The country in crisis this week is no where near either Saudi Arabia nor the United Kingdom. This week we will be analyzing the state (and lack there of) of Venezuela. Venezuela is another country that is in some deep trouble these days. The problems that are facing Venezuela are mostly economic but have led to various sever consequences throughout the state.

Problems began in Venezuela in 1999 when Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela. When Chávez was elected, there was a large economic gap in the country and many socialist reforms were put in place in an attempt to lessen the gap. One such example was putting a price cap on basic goods like flour and toiletries. These efforts, however, ultimately backfired as it led to people no longer producing these goods as they were unprofitable with the caps in place. Succeeding Chávez is Nicolás Maduro who followed the same style of socialist policies as his predecessor.

Venezuela’s economy was once one of the best within the South American region. This was largely due in part due to the fact that Venezuela possess the largest oil reserves in the world (sorry Saudi Arabia you are only in second place) and thus got to experience large economic growth exporting oil to other countries. The revenue from this allowed the government to fund various programs, and for a brief period Venezuela was prosperous. However, Venezuela relied too heavily on its oil production for revenue. When the crude oil prices plummeted in 2014, Venezuela’s economy was crippled as oil accounts for 96% of Venezuela’s exports.

Since the collapse of oil prices in 2014, the Venezuelan economy has gone into a spiral. Inflation has reached an all time high of 1,300,000% (1.3 million percent) in the country. To put that into perspective one cup of coffee would double in price in-between the time you received your biweekly paycheck. Because of this the most basic goods are hard to come by; the citizens of Venezuela are struggling to buy necessities such as food and medicine. Even things like condoms are considered a luxury- creating a larger problem with unwanted pregnancies, more mouths to feed, and the spread of diseases. Furthermore, without the ability to possess enough capital to afford medicine, many people in Venezuela are dying of various illnesses.

Since then there has been a large increase in migration of Venezuelan citizens to the surrounding countries within South America. The most popular destination to migrate to is Colombia. Sometimes full families go and sometimes just one parent will go to find work in another country and send their remittances back to their family. So far, over 3 million people have fled Venezuela due to the economic crisis.

It is clear to see why the citizens of Venezuela would be angry with their current government- they can’t even afford the most basic goods in life. There have been numerous protests throughout the country in recent years, a few even resulting in deaths of protestors. Protests have struck another high point within the country- this time due to strains on the current election system in Venezuela. In May of 2018 elections were held and Maduro was re-elected to a second term of six years. However, the results of this election are highly contested because he faced little to none opposition. 

Maduro did not face limited opposition because his citizens believed he was competent in running the country. Rather, his election was a result due to the fact that he eliminated any forms of opposition that were credible threats to his re-election campaign. He barred some opponents from running, jailed others, and other ones fled the country out of fear of being jailed or worse. Therefore, many of the opposition claimed that the election was not fair nor free.

Furthermore, the citizens of Venezuela felt as if though the actual democracy was falling apart in Venezuela. Originally there was the president and the National Assembly that would work together to make laws for the country. The Venezuelan people were actually successful in electing opponents of Maduro to the National Assembly. Because of this however, Maduro created the National Constituent Assembly in 2017 that was comprised of government loyalists and took over most of the duties of the National Assembly, thus making them powerless.

Most recently, president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó declared himself acting (interim) President of Venezuela. Using articles 233 and 333 of the constitution of Venezuela he declared that he had power to become the temporary President. Obviously, Maduro denies the legitimacy of these claims and (so far) the military of Venezuela sides with him.

Internationally, though, is a different story. Guaidó has gained support from multiple other leaders within Latin America and other international leaders. Most importantly, he received support from the United States, with President Trump himself tweeting out his support. This led to backlash against the United States from Maduro and Russia. Maduro claims the US is behind attempts to oust him from power (given the history of the US interfering in Latin American affairs for its benefit this isn’t a stretch) and broke off diplomatic relations with the US, giving them 72 hours to leave the country. Russia has backed Maduro and has advised the US to not interfere and called “the attempt to usurp the top power in Venezuela as going against the foundations and principles of the international law.”

All images courtesy of BBC unless linked otherwise.

Another country in recent political turmoil is Saudi Arabia. Although Saudi Arabia is usually a hot pressing topic in the international state system, it was truly placed under the microscope following the death of exiled journalist (and critic of the Saudi Crown) Jamal Khashoggi while he was visiting the Saudi consulate in Turkey in an attempt to get divorce papers so he could marry his new fiancé. In case you missed the story while it was breaking you can catch up on it here. Following his death there was a period (roughly two weeks in length) where Saudi Arabia claimed it had no knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi. Eventually conflicting reports came out as to various rogue operations that took place within the Saudi consulate that led to Khashoggi’s demise. Finally, over a month after his death, a Saudi prosecutor revealed that Khashoggi was given a lethal injection following a struggle, and that his body was dismembered within the consult. Throughout this whole process there was a strong outcry against the Saudi crown, both domestic and abroad.

Internally, this whole scandal is causing dissent and casting doubt over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Senior princes are displeased with the conduct in which Mohammad sin Salman is behaving and considered reproaching him. His popularity with youth, however, remains strong as he is credited to many seemingly progressive moments in the nation, such as giving women the right to drive as well as reintroducing movies into the Saudi Arabian culture.

Seemingly every country abroad was up in arms about this elaborate killing of a journalist who spoke out against the Saudi government. Nearly everyone but one: the United States of America. Of course many people in America were upset with what Saudi Arabia had done, but no official condonation was given to the country. Why might this be you ask? There are a multitude of reasons for which the United States did not and will not condone Saudi Arabia for killing Khashoggi.

First, Saudi Arabia has huge oil reservers. Here in the United States we love oil, in fact we can’t get enough of it! Therefore, we wouldn’t do something that would cause Saudi Arabia to go to OPEC and cause a shortage of oil in the United States or dramatically increase the price of oil per barrel that the United States would be buying. Another major reason for why the United States would not condone Saudi Arabia is because of money. More specifically, weapons deals. Saudi Arabia is not capable of producing major weapons within their own country. For this reason they buy their weapons from the United States of America. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the United States of Americas’ number one customer when it comes to weapons. In 2017 a new weapons deal was struck up between the two countries in which Saudi Arabia would pay $110 billion dollars initially and an additional #350 billion over the course of ten years. Finally, the United States would never condone the actions of Saudi Arabia because we need the support of that country. One of the biggest enemies that is. affording state to the United States of America is Iran. The US became enemies with Iran following a military coup backed by the US. To make a long, messy story short the new regime that took place in Iran following the coup was extremely anti-United States and the two nations have been bitter enemies ever since. Many countries followed suit, turning their backs to the United States. This created a block of Middle Eastern nations that are all anti-United States, save for Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it is critical that the United States stays in good relations wit Saudi Arabia so they do not join Iran.

Were any actions taken against the Saudi Arabian regime? In fact there were. For example, Germany halted all sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia following the murder of Khashoggi. The German weapons industry fell over 22% in total exports because of this but Chancellor Merkel remained firm in her decision.

One country completely outraged by this series of events was Turkey, as the killing happened in their country. Turkey is angry with Saudi Arabia for conducting illegal activities within their sovereign borders and Turkey is also enraged with the United States and the response it gave about the death of Khashoggi, as it placed no blame on the leaders of the Saudi Government.

P.S. last week I wrote about the United Kingdom. Since writing that, the UK Parliament voted on the Brexit deal and it was shot down in historic proportions, once again throwing British politics into chaos. Prime Minister Theresa May once again had to stand before a no confidence vote, and once again she survived. This leaves a major question as to where the country will go from here.

All photos courtesy of CNN, BBC, and the Jerusalem Post

Politics in the United States of America are certainly a tangled, complex web these days. With so much happening in the United States it is easy to overlook the events that are occurring in the international state system. This however, would be a grave mistake, as the events that occur outside the borders affect the policies of the United States of America. There are numerous important states across the globe that will be discussed in the following weeks. The first country to analyze is the branch from which the United States of America stems from: the United Kingdom.

One of the biggest problems that continues to plague politics in the United Kingdom is the process of the Brexit. On June 23 of 2016 the United Kingdom held a referendum on other or not they should remain within the Europe Union. When the results came in it revealed that the country was extremely split amongst citizens. 51.9% of the population decided that they wanted to leave the European Union; narrowly edging out the 48.1% who voted to remain within the European Union.  More specifically within the United Kingdom, Britain voted 53.4% to 46.6% to leave the European Union, Wales voted 52.5% to 47.5% to leave, Scotland voted 62% to 38% to remain in the European Union, and Northern Ireland voted 55.8% to 44.2% to stay. Thus, the process of the Brexit began.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union for a variety of reasons. One main reason the desire to leave the European Union was due to economics. Much of southern Europe is experiencing a stagnant economy and economic crisis; therefore, opponents to the European Union thought that being tethered to those countries would be detrimental to the United Kingdom’s overall prosperity. Another reason that people wanted to leave the European Union was so that the United Kingdom would have more sovereignty. As seen with many nations across the international stage there has been a trend towards nationalism in recent years: the same is true for the United Kingdom. Those who wanted to leave the European Union argued that the United Kingdom should be able to make their own decisions on issues such as immigration- something that, under the European Union, was impossible to due. A third large contributing cause towards the decision to leave the European Union was revolt against the political elite in the United Kingdom. The average, everyday citizens felt as if though the leaders had lost touch with what was best for the nation and therefore rejected current political leaders and systems.

The world had mixed reactions to the United Kingdoms. Many state leaders of the European Union expressed their regret of the outcome but that they would still cooperate with the United Kingdom in the future. Then President Barack Obama, expressed that the United States would respect the decisions of the citizens of the United Kingdom and looked forward to working with both the Untied Kingdom and the European Union in the future. Despite the seeming support from all global leaders the financial market seemed to have less faith in this decision. Following the Brexit vote stocks around the globe plummeted and the British pound- one of the world’s strongest currencies- fell with it as well.

Despite these events occurring almost three years ago, the Brexit vote remains a major issue for British politics. The date in which the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union is currently slated for March 29th, 2019. With such a close departure date one would assume that the United Kingdom has a plan for its exit. However, this could not be further from the truth. As of right now there appears to be no deal with the European Union. This so called “hard break” from the European Union (as opposed to a “soft break”- one where there is a deal) would have the United Kingdom leaving the European with no benefits that it had while being a member. This is problematic as it greatly will affect how the United Kingdom operates with its close trading partners; no longer will the United Kingdom be able to have its citizens move freely across European borders and no longer will the United Kingdom have access to free trade in the region. The government does possess the ability to extend the deadline of when the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, if they choose to do so.

The stress of trying to create a deal for the Brexit has put severe strain on the support of current Prime Minister Theresa May. Many citizens in the nation are now doubting the Brexit plan and May’s ability to lead the country as a whole. Most recently, May was subjected to a vote of no-confidence (meaning that the majority does not support the policy of a leader) but somehow was able to survive it. 

The politics of the United Kingdom is obviously a complicated and confusing. The future of the United Kingdom, its political leaders, and its prosperity is uncertain at this point and will most definitely be very exciting observe.

Images courtesy of BBC News