This website contains subjects I covered in my seminars (done within the context of a company) with the yellow buttons on the bottom what I used as a foundation for my older seminars between 1997-2007.

Copyright by Eric Vandenbroeck

For your own comments about related subjects, you can contact me via: ericvandenbroeck1959@gmail.com

19 July 2019: As we have seen in the previous parts of this investigation the initial interventions where primarily intelligence-operations specialists whose objectives were to preserve and expand the Empire by reconstituting Russia "to withstand German economic penetration after the war." Whereby while in 1918 the many different White Russian and anti-Bolshevik factions remained divided and failed to agree on a strategy the involvement of the Czechs in Russia provided the Bolsheviks with serious opposition. This also allowed the emergence of two rival anti-Bolshevik authorities, Komuch (with its "People's Army") and the Provisional Siberian Government in Omsk, with a new mission: to unite the anti-Bolshevik forces of the east. Then Spies invaded Russia p.6. Major case study: British spycraft in Bolshevist Russia.

14 July 2019: Two days ago marked three years since a tribunal found that China's claim of historic rights in the South China Sea was unlawful. Since however, China has more forcefully asserted its claims to more than 80% of the South China Sea, building runways and military facilities on territory claimed by other nations. In addition, China has utilized less conventional means to clear the sea of its maritime adversaries, a so-called maritime militia: What is happening in the South China Sea and why.

 

12 July 2019: When General Poole saw the need to get various goods (including Oil that came via the British controlled part of the Middle East) out of Russia it drove Poole and Captain Proctor (Intelligence Archangel) to suggest that a few troops be moved into Archangel-troops which could provide logistical security for the transport effort. It is uncertain whether they knew about MIO’s operational intentions for that area, or for the similar plans and problems in the south. Given the circumstances and priorities of immediate supply and subsequent commercial advantage, it was reasonable that what Poole suggested, what the Cabinet considered, and what Military Intelligence- operations-MIO provided, made up an acceptable strategic response. Thus hence the objectives of all the interested Imperial parties started to coalesce. When Spies invaded Russia p.5. Major case study: What must develop into a civil war.

 

8 July 2019: On 4 July the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s report about preliminary investigations into the crime of enforced deportation of over 723,000 Rohingya's from Myanmar to Bangladesh was released. The case laid out makes for fascinating reading, but with the upcoming court battle now also the ideological battle will heat up. This includes solving the alleged Rohingya"ethnicity" question and the case of Jacques P. Leider who equated the famous German weekly Der Spiegel's reporting on the fleeing Rohingya as fabricated. The Rakhine/Rohingya Conundrum.

 

6 July 2019: This happens once in a while that we receive e-mails asking if we know of the latest whereabouts of the self-styled Prince Michael of Albany. This time it was because of two articles in June one in The Scotsman newspaper and another publication in Poland. About a Polish art historian who claims to be a blood relative of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

 

3 July 2019: As we have seen in the previous parts of this investigation the initial interventions in Russia were not, until their very end, monitored by traditional military or political chains of command. Their planners were primarily intelligence-operations specialists whose objectives were to preserve and expand the Empire by reconstituting Russia "to withstand German economic penetration after the war."This is why, in the beginning, there were so few troops sent to either of the two areas: there was no need for them. Their purpose was to extend intelligence; that was a technological matter, which required a small supporting military group. But this was soon going to change. When Spies invaded Russia p.4. Major case study:  How North Russia evolved into its military phase.

 

30 June 2019: Opened on 28 June 2019 an exhibition in Arras organized by the Palace of Versailles starts with the proclamation of the German Empire in the same  Hall of Mirrors that witnessed the Signing of Peace of Versailles on 28 June 1919.Today most historians agree however that contrary to earlier legends it was the First World War itself, not the treaty that concluded it, that set loose the forces and ideologies that would convulse Europe and initiate another global conflict. And that for all of Versailles’ problems, it represented a clear end to a major war in a way that we rarely see today. The tribulations and consequences of the Treaty of Versailles.

 

29 June 2019: While the intervention in North Russia was based primarily on commercial and military imperatives and secondarily on Imperial great power politics, not of little importance here was that on 1 March 1918, the Murmansk government informed Petrograd that they wanted to accept the Allied offer to assist in the defense of the city. The Soviets acting on a positive reply by Trotsky placed regional military authority into the hands of a council controlled by Allied officers. Defense of the port passed to the Allied forces with Russian cooperation. When Spies invaded Russia p.3. Major case study: The alleged protecting of supplies propaganda.

 

25 June 2019: The secret mission of the three interventions against Russia was to establish a signals intelligence support group, which was meant not only to guarantee British access but also to serve as a relay for intelligence gathered within Russia and the surrounding areas to London, where it would serve as an informed and reliable basis for further action. Without such signals intelligence presence, the War Office was blind. When Spies invaded Russia p.2. Major case study: To mold irregular warfare into a method which honored the Imperial myth.

 

21 June 2019: Weapons of Mass Disruption: A response focused on changing China’s behavior is woefully inadequate. U.S. primacy was born not by defensive protectionism but by building a great economic engine. Outlook for the world China, US, Europe, N.Korea,Venezuela, and the way forward with Iran.

 

19 June 2019: Just recently another book titled "Churchill's Secret War with Lenin"(2019) came out that focusses on the British intervention in Russia. There is however much more to the story than this recent book manages to convey. In fact, not just this latest one but most books about the subject fail to grasp the underlying issues something that based on recently unclassified documents only now can start to be told. Major case study: When Spies invaded Russia p.1.

 

16 June 2019: Demonstrators in central Hong Kong today. There is a concern that if the extradition bill is not retracted (and when Hongkongers won’t bow to Beijing their leaders likely will) this will leed to acts of desperation.

 

13 June 2019: At least 79 people were injured in yesterday's protest with two remaining in serious condition. Meanwhile this morning a small crowd of former protesters is back outside the Hong Kong government offices...to sort out recyclables and unused materials, and clean up the rubbish. Following is today's front page of Hong Kong's leading newspaper:

 

9 June 2019: We now seem to be in the early stages of a new arms race. China and the US are both seeking to dominate the weapons of the modern era – the hardware and software of information technology, which are becoming the keys to superiority in both military capacity and economic power. Global dominance in six years is the aim. The 21st Century Arms Race.

 

7 June 2019: On the 30th anniversary of the violent June 4 crackdown, New Century Press, published transcripts obtained from a party official who managed to make copies at the time and make clear how the lessons taken from Tiananmen continue to guide Chinese leadership today: Today's legacy of the Tiananmen crisis.

 

1 June 2019: Recently two Homeopathic Anthroposophic doctors in France were banned from practicing medicine due to the (unnecessary) death of two patients. In fact, this was not the first time similar happened and given I put the focus on Acupuncture last week even more influenced by the placebo effect is of course homeopathy. Case Study: The little known background of Homeopathy.

 

25 May 2019: When President Xi Jinping visited WHO headquarters for the first time in Geneva in 2017 he brought along a bronze statue showing acupuncture marks on the body. Whereby now it has been announced that details about traditional medicine will be included in the 11th version of the WHO's global compendium, known as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems or ICD, this while it is stated that it is not an endorsement of the scientific validity of any Traditional Medicine practice or the efficacy of any Traditional Medicine intervention. Case Study: Why acupuncture is a placebo based on pre-scientific mysticism.

 

18 May 2019:  Titled the biggest electoral show on earth India's general election is currently nearing its end with voters poised to decide whether to renew their faith in nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Polling hass been unfolding over seven phases around the country and is ending on May 19. All the votes from the country's 29 states and seven union territories will be counted on May 23. One of the issues I have researching during this period is how a powerful quasi-religious Hindu nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been providing a crucial backbone for Prime Minister Modi providing evidence where Modi really comes from. “I think it is probably a god-gifted ability.”

 

22 April 2019: Ten days before the major attack in Sri Lanka police chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued intel alert to top officers warning that Islamist group NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath founded in 2004 originally in Tamil Nadu, India) will carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches of Colombo and the Indian high commission. Taking place around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress the carnage has now been reported worldwide with the Eiffel Tower in Paris that went dark on Sunday night. A concern is that it might leed to more violence in Sri Lanka.

 

21 April 2019: With rumors rife with Russian interference today Ukraine will go back to the poll whereby a question is if Zelensky could prove a less convenient opponent for the Kremlin than Poroshenko is. Mark Galeotti in his recent book (published February 12, 2019) maintains that in the case of Ukraine Russia's approach is both rooted in military thinking and in the civilian national security establishment. Whereby apart from a look at the role of ethno-nationalism during the current elections, I will follow this up with the question: Major Case Study: Why is Ukraine so important to Russia.

 

15 April 2019: Fire engulfs Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris:

 

13 April 2019: Image of little girl crying at US border wins World Press Photo Award:

 

10 April 2019: The first black hole to be photographed:

 

 

5 Nov. 2018: Mapping the world’s urban population, on the left the year 2018 on the right 2050.

 

 

 

9 Dec. 2017: While the UN security council is to meet in order to discuss the US decision to Jerusalem as Israel's capital, here an analysis of the Jerusalem problem and the two-state solution option. Jerusalem Unveiled.

 

Arrived today per intercontinental flight in Vienna where I will do research about the origins of the First World War. Above, to overcome jet lag (picture taken during) a walk near the Nikolaitor in Vienna. I hope to place the results of my investigation on this website in the course of October 2017.

 

 

20 Dec. 2016: From Versailles to the Making of the Modern Middle East P.8: British rule, Arab Spring-revolt, and the Syria crisis today.

 

14 Dec. 2016:  Sykes-Picot granted Britain the right to administer Syria after it captured the Levant from the Ottomans in 1918.In 1919, London conceded at the Paris Peace Conference both Levantine entities to France that moved quickly and, aware of Hashemite progress, settled on creating Greater Lebanon.From Versailles to the Making of the Modern Middle East P.7: The unresolved sectarian issue in Lebanon today.

 

8 Dec. 2016: The profound effects of the British Empire’s actions in the Arab World during the First World War can be seen echoing through the history of the 20th century. From Versailles to the Making of the Modern Middle East P.6:  The importance of oil, the ‘Arab question’, and the British.

 

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In recent months a number of Arab States, like for example Amman, have celebrated the centennial of the 'Arab Revolt' 1916-2016.

 

20 Oct. 2016: Soon I will be posting a series of three research articles about the Balfour Declaration and several more about the Versailles Treaty and the Making of the Modern Middle East, whereby first here an introductory: During the First World War, British strategy for the Middle East was aimed at protecting India, which meant keeping India’s numerous Muslim subjects tranquil. Initially, this gained Whitehall’s support, as it feared foreign troops in the Muslim Holy Land would make the followers of Hussein, the Sharif of Mecca, Emir of the Hejaz and potential British ally, oppose him. From Versailles to the Making of the Modern Middle East P.1: The ‘Arab revolt’, Britain, and the Collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

 

24 Oct. 2016: Mark Sykes returned to England where, almost immediately, he was thrust into negotiations with M. Charles François Georges-Picot, French counselor in London and former French consul general in Beirut, to try to harmonize Anglo-French interests in ‘Turkey-in-Asia’. Picot on the other hand had ‘expressed complete incredulity as to the projected Arab kingdom, said that the Sheikh had no big Arab chiefs with him, that the Arabs were incapable of combining, and that the whole scheme was visionary.' From Versailles to the Making of the modern Middle East P.2: The Arab question and the ‘shocking document’ that shaped the Middle East.

 

26 Oct. 2016: The rebellion sparked by the Hussein-McMahon correspondence; the Sykes-Picot agreement; and memoranda such as the Balfour Declaration (to be dealt with in detail) all have shaped the Middle East into forms which would have been unrecognizable to the diplomats of the 19th century.From Versailles to the Making of the modern Middle East P.3: The Menace of Jihad and How to Deal with It.

 

 

29 Oct. 2016: French rivalry in the Hijaz; the British attempt to get the French government to recognize Britain’s predominance on the Arabian Peninsula; the conflict between King Hussein and Ibn Sa’ud, the Sultan of Najd; the British handling of the French desire to take part in the administration of Palestine; as well as the ways in which the British authorities, in London and on the spot, tried to manage French, Syrian, Zionist and Hashemite ambitions regarding Syria and Palestine.From Versailles to the Making of the modern Middle East P.4: The ‘Arab’ and the ‘Jewish’ question.

 

6 Nov. 2016: The British authorities in Cairo, Baghdad, and London steadily lost their grip on the continuing and deepening rivalry between Hussein and Ibn Sa’ud, in particular regarding the possession of the desert town of Khurma. British warnings of dire consequences if the protagonists did not hold back and settle their differences peacefully had little or no effect. All the while the British wanted to abolish the Sykes– Picot agreement. From Versailles to the Making of the modern Middle East P.5: The Syrian question.

 

16 Nov. 2016: This is the most important and longest part. Following, a gripping account of the swashbuckling during the Paris Peace Conference deliberations including the Arab/Syrian, the King-Crane Commission, impasses and some breakthrough at the end. From Versailles to the Making of the modern Middle East P.6: The Paris Peace Conference deliberations.

 

25 Nov. 2016: One of the most far-reaching outcomes of the First World War was the creation of Palestine, initially under Britain as the Mandatory, out of an ill-defined area of the southern Syrian boundary of the Ottoman Empire. Considering this, on 16 Nov. 2016, the British Parliament debated the Balfour Declaration and how its upcoming 2017 Centennial should be handled. Yet even professionals are often not familiar with the details surrounding the Balfour Declaration, thus here a detailed investigation. The true history of the Balfour Declaration and its implementations P.1.

 

28 Nov.2016: Showing the topic is of ongoing relevance, following the British Parliament last week, tomorrow a discussion about the Balfour Declaration is to take place in the House of Commons. My analysis, however, is wholly independent of pro or contra stance and instead focuses on discovering the historical details that have been left out in recent discussions. The true history of the Balfour Declaration and its implementations P.2.

 

2 Dec. 2016: Apart from the strategic consideration that they needed Palestine for the imperial defense of India, the decision by the War Cabinet to authorized foreign secretary Balfour to make a declaration of sympathy with Zionist aspirations in November 1917, one could ad, was also a curious blend of sentiment (the romantic notion of the Jews returning to their ancient lands after 1,800 years of exile) and anti- Antisemitism (world Jewry was a force that could vitally influence the outcome of the war) also led them to this decision.  The true history of the Balfour Declaration and its implementations P.3.

29 November 2016 discussion about the Balfour Declaration at the British Houses of Parliament.

 

5 Dec. 2016: As we have seen, in the end, the idea was to use President Wilson’s recognition of the Balkan nations’ right to self-determination – namely, freedom from Ottoman rule – to overcome his opposition to the implementation of this same policy in the Middle East. By supporting Zionist aspirations in Palestine, the Lloyd George Government thus strove to compel Wilson to expand his policy regarding the 'small nations' from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire to its Asian territories. The true history of the Balfour Declaration and its implementations P.4.

 

 

 

27 August 2016: It is not without historical irony that the centenary of the Great War was accompanied by civil war in Syria and Iraq, revolution in Egypt, and violent clashes between Jews and Arabs over the Palestinian question, as if to offer proof that many of the issues raised but not solved by the First World War and its immediate aftermath are still with us today. Investigating the never-ending Great War.

 

 

24 June 2016: Yesterday we were on transit in N.Thailand where we visited among others “the White Temple” near Chiang Rai:

 

 

 

I attended the Honolulu Festival 7-8 March 2015 with underneath some of the photos I took:

 

 

 

29 Jan. 2015: Russian Aristocrats, Putin, and European extreme right wing parties.

 

1 Jan. 2015: The EU unable to solve its fundamental problem, unlikely that the Russian Federation will survive in its current form, why instability in the Arab world is to continue, the problem for China. The world going forward:

 

 

30 Nov. 2014:    Venezuela’s international reserves declined $1.3 billion following declining oil price. The worsening situation will make 2015 a crucial year for Venezuela:  

 

26 Nov. 2014: While al Qaeda might have longed to take control of a significant nation-state, it primarily remained a sparse, if widespread, terrorist organization. It held no significant territory permanently; it was a movement, not a place. But the Islamic State, as its name suggests, is different. It sees itself as the kernel from which a transnational Islamic state should grow, and it has established itself in Syria and Iraq as a geographical entity. The Future of the Islamic State:

 

 

23 Nov. 2013: China creates air defense zone over Japan-controlled islands. As Japan and China increase air activity around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, the United States is steadily increasing its active involvement to reassure Tokyo and send a warning to Beijing. But Beijing may seek an opportunity to challenge U.S. primacy in what China considers its territorial waters. Continue:

 

17 Nov. 2012: Iran and the Gaza Offensive: Why the Iranian connection will complicate the situation.

 

 

 

29 Dec. 2011: Iran threatens to block Strait of Hormuz oil route, yet why they will not. (with Iran's Nuclear Sites map).

22 Dec. 2011: Why the European crisis has been solved<