Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....
One Response
Many thanks for this enlightening interview. The neocons in the Trump administration, including John Bolton and Pompeo, had set a trap for Trump to start a war with Iran. He has taken a step back this time but there is no guarantee that next time we will be as lucky. The fact that Trump has imposed crushing sanctions on Iran and is forcing other countries to observe those sanctions too is in fact a siege and blockade of Iran which is an act of war. Arming Iran’s neighbours, Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE, to the teeth and calling on Iran to get rid of its missiles and practically to disarm are also all provocations that may lead to war. It is the duty of the rest of the world, especially the Europeans who will suffer most as the result of a war and disruption in oil and gas supplies, to make it absolutely clear to the Trump administration that they will not tolerate another war in the Middle East. Meanwhile, every effort should be made to reduce tension and make sure that a war does not happen by accident. Incidentally, where are the United Nations secretary general and the Security Council whose job it is to prevent aggression and any threats to international peace and security in the face of possibly the most devastating conflicts since the Second World War?