J Bacio Terracino

#OECD advocate for more #integrity less #corruption and above all more dialogue between the left and the right. Views expressed are my own.

[rosie @therosieum]

https://t.co/F2G1usjT2E

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

Dutch reporter interviewing on a sailboat

then this happened

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It's extraordinarily revealing to read Stoltenberg's book on his time as NATO Secretary General.

The Guardian just published a long extract of it (https://t.co/aZGsGUXAVF)

What it reveals, among other things:

**ZERO strategic thinking and ZERO foresight**

In Stoltenberg's own words, he thought that Hillary would win in 2016 based on his "gut feeling" and was "surprised" when Trump won.

Trump's victory made him very "anxious" because "in a television interview towards the end of March, he had said 'Nato is obsolete'."

Think about the insanity of this for 2 minutes. You're the Secretary General of the world's largest military alliance, responsibly for the security of close to a billion people. A country funds 80-90% of your budget. There is an election with 2 possible outcomes - and one candidate has publicly called your alliance "obsolete." Yet you make no plans for his possible victory nor do you even try to dig deeper than media soundbites to understand how he thinks. You prefer to just assume he'll lose based on your "gut feeling" and when he wins, you're "anxious."

You're basically no different from some rando watching CNN in his living room, you add no value whatsoever, this is strategic malpractice of the highest order. As the saying goes 'to govern is to foresee': this means, very concretely, that the world's top military alliance was not actually being governed at all - and Stoltenberg admits this in his own memoir as if it were perfectly normal. Insane!

And it's crystal clear from the excerpt that Stoltenberg wasn't alone: no-one was prepared, all European leaders were purely in reactive mode.

Stoltenberg describes a NATO summit with Trump in July 2018, when he threatened to leave not only the summit but NATO itself if other members didn't immediately increase spending.

The scene, as Stoltenberg describes it, is incredibly pathetic, basically daddy announcing he might cut off your allowance and the kids scrambling to plead their case. Merkel telling Trump about German soldiers dying in Afghanistan "despite intense opposition in my country, where many asked what Afghanistan has to do with us". The Danish PM invoked his country's blood sacrifice for the US too, telling Trump with his "voice shook" that "by population, Denmark has lost more soldiers in Afghanistan than the United States."

Everyone competing to tell daddy Trump what good kids they've been, emotional pleading from a position of total dependence. There is total absence of preparedness and an actual strategic response.

When this could have been the opportunity of a lifetime. Remember, we're in 2018, years before Ukraine, and one year after Macron first started to evoke the need for "strategic autonomy" for Europe (https://t.co/vcRKakidI9): Trump was essentially offering strategic autonomy on a gold platter, at a time of peace in Europe, it was perfect! Instead of seizing this as the opportunity it was, Europeans - Macron included - burned all their energy just trying to preserve the status quo and we see what that led to in the years that followed...

It's incredibly damning - and the worse part again is that Stoltenberg writes about it as if he managed a crisis well, he doesn't even understand that he's written a confession of strategic bankruptcy.

**The colonization of the minds**

What's really striking from the extract is how colonized Europe has become, starting from the US election night when Stoltenberg "arranged a party with friends and colleagues at the residence in Brussels. We rigged up a large television in the living room, and hamburgers were served."

In fact the whole extract, and probably much of the book, is about the US: it's obsessively focused on what Americans think, what Americans want, what Americans might do. Europe barely exists as a subject with its own interests, goals, or agency - it's only an object reacting to American moves. The book reads like the diary of an anxious eunuch at the imperial palace, obsessing over the emperor's moods and defining success as keeping favor.

Another part of the extract is immensely telling in that regard. Stoltenberg describes how he instructed everyone at NATO to have "self-discipline" with regards to Trump with "no eye-rolling at Trump’s tweets or public appearances; no mocking laughter over videos; no jokes about golfing or his mannerisms. Zero tolerance was crucial. Just a small group of individuals poking fun can spread through an organisation and trickle out. And should it reach Washington that Nato staff were sitting around laughing at Donald Trump, it would be ruinous."

That's his obsession: not strategic planning, not European interests, but whether anyone in Washington might hear that Europeans are insufficiently reverent toward the emperor.

This is what successful imperialism looks like: the colonized become the colonizers' most zealous enforcers. To an even greater extent than in the imperial core, incidentally: last I checked eye-rolls and jokes about Trump are allowed in the US. But it's forbidden in Brussels 🤷

**Europe is dead as a political entity**

At an even deeper level, what the book reveals isn't just that Europeans lack strategic autonomy or are mentally colonized - it's that they seem to have lost the very concept of what political agency even is, of what politics is all about.

Stoltenberg and EU leaders, as he describes himself and them, aren't Politicians with a capital "P" but merely administrators, small-time bureaucrats.

Look at how Stoltenberg frames his "success": he kept the meeting from collapsing, he got Trump to accept a face-saving formula, he managed not to annoy the boss. But there's zero engagement with the substance - what is this all FOR? What does Europe actually want to achieve? These questions don't even appear to exist in his mental universe.

This goes beyond dependency. I often compare Europe today with the late Qing empire during the century of humiliation. But for all the Qing's faults, they were actually aware of their condition, they knew they were getting humiliated and they understood that there was a greater political objective: national restoration. Politics was alive even in colonization.

But what's Europe's equivalent? Where's the awareness that something fundamental is wrong? Stoltenberg's memoir shows a man who thinks he succeeded based on completely lopsided definition of success. The patient doesn't even know he's sick. European elites today have lost even basic political consciousness.

Emmanuel Todd spoke recently (https://t.co/T4VoPyrWll) of a "process of intellectual and moral degeneration" where "all notions of truth, of honor, of reflection" are being lost in Europe.

This book is a perfect illustration of exactly that: a man documenting his own failure to prepare or respond politically, describing scenes of abject subordination and humiliation - and presenting it all as a success story. The degeneration is complete when you describe it as a job well done...

[Abier @abierkhatib]

Ilana Glazer and Kal Penn are sharing desperate messages from Doctors Without Borders staff on the ground in Gaza.

‘Doctors are only receiving a meal once every two days’

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

You know what else died in Gaza? The myth of western humanity.

I never want to hear any western leader ever talk about human rights.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is extraordinarily embarrassing: https://t.co/A3ocf0dSON

Kaja Kallas, the EU Foreign Policy head, doesn't even seem to be aware that Russia and China were among the winners of WW2.

Immensely ironically, she dismisses it as "something new" and propaganda for people who "don't read or remember history that much" 🤦‍♂️

Not sure how she explains how Russia and China got their permanent seat at the UN Security Council 🤷‍♂️

[OECD Governance @OECDgov]

#OECDintegrity Forum 2025 📢 Harnessing innovations to break new ground

📅 26 -27 March 2025
📍 OECD, Paris

Join us as we explore how innovation and emerging technologies can strengthen #integrity and fight #corruption.

Register now ➡️ https://t.co/SsKL3uNZ0L

[Comisión para Integridad Pública y Transparencia @Integridad_gob]

¡Tenemos una invitación! 📩 El próximo miércoles 11 de diciembre, en el marco de la Semana de la Integridad, realizaremos el lanzamiento de las Recomendaciones de la OCDE sobre Conducta Empresarial Responsable en Lobby.

Inscríbete aquí 🔗 https://t.co/p1WmMW1AKc

[Esteban Marzorati @emarzoratiok]

Algunos apuntes sobre el régimen de importación por Courier y las modificaciones que se vienen;

1) Se trata de un régimen de importación simplificado que fue creado para facilitar los envíos internacionales y reducir sus costos.

[HATVP @HATVP]

La @HATVP partage son expertise sur l'#intégrité publique avec l'Ukraine 🇺🇦 lors d'un #webinaire de l' @OCDE_fr.
Le modèle 🇫🇷 a été présenté pour nourrir la réflexion sur l'élaboration et la mise en œuvre d'une norme visant à prévenir efficacement les conflits d'#intérêts.

[HATVP @HATVP]

#Lobbying - Deux ans après l’entrée en vigueur d’un registre dédié à la représentation d’intérêts, l’#Allemagne 🇩🇪 renforce sa réglementation avec une réforme de son dispositif d'encadrement du #lobbying. Découvrez l'analyse de cette réforme par la @HATVP👉https://t.co/xyeOSaTbsM

[Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption @StateCGAC]

State and our interagency partners have been working hard to implement the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption.  Learn more about how 🇺🇸 efforts are advancing economic opportunity, protecting financial systems, improving safety, & defending democracy: https://t.co/dvHx3xWYsj

[Tim Pool @Timcast]

This is actually funny from SNL

[Delia Ferreira @DeliaFerreira]

Acceso a la información pública = derecho fundamental en la democracia.
La información sobre el uso de recursos públicos NO es patrimonio de los funcionarios, sino de los ciudadanos.
Más información => menos corrupción
https://t.co/JszJprA6cS

[EL ELEGIDO @Elegido123_]

Aunque no lo crean, en esta telenovela Peruana, aprender el «Moonwalk» de Michael Jackson le salva la vida al protagonista.

[OECD Governance @OECDgov]

📢 Generative #AI for Anti-corruption and Integrity in #Government

Latest papers explores the opportunities, challenges and risks

See 👉 https://t.co/HiJJjrHVAv | #OECDintegrity

[Cartes du Monde @CartesDuMonde]

France 🇫🇷 : La désinformation pendant les J.O 🧵

Il n’y a pas eu de trêve durant les J.O de Paris vis-à-vis de la désinformation. La France a été quasi quotidiennement la cible d’attaques informationnelles pour déstabiliser les jeux ⤵️

1/19

[Los Pumas @lospumas]

¡VICTORIA DE LOS PUMAS EN WELLINGTON! ¡TRIUNFAZO! 🇦🇷

#SomosLosPumas