world yearned for in 2014, it was order.” Given the many novel problems of our world today, Ischinger praises Kissinger’s ability to view them in a way that only he can - one that both stretches far back into history and understands the world’s great diversity. At the same time, Ischinger furthers the debate in contending Kissinger’s beliefs on developing issues such as the “responsibility to protect” doctrine and the internet’s effect on global affairs.
Appreciating the complexity of Kissinger’s arguments as well as the issues they examine, Ischinger ends by stating that “Kissinger’s book is a gift to all of those who care about global order and seek to stave off conflict in the twenty-first century.”
Read the full article here.
David Firestein, Perot fellow and vice president for the Strategic Trust-Building Initiative at the EastWest Institute, was interviewed in Chinese by Voice of America (VOA) Mandarin Service as a panelist on Pro and Con, a weekly news and commentary program broadcast on the VOA Mandarin Service satellite television channel to Mandarin-speaking audiences worldwide.
Appearing with Firestein on the panel were Charles Laughlin, chair of Asian studies at the University of Virginia; Wei Bizhou, deputy editor and commentator for World Journal; and Chen Pokong, a political commentator.
In the first segment, Firestein and other guests offered assessments of presumptive front-running U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. In the second segment, guests compared the 2015 Chinese New Year TV Gala with the United States’ Academy Awards evening and looked at the different messages the two major cultural events sent about China’s and the United States’ media, culture and politics.
All links provided below are in Mandarin only.
Will Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush face off in the 2016 U.S. presidential election?
Firestein believes it is still too early to tell. He noted that few predicted during the early stages of the 2008 election cycle that Hillary Clinton would not win the Democratic nomination; at this moment, however, she is the frontrunner in the Democratic Party. Jeb Bush is also leading the Republican field, though this may change as he faces challenges rallying the support of a more fractured and less disciplined party. Despite mounting mistrust among Americans of the government and of the wealthy, Firestein argued that Americans have long been accustomed to presidential candidates who are financially and politically well-positioned; it is rare to see a true middle-class candidate mount a serious campaign for the presidency. The unique Clinton and Bush brands also change the way people evaluate these candidates.
According to Firestein, although some might worry about the impact of another Clinton or Bush in the White House on perceptions of the health of America’s democracy, both candidates are, in their own rights, highly qualified to run for president, and the next 18 months will in large part be about evaluating the candidates’ qualifications. Though Clinton and Bush may face challenges from the more radical wings of their respective parties during the primary elections, Firestein stated that most voters ultimately favor moderate candidates.
Firestein also noted that many Americans have doubts about the effectiveness of the political system and are looking for a leader who will be able to “fix” Washington, D.C. Whether an “insider” such as Clinton, who has spent an enormous amount of time in Washington, D.C., or an “outsider” such as Bush, who served as the governor of a state and has spent relatively little time in Washington, would be better suited for the task will be a central question in this election for many voters.
Video: http://www.voachinese.com/content/pro-and-con-20150227-1-jeb-and-hillary...
Have the Chinese New Year Gala and U.S. Academy Awards (“Oscars”) Ceremony both been politicized?
Firestein commented that the fundamental difference between media in China and the United States is that Chinese media is controlled by the government and the party, whereas the American media is not. Thus, a program such as the Chinese New Year Gala broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) cannot avoid taking on a political or propaganda dimension, whereas the Oscars are a purely private and artistic enterprise. Nevertheless, the Chinese New Year Gala has become an integral part of how ordinary Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year and has taken on significance in China that the Oscars cannot compare to in the United States.
However, Firestein also noted that the American media, including the film industry, has the right to explore and discuss political issues freely, and that the Oscars are no exception. Firestein cited Citizenfour, a documentary about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden that won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the most recent ceremony, and musicians John Legend and Common’s acceptance speech for Best Original Song from their work on the film Selma as examples of the free political discourse that the American media is entitled to engage in. In contrast, the Chinese New Year Gala tends to stick to “safe” topics and avoids sensitive political issues to focus more on entertainment or official propaganda.
Video: http://www.voachinese.com/content/pro-and-con-20150227-2-oscar-and-cctvs...
EWI Vice President of Strategic Trust-Building Initiative David Firestein was featured on "Diplomacy Now!", a student-run radio program at George Washington University.
Firestein shared his views on the role foreign policy will likely play in the 2016 presidential election, his opinions on the front-running candidates’ foreign policy credentials and his assessment of larger trends in global conflict.
