R-EVOLUTION
The Future of Politics is Here

Iranian TV has censored footage, the Revolutionary Guard is willing to "crush" dissent and foreign journalists are sitting in their studios in London, Doha and Atlanta.

About a year ago, Politics 2.0 re-invented itself to predict that world events will be determined by the politics of the street. The guy with a Blackberry or the student with a laptop will use the mass media to set his own opinions that will shape the face of politics and ultimately the future of world news.

Today, the Iranian people are bypassing traditional forms of media and communication by using sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Fring to co-ordinate their attempts to challenge the unpopular Iranian regime. So much so, that the giants like CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera are turning to tweeters in cafes and bloggers with 5.0 mega pixel phones as their new correspondents.

This truely is world events at a street level. Opinionated, humorous and independent, Politics 2.0 is the status update of politics and the future of world news.

THE SECOND IRANIAN REVOLUTION
And the first Internet Revolution

No-one predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Cold War did not end with an armed conflict or with the inevitable spaghetti western showdown that the world expected. The Cold War ended through the bluff of the Star Wars programme which was a farce multi-billion defence system against the "Evil Empire". The technological developments of the USA (or bluffs) left the Soviets in catch mode which ultimately revealed their internal social, financial and political weaknesses.

In a heightened nuclear showdown between Iran, the IAEA, Israel and the USA, it seems the world's nuclear clock is clicking closer to the witching hour. In a world with a defiant Iran, apologetic USA and anxious Israel, the solutions on the table in the past year have ranged from negotiations to sanctions to all out war.

For Israel, neither Mousavi nor Ahmedinejad will calm their fears of nuclear proliferation. A strong government by either candidate will keep a stable nuclear programe in Iran. This crisis though, provides a major breakthrough in destabilising the entire system and buying time to delay their nuclear ambitions.

As the collapse of the Soviet Union was internal, so too can the collapse of Iran's nuclear ambitions come from the inside . And like the Star Wars programme, today's technology is being used to weaken Iran.

No-one could predict that an oppressive Islamic regime could be compromised by twitter, fring, and micro-chips developed in Israel. The spring of the pressure on the Iranian government has not come from the outside but it is ironically the people of Iran who are now the greatest threat to the Iranian regime.

Israel has the technological capabilities to out-play Iran. It suits Israel to keep no leader in a strong position in Iran and to keep Iran vulnerable to its own people and sanctions. Indeed it is better for the Iranians to fight amongst themselves than to fight with other nations. This revolution in Iran is the first literal "internet revolution" and Israel has an obligation to use its technology to help the Iranian people. Even more importantly, Iran is in a window period of weakness and if there is a chance to topple the regime then Mossad need to get on the ground to make sure that this "internet revolution" lasts for as long as possible.

ITS JUST A JUMP TO THE LEFT....

Roughly 4 years ago, the world was caught by catch phrases describing the different waves of democratic revolutions spreading across the world. There was the Rose Revolution in Georgia where the people selected a western leaning government, an island in a sea of former Soviet states. Along with this change was the orange revolution in Ukraine and the Cedar revolution in Lebanon. Although these victories and “winds of change” sound quite Obama-ist, it was actually under George W. Bush’s doctrine of universal freedom in which these seeds grew.

As we all know, 4 years down the road, Bush is gone, Lebanon was pulvarised in war and internal conflict and so too was Georgia. The Russians have never been more suspicious of NATO since the end of the Cold War. The world in the past few years has become harder, more radical with iron fist governments and strong willed leaders in their command.

Yet the events of the past few weeks have shown that there is an alternative to radicalism and repressive governments. The tide of inevitability towards fundamental polarisation has subsided briefly. In Lebanon, the pro western conciliatory Hariri government won in an election that could have spelled the end of a Maronite-Muslim Lebanon with a new Iranian-Syrian proxy. In Iran, even though the elections had the trademarks of not being free and fair and considering the system itself is selectively democratic, the populous of Iran are rising up to show that Ahmedinejad is not the monolithic voice of the country.

Yet, revolutions always lead to counter-revolutionists and we can always return to a pattern of popular demonstrations of freedom being set up for a conflict or bitter revenge from the reactionists leading to war and more uncertainty. The Cedar revolution was short lived and the Rose revolution was only met by eventual war.

The zeitgeist of the people determines how the hardliners will react to the people who select liberty instead of lunacy. The stronger the will for freedom, the stronger the reaction from the conservatives. It ultimately leads to a coin toss to determine which group has the stronger will to live according to their ideals.