ABOUT

Our Mission

NewColdWar is managed by the Geopolitical Economy Research Group with the aid of a small volunteer editorial group.

It was founded in 2014 to provide factual and insightful analysis, backed by accurate news and information, about the proliferating national and class conflicts changing our world, which the established media were either misreporting, or failing to cover. Since then, both defects have worsened under the impact of ‘Manufactured Consent’, orchestrated by major vested interests, both state and corporate, which view control over information as a legitimate use of wealth and power. This has so compromised the media that they distort basic facts out of recognition, by commission, omission, emphasis and narrative control. At their worst, they present and recycle simple falsehoods as accomplished fact

In parallel, however, a new journalism is flowering, evident in the welcome multiplicity of alternative sources and sites and in the rising quality of independent reportage and analysis.

We therefore aim to create a platform for the new journalism, at the same time setting high standards of rational, evidence-based enquiry, by selecting, and making available to the general public and the scholarly world, the best and most informative works we can find. In parallel, we strive to create a community that will sustain the new journalism, based on mutual respect, support and solidarity and the development of best practice.

Our focus, in keeping with the theory of Geopolitical Economy and its concept of the multipolar world order, is on the multiplying fronts of world conflict, especially but not solely Western economic, financial and military hostility towards China, Russia, and a host of countries from Syria to Venezuela, from Iran to Bolivia, which challenge their dominant policies, practices and narratives.

The challenges may be direct, when governments resist Western designs on them, their economies and the resources they command. Or they may be indirect, when governments pursue policies different from, or simply opposed to, Western neoliberal and financialised dogmas. China’s importance, in particular, is that it is becoming a competing model for the rest of the world, displacing the west’s two-century-long position as the world’s exemplar. This is the New Cold War.

We also explore the growing range of issues which intersect with these conflicts, both conditioned by and conditioning them: class and national conflicts, the far right and the accompanying trend towards fascism, the conscious use of racism, xenophobia, religious hatred and gender oppression to divide and rule and so maintain narrow elites in power, the increasingly suppressive function of both the mass media and the self-appointed guardians of the social media, the threat to the planet posed by capitalism’s destructive impact on the environment, steeply rising trends of inequality and poverty, and, contrary to the above, the rise of new polities and organisations which raise the possibility of, and proposals for, a new, just and sustainable world order.

Our initiative is unique, not primarily because we generate new reportage, but because we provide the new journalism with a platform, giving the public access to it, and ensuring its voice is heard.

In every war, the first casualty is truth – as western media tacitly acknowledge with their claim to be fighting an ‘information war’. However, the fog of war can be penetrated. We aim to make available the news and analysis that is being produced despite it, and which needs to be accessible if we are to have an informed citizenry. We aim to realise its right to information.

Our Reputation

Harvard University hosts a project examining ‘fake news’. The project is titled ‘False, misleading, clickbait and satirical ‘news’ sources’ (see here). The author name is not listed; he or she writes: “I am an assistant professor of communication & media, and this resource started as a tool for teaching my students about journalism/social media/media literacy.” The project has 1001 listings as of November 2017. It lists New Cold War.org as “political” and defines that as: “Sources that provide generally verifiable information in support of certain points of view or political orientations.” No mainstream news sources are listed, and very few well-known alternative news sources in the U.S.-such as The Nation, Truthout.org, The Real News, Democracy Now!, or Black Agenda Report-are listed. Consortium News and The Intercept are listed as “reliable”. We were honoured and pleased at this recognition both of our work and those of our sister sites.

Our Origins: New website of Ukraine information and analysis is launched

November 26, 2014

Following several months of preparatory work, a new website providing information and analysis of the war and political crisis in Ukraine is now online. The website is titled The New Cold War: Ukraine and beyond (NewColdWar.org). You can read it, subscribe to it and like it on Facebook.

The New Cold War: Ukraine and beyond is a project of the international delegates who attended the antiwar, anti-fascist conference that took place in Yalta, Crimea on July 6 and 7, 2014. That conference adopted an antiwar declaration that serves as a guide to the information assembled and presented on the new website.

The website already contains a vast storehouse of information and analysis. The content is expanding daily. One feature designed to assist readers is ‘Editors’ picks’, a selection by our editors of the items posted to the website that are varied and that we consider particularly informative.

The information on the website is sorted by category for ease of access. There are 14 subject categories-from the obvious-‘Ukraine’, ‘Russia’, ‘News’, and’ Analysis’-to ‘Eastern Europe and Caucasus,’ and ‘Malaysian Airlines Crash’.

From the ‘About us’ section of the website:

We are open to reports from all sources, provided that they are relevant and contain verifiable factual claims, not unsupported opinion. To send reports, questions, or comments write to [email protected]. If you would like to contribute to our blog or become a regular author, please contact our editorial team.

Please inform your friends and associates of this new website. Please like us on Facebook. You can sign up to receive by email a Monday-to-Friday, newsletter notification of website postings each day.

Regards,

The Editors, The New Cold War: Know Better