the phrase international community is often bandied about in western media as if its meaning was clearly understood by all in fact when western politicians and media invoke the phrase international community it almost always reflects the thinking and agenda of washington and its closest allies around the world used in this manner the international community is in fact a very small minority. to crosstalk to term international community i'm joined by my guest george samuel in new york he is a fellow of the global policy institute of london metropolitan university and in tampa we cross to ruff is a day he is a political scientist and president of the international american council right gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i very much encourage it if i go to you in tampa when you hear the term the international community when politicians and evoke invoke it when western media says the international community says this or represents what it was that mean to you that's a great question peter i think you hear a lot of the politicians usually throw ou

as we live within western liberal political institutions.everybody who lives in a western country lives in this kind of a structure with a variation, we also all live within capitalistic market economies part of an interconnected global market network regardless of even the people in the most intentional i want to get off the bridge and rural missouri, they still have to enter back with markets in certain ways. in that sense, we are within this institutional structures regardless of the particular ways in which you either affirm or don't affirm or had very kind of race in which we answer those questions. since you mentioned charles taylor, give us the ways in which churros taylor -- charles taylor is a great thinker, but he is my mind a frustrating way of using the first person and sources of this out years ago from my thinking about this. if you think this country and see if it has a disagreement that actually help us explain more about the political and cultural realities. whenever taylor says we, as could you name? i don't recognize mysel

in the book, western hyper pleurallism. hyper pluralism. another phrase i use in the book, in the kingdom of whatever. chapter three, controlling the churches. shows how the reformation transformed the already growing late medieval oversight of ecloseasiccal institutions by nonecclesiastical authorities which eventually left a lasting legacy of the modern state's control of religion and the secularization via religious toleration. among those christians who rejected the roman church, only politically supported forms of protestantism were able to have a wide lasting influence, alongside catholic regimes in the early modern period inconclusive conflicts in the reformation era prompted the political protection of religious freedom in exchange for religions' privatization. although states today control churches, no less, although very differently, than did confessional states in early modern europe. the subject of chapter four, subjectivizing morallate, is the transition from the -- to the formal ethics of rights. this transiti

senators joining the protesters in the capital kiev throwing their weight behind the opposition's pro western ambitions. mexico is gripped by mass anti-government demonstrations with protesters accusing authorities of stripping the state of its wealth and people of their future. baby out of the russian capital you're watching r t international with me marina joshie welcome to the program fierce fighting continues in the syrian town of hadera on the outskirts of damascus as the army tries to push rebel forces from several districts and our sources say al qaida ling groups have carried out mass executions and kidnappings in the town our colleagues from artie's arabic chalo spoke to an eyewitness. r t sources in the military say radical islamist fighters and toured the town of address and massacred local civilians according to the latest figures at least eighty people were killed in the districts which the syrian army has now liberated entire families were killed other families were kidnapped and are being used as human shields in the battle against government forces. that are out. militants fro

tampa when you hear the term the international community when politicians and evoke invoke it when western media says the international community says this or represents what it was that mean to you that's a great question peter i think you hear a lot the politician usually throughout the term international community and it's really varies depends on the context that you're using it but from my perspective the concept international community community is really too elastic to define it for the sake of i think our discussion and our debate there are two main you can say to finish and for the international community which are you is the classical one international community includes all sovereign states all nation states independent entities and they were relatively with equal power now that's again debatable and open to question the more contemporary i think definition of international community which i use in my context is not only the inclusion of the. sovereign states across the world but also the inclusion of non-governmental organizations into transnationals. transnational corporations

talk a lot about european values and western values but is it a western value to allow a foreign country to come in and influence politics on the streets of course it's not see a pattern here of of escalation in provocation i think really the protesters on the ground they had a very large public provocation a few nights ago they were using chains and tractors the question now i think is will the protesters ratchet up looking for a government overreaction so that they can get some new energy into their protests you know what's funny the u.s. has counseled. non-violence but what would happen if i'm here in washington what would happen if someone drove a tractor and tried to drive it into the white house lawn you're going to tell me that there wouldn't be violence against the one hundred thousand people trying to break into the white house. and the rats are rounding ukraine's mixed signals to be the focus of the latest edition of artie's crosstalk. there are voices in the european union and some prominent newspapers as well as probably some prominent european union officials are saying that

hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle syria in collapse western backed rebels have either been routed or on the run saudi supported jihad it's now prevailed in rebel held territories civilian populations terrorized meanwhile assad remains in power with his military in taps what's next for syria. to cross off the war in syria i'm joined by sonny in london he is a contributor to al-jazeera and the guardian and in new york we cross to jason hearst. he is a writer political commentator and contributor to counterpoint and dissonant voice sorry gentlemen crosstalk roles in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want so me if i go to you first in london it looks like the western backed forces there rebels are basically dissipated they're on the run and the united states is talking about talking about dealing now with the national islamic front that's in syria right now i mean what do you think of that before. i mean i think it's dangerous because we don't really know who the rebels are and i also think that it's not clear exactly where where the p

syria in collapse western backed rebels have either been routed or on the run saudi supported jihad it's now prevailed in rebel held territory civilian population steroids meanwhile assad remains in power with this military intact what's next for syria. one of the wonderful strong arming allies the polish face i'm sure you know. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. is a. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter all about syria in collapse western backed rebels have either been routed or on the run saudi has supported jihad it's now. veiled in rebel held territories civilian populations terrorized meanwhile assad remains in power with his military in town what's next for syria. to cross out the war in syria i'm joined by sonny who in london he is a contributor to al-jazeera and the guardian and in new york we cross to jason her he is a writer political commentator and contributor to counterpunch and dissonant voice sorry gentlemen crosstalk rosen effect it means you can jump in anytime you want so me if i go to you first in

western union or money gram? western union has had a very rough time lately.hey lost nearly half of their mexican agent network because of compliance issues allowing money gram to sneak in there and take that massive market share. money gram has been the winner in 2013, up nearly 60% year-to-date, but i don't think that can continue in 2014. western union has cut prices pretty aggressively. that's going to put serious pressure on money gram's margins. meanwhile, compliance costs are rising. that's going to hit moneygram harder than western union because it's a smaller player and much more debt relative to the market cap. $800 million in debt to be exact. i think this will make it tough to transfer revenue growth into higher earnings. that's why i'm saying the easy money has been made in moneygram. for 2014, i think that western union could be the one to own. western union. their price cuts should let them take back market share from moneygram. stock is super cheap, only 11 times next year's earnings. 8.6% long-term growth. some of the cheapness is because when

similar western partners. are. even. still. play establishing contacts with them even though they. very well know that this is very close to. similar organizations. and we're worried because of that and regularly we see. incidence happening in syria where christians suffer serious to have soumillon no christians currently it so probably less than a million years now we don't have reliable statistics but i think at least a million christians have fled the country there are refugees there are some well established facts like. there was a convent where terrorists. seized some nuns near. this is the only place in the world where the population speaks the language of jesus christ aramaic. and. from our contacts with christian communities in the country we know that they are very very worried because we still have been living in this area for a two thousand years. and. go solution. we need. to work in agreement about the future syria we need to fight terrorism and as far as the political process is concerned it is n

but yesterday we had to literally teaming not just for the ukrainian protesters but also with the western politicians one of their own particular victoria nuland who has paid a visit to the tent city that was set up here by the protesters especially expressing the u.s. support for the ukrainian opposition and for the protesters as well as maternal and has also held close talks with. the darling of the ukrainian opposition among others that we have seen among the protesters on the square were foreign ministers from sweden germany and the netherlands has hoped that the talks with europe will renew under a new president essentially hinting at the ultimate goal of the ukrainian protest and that is the current government and the president to step down the interests of western politicians and what is essentially ukrainian domestic affairs has drawn sharp criticism from russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov who said that this type of reaction is simply inadequate the statements that have been voiced today on ukraine i consider fitting for the meeting especially the hysterics that some european

senators joined protesters in the capital kiev throwing their weight behind the opposition's pro western ambitions. now mexico is gripped by mass anti-government demonstrations with protesters accusing authorities of stripping the state of its wealth and people of their future. turning out of the russian capital you watching r t international with me marina joshing welcome to the program. fierce fighting continues in the syrian town of on the outskirts of damascus as the army tries to push rebel forces from several districts an investigation carried out by r.t. discovered the mass execution of civilians carried out by all qaeda linked groups survivors described her reflects scenes of brutal executions and of people being used as human shields our colleagues from artie's arabic channels spoke to an eyewitness of the massacre. no. r t sources in the military say radical islamist fighters and heard the town of address and massacred local civilians if cording to the latest figures at least eighty people were killed in the districts which the syrian army has now liberated entire families were

or is it among western powers and some hardliners for instance it is in the us congress. wouldn't we like to split them i think there are enormous obstacles on both sides on. the it is the assumption i think that is being naive and cultivate the new u s congrats and is well result is that we have to wait until the wrong new sanctions in force but the title. so now we should turn the screw when the rains have no choice but to me as if i'll save you a new job is to have a choice. on the regime is eminently papal also bought anything for a considerable period is that sanctions will mind tying to the fullest extent. so do the this plant at auction for the iranians told this progress and i'm clearly i'll get bikes the idea of communication when you have a u s government saying we want to reach an agreement by the us alleges has to put the decision of potentially costing additional sanctions legislation than that there's a credibility issue so you know i think i think there is significant open the book of all tools on both sides. oh do you think there is a risk than those that

to be able to build up upon our arguments i think he i think the international community from the western perspective the phoenician of it is really different from let's say from. you can say from the more developing or while noble country is the definition of the international community again what i'm saying that is the from the western perspective i think the international community the mantle you can say of the international community is united nations so this is and if you want to look at the united nations from the prism of the u.n. security council then we have here five powers russia china united states france and germany which. the five members which are actually the the ones that have the veto power with china that they want to have the veto power in order to really enforce some executive powers. but again from the for instance from the perspective or from other countries some other countries or you can say from the syrian perspective the international community is is not the u.n. security council the international david they believe that it is system. that they really inclusive

dealing with the islamic front to meet certain particularly people that have much well let's say western values no but i think what we've seen is the ruse that the free syrian army is the epicenter of political opposition to the saddam regime has been exposed so the united states and france and britain are in a trouble spot and i think they are looking for practical solutions here i mean the they basically were withdrew their support from the free syrian army not completely but to a degree when the. basically ransacked the free syrian army headquarters. close to the border of turkey and that was kind of a statement that really the free syrian army and the syrian national coalition are not powerful they're not taken seriously by anyone outside the west yet if i can stay with you but nonetheless a few months ago the obama administration was going to launch a war against syria in the name of the people you just mentioned but apparently they are not really players and never have been players on the ground no i think they've been the pawns of foreign influence all along and now we're seeing a

talk a lot about european values and western values but is it a western value to allow a foreign country to come in and influence politics on the streets of course it's not you see a pattern here of of escalation and provocation i think really the protesters on the ground they had a very large public provocation a few nights ago when they were using chains and tractors the question now i think is will the protesters ratchet up looking for a government overreaction so that they can get some new energy into their. you know what's funny the u.s. has counseled. nonviolence but what would happen if i'm here in washington what would happen if someone drove a tractor and tried to drive it into the white house lawn you're going to tell me that there wouldn't be violence against a hundred thousand people trying to break into the white house. fracking technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock is making more enemies around the world the anger stems from potentially enormous environmental dangers posed by the extraction method most recent anti fracking rallies and data taking place i

siena and other italian city-states can stand as a new beginning in our story of western art.itherto, the old medieval world view had, put simply, divided the classes of society into the aristocracy at the top, the church, and the laboring peasantry at the bottom. in places like this, we see for the first time a new class, conscious of its own identity-- the merchants. these cities were no longer controlled by feudal lords. they were republics. here in siena, several thousand citizens were eligible for election to the governing bodies which met down there in the palazzo publica. and in the palazzo, there is a fresco painted in the 1340s which encapsulates their faith in the secular arts of government, in the moderating power of reason in human society. it's called the effects of good government. this marvous fresco, painted by ambrogio lorenzetti, was the first panoramic landscape on this scale in western art. the peasants bringing their produce from the countryside, the merchants going about their business, the elegant ladies of leisure, all are fused into an idealized image

coming to the winter olympics the western leaders don't tend to go into winter olympics it has to be said so the connection with sochi maybe over eggs what's crucial here is that international law enforcement authorities get to the bottom of this what we need is much closer collaboration. authorities rather than the n.s.a. spying on every country resident not knowing it people actually finding out about what's going on. and online right now we're providing in-depth coverage of events involving rides to auntie dot com for live updates images and analysis of that tax plus the emotion section of our website has a graphic these are showing the aftermath of the blast at the mouth media agency ironically. and journalist and broadcaster neil clark things western governments should work closely with russia to tackle the global threat western approach to terrorism has been very consistent because we're told on the one hand the west implacably opposed to radical islamic terrorism and that it's the biggest it's a school shooting manatee etc and yet on the other hand we have the west lining up w

coming to the winter olympics their western leaders don't tend to go into winter olympics it has to be said so the connection with sochi maybe over eggs what's crucial here is that international law enforcement authorities get to the bottom of this what we need is much closer collaboration. authorities rather than the n.s.a. spying on every country resident not knowing it people actually finding out about what's going on. public transport has been a frequent target for terror attacks internationally in nine hundred ninety five people were killed in tokyo and over four thousand injured by a sarin gas attack on the subway in march two thousand and four coordinated bombings had the train system in madrid one hundred ninety one people died and over a thousand were wounded july two thousand and five saw a series of suicide attacks in london targeting the underground and buses fifty two people were killed and around seven hundred injured and of course the nine eleven tragedy also involved transport for passenger planes were hijacked by al-qaeda terrorists and flown into a number of target

western powers to signal a rethink in their support for syria's rebel movement apparently acknowledging that the fall of ostend could boost extremists such as those implicated in a recent massacre outside damascus. a new year approaching and a new start for thousands of russian prisoners who will be freed under a game changing honesty law that just passed parliament it's good news for the punk protest bad pussy riot as well as the greenpeace activists arrested in an arctic drilling protest. but ukraine's multi-billion dollar deals with russia drop cries of treason from kiev the most radical opposition leader who accuses president yet of coal which of pawning national assets for a chance to fix the budget. for watching r t international live from moscow good to have you with us straight to our top story this hour neither a killer nor a terrorist but an online activists an alleged hacker and yet he's being held in conditions worse than those of some mass murderers one of the founders of pirate bay isn't tegel in a complex legal battle accused by denmark of stealing millions of personal id

leaders want to that they want a weak russia western elites around because there's been a resurgence under putin russia's become stronger. over syria where russia and public opinion the west has dropped the warmongers plans to attack syria so the western elites i think the question then will mock whatever putin does. they will criticize because they want a different kind of russian president someone like yeltsin who will do what they want who will take ronald bullets from the west and look neil over to them now. american security to be reasserted that's what the west elite want so president putin does he began to be governed and it's called journalist neil clark mr clark thank you very much indeed for sharing your insight with us weapons shaders thanks very much earlier by i and president putin's decision to release me came as a big surprise at home but among the european leaders there's been quite a reserved reaction to the needs let's now get more from laura smith had a lorissa mccomas case pardon is a major breaking news story here russia but that's not quite the case in europe as

defied behavior by the western officials that if western leaders have have attended opposition rallies in countries such as a spain or portugal or greece where people are pouring out in the streets protesting against those terrorism measures that simply would be unthinkable and it can to a political scandal. a green cord is given of the task there isn't here five days to stop blocking government buildings and to leave those that they have seen meanwhile opposition leaders have disrupted the work of the country's parliament demanding a snap presidential election violent dispersal for testers last weekend sparked more discontent in kiev where activists are rallying against a special police unit that's been accused of using excessive force we spoke to geo political analyst half william and dol and he believes it's likely the violence that erupted was bankrolled from outside the country. i haven't ports from ukrainian ordinary citizens that i mean contact with the students and the unemployed are being paid something like twenty to thirty euros a day by who knows who we can only speculate t

or maybe you have other plans for western siberia right now on and like to. use this opportunity to invite to mark the three hundred year anniversary of the city of its three years a word but well you have to get ready for this yes well we had plans for metro construction who promised you that. we talked about that see demand we talked about the re ranking of officials he was one of them. by the shutters on what's with what you've said so. we are do a lot of problems with traffic so maybe a high. someone will suppose that i would ask for money but i won't do it. well there's no money anyway ok so. we do invite you so i'm sure going to have a great celebration so we will talk about many other issues too. ok q do you please formulate a question my question was about siberia so why didn't i talk about western siberia western siberia is a high tech region it's well developed it has great infrastructure of course there is always room for improvements there's still needs a lot to be done including for a city with a population of one with more than one million but i

western countries are gradually changing our approach to the syrian conflict realizing the threat posed by islamist rebels there that's the view of russia's foreign minister spoke exclusively to r.t. about this very subject and this year's main results in a foreign politics two artes it appears can offer is among those who talked to rob a bit earlier today. we spoke for an hour and there are lots of things to talk about since it was quite an eventful year which did bring russia several diplomatic victories like for instance the syrian chemical arms deal and currently with the international community now working on the peace conference according to the foreign minister one of the key obstacles in that sense remain preconditions being voiced by the syrian opposition including calls for president assad to step down at the same time mr lavrov said the stance of the west in that sense has been shifting into the western countries are now becoming more realistic in their approach to settling the syrian conflict regardless of what their official spokesman say the number one problem is the threa

media is were rather more much more pluralistic when supposedly do western. model. one. you are now western media is are much more of one mind and they were never you know. all about the future for ukraine with progress haven't read of in a week saying he figured a worst case scenario there could be a seismic split east to west what kind of resolution do you see happening here how is it going to pan out. it's difficult to do to know what will happen i hope it will be peaceful i think it will be peaceful because the majority of ukrainian people still very beast so the situation is bad only in the center of kiev which is not very very important. of course the idea a new situation would be a rift a random. situation but a referendum when the ukrainian could know exactly what is european union proposing to your gradient and what your asian union is proposing to ukraine because out. it looks to me that ukrainian don't really know what what we're doing. of european union to two ukrainians so you don't agree then with what it claims filmmaker. said earlier on he sai

announcement and you can debate it until the end of time whether it was expected or not a lot of the western journalists found the most interesting thing that putin talked for too long today even despite this enormous news whether or not you expected it or not and i think putin is in a very very difficult position because it's a lose lose position if he didn't do this he would be criticized if he did this criticize he said today he envied obama it's just for that reason well i think that the tide is swinging in london and elsewhere in favor of mr putin just as an example last night i had i had a taxi driver who was turkish here in london and he had me talking russian. associate and he said oh you're russian i said no no i'm british but speak a little. better russian i lived there for a long time and he said oh you're right mr putin i said mr putin is doing good things for russia and he then said i agree and i would i particularly like the way he stands up to other international countries especially the united states and i have a great deal of respect for him in fact i wish he was a teacher h

and i really hope in this respect that our western partners and our partners in the region.

different level and i think some people in the kremlin president putin misunderstand the nature of western propaganda they will invent issues if they don't have them or because they let some children get in there let joe replied to that because you gave a very quick answer saying he has when we will say no just quickly respond to what . will basically i i disagree i think that the release of mr holder will be viewed positively in the west and i mean that the strains of anti putin nineteen russian propaganda. are you know the l b l g b t rights issue is one this completely separate from mr cause of course ski there may be links in people's minds between hard of course and the magnitsky issue. because they're both a matter of law. whereas the l g b t. possibly falls into the same category as pussy riot and that they're portrayed as being an abuse of human rights and so on but they are. ok ok well let me just. say these people become celebrity prisoners these are well known people in the west and this is a great gesture of suppose from putin but is it is it actually a genuine change in direct