Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies

Also featured:

Bitcoin in ChinaMongolian Economy South Korean Conscription

Photojournal MoroccoMy city DohukHistory Refugee Crisis of the 5th Century

N E W 2 0 1 6

Issue 28

North Korea in Flux

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In Asia, the breakneck speed of political and eco-nomic development has continued to startle the Western world over and over again. Cultur-

al as well as the development of society has been swift and thorough. So fast in fact, that Asia is now known as the frontier of technological development. For instance, even with policies prohibiting it, the rise of bitcoin mining cannot be stopped in China. Sometimes however, closed ideology can also stunt the growth of such new technologies by perme-ating through all layers of society, making innovation essentially impossible. Not always are the lack of open plans and economic growth stunted intention-ally; investors can also be thwarted by erratic eco-nomic policies. In this issue of NOVAsia, the authors attempt to shine a light on the ever-changing Asian region and the diversity in attitude towards change.

Lilith Isa-Samer3rd Semester, PIC

Staff

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFCeinwen Thomas

DESIGNERSungEun Kim

STAFFCesare Marco Scartozzi

Gordon GatlinLilith-Isa Samer SungEun Kim

JUNIOR STAFFChance Dorland

Gene Kim

CONTRIBUTORSRuth Midence

Cheol Bin (Jason) Shin Tom de Vroome

Laurens BistervelsYara BinHimd

Omar S. Al-Melka

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Picture Credits Cover flickr@Matt PaishP02 flickr@Lukas KrasaP06 flickr@(matt) P08 flickr@Takver P10 flickr@Pawel MaryanovP13 Tom Tschida for NASAP15 UNHCR Innovation LabP18 flickr@(stephan) P20 flickr@BTC KeychainP24 flickr@Mark Fahey p26 Jhoan Montolio

p28 Yara Binhimdp36 Scanned by Aristeas - Woodcut from Hartmann Schedel’s Weltchronik (Nürnberg 1493)p39 Map from: Jones, Matthew. Con?ict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961?965 Britain, the United States and the Cre ation of Malaysia ( New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), XX.p28 Yara Binhimd

The pictures for other articles are labeled for noncommercial reuse or anonymous sources.

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08 The Tug of War Continues

10 Hosting the World Olympics

13 Regulate or Terminate

15 Design Thinking in Social Impact

17 Trans-Pacific Partnership

and Future Implications

18 Bitcoin in China

19 The Peaks and Troughs of the Mongolian Economy

22 The Role of Ideology in North Korea

24 South Korea’s Gender-Biased Military Draft

28 PHOTOJOURNAL Morocco

34 The State of Counterfeiting

36 HISTORY Europe’s Migrant Crisis of the 5th Century

38 How to Do Counterinsurgency

40 The March of the Righteous

42 MY CITY Dohuk

ISSUE 28 NEW 2016

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE ?

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As the days count down the end of one year and the start of the next, we have a golden period in which one can reflect, reexamine past events and reorient oneself towards the future. We are lucky in our timing then that the selection of articles we have for your holiday reading can perhaps provoke similar

ponderings. From political ideologies and troubled economies to new projects and partnerships, the issues we unpack in this issue of NOVAsia address both what has been and what is yet to come.

This issue puts a lens on certain shifts in East Asia, juggling familiar topics with the not-so familiar. NOVAsia veteran, Cesare, delves into North Korea’s Juche ideology, and argues that the reality is far different to the self-sufficiency the government would have its citizens believe. Chance grapples with South Korea’s military conscription and the societal ripples it has caused. In the arena of finance, first-time contributor, Laurens, looks at Bitcoin in China, and the potential that lies behind investing in the digital currency; Tom examines the Mon-golian economy, which has of late been nothing short of volatile, and discusses its possible remedies.

Also, in finance, Gordon gives an overview of counterfeiting, how it has been used as a strategy in times of conflict in the U.S., and how printing fake greenbacks is still a pressing issue. Ruth writes on how it is not all fun and games at the Olympics, and weighs up the economic and social costs hosts have to bear before, during and after the event.

For this issue’s My City segment, Omar introduces his hometown, Dohuk, an Iraqi city cradled in mountainous landscape. The photojournal gives us a respite from the winter, with an enchanting selection of scenery from Morocco, taken by Yara during her summer there.

Looking back, Gene draws a sobering picture of the mass European migration in the 5th century, and the con-sequence of how that history has been told and molded over time. Cesare goes back in time, albeit only to the much more recent 20th century, and breaks down the counterinsurgency tactics of Major General Walter Walker, and how they could be adopted in the perhaps less successful strategies used currently.

Projecting into the future, Sungeun explores the idea of using ‘design thinking’ as a vector for social develop-ment and wellbeing, incorporating new technologies into improving human lives. I, on the other hand, entertain the notion of regulating such technologies pressed into service during wars, specifically technology with ad-vanced artificial intelligence, and whether such technological progress is too dangerous to discuss regulation. Picking apart some of the biggest meetings of the year, Lilith looks at the components of the recent pivotal con-ference on climate change in Paris, while Jason analyses at Transpacific Partnership, evaluating the economic costs and benefits of the agreement.

With the promise of new beginnings (and the threat of old ones), it would be easy for individuals to spectate, or at most comment on, events as they unfold. Yet sometimes an opportunity presents itself that gives us the drive to act and get involved in such challenges and changes that our planet is undergoing. The onus is on us to act, to step out of the stands and onto the field; until that time, please be excellent to each other.

Happy holidays!

Editor’s Note

Ceinwen Thomas

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Between the 30th of Novem-ber and the 11th of December 2015, around 190 countries

convene in the 2015 United Na-tions Climate Change Conference (COP 21 or CMP 11). It was the 21st yearly session of the member states of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th meeting of the parties of the Kyoto Protocol. The timing of this confer-ence seems appropriate, since 2015

has been a pivotal year for climate change. The American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Orga-nization (NOAA) as well as the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) have confirmed that Octo-ber 2015 was the warmest October in recorded history. Not only that, but it is the sixth consecutive month that was the warmest as any before. This is said to be the result of the climate change caused by high con-centration of greenhouse gases in

the atmosphere. According to the lowest emission scenario in climate models (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report 2007), the global temperature will increase by at least 1.1°C-2.9°C in the best case scenario, but the increase could be as high as 2.4°C-6.4°C in the worst case, which would have devastating effects on the environ-ment, as well as human habitat.

To avoid the repercussions, such as severe droughts, floods, and ris-

Paris Climate Conference

The Tug of War Continues

Lilith-Isa Samer3rd Semester, PIC

Staff

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ing sea levels, the goal for this year’s climate confer-ence is to keep the total global increase of the aver-age temperature under 2°C within the next century. Countries vulnerable to climate change, however, say that the temperature rise should be kept below 1.5°C. Also Pope Francis has called for urgency on climate change in a speech in front of the White House, and scientists agree: immediate action has to be taken.

The hopes for the Climate Conference in Paris are high, as the political environment has been very fa-vorable towards cooperation on this matter. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit 2015 in Manila, the APEC leaders agreed to decrease the region’s energy intensity by 45% until 2035 and to double renewables in their energy mix by 2030. Additionally, the two of the main greenhouse gas emitters, the United States and China, have agreed to seal a climate deal at the conference in Paris.

Moreover, Vladimir Putin wrote in the article enti-tled APEC: Towards open and equal cooperation in the interests of development: “This conference will try to reach a global agreement on reducing green-house gas emissions. Russia wants to see this work succeed and we have already presented our report on our country’s contribution to these efforts.” The pres-ident of the United States, Barack Obama, said that he was “optimistic that we can get an outcome that we are all proud of, because we can understand what is at stake.”

The willingness of the big emitters of greenhouse gases to cooperate gives reason to hope. Environmen-tal organizations like Greenpeace want the states to make a legally binding agreement, not just “a declara-tion or other empty promises.” A European Commis-sion spokeswoman also said not only the commission but also many other countries “would like the Paris agreement to be in the form of a protocol or a treaty” which would represent “the strongest expression of political will and also for the future it provides pre-dictability and durability.”

However, this goal might be further afar than hoped. One of the biggest emitters, the United States has had a poor track record when it comes to such joining such climate deals. For instance, the US has never been party to the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005. The US stayed out of this agreement that commits states to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. The problem

with the US was not necessarily a complete unwill-ingness to participate, but more domestic political discord. Since the commitments specified in the Kyoto Protocol were binding, the treaty had to go through the US Senate, where it was shot down on the grounds that it would seriously harm the domes-tic economy, especially because countries like China and India were not held to the same standards as the United States.

In 2015, the internal political issues in the US are very similar. Although the Obama administration is motivated to take action against climate change, the current US Senate is dominated by conservatives and there is a real possibility of a signed treaty never be-ing ratified. John Kerry, the US secretary of state told the Financial Times, that the treaty will definitely not be a binding one, which cements the US stance on the topic. Since then, the EU has again stressed that the goal of the climate conference will definitely be a binding treaty.

Another issue is developing countries, which claim the right to develop their economies no matter the cost to the environment, since developed countries in Europe have had the chance to do the same until they reached a certain level of development. Only af-ter development had taken place, European countries discovered the detrimental effects of greenhouse gas-es like CO2 and decided to act accordingly. Countries like China and India, who claim to be developing countries, maintain that economic development must come before actions against the emission of Green-house gases can be taken. This is also reflected in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which developing countries were not held to the same standards as already de-veloped nations, which, as mentioned before, did not please the US.

For a binding treaty to become feasible, the eco-nomic interest of developing countries has to be taken into account. However, all countries have to work to-gether in order to solve the environmental challenges of the future. It seems like nations are caught up in a tug of war over the responsibility of protecting the global environment.If the talks about a treaty do not yield a satisfactory result, the poorest of the poor will suffer the most from the consequences of unmitigated climate change, even if they are not the ones signifi-cantly contributing to the increase in global tempera-ture.

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The world gets to witness the Summer and Winter Olympics every four years in a bi-an-nual rotation. The latest Winter Olympics

was in Sochi, Russia in 2014 whilst the Summer Olympics was hosted in London, England in 2012. Next year, the Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the Winter Olympics will be held in our own South Korea, in the city of Py-eongchang in 2018. The announcement of the loca-tion of the 2018 Winter Olympics was broadcasted on national television in July 2011. The Olympic Games have been promoted heavily since the an-nouncement, and with all-stars like the multiple members of speed skating teams achieving gold in Sochi and renowned figure skater Kim Yuna, ex-pectations for Korea are high. But the country first has to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics be-fore the Winter Olympics comes to Korea.

Hosting the Olympics has been a great privilege since the beginning of such games. They are con-sidered to be the biggest amateur sports compe-tition since over 200 countries send in athletes to compete in their individual events. The Games we all know today were inspired by the ancient Olym-pic Games that took place in Greece from 8th cen-tury BC to the 4th century AD. The games were revived in 1856 in Greece on a small scale until the International Olympic Committee was formed in 1894. The first official games were hosted in Ath-ens, Greece like many times before in 1896 and from that year onwards the traditions were revived. There have been improved changes to the games, such as a stronger presence of female athletes and adjusted sporting rules. Regular courses have been modified to make them more of a challenge. New and upcoming events have been added to the Games as well.

A major part of the Olympics is which country gets to host such events. Hosting the games not only brings honor, but further acknowledgement of

Hostingthe World Olympics

Ruth Midence2nd Semester, ITFM

Contributor

Is it Really Worth it?

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the host’s country and the cities involved as well as tourism, which means monies. Hosting also creates opportunities for cities, such as new jobs for the local community, and might further benefit corporations that can put their name out there through sponsorships and donations. The Olympics have also increased exports and signalled openness to trade, of which other countries have taken advantage. The games always at-tract tourists, and the hosting country benefits from the money coming in on ticket purchases and all the additional spending on accommodation and leisure. After the games, the facilities that were built could be used for future events, which would bring in additional money and might increase the city’s popula-tion in a beneficial way. There were so many countries compet-ing to host such events that host countries are usually picked years beforehand in order to keep the competition friendly and have time to build their own Olympic parks.

However, in recent decades, the disadvantages of hosting the Olympic Games have started to outweigh the advantages to the extent that more and more countries are actually pulling out of the bidding to host the Games. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, there were 9 bidders, and 7 bidders for the 2016 Summer Olympics. For 2014’s Winter Olympics, there were 7 countries competing and only 3 for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Sure, more countries tend to aim for the Summer Olympics because of climate issues mostly but that is a minor setback which is understandable. The Summer Olympics usually have more countries involved and are more widely watched than the Winter Olympics to a certain level, of course. Having a low bidding turnout for the Winter Olympics is the usual but not so much for the Summer Olympics. The bidding for the 2022 Summer Olympics was disastrous in this regard. Countries were pulling out left and right until there were only 2 countries competing: China and Kazakhstan.

The Olympics have started to become an economic problem. Most countries end up underestimating how much the costs will be; as years go by, it seems to be getting more and more expensive since the latest technologies are being used and building new arenas takes more time and more money than ever. London’s original budget for their recent Olympics was £2.4 billion but it ended up being £9.3 billion instead. The So-chi and Beijing Olympics were the most expensive Games by far, ranging from $50 billion to $40 billion; but those were two extremes. In some cases, the areas that are picked for construc-tion of such infrastructure causes many people to have to move out of their homes forcibly by the government, displacing them and in some cases leading to awkward living situations. In the case of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, many neighborhoods were torn down for the new stadiums and arenas. An estimated 1.5 million people were forced out of their homes and relocated. They did receive compensation but for the majority it was in-adequate. A surplus of tourism can also be negative. The cities become overcrowded and create major traffic jams and a likely increase in pollution. In addition, most of the stadiums built end up being white elephants in the end. Even though they were fully functional, events after the Olympics do not end up being attended at such a big scale and the stadiums end up not being fully used or in some cases completely abandoned to rust.

For the upcoming Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics, things are not going as planned either. Brazil hosted the World Cup just two years ago and had many faults with not being able to finish the infrastructure in time and going way over budget leaving them in debt after the World Cup came and went. So do they have anything left to gather together to make the Summer Olympics happen right after? In some cases, yes. They spent loads on making 12 new stadiums for the World Cup so they could easily use those for the upcoming Games. But those sta-diums were built only for soccer, but other infrastructure are in the works currently. With just one year left until the opening ceremony, many athletes have gone to Rio de Janeiro to test out where they will be participating, but once again time is get-ting to Brazil. The Olympic Park is still not ready. They have a couple of months left to finish it off but rushing it like they did with the World Cup may lead to a few casualties. The death toll during construction for the World Cup ended up being 8 people in total. Also, when Brazil won the bidding war their economy was pretty stable, even booming, but not so much these days. Inflation is causing a great headache for them since their finances keep fluctuating on a daily basis and their costs are way over once again.

So what does this say for Pyeongchang’s 2018 Winter Olym-pics? South Korea will have to work diligently and effectively to make ends meet. The country has a little less than 3 years to complete their Winter Olympic Park. At the present time, there seems to be a delay in the infrastructure but they are not completely behind schedule. Having stable sponsorships is also another challenge they are facing but they seem to be in talks with a few other companies. They already have Samsung and Korean Air backing them up. Some were able to visit the area where the skiing events will be taking place and it defi-nitely seems like it will be the perfect place and that it will be up and running in no time. There was some chaos since a large area of the mountain being used had to be cleared of thousands of trees but it was stated that most trees were being relocated and many more trees would be planted after the Games. South Korea is even building a KTX route from Incheon Airport to Pyeongchang directly which would greatly benefit the incom-ing tourists as well as Korea itself.

The slogan for the Pyeongchang Olympics is “Passion. Con-nected.” The Winter Olympics are not really popular for the Asian community, and South Korea wants to change that im-age for everyone. They also want to place Gangwon, where the Olympics will be held, onto tourist maps to be made into a destination that people who travel to South Korea want to go to. With the new train, traveling would take about one hour, so heading to Seoul and other destinations would become easi-er. With Japan hosting the Summer Games in 2020 and China hosting the Winter Games in 2022, it seems like Asia is becom-ing a new hotspot for the Olympic Games.

There are many challenges that are yet to be dealt with and surviving the aftermath seems to be the greatest challenge of them all. Hopefully Brazil can get it together in time and be able to fully benefit from an economical boost that they desper-ately need. Even so, the 2016 Summer Olympics is going to be an international sensation that the world will undoubtedly be watching. I already know who I am rooting for, do you?

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In war, overpowering an opponent to the point of surrender re-quires the tools, knowledge, and actions that can induce such a response from one’s opposition – one must get and stay ahead.

Since World War II, the application of modern technology in mili-tary missions to create autonomous weapons systems (AWS) was, and has since been perceived as the third revolution of warfare, man-ifesting itself in machines and military robots from the primitive German Goliaths and Soviet Teletanks to today’s semi-autonomous South Korean Samsung sentries at the DMZ, and the evermore fa-

miliar American drones in the Middle East. Using such weapons systems, soldiers are further from the actual battlefield than ever be-fore, which not only cut costs, but also prevent the loss of solders on the field. The attraction for using such weapons is understandable.

With steadily advancing gains in artificial intelligence, the ap-plication of developing new technology into autonomous weapons has triggered heated debates over whether completely autonomous weapons can be relied upon to act in accordance with international law. Unlike semi-autonomous weapons systems which require hu-

Regulate or TerminateHow do we deal with Autonomous Weapons Systems?

Ceinwen Thomas3rd Semester, PIC

Editor-in-Chief

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mans to have the last say in launching an attack, machines with complete au-tonomy are, once activated, can select and engage targets without further in-tervention by a human operator.” De-spite the incremental implementation of more AWS on the battlefield, only two countries, the US and UK, so far have openly developed national poli-cies regarding the regulation of AWS, both of whom highlight the impor-tance of a level of regulation over them before being activated or deployed.

The issue at the core of the de-bate is focused around their ability to comply with International Human-itarian Law (IHL), specifically the principles of distinction, proportion-ality, and precaution. Granted, such autonomous systems in general are just starting to be researched, but

according to the United States Air Force, we may well be seeing these weapons in use by as early as 2030.

The first criterion is if AWS can distinguish between civilian and com-batant? Certainly, with the right code, it is theoretically possible to program AWS so that they can. In creating algo-rithms and simulations that give AWS the skills to categorize friend from foe (through a mechanism such as facial recognition technology, it could fulfill this criterion). However, it would per-haps be folly to argue that in the ever more complex battlefields of war, AWS would be able to distinguish between civilian and combatant. If a program cannot fully be autonomous in making that decision, why not just stick with humans, and human operated systems?

The same arguments can be made on the AWS’ ability to calculate the proportionality of their military attack with regards to how much damage they do to civilians, and their ability to take as much caution as possible to prevent loss of innocents. With the ad-equate programming, the fulfillment of these three principles is possible, but with only the alleged likelihood for a program to be as complex and adapt-able to change as the human brain, the effectiveness of AWS is uncertain.

With all this in mind, there are cur-rently two paths from which the grow-ing issue of AWS can be addressed. A complete pre-emptive ban to stop any further development of AWS has been called for by people like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, stating that with the relatively cheaper technol-

ogy required for AWS (than for, say, nuclear weapons), the ease at which such weapons can be acquired is, to say the least, alarming. The stunting of AI in the process however could in turn limit technological develop-ments that could actually be helpful in reducing civilian casualties on the battlefield. A complete termination of AWS, if seen as a way to make war-fare less costly, is therefore unrealistic.

An alternative to an outright ban would be to create a code of conduct, a set of non-binding guidelines for the research and development of ar-tificial intelligence specific to AWS. True, non-binding laws cannot be en-forced, but such laws are adopted to create flexibility and adapt better to the changing context they are applicable to

– an ideal situation for a rapidly evolv-ing scene like weapons technology and AI. In providing guidelines via a code of conduct, momentum is set for inter-actions between state and non-state ac-tors to build knowledge and confidence in the field of AWS, the keystone in creating further regulations and laws that become binding. It is by no means a permanent solution to the issues AWS pose, but instead is more of a start in the direction of better regulation.

The technology for this discussion may not be here yet, but the possi-bility of its presence in the next 15 years makes this a discussion none-theless important in helping establish the rules and regulations required of new technology entering the bat-tlefield. The main concern that cur-rently surrounds the legality of AWS

boils down to its capacity to make life-or-death decisions for humans.

We cannot know how this will play out, but if we can assume that inter-national law and its interpretation is based on context and judgment, the challenge posed in demonstrating these qualities may prove too difficult for AWS to overcome. This does not mean that we should be fearing some Terminator-esque AWS and write off their development completely, how-ever; establishing a code of conduct by which all countries developing AWS with complete autonomy will abide by would prove useful in guid-ing the discussion for further regula-tion in the future once the technolog-ical capabilities of AWS become clear.

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When we talk about de-sign, we often think about products like iP-

hones or Chanel. But I would like to talk about a different view on design focusing less on the sur-face and more on design thinking. Design thinking is a methodology that fills diverse innovation activ-ities with a human-centered de-sign ethos. The process has three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Brilliant solutions can be discovered by focusing on the needs of humans, getting ac-tive participation of stakeholders, and using prototypes to move ideas along.

Around a decade ago design-ers and engineers began using this new approach to tackle various problems, especially poverty and development issues. For exam-ple, how might we design a toilet for families living in areas with no

sanitary infrastructure? How might we design a water delivery service providing clean drinking water? Or how might we design an emergen-cy room given a limited space in which a thousand people a day are treated? Design is not just reserved for pretty and fancy products. It can also make a social impact around the world. The core underlying concept of such social innovation is human-centered design. It can be anything from a product, a service, or a spatial platform to system de-sign across industries and sectors.

With the goal of alleviating pov-erty by applying human-centered design, IDEO.org was set up in 2011. IDEO is considered the most representative design-consulting firm. At IDEO.org, a multidisci-plinary team works on a wide range of projects related to poverty in-cluding health, agriculture, water and sanitation, financial services

and gender equity. Among the var-ious ideas they have suggested in the health sector one in particular has captured my mind: flying help-ers. Designers working with NGOs and health and tech industry collab-orators see great potential in drone technology to tackle major global health challenges. They came up with the idea that when a disaster such as civil wars or earthquakes strike, drones can be used to deliver emergency aid kits to the world’s hardest-to-reach places.

In order to realize the last-mile healthcare delivery by drones, sev-eral questions had to be addressed: how do we make drones more intui-tive, affordable and effective so that they are used for large-scale cover-age and use? And how do we make a system that can involve multiple stakeholders such as health organi-zations, drone technology partners, government and community health

How can design make the world better? Design Thinking in Social Impact

Sungeun Kim2nd semester, PIC

Staff

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workers? The team developed “Postcards from the Future.” Drones can provide real-time aerial imaging to capture the missing picture in disaster response and extend existing health delivery services. They can also be tailored to meet local needs, especially local economies. In the future, might we see a drone with health commodities as a symbol of peace in contrast to drones deploying weapons?

Design can also play an important role in the current global refugee crisis. While, in development projects such as building a hospital in the area of a country, design can exploit resources that locals or the coun-ty have, for example a land on which the hospital is built, electricity the government provides and health workers who speak local language, providing the kind of services to refugees in the long-term is very difficult when they barely even have a secured place to be called ‘home.’ Recently several UN agencies including United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF and UNDP have taken on the concept of human-centered design and opened their own innovation lab. UNHCR’s Innovation Unit collaborates with refugees, academia, and the private sector to cope with complex refugee challenges. For example, with a non-profit Swedish industrial design firm and the IKEA Foundation, they designed a bet-ter shelter for refugees in emergency. Since trials in 2014, approximately 2,500 Better Shelter units have been set up in Iraq, Djibouti, Greece, and Nepal.

In 2013, the Vodafone Foundation and UNHCR undertook the Instant Network School project le-

veraging mobile technology for flexible education systems for refugee children. Instant Network Class-rooms with a set of tablet computers, solar-powered batteries, satellite or mobile network, as well as on-going training of coaches and IT support members were built in Dadaab, Kenya near the Somalia border, which is a settlement for 350,000 refugees. The pilot project in Dadaab impacted over 20,000 students and the Instant Network School has been implemented in other areas including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Tanzania. On top of those above, there are various ongoing projects in the in-novation lab.

From the traditional approach of designing con-sumer products with a better look, design has moved further into a new discipline, ‘design thinking’ which improves user experiences and creates better systems. Design thinking also plays a crucial role in getting public and private sectors to cooperate because it requires multiple stakeholders actively engaged in the process, and through feedback they progress to-wards finding solutions to very current problems. It is very important in the social sector where partnership of public and private sector can combine, and make the most of their advantages. I believe many predic-aments in this complex world can be tackled with innovative ideas. There are so many ways to change the world; design is one of them – it can be far more attractive and beautiful than a Chanel bag or Loubou-tin shoes.

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Cheol Bin (Jason) Shin2nd Semester, PIC

Contributor

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries concerning a variety of matters regarding eco-

nomic policy. The agreement was reached on October 5th, 2015 after roughly seven years of negotiation. The main points of the agreement centered around several issues including the promotion of economic growth, support and creation of jobs, enhancing innovation, raising living standards, reducing poverty, promotion of transparency, practicing good governance, and the management of labor and environmental protections. In order to achieve these goals, the basic tenants of the TPP contain measures to lower tariffs on trade and the establishment of an investor-state dispute settle-ment mechanism.

Rather than being considered a singular agreement, many countries regard the TPP as an extension of existing multilateral trade agreements. For example, the United States regards the TPP as the companion agreement to the Transatlantic Trade and Invest Part-nership (TTIP), which is a similar mutual economic benefit agreement between the U.S. and the EU. In addition to many of the South East Asian members of the TPP, the agreement itself is an expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agree-ment (TPSEP) or P4, which was originally signed by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore in 2005. In 2008, other countries including Canada, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the U.S., and Viet-nam joined bringing the total number of participants to 12.

While there are currently twelve participants in the TPP, other countries can apply for membership. Currently there are several countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Colombia that have expressed their interests in joining. As a result, some of these applicants have been invited to the last several negotiation rounds as observers to see how the negotiating process works and what issues need to be resolved in order to join as a full member. The application process can even be expedited if the applicant country has free trade agreements with a current agreement member. For example, South Korea has existing FTAs agreements with many of the Pacific Rim countries and is con-

sidered the most likely country to join the agreement during the next negotiating rounds.

One of the largest omissions of the TPP is the no-table absence of China, the largest economy in the Pacific Rim. The biggest challenge of the TPP re-garding China is how to balance the country’s wish-es to spearhead economic initiatives in Asia as well as getting a guarantee to sign on to the lowering of tariffs and increasing investments. Up to now, China has expressed interest in eventually joining the TPP, but its interest can be interpreted in two ways: either China is hoping to use the TPP to jumpstart its slowly stagnating economy, or it is hoping that by joining this multilateral agreement, it can earn support from the existing members for its own Asian initiatives.

Even though the economic benefits of the TPP are profound, the agreement has come under criticism by a number of global health professionals, internet ac-tivists, advocacy groups, and labor unions over the secrecy of the negotiations as well as the expansive scope of the agreement. According to the represen-tatives of the agreement countries, these negotiations are kept from the public due to confidentiality and pri-vacy issues. In addition, countries may not feel com-pelled to lay out all their disagreements if these issues were leaked to the public. However, various drafts of the TPP were released to the press during subsequent rounds and have come under heavy flak by members of the media as well as the public. In short, those that oppose the TPP claim that the agreement is merely created to boost the profits of large corporations at the expense of everyday worker’s rights and the ex-ponential increase of outsourcing.

As of October 5th, 2015, all TPP members have come to an agreement, and it is now up to the legal bodies of these countries to ratify the terms domes-tically. The U.S. and Canada, along with the rest of the Pacific Rim countries, are expected to pass the agreement through their respective legislatures. Some possible future improvements to the TPP would be to invite additional countries to join the agreement in the future. Indonesia and China have expressed inter-ests in joining the TPP even after the initial agreement and as Asia’s biggest economy, China should play a crucial role within the agreement.

Trans-Pacific Partnership and Future Implications

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Bitcoin in China

The Peaks and Troughs of the Mongolian Economy

The Role of Ideology in North Korea

South Korea’s Gender-Biased Military Draft

FEATURE

20NOVAsia

FEATURE

What do the bail-out of Cyprus and the Lushan earthquake in April 2013 have

in common? They both drew the at-tention of Chinese eyes to Bitcoin. In Cyprus, tax evaders were using the digital currency to get their money out of the tax haven result-ing in a jump from US$80 per Bit-coin to US$260. In the Lushan, Jet

Li’s One Foundation used a Bitcoin address for donations in the wake of the disaster. A month later, China Central Television (CCTV) showed a documentary on the cryptocurren-cy that got a lot of Chinese inves-tors excited, not only because they heard about this opportunity for the first time, but also because CCTV’s coverage signalled a tacit approval from the Chinese government. In November 2013, Yi Gang, the dep-

uty governor of the People’s Bank of China said that people were free to participate in the Bitcoin mar-ket, making the rate shoot up to US$1200 per coin. Later that year, the Chinese government banned fi-nancial institution from using cryp-tocurrencies, and a steep drop in value followed.

Investors had a lot of questions that year. What is Bitcoin? Does it have intrinsic value? Will it ever

Bitcoin in china

the RMB is no longeR the yuan and only cuRRency

Laurens Bistervels2nd Semester, PIC

Contributor

21NOVAsia

FEATURE

enjoy widespread use? Bitcoin (Bitebi, 比特币 in Chinese) is a virtual currency that is not regulated by any central authority; its value is its security and ease of use. Anyone can safely send Bitcoin all over the world in less than 15 minutes, while traditional bank-ing services can take hours to process an international transaction. After its launch in 2009 by an unknown developer who uses the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamo-to, Bitcoin were traded for just a few cents, mostly between a handful of hobbyists. Currently, one Bit-coin trades for about US$320 and its value has been relatively stable throughout 2015. Almost 15 million coins are in circulation, so we are talking about a combined worth of over US$4 billion.

Bitcoin is supported by a technology called the blockchain. The blockchain can be thought of as a massive distributed ledger. It is a file that records all transactions and is maintained by a network of com-puters. So if I want to send you a Bitcoin, what hap-pens is that a swarm of servers all record that my ac-count now has one coin less and yours has one more. This information spreads through the network, and the fact that the ledger is kept in check by thousands of bookkeepers makes it impossible for me to spend one coin a second time. The fact that the blockchain is overseen by the community has made it a very interesting technology for Chinese libertarians with anti-government sentiments. Every transaction that is added to the blockchain involves calculations, and no central authority is taking a cut, so how is this system supported?

As a reward for their efforts the computers that process these transactions and maintain the ledger re-ceive Bitcoin. Every ten minutes, 25 new Bitcoin are distributed. The more you contribute to the network by processing transactions the more likely you are to win. It is like a lottery in which you put tickets for every calculation that you make. This is called min-ing. In principle, you could contribute to the ledger and mine Bitcoin with your laptop in a cafe in Sin-chon. But, of course, this costs energy, bandwidth and storage space; the ledger is at 47 GB and growing. Many amateur miners have stopped their operations because the energy and equipment costs have become too high.

China played a large role in the specialisation of mining. An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is a chip designed to only mine Bitcoin. The

first ASICs were developed in China in 2013. This made it easier to get more tickets in the lottery box and started an arms race among miners. Additionally, in some Chinese provinces like Inner Mongolia the cost of energy is cheap to the point that it fosters min-ing businesses. The beauty of the blockchain is that there is no central authority. However, if one party were to control 51% of all mining computers, there is the potential that he could overtake the system and control all bookkeeping. This has never been the case while miners were just a dispersed group of hobby-ists, but it could become an issue in the future due to the emergence of Bitcoin data centres in China.

Currently Bitcoin is still legal, but its usage is lim-ited if compared to European countries due to the Chinese ban on the processing of payments. So what explains its popularity? Sometimes the rise in pop-ularity of Bitcoin in China is linked to Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption, presented with stories of corrupt party officials jumping on the opportunity to secure their ill-gotten gains. Sending Bitcoin is ex-

tremely fast, but there are still fees to pay to convert Renminbi into Bitebi. It turns out that the fees at a Bitcoin exchange are not cheaper than the usual black market currency traders, known as huangniu (黄牛), who can help with the whitewashing of assets for a cut of only half a percent.

For Chinese people who want to invest, there are not many options. The housing market requires mas-sive investments that many people have no access to and the Chinese stock market has been lagging since its growth years during the 2000s. The fear that the government takes your land for a development proj-ect and then cheats you out of a fair compensation is very real for many Chinese. Bitcoin is attractive because it is the only kind of investment that local governments cannot interfere with.

22NOVAsia

FEATURE

Over the past decades, the Mongolian econ-omy has been very volatile. Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, 80% of Mongolia’s trade was with the USSR and one-third of the Mongolian Gross Domes-

tic Product (GDP) consisted of Soviet Union support. As the communist power disintegrated, this support disap-peared almost instantaneously. Consequently, Mongolia was driven into a deep recession, which was prolonged as a result of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Par-ty’s reluctance to reform economically. The recession led to triple-digit inflation, rising unemployment rates, and a shortage of goods, among other issues.

As a result, Mongolia’s transition to its current market economy did not go smoothly. When economic market reforms and private enterprises finally took hold of the economy in 1994, economic growth kicked in again. The growth, however, was mostly the result of an over-allo-cation of bank credit and therefore accompanied by a severe weakening of the banking sector when Mongo-lian banks were not able to retrieve all the credit they provided. Fluctuating commodity prices throughout the 1990s, the 1996-1999 Asian financial crisis, and the 1998 Russian financial crisis each had a significant impact on the Mongolian economy.

Starting in 2000, economically Mongolia was seen as a regrowth story. The GDP per capita was less than US$475 but it rocketed to US$4000 by 2013. This was the result of a booming mining sector as well as low birth rates among other factors. In the coming years, the figure is expected to grow to US$5000, meaning that Mongo-lia’s GDP per capita will have increased ten-fold since 2000. The country, however, has been on an economic roller coaster for the past few years. In 2011, several in-vestment banks predicted an economic growth of 20% for Mongolia, rating it as the fastest growing economy in the world.

Another prime example of how volatile the Mongo-lian economic environment can be is an investment law that passed in April 2012, which made it impossible for foreign investors to invest in strategic industries. It was

rumoured to be a direct consequence of an attempted purchase of a Mongolian coalmine operation by Chinese state-owned Aluminum Corp. from a Canadian compa-ny. The introduction of the investment law was alleged-ly an attempt by the Mongolian government to prevent the Chinese from selling Mongolian coal to China at low prices. Even though these new investment restrictions were applied to only a few industries, Mongolia earned a reputation for erratic legal changes, and as a result for-eign investors fled the country.

In the first six months of 2013, Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) dropped 43%. Realizing the importance of FDI, the Mongolian government decided to introduce a set of new investment laws on November 1st, 2013. For-eign investors received the news positively, but ultimate-ly it was a return to the status quo before the regulations of 2012. Nevertheless, Mongolia has taken the first step in the right direction on its path of regaining the trust of foreign investors.

Looking at the future, Mongolia definitely has the po-tential to be an interesting investment opportunity. In-vestment bankers argue that there are not many countries with this much potential growth in the coming three to five years, calling Mongolia a “Blue-Sky Opportunity” as they predict “unstoppable” economic growth. Mongo-lia seems to be more open than ever to accept foreign capital, which is seen among others through the resource extraction that is going to take place under Rio Tinto as they invest about US$300 million in the country. It has the chance to reclaim its title as one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

From a portfolio perspective, however, it is a rather tricky story as the Mongolian economy and the coun-try’s primary trading partners are rather undiversified. First, China is by far the most important trading partner of Mongolia as it imports 88.9% of all Mongolian prod-ucts. Meanwhile, China accounts for 37.6% of the total amount of Mongolian imports. This reliance on China means that a hit to the economic market of China would mean a black eye to the Mongolian economy, but depen-dence on China is something they have been trying to

Tom de Vroome, 2nd semester, ITFM

Contributor

the Peaks and tRoughs of the Mongolian econoMy

23NOVAsia

FEATURE

change. Mongolia created its first Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partnership in early 2015 after three long years of negotiations with Japan. Recently, it has expressed its de-sire to create a similar FTA with South Korea.

However, this is not the only diversification problem that has plagued Mongolia. The Mongolian economy it-self is not as diversified as it ideally should be, with 30% of the entire Mongolian industry consisting of mining. Another main industry is the production of cashmere as Mongolia is the world’s second largest producer. Gobi Cashmere, the largest such company, accounted for 21% of the total world cashmere production in 2006. This lack of diversification makes Mongolia prone to externalities that can severely damage their economy. Examples of these externalities are the sharp decreases of metal pric-es. Similarly, a so-called “Zud” occurred in the winter

of 2009-2010. The resulting goat deaths heavily hit the cashmere industry that accounted for 7% of Mongolia’s total export revenues the following year.

In the end, Mongolia has been trying to be more open for foreign investments but has shown in the past that its somewhat erratic economic policies make a risky invest-ment. On top of that, the Mongolian economy is vulnera-ble due to its dependency on China and its lack of diver-sification. However, Mongolia has reset itself to where it was three years ago when a very positive economic fu-ture was predicted. The big question is whether they will make the same mistakes again, or if they will actually manage to capture the predicted gains. If the latter is the case, and the Mongolian economy can actually become more stable and diversified, it would be worthwhile to in-vest in the Mongolian market as it pushes to new heights.

24NOVAsia

FEATURE

25NOVAsia

FEATURE

What is ideology in North Korea? It is, as the au-thor Hyung Gu Lynn wrote, a

monumental illusion characterized by a great ideological and political utility and coherence. An illusion that it is as much metaphysical as it is real in affecting politics and life in North Korea. Ideology is, above all, a tool of societal control that legitimizes the regime, controls in-formation, and mobilizes the mass-es. It is the most pervasive social feature of North Korean society, and it plays a role in channelling human behaviour in all the areas of public and private life.

During the Cold War period, when ideological fervour was at its highest, ideology served indi-viduals as a way to map society and conceptualize socio-political interactions. Ideological belief also functioned as an ancillary currency that was used, within certain limits, to rise on the social ladder or gain more benefits from the state. How-ever, North Korea has changed. Af-ter the crisis of the nineties, when the Public Distribution System (PDS) stopped feeding its citizens, ideological belief depreciated to the point where it became utterly use-less and was abandoned in favour of a less depreciated monetary cur-rency. Since then, the power of ide-ology as a means to retain societal control is eroding.

In the Korea of Kim Jong-un, the vast majority of people have to rely on market-oriented jobs to fulfil their basic material needs and experience social mobility. There-fore, many North Koreans have to cope with the fact that the State’s ideology is currently less essential than they were told in the past. Yet,

ideology still matters, even if its scope has been scaled down by the dynamics of marketization of the economy. Ideology today serves as an institution that provides a set of norms and rules to supplement the lack of rule of law. To some extent, it functions as a social fabric that provides predictable guidelines and boundaries to human interactions. In addition, ideology in North Ko-rea also serves a psychological purpose of defining a cognitive framework that explains life and the role of the individual in soci-ety. It indeed supplants the lack of a liberal education and freedom of belief by providing “ready-to-use” normative judgments on philosoph-ical questions.

If North Korean ideology is so resilient and effective, it is not be-cause citizens are indoctrinated, but rather because it is still useful for individuals as a pro forma so-cial structure that helps to maintain predictable norms and rules in soci-ety. Likewise, it is resilient because for the average North Korean it re-mains the most useful and accessi-ble cognitive framework for under-standing the world. In addition, the Juche ideology, which stands at the core of the North Korean ideolog-ical framework, is meant to be to-talitarian and holistic, in a way that makes it extremely pervasive.

Holism is particularly effective in providing the citizens a cognitive framework in which personal hap-piness and fulfilment are always subordinate to the function of soci-ety. As are most of the totalitarian ideologies, Juche is meant to be organicistic, manichaeistic, and es-chatological.

Organicism implies that a soci-ety goes beyond the sum of indi-viduals. Society is therefore a spate

body, controlled by a brain (the Great Leader), nerves (the party) and all the other organs and bones (the people). As Kim Jong-Il wrote in the book On the Juche Idea, man is a social being with Chaju-song, creativity and consciousness, which he uses to shape the word. However, he can only master the world if he is conscious of his in-dependence and creativity. Then, if independent, he can socialize and develop consciousness of the masses into revolution. Yet, and here lies the trick, revolution for independence can only be achieved with “boundless loyalty to the party and the leader,” who embodies the Juche idea. In other words, an in-dividual has to be completely one with the community and, just like a cell would in a body, work for the society under the guidance of the brain.

Consequentially, any external el-ement to the society, either in form of individuals or information, is considered as a threat to the whole, unless it is assimilated and inter-nalized. Moreover, Juche is partic-ularly pervasive because of its es-chatological nature, which, as Lynn wrote in the book Bipolar Orders, means that it “infuses the present, but at the same time it anticipates or promises a future, a pledge of the fulfilment of the already begun but not yet completed realization of all the precepts of Kimilsungism.”

To conclude, it can be asserted that ideology in North Korea con-tinues to play a major role because at a social level it is the de facto institution, while at the individual level it remains a rather convincing holistic ideological system that pro-vides normative answers to funda-mental philosophical inquiries.

the Role of ideology in noRth koReaCesare Scartozzi

4th semester, PICStaff

26NOVAsia

FEATURE

The beginning of the Korean War created an urgent need for able-bodied troops on both sides of the conflict. While South Korea’s Con-

scription Law was not enacted until May 1951, the declaration of martial law on July 8, 1950 led to the force-ful draft of both young men and boys to fight for the South. Now, almost 65 years after Conscription Law, the cur-rent conscription system faces pub-lic backlash against “draft dodgers” in what is only the most recent critic of a long history of public outcry that dates back to when the country’s origi-nal 1951 policy was known as a “poor man’s draft.” Today’s condemnation for “draft dodgers” also plays out in quarterly (if not monthly) reports by Korean media entities of privileged young men who avoid military con-scription. Recently, The Korea Times reported that the government was con-sidering “strengthening sanctions” in order to close the loophole that allowed 2,842 Korean males in 2012 and 4,386 in 2014 to take “improper advantage of a change of nationality” to avoid serv-ing. To reverse this two year increase, potential policy changes included re-stricting F4 visa issuance (for ethnic Koreans) and increasing tax rates, though both are certainly small pen-alties for avoiding what is often more than two years of mandatory military service.

While the country continues to mod-ify policies to address the public’s con-cern of unfairness over rich young men and government officials’ sons who have received medical exemptions or

were able to acquire foreign citizen-ship to avoid serving in the military, some believe South Korean lawmakers should also consider addressing a much larger inequity: gender discrimination. While all able-bodied, 18–35 year old South Korean men must serve in the military for at least two years while making an average of only US$90 per month, women do not. As a journalist in Korea for the past few years, I have done multiple reports on the anger and resentment felt by poor and middle class Koreans who see men from rich families and government officials’ sons avoiding military service while the majority of Korean males still have to serve. However, this resentment is not limited due elite males. One soldier I spoke with who served as a driver along the DMZ, a position his family told me he received because they were not rich enough to arrange for an “easy” posi-tion away from the border, told me his more than two years of service was “a waste of my life.” That soldier, now a college student, also likes to make fun of his sister because she “didn’t have to serve.” Or, put in another way, she didn’t have to “waste” her life.

For a nation that has focused on maintaining a combat-ready military to fight a war that has technically nev-er ended after the signing of an armi-stice on July 27, 1953, and against a much larger North Korean army, it is interesting to note the continuation of a gender-biased policy of military con-scription that in effect limits the size of South Korea’s defenses. In addition, despite North Korea’s nearly two-to-one ratio of soldiers and overall larg-

er military capabilities compared to South Korea, this year Pyongyang de-cided to replace its previous gender-bi-ased military conscription system with mandatory service for both men and women. The move makes the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea only the second nation in the world to mandate military service for the vast majority of both men and women. The other coun-try, Israel, has used and benefitted from a non-gender-biased conscription since nearly the same time as the outbreak of the Korean war and subsequent mili-tary draft system of both Korean states. Under the 1949 Defense Service Law, the Israeli Defense Force was given the authority to enlist any citizen, though the length of service was shorter for women.

But, while it is easy to see the po-tential reward of a non-biased military conscription system from a just a num-bers standpoint, can such legislation also have a positive effect in other ar-eas? In 2014, just a little more than 100 years after the realization of Norwegian women’s suffrage, Norway’s parlia-ment voted to extend its system of qua-si-compulsory conscription to women. On the day of the vote, Norway’s fe-male Defense Minister, Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen, said that “in order to secure [Norway’s] operational capabil-ities in the future we need to recruit the best, and we need diversity. Therefore we cannot limit our recruitment to the male half of the population.” However, in addition to the military benefits of the change, Stroem-Erichsen called the legislation “a historic day for equality” as both men and women “shall have

Chance Dorland 1st Semester, KSP

Junior Staff

south koRea’s gendeR-Biased MilitaRy dRaft

27NOVAsia

FEATURE

the same rights and obligations, regardless of sex,” noth-ing that “[m]ale-only conscription is out of synch with the rest of society.” This statement could be particularly important for a country like South Korea as despite its amazing economic growth, the ROK is still rated below a surprising list of other countries in the equal status of women.

In 2013, according to a report by the World Economic Forum, South Korea was 111th out of 136 countries in terms of gender equality (three spots lower than in 2012). In the specific areas of female economic participation and opportunity to join the economy, Korea did even worse with a 118th place ranking (that was also lower than its 2012 score). Last year, the overall score for gen-der equality was even lower, 117 out of 142 countries, with Korea’s economic participation and opportunity level also falling six spots to 124th. Despite having elect-ed its first female president just a short time ago, with such dismal scores, it is easier to see how South Korea could be ranked below such countries like Japan, China, India, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia and Botswana.

While further research is needed before any connection between South Korea’s gender-biased military conscrip-tion policy and its high level of gender inequality can be demonstrated, what is not up for debate are the negative effects of military service on the lives of the men who are forced into it. One ROK veteran, who now runs a small company, recently published an opinion piece online where he wrote that his and others’ two-year military ser-vice “kills [the] creative startup ecosystem in South Ko-rea.” Aside from the obvious loss of two years of a man’s life while serving, the company owner says the “curios-ities, creative thoughts, and adventures” young adults have around the time of college “all come to a screeching halt once you enter the military service.” He asks us to imagine “if Steve Jobs, who incorporated Apple at age 21, and Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook at age 20, had to serve their military service in their early 20s,” would they have gone on to create their companies? The answer is not important as merely understanding the im-plications for the majority of South Korean men who are forced to serve while an elite few, and all women, are not.

Fes

PHOTOJOURNAL

MOROCCOYara BinHimd

3rd semester, ITFMContributor

NOVAsia

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“It is said that Jewish families started the tradition of painting in various shades of blue, most likely because it is the color of divinity in Judaism. Others say it is to repel flies. Whatever the reason it is still breathtaking.”

Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen

“It is a very popular destination for backpackers, the locals shops are charming you'll be able to find many locals traditional products.”

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Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen

Tangier

“On a hot day, people of all ages come here to relax, play, and even do laundry in the spring water.”

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Tangier

Tangier Tangier

Tangier

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“A morning walk on the first day of Eid AlFiter; families come here to start their holiday celebrations "

Casablanca, Ain al-Deeb beach

Casablanca, Hassan II mosque Tangier

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Gordon Gatlin 3rd Semester, ITFM

Staff

What to do when there seems to be no good way to make money? Make money, of course! Whether through manipulation of precious and

non-precious metals to make look-a-likes, printing imita-tions or writing out fraudulent checks and notes, criminal outfits have often turned to counterfeiting when other op-erations run dry. However, it has not only been criminals in the typical sense of the word; opportunistic patriots in times of war, and national governments, too, have used counterfeiting as a political tool to cheaply acquire re-sources or attack opponents’ economies. Since the 19th

century, political organizations have also used currency counterfeiting for gain.

However, while counterfeiting was not used as a polit-ical tool in ancient times, the work of criminals from that period has lasted to modern times. Any coin that is made to appear to be a solid metal piece, but is in fact just a plat-ed copy, is called a fourrée. Many of today’s modern coins officially sanctioned by treasury departments around the world are fourrées, but the term is most often associated with ancient fakes. Many of these coins still exist, dating back more than 2,000 years. While they are less popular

The State of Counterfeiting

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with modern collectors, their appeal still remains as an example of early criminal ingenuity.

During the US civil war, the Confederate States of America broke off from the Union and established a sep-arate, parallel government. With a legislature, capital in Richmond, and new presidency, the South attempted to create a new nation with all the trappings, including its own currency. Criminal organizations immediately be-gan to take advantage of the confusion in the western states with less sovereign control by either side. St. Louis became a center for paper imitations of the new Southern currency. More interestingly, a Philadelphia stationery storeowner began to print counterfeit confederate mon-ey, more as a kind of keepsake rather than explicitly as a forgery. Whatever his actual intentions, Samuel Upham printed some $15 million in counterfeit Confederate dol-lars, much of which went south with the Union soldiers. All of this was completely legal in Philadelphia as the confederate currency held no legal value in the North.

It is unclear exactly how much this one person’s op-eration contributed to the ultimate collapse of the Con-federate dollar, which became so worthless that even counterfeiters stopped printing it. However, the massive influx of fake dollars impacted the populace’s trust in the currency and, by association, in the government. Paper currency, known as fiat currency because a government declares its worth despite no intrinsic value, represents a powerful faith that citizen’s put into their leaders. When that bond is broken by monetary mismanagement, eco-nomic failure or an inability to control the printing of the currency, disaster is likely to follow.

It was during the Civil War that the US government first began to print paper money, which was immediately followed by rampant counterfeiting. By the end of the war, about one third of US currency was estimated to be counterfeit. Realizing the necessity of controlling the printing of the currency, President Lincoln created the Secret Service in order to stamp out counterfeiting. Ironically, this same agency would later also become re-sponsible for the security detail for the US government, particularly the President.

Probably the most elaborate counterfeiting operation to ever take place during wartime was Operation Ber-nhard during World War II. However, Nazi plans to de-stabilize the British economy by creating perfect copies

of their currency, the pound, and then drop them from the sky, never fully materialized. The idea was to cause hyperinflation and ruin the value of the pound complete-ly. While this goal was never realized, the operation was able to fund some Nazi spy missions. While these near perfect notes came to the attention of the Bank of En-gland as early as 1939, even after the war they continued to circulate and forced Britain to issue a new version of each denomination.

Today, currency counterfeiting is still being deployed by at least one nation. Called the “supernote,” copies of the US $100 bill have been found that confuse even US Treasury employees. The notes are so precise that they are virtually undetectable. Of course, it is the world’s most isolated and heavily sanctioned regime that has taken to counterfeiting to raise funds in connection with criminal outfits. Because of its own financial mismanagement (the ethos of Juchae that calls for autarky or essentially no international trade) and international sanctions, the Kim regime of North Korea finds it extremely hard to raise international funds. Instead, like many before them, the regime has shifted to creating capital themselves.

There have been some claims that the North Korean goal is to actually devalue the US currency and strike a blow at its enemy’s economy. While this may or may not be true, the amount of currency they would need to create, as well as the lack of a successful historical example, means that any fears of a counterfeit induced fi-nancial crisis are quite limited. However, this counterfeit operation does allow the Kim regime to raise some level of capital.

As long as currency maintains a physical pres-ence, there will be those that will attempt to counterfeit. In the digital age, other forms of financial fraud have become common, from fake credit cards to ransoming businesses for their computer-stored information. Many criminologists claim that the increased use of plastic rather than paper currency has had a significant im-pact on lowering the overall crime rate. It would seem that despite some of the unease many individuals have, moves to digital currency have more than one benefit. However, until the world is completely free of physical currency, there will be criminal, and even some political organizations willing to counterfeit.

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Rome was not built in a day, the saying goes. Yet the idea of a rapid “fall of Rome” seems to be commonly accepted: non-Roman barbarian “oth-

ers,” taking advantage of Roman weakness, pouring across the borders and tearing down civilization, leaving Europe in a cultural backwater for the next millennium. This is an image which easily captures the imagination, and it fits into the general narrative of the Middle Ages as a generally backward, barbaric era. It has unrelentingly maintained its grip on minds, child and adult alike, even over the protests of professional historians who frown upon the use of that demeaning, and inaccurate, term “the Dark Ages.” Such a pessimistic view of an entire thou-sand plus years of European history is in fact the result of successful propaganda by Renaissance-era thinkers, who sought to emphasize their achievements by contrasting their time period with the alleged barbarism and darkness of the centuries before them and signaling a return to the cultural and intellectual glory of classical Europe (hence a “rebirth”). And the beginning of all the darkness of the Middle Ages begins with the so-called “fall of Rome,” precipitated by the mass movements of barbarian tribes who allegedly did not adhere to “Roman ways” and end-ed up destroying the empire.

But the real question that needs to be asked is not “why did Rome fall?” but rather “did Rome fall at all?” And the argument can be convincingly made that it did not, in fact. Rather, the migrations that took place between the fifth to the eighth centuries across Europe should not be seen as “barbarian invasions” but rather the incorporation of diverse (not just a monolithic “Germanic tribe”) peo-ples on the periphery into the Roman world. Rome never “fell” – it was instead fundamentally changed by the ac-

Gene Kim 1st Semester, PIC

Junior Staff

Europe’s Migrant Crisis of the 5th Century

36

Rome was not built in a day, the saying goes. Yet the idea of a rapid “fall of Rome” seems to be commonly accepted: non-Roman barbarian “oth-

ers,” taking advantage of Roman weakness, pouring across the borders and tearing down civilization, leaving Europe in a cultural backwater for the next millennium. This is an image which easily captures the imagination, and it fits into the general narrative of the Middle Ages as a generally backward, barbaric era. It has unrelentingly maintained its grip on minds, child and adult alike, even over the protests of professional historians who frown upon the use of that demeaning, and inaccurate, term “the Dark Ages.” Such a pessimistic view of an entire thou-sand plus years of European history is in fact the result of successful propaganda by Renaissance-era thinkers, who sought to emphasize their achievements by contrasting their time period with the alleged barbarism and darkness of the centuries before them and signaling a return to the cultural and intellectual glory of classical Europe (hence a “rebirth”). And the beginning of all the darkness of the Middle Ages begins with the so-called “fall of Rome,” precipitated by the mass movements of barbarian tribes who allegedly did not adhere to “Roman ways” and end-ed up destroying the empire.

But the real question that needs to be asked is not “why did Rome fall?” but rather “did Rome fall at all?” And the argument can be convincingly made that it did not, in fact. Rather, the migrations that took place between the fifth to the eighth centuries across Europe should not be seen as “barbarian invasions” but rather the incorporation of diverse (not just a monolithic “Germanic tribe”) peo-ples on the periphery into the Roman world. Rome never “fell” – it was instead fundamentally changed by the ac-

tive participation of people on both sides of the borders, including the Roman authorities themselves, who used techniques from land distribution to tax shares.

But the idea of the “fall of Rome” is difficult to let go. The tragedy of the fall of a cultured civilization makes for a good story charged with pathos. And, perhaps more importantly, the narrative speaks to many contemporary fears of the “other” and the dangers that mass migrations are deemed to pose to one’s own society. Rather than of-fering a direct instructive example, of course, history is said to teach by analogy, and perhaps in a related vein of thought, we need to be wary of the images we hold about mass migrations and movements of people across borders. The recent tragedy in Paris has increased scruti-ny on the refugees entering into Europe and sparked de-bates about their identity. The terms used in such discus-sions are politically charged. In referring to the ongoing events, media reports split on their use of either “migrant crisis” or “refugee crisis.” These terms, though to the un-suspecting may initially seem interchangeable, reveal a deeper, serious disagreement over the nature of the peo-ple who are coming into Europe: are they migrants, a more general term that may also refer to those seeking better economic conditions to improve their livelihoods, or are they refugees, fleeing persecution and bodily harm in their home countries? For the xenophobic elements, of course, the distinction is not important – whether migrant or refugee, they pose a threat to Europe and need to be kept out.

But those that seek to preserve some idea of a pure and original “Europe” against an alleged threat from immi-grants and refugees are deeply misled, and an attempt to “keep them out” is both infeasible and bound to be

fruitless. Movements of people across countries, across borders, across any space, are some of the most powerful forces driving history, helping to promote cross-cultural contacts, innovation, and political, economic, and socie-tal developments. The movements in Europe in the fifth through to the eighth centuries did not destroy the civi-lized world and Roman culture—rather, it brought large groups of people in greater contact with one another and fundamentally altered the face of Western Europe.

Contrary to the Renaissance view, the Middle Ages saw the rise of universities as we know them today, the development of what would become our modern-day Romance languages, and vibrant advances in art and ar-chitecture that we can still admire. This is certainly not to whitewash the darker aspects of the period, in which some historians see the beginnings of Europe as a perse-cuting society, targeting not only Muslims and Jews but also Christian religious minorities, lepers, and homosex-uals.

But even as we note and decry these aspects, we should be careful not to descend into the condescending attitude towards the past that characterized Renaissance views of earlier centuries and that still remains with us today – the notion that somehow we in our own time period are so evolved and intelligent that we have the right to sneer on the obvious stupidity of those that came before us. Considering the xenophobic and racist parties across Eu-rope gaining greater ground, state governors in the U.S. declaring that they will refuse to accept any refugees, and the many instances of systematic oppression around the world, it is not apparent that we ourselves are any better. We should be so lucky to not be harshly judged by our descendants as being on the wrong side of history.

HISTORY

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A chain of violence con-nects the world. Wars and conflicts persevere in a

vicious cycle that creates destruc-tion and despair in a vast territory that spreads from Southeast Asia to Central Africa, across Central Asia and the Middle East. In this chain of violence, the shared com-mon denominator is insurgency. The causes of insurgency are often rooted in complex and multifacet-ed initial conditions that are dif-ficult to change, such as poverty, bad governance, and ethnic strife. For this reason, conflict resolution is extremely hard to achieve in in-surgency wars without fundamental socioeconomic changes and politi-cal concessions. Consequentially, with conflict resolution impaired, conflict management is the only approach that can safeguard lives, reduce outbreak of violence and prevent escalation.

In the specific, managing insur-gency means counterinsurgency (COIN). However, it is not the COIN in vogue in the 2000s, with indiscriminate bombings that often cannot distinguish between an in-surgent and a civilian, but instead the COIN of Major General Walter Walker, Commander of the British

Forces in Borneo during the peak of the Indonesia-Malaysian Con-frontation (Konfrontasi) between Malaysia and Indonesia. General Walker’s strategies in the Konfron-tasi deserve to be studied because they provide plenty of operational tactics that are still applicable to contemporary insurgencies. More-over, Walker’s successful COIN strategy drastically differs from the contemporary British and Ameri-can strategy, and it provides us with alternative guidelines and theoreti-cal insights on how to manage and solve an insurgency war.

Southeast Asia during the sixties was a region in turmoil. On 20 Jan-uary 1963, Subandrio, the Indone-sian foreign minister, publicly an-nounced the Konfrontasi: a foreign policy of ‘Confrontation against the proposed state of Malaysia.’ The confrontation was not an official declaration of war against Malaya, but it implied open political and military hostility against it, with the aim of deterring the foundation of the Malaysia federation. Sukarno, president of Indonesia, knew that it could not face the British in a con-ventional war and therefore opted for a guerrilla insurgency limited to the Borneo region with the aim of

destabilizing Malaysia. On the is-land of Borneo, Malaysia and Indo-nesia share a border of about 2000 km in a jungle and mountainous terrain with little to no basic infra-structure such streets and inhabited by ethnic minorities, such as the Iban. Borneo, in the eyes of Indo-nesia, was an optimal arena to wear out Malaysian forces.

However, the Konfrontasi was not limited only to the Indone-sians and Malaysians, but saw di-rect participation too from Britain, New Zealand and Australia. The British were the major force in confronting Indonesia and at the peak of their ‘Borneo campaign’ they were deploying 8,000 troops in Borneo and 20,000 in Malay-sia. The British, supported by the Malaysian troops, fought against 24,000 Chinese sympathisers and 10,000 Indonesian troops along the border, plus an unknown number of volunteer guerrillas. The man in charge to contrast the Indone-sian offensive was Major General Walter Walker. Walker was a prag-matic commander with experience in the Burma campaign against the Japanese troops and in the Malayan Emergency. Throughout his life, Walker grew accustomed to fight in

How to Do CounterinsurgencyCesare Scartozzi

4th semester, PICStaff

Lessons from Major General Walter Walker

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a jungle scenario against asymmetrical targets such as guerrilla forces and knew the importance of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of the local population.

Walker’s COIN strategy in Borneo was inherited from the British experience in the Malayan Emergen-cy and aimed to prevent military escalation avoiding actions that would increase resentment among Indo-nesians. From 1964, his troops carried on a series of covert cross-border raids in Borneo codenamed Claret. The Claret operations were carried out under a set of seven rules established by Walker. Among those, some are particularly interesting if compared to contemporary COIN trends. In one rule it was stat-ed that only trained and tested troops had to be used,

and no soldiers were to go on the field during their first tour of duty in Borneo. This rule seems common sense, but it should not be forgotten that in the recent Afghanistan war, the average age of British casual-ties was 22. Age is not necessarily a good index of a soldier’s training and readiness, but the difference in experience with the British troops of veterans that fought in Borneo is remarkable. Another of Walker’s rules states that “depth of penetration must be limit-ed and attacks must only be made to thwart offensive action by the enemy and must never be in retribution or solely to inflict casualties and civilian lives must not be risked.” This insightful rule seems not to be applied in contemporary conflicts either. Instead of limited depth of penetration in an enemy’s territory, western powers have opted for full-fledged invasions, like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Likewise, retri-bution has played a major role in the decision-making that brought western troops to invade the two coun-tries. Most noticeably, modern COIN fails in prevent-ing civilian deaths. While Walker’s COIN was able to win the hearts and minds of the local population and turn them against the insurgents, today’s COIN seems to antagonize local populations and it deploys drone attacks that regard all man in ‘military-age’ as enemy, consequentially killing numerous civilians.

Without going too much into the details of Walk-er’s strategies, it is already evident today that West-ern countries approach conflicts and insurgencies in a much more different way. Walker succeeded not because he destroyed the enemy, but instead because he dominated the conflict scenario on both a physi-cal and psychological dimension. Operation Claret succeeded in pulling the insurgents on the defensive and allowed the British to regulate the intensity of the conflict while safeguarding their operational inter-ests. All was made possible by the strict appliance by Walker’s troops of minimum-necessary offensive and proportionality of damage, which prevented escala-tion while gaining the support of civilians.

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Seventy years ago, on April 30th, 1945, Hitler commit-ted suicide together with Eva

Braun, marking the end of what was essentially one of the biggest crimes against humanity, the Holo-caust. The Second World War has left its scars on the common con-sciousness of the European people. Never again shall the states of Eu-rope permit such heinous deeds be-ing committed in their countries – a

thought, which created willingness for cooperation never seen before, and ultimately fostered the estab-lishment of the European Union. The successor states of the Third Reich, Austria and Germany have since apologized and paid compen-sations to the remaining victims, as well as making the denial of the Holocaust a punishable crime.

However, the steadily increas-ing influx of immigrants from

outside of Europe and the difficult economic situation in many coun-tries have spurred a revival of the old ideologies of Nationalism. The “Front National” in France, the “United Kingdom Indepen-dence Party,” “Sverige Demokra-terna” in Sweden, the Norwegian “Fremskrittspartiet,” the Austrian “Freiheitlich Partei Österreichs,” the Dutch “Lijst Pim Fortuyn,” the German “Nationaldemokratische

The March of the RighteousLilith-Isa Samer

3rd Semester, PICStaff

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Partei Deutschlands” … the list of far right parties gaining more votes goes on and on. These parties share the common fear that European culture is be-ing corrupted by domestic liberal policies and inter-national migration. This hate and fear culminates in the rejection of many immigrants from outside of the European culture sphere, especially immigrants with a Muslim background.

Acts of terror motivated by nationalist ideas, such as Anders Breivik’s attack on Utøya in 2011, as well as torrents of hate on social media platforms are on the rise. The voice of nationalism does not only grow louder when it comes to elections, where the far right parties in many of the aforementioned countries had massive gains in support, but also on the Internet on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The Austrian newspaper “der Standard,” reported, that Facebook has had increases in posts and content denying the Holocaust reported by users in Germany and Austria, in which the publishing of Holocaust de-nial is punishable by law. In 2014, Facebook limited access to 15 of such posts in Austria, whereas in the first half of 2015 it was already 170. The situation in Germany is similar, where, in 2014, access to 94 contents was blocked, and in the first half of 2015 it was already 188.

This worrying trend of growing public support for the right is also reflected in the increase of violent at-tacks motivated by nationalism and xenophobic ide-ology. One of the most high profile attacks motivated by these kind of ideas was the aforementioned attack on a socialist youth camp on the small Island Utøya in 2011. Anders Breivik wrote in his manifesto that all Muslims in Europe should be deported and advocated openly for an annihilation of multiculturalism. Since the beginning of 2015 and the influx of refugees, the police in Germany noted an increase in aggressions against migrants coming to Germany. The newspaper “Die Zeit” reported in an article in mid-August, that the police counted around 500 small-scale attacks in

the first eight months of 2015. The ongoing shift to the right has also caused a

mushrooming of far-right political organizations. The most prominent is the PEGIDA, Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes [Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident], which was founded in October 2014 and has since been organizing weekly demonstrations against the Islamization of the Occident, demand-ing stricter immigration regulations, especially for people with a Muslim background. They have been garnering support throughout the past year, fueled by the Charlie Hebdo attacks, which they exploited for their own political ends. The European migrant crisis also contributed to their popularity. On October 19th, 2015, around 20,000 people came to one of their ral-lies and observers noted, that there was a perceived radicalization of the crowd.

Right-wing politics and nationalist ideology have undoubtedly become mainstream and the moderate parties have suffered heavy losses in elections in re-cent years. After the terror attacks in Paris, the voic-es demanding tighter border controls and reduction of immigrants and refugees allowed to settle in the country have become louder and more determined. It is very easy to win elections with campaigns based on simple hate-mongering instead of productive ideas, which is why many parties use a populist approach to garner support.

Europe is now at a crossroads: will it once again go down the path of nationalism, or will it retain the values established after the end of the Second World War. On one hand, there are shifts toward the right and more stringent immigration policies, but on the other, there are also voices opposing these nationalist ideas while advocating the values of tolerance, co-operation and openness on which the European com-munity was established after the Second World War. Regardless of the outcome, the next couple of years will be formative for the European continent.

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The City of Dohukin Iraq

Omar S. Al-Melka2nd Semester, ITFMContributor

Panuelo Port

tions. The city was destined to be a safe-ha-ven. American troops were mostly deployed in Dohuk first because they did not have to fear car bombs going off. In addition, large foreign investments and the discovery of new oil fields contributed immensely to Do-huk’s rapid change. People could afford to buy the newest car models imported from the U.S, Europe and South Korea. The most luxurious SUV’s like the Toyota Land Cruis-ers, Lexus and Range Rovers were seen as a must-have. It soon became a status symbol: owning a large new SUV meant that you were part of the wealthy elite.

However, in spite of the rapid globaliza-tion of this small city, it still maintained an old habit: the rule of family and hierarchy. Tribes dominate the city and the sense of be-longing to a certain tribe has an impact on your social status. It has replaced the identity of every individual. If you belong to a large

tribe, you will be easier to ‘’recognize’’. This form of patronage played an important role in stabilizing the community. This kind of hi-erarchy and tribal rule is slowly fading but it is still exerting its influence to this very day.

Dohuk has a very rich ancient heritage dating back to the times of Mesopotamia. More than 40 different historical ruins which date back to 700 B.C have only been recent-ly discovered. There are many historical and tourist sites to visit in Dohuk. There are still numerous places in Dohuk that are yet to be discovered and show signs of ancient civilizations. The most prominent examples of these ancient artifacts can be found in a small village called Khanis. It is believed that the multiple artifacts are around 2700 years old. One of the most fascinating sights of Do-huk is the town of Amedi. It sits on top of a hill 1,400 meters above sea level. According to historians, Amedi was a town inhabited

With a small population of around 400,000, Dohuk is one of the smallest cities in Iraq. The city of Dohuk is located in the North of Iraq and is part of the autonomous region called the Kurdistan Regional Government, or short, KRG. The official language in Dohuk is primarily Kurdish, which has two different dialects, Bahdini and Sorani. The city has a quite unique society that mainly consists of Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yezidies, Arabs and Armenians. Dohuk is the only city that is surrounded by three mountains and - from a geographical perspective - is indirectly the bridge between Iraq and the West. Through-out the war in 1991, Dohuk was the beacon of hope for most Iraqis. The city, while signifi-cantly underdeveloped compared to the rest of Iraq, provided the most important factor: guaranteed safety. With the city experienc-ing an economic boom after the 2003 war, Dohuk was expected to become the new ‘’Dubai’’ in Iraq.

The other parts of Iraq faced many chal-lenges like the access to electricity and clean water, as well as underdeveloped infrastruc-ture and sanitation. In the north, Dohuk proved to be the pull-factor for Iraqis in the south and also for international organiza-

Khanis City of Dohuk

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tribe, you will be easier to ‘’recognize’’. This form of patronage played an important role in stabilizing the community. This kind of hi-erarchy and tribal rule is slowly fading but it is still exerting its influence to this very day.

Dohuk has a very rich ancient heritage dating back to the times of Mesopotamia. More than 40 different historical ruins which date back to 700 B.C have only been recent-ly discovered. There are many historical and tourist sites to visit in Dohuk. There are still numerous places in Dohuk that are yet to be discovered and show signs of ancient civilizations. The most prominent examples of these ancient artifacts can be found in a small village called Khanis. It is believed that the multiple artifacts are around 2700 years old. One of the most fascinating sights of Do-huk is the town of Amedi. It sits on top of a hill 1,400 meters above sea level. According to historians, Amedi was a town inhabited

by Jews, Arabs and Christians during the 14th century.

Thanks to the large 4-by-4 SUV’s, the younger generation tends to spend their free time driving deep into the mountains called Zawita. Their aim is to enjoy what na-ture has to offer, a waterfall and ice-cold wa-ter to swim in since temperatures can reach almost 50°C. One of the most beautiful natu-ral resorts I have seen is called “Galy Sherana” translated as “The Valley of Sherana.” Found between two mountains you will find an ex-cellent place to swim, have a barbeque and smoke hookah.

For the outside world, Iraq is seen as a dangerous place to live in. The image they have is mostly negative because the me-dia primarily focuses on the negative parts. However, the city of Dohuk is a prime exam-ple of how the life conditions have changed

over the past two decades. It can also be a unique experience for everyone who wants to see the positive side of Iraq and Kurdistan. After all, the safest way to travel in Iraq is via Erbil International Airport which is also part of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The construction of a new international airport in Dohuk means that in time it will become a self-sufficient city. Lastly, the words peace and stability describe the city of Dohuk best, something that cannot be said of most parts of Iraq.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Mosul, the town which was overrun by ISIL last June, is only one hour away, yet Dohuk has main-tained its security and stability. Thanks to its military personnel, the Peshmerga and intel-ligence services called the “Asayish” and “Par-estin,” the city of Dohuk has kept its status as the safe-haven and beacon of hope of Iraq.

KhanisGaly Sherana

AmediCity of Duhok