December 2001

LONDON – The age of Euro-pessimism is dead. From January 1st on every child in the countries of European Union, bar those in Britain, Sweden, and Denmark, will hold in their hands the first coins of their future – a Europe without borders, barriers and, most important, wars. Of course, it can all be undone, but not in a moment. The common currency binds in a most extraordinary way the destiny of the peoples of this peninsular protruding from the landmass of Asia. If culturally it is a potage of languages, peoples and traditions (and long may it be so!), politically it is no longer a moveable feast of sovereign states whose borders are battered and changed by continuous argument and warfare. I’ve spent my Christmas in a small out of the way Spanish village where I once briefly lived whilst writing a book. Over coffee the headmaster of the...

Sveriges förändrade utrikes- ochsäkerhetspolitik – och debatten om den The change in Sweden’s foreign andsecurity policy – and the debate about it På TFF:s site – On TFF’s site PressInfo # 134, 17 oktober, 2001Sverige og 11. septemberEn konkretisering af PressInfo 133 – om Sveriges støtte til bombningerne i stedet for at understrege FNs Charter om fred med fredelige midler. Og om hvorledes kritiken vokser. PressInfo # 134, October 17, 2001Sverige och 11 septemberKonkretisering av PressInfo 133 – om Sveriges stöd till bombningar istället för att understryka FN:s stadgans normer om fred med fredliga medel . Och om hur kritiken växer. PressInfo # 134, October 9, 2001Sweden and September 11Concrete examples of how the Swedish government chooses to acquiesce in the policies of the U.S. and the European Union (EU) rather than defending the interests of small states and the UN norm of peace by peaceful means. PressInfo # 133, 12 oktober,...

This time of the year provides us all with an opportunity to reflect. Reconciliation and forgiveness, peace of mind and compassion come to our minds. We send season’s greetings to each other and express hopes for a better new year. The latest PressInfos and this one circle about these issues in a concrete manner, applied to a concrete case. That is important in itself. But by focusing on the Balkans we also want to make the point that there are other problems than the September 11 terror that merit attention. That is, if we embrace all of humanity in our compassionate thoughts and deeds and not just the few. It has gone unnoticed that non-violence proved stronger than police repression and authoritarian rule in Serbia and stronger than extremist violence by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA/UCK) in Kosovo. Milosevic went the militant, repressive way. He finally lost when citizens and...

LONDON – “Without more aid there is a greater danger of terrorism, I am convinced of that”, said Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission the other day. “It may not be a casual effect at the moment, and I cannot tell you whether the outburst from the South will be next year or in two years’ time, but I know we are building a tragedy for tomorrow.” Top marks for a useful bit of alarmism. But the truth is that aid over the years has encouraged the very factors of development that produce the abrupt dislocations in societies that lead to malevolent behaviour, often violent, and make a percentage of young people a particularly easy prey to demagogues who wish to turn that violence outwards. Despite fifty or more years of the Third World foreign aid industry the rich countries have still not got their priorities right. Despite...

Ten years ago it was not impossible to see… Ten years ago, TFF’s conflict-mitigation team started working with Dr. Ibrahim Rugova and LDK people in the belief that a) they were the best dialogue partners Belgrade could hope to get, and b) they were the only political leadership in ex-Yugoslavia that advocated non-violence, albeit pragmatic. I have no evidence that they have ever read a line by, say, Gandhi. We participated in formulating characteristics of the independent Kosova they aimed at: it should be a region with no military, open border to all sides and politically neutral. We helped devise negotiation strategies and facilitated the only written dialogue between them and governments in Belgrade between 1992 and 1996. The foundation produced a concrete plan for a negotiated solution. See Preventing war in Kosovo (1992) and UNTANS (1996). Our team quickly learned to respect the complexity and difficulties of the Kosovo conflict. We were...

The Bush administration came into office with the clear intention to strengthen US military dominance, including its nuclear dominance, and it has been true to this major policy goal. While the Bush administration views nuclear weapons as central to US security, it has a larger vision of US military dominance as a principal means for serving US national security interests. The administration has shown scant concern for US treaty obligations, particularly in the area of arms control. Most prominently, the administration has disavowed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, arguing it is no longer relevant in a post-Cold War environment. The US Nuclear Posture Review The clearest statement of US nuclear policy can be found in the administration‚s Nuclear Posture Review Report, a classified document mandated by Congress, which was leaked to the press in March 2002. This report lays out a “New Triad,”composed of offensive strike systems (nuclear and non-nuclear),...

LONDON – Perhaps one can see an end to the war in Afghanistan, even to Osama bin Laden himself, but can anyone see an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? America has shown that with its awesome armoury that defeat is swift for anyone who publicly dare step into the ring for a round or two, which the Taliban, by giving refuge to bin Laden, decided to do. (Of course, it is another matter if Qaida now bunkers down in secret cells all over the place.) But who is going to deliver the decisive blow with Palestine/Israel? This is a war of attrition that could knock on and drag on until not much is left standing. On the Palestinian side the outcome certainly could be a degree of material destruction that could make much of the country rubble; on the Israeli side it is more likely to make it simply unliveable....

An unconventional, deeply personal account of how the author came to study humiliation, write a second doctoral thesis and live as a global citizen. To reach the maturity that permits us to give up the idea of revenge and work to reconciliate and forgive is about the most important thing we can study. And do. This is innovative and free research in the essential spirit of TFF. We congratulate our dear colleague as doctor of psychology! The horrific events on the 11th September 2001 in the United States shook the world. News programmes around the world have incessantly covered the events and their aftermath ever since. The name Osama bin Laden has dominated the news, ways of retaliation or reactions are being discussed. This paper is not a classical empirical paper. It is a paper that attempts to convey conclusions drawn from four years of social psychological research, combined with...

Glädjande nyheter från vår egen värld. Fredag den 26 oktober 2001 försvarade TFF:s medstiftare, Christina Spännar, sin doktorsavhandling på Sociologiska Institutionen vid Lunds Universitet. Titeln är Med främmande bagage. Tankar och erfarenheter hos unga människor med ursprung i annan kultur eller Det postmoderna främlingskapet. “Christina har genomfört sin forskning samtidigt som hon tar hand om många vardagsuppgifter vid stiftelsen, inte minst när jag är borta,” säger Jan Öberg. “Hon deltar i alla beslut om TFF:s verksamhet och politik och utför massor av redaktionellt arbete på våra publikationer och hemsidesartiklar. Det går inte ut någon PressInfo utan hon har kommenterat och förbättrat utkasten.” “Hon läser och kommenterar i praktiken alla mina texter och jag är glad över att ha kunnat betala tillbaka lite genom att under tiden ha givit synpunkter på de olika delarna i slutfasen av avhandlingen,” säger Jan Öberg. “Christina är TFF-ankare och inspiratör – i mycket större omfattning än...

Happy news from our own world! On Friday October 26, 2001, TFF co-founder Christina Spännar successfully defended her dissertation at the Department of Sociology at the University of Lund. The title is With foreign luggage. Thoughts and experiences told by young people with roots in other cultures or The postmodern strangehood. “Christina has conducted her research while also caring for many everyday tasks at the foundation, particularly when I travel,” says Jan Oberg. “She participates in all important decisions about TFF policies and does a lot of editorial work on our publications and site articles. No PressInfo is distributed around the world before she has commented and improved on the drafts.” “She reads and comments on virtually all my texts and I am happy to have been able to pay back a little now by being her test reader and comment-maker through the work with her dissertation, ” says Jan Oberg....

Hver gang en ny krig dukker opp på nyhetsplass blir vi som arbeider med fred oppringt og bedt om en kommentar. Den aktuelle konflikten har da pågått i lang tid uten noen interesse fra hverken media eller omverden. Når volden dukker opp så kommer spørsmålene, interessen, ønskemålene om å forstå og ikke minst kravene på løsninger. For oss er det umulig å kommentere en pågående krig uten å se på historien bak. Ingen konflikt oppstår i et vakum, der er alltid en kompleks årsakssammenheng som ligger til grunn for konflikter og spesielt bruk av ekstrem vold. Mye kunne vært anderledes om aktørene hadde agert klokt på et tidligere tidspunkt. Den voldshandlingene som vi så på TV-skjermene 11 september var en motreaksjon for århundrer av vold utført av den vestlige kulturs forkjempere og USA spesielt. Og det kommer mer. Så lenge vesten ikke avslutter sin imperialistiske, voldelige, krenkende og rasistiske politikk...

London, december 2001 Skyddad från Londons och från hela världens buller, fashion, flärd och fladdrande, ifrån likgiltighet och konsumism kommer jag bakom Tate Moderns tjocka maskinhallsmurar. I ett mörkgrått kapelliknande rum med dämpat ljus. Här visas Mark Rothkos jättestora rundade rektanglar i rödbruna nyanser, mystiskt vibrerande i brunt och svart och, anar man, alla andra jordens färgar. Instrumentellt är de som tibetanska mandalas, former att fokusera ögonen på, en svävande känsla i ett mörklila universum som ger mig lugn. Konturlösa kuber som skapats av en odramatisk, icke-våldsam applicering av färger. Dystra rör de sig in och ur varandra som fönster i – eller ut mot – ett gränslöst rum. Skönhet? Obeskrivlig. Vila? Intensiv. Fred? I kropp och själ. Döden? Sannolikt närvarande. De är meditativa verk, ett närmande till en ansikts- och kroppslös Buddha, till ingenting och allt. Zen? Efter min meditation där i mörkret läser jag om hur de kom till. Rothko...