Archive 1986 – 2017

(forthcoming in the Second Edition of “Searching for Peace: The Road to TRANSCEND” by Johan Galtung, Carl G. Jacobsen and Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen. London: Pluto Press, 2002) 1. Diagnosis. Politics, like communication is seen in terms of who does what to whom, how-when-where, and why. The what-how-when-where of the September 11 attack in New York and Washington is clear; the problems are who and why. But why is at least clear up to a certain point. Like the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, also bombed on a September 11 (1973) somebody had something against what happened inside some buildings: the capitalism of the US world trade and the militarism of the US Pentagon for year 2001/1/; the politics of the Unidad Popular for year 1973. The text was written in building language, and like for all texts what is not written may be equally important: no museum, no cathedral, no parliament. The...

The undertaking of this chapter is to consider the record of the United Nations System since its inception, with an eye focused on prospects for renewal and reform at the present time. The main criteria relied upon for assessment are considerations of effectiveness and legitimacy in relation to the operations of the United Nations. The chapter begins with a discussion of why the present global setting is resistant to renewal and reform, but with the qualification that such a climate of resistance could change rapidly. And that over time, the sheer complexity of international life and the salience of global scale problems is likely to exert pressures to strengthen the United Nations. From matters of context, the chapter moves on to discuss the historical origins of the United Nations, and the extent to which the experiences with global security prior to 1945 shaped the character of the UN in relation...

For the project INSTEAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONSBy the Swedish Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (SLMK) in cooperation with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) Ten years after the so-called end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are still with us. There is the BMD, the risk of diversion of fissile materials, the fear of nuclearisation of terrorism. The weapons and their means of delivery have become ever more sophisticated. Through base systems, sub-marines, aircraft carriers, the global reach of militarism has intensified. Still, in proportion to the increasing threat all this represents to humankind’s survival as well as to democracy and global development, public debate with visions of a nuclear-free is desperately feeble. Advocates of a nuclear-free world, face immensely powerful governments and military-industrial-scientific structures. We also face the arrogance of power of the roughly 600 individuals (presidents, prime ministers, defence ministers, chiefs of staffs and commanders)...

The unprecedented revocation on 7 November 2001 of Dr. Azmi Bishara’s immunity as a member of the Israeli Knesset opened the way for his criminal indictment on charges that he had violated the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (1948) and Regulation 5 of the Emergency Regulations (Exiting the Country) (1948). The essence of the allegations against Dr. Bishara was that he had on two occasions made speeches that expressed support for Palestinian resistance in Occupied Palestine and in support of the expulsion of Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. Bishara was also accused of violating Regulation 5 as a result of his humanitarian role in arranging family visits by elderly Palestinians to their relatives living in Syrian refugee camps. Such a criminal proceeding raises extremely serious questions concerning the free speech rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and particularly those who have chosen to participate in Israeli governmental institutions. For the Knesset...

Det är rikligt dokumenterat att UCK-terroristerna i Makedonien, som har nära samarbete med UCK i Kosovo, har beväpnats och utbildats av Washington. Varför skulle då USA intervenera i Natos regi och bekämpa sin egen ställföreträdande armé? Närvaron av Nato- eller amerikansk-brittisk trupp skulle i stället främja Washingtons strategiska målsättningar. USA för nu återigen krig med ställföreträdare, använder sig av UCK för att strida mot Makedoniens armé, ARM. USA:s KFOR-styrkor i Kosovo är inte direkt inblandade, men amerikansk militär från det privata bolaget MPRI (Military Professional Resources, Inc, ett legoknektsföretag kontrakterat av USA:s försvarsdepartement Pentagon) är rådgivare till UCK och dess makedonska gren, som kallar sig Nationella befrielsearmén.1 Militär personal från den “civila” Kosovos Skyddskår (KPC), dvs UCK under FN:s beteckning, har nu anslutit sig till det makedonska UCK. KPC-reservister har inkallats och KPC:s stabschef Gezim Ostreni “som var avlönad av FN” har utsetts till ställföreträdande “befälhavare” i makedonska UCK. Ett...

Siden 11. september har en række regeringer, herunder også den danske, deltaget i en “krig mod terrorismen.” Det er sket på en sådan grad at man må frygte skadegørelse på det åbne demokratiske samfund og at vi kommer til at øge terrorismen. Jeg skal argumentere for at kampen mod terroren er en panikreaktion, der kan føre mere ondt med sig og at vi burde interesserer os meget mere for hvad terrorisme er og hvad der forårsager den. Terror kan definieres som organiseret politiskt vold, der bruges til at opnå politiske mål. Terror kendetegnes ved at den skader eller dræber uskyldige, sådanne som intet har med den konflikt at gøre i hvilken terroren anvendes. Mens terroristens mål kan være legitime, defineres terror ved at den hverken kan retfærdiggøres moralskt eller juridiskt. Da såvel mindre grupper af individer som stater udøver terror findes der to hovedtyper, nemlig smågruppeterror og statsterror. Fælles for...

Introduction This PressInfo is written by concerned American citizens. They express their thoughts upon reading PressInfo # 143, Bush’s “State of War Address”. Among them are activists, leadership experts, consultants, business people, professors, a priest, editors, while others who wrote are simply concerned citizens. They are about an equal number of men and women. Below you can read what they think and feel. All are critical of Bush’s policies. Did we select only Bush-critical messages? No. However, only one (1) among some forty responses was critical to the analysis in PressInfo # 143: a US government envoy to a conflict region wrote back without offering his name, “I would prefer that I do not receive crap news like this one.” These are the main themes: – Bush does not speak for me. I disagree with U.S. foreign policy. – I am ashamed that he is our President. I do not...

Ekstrabladets “Frontalt” Åbent brev til regeringen Som andre EU-lande iagttog Danmark tre minutters stilhed for de uskyldigt dræbte i terror-angrebet på World Trade Center og Pentagon den 11. september sidste år. Der blev også afholdt en mindegudstjeneste i København med repræsentaner for regering, kongehus og for De forenede Stater i Danmark. Ud fra et lignende humanistiskt hensyn mener jeg Danmark og ligesindede lande bør vise de uskyldigt dræbte i Afghanistan den samme ære. Af principielle grunde og fordi der er en indlysende sammanhæng mellem de to begivenheder. Alle religioner understreger at ethvert menneskeliv er helligt. Humanisme bygger blandt andet på den ufravigelige grundværdi at alle og ethvert menneskeliv er lige så værdifuldt som ethvert andet uanset nationalitet, race, hudfarve, køn osv. Der er således ingen tvivl om at et uskyldigt dræbt menneskeliv i Afghanistan har eksakt samme værdi som ethvert af de knapt 3000 uskyldige liv, der blev taget 11....

1. Debat om behandling af straffelovsovertrædelser er i fuld gang herhjem-me. Skal overtrædelsen behandles ved domstolene eller ved konfliktråd? udover hensynene til ofrene er der da også hensyn at tage til gerningsmændene og hvad med rets-følelsen? Forsøgsordninger etableres og evalueres. Også på internationalt plan afprøves for-skellige muligheder for opgør efter borgerkrige m.v. Skal opgøret foregå ved krigs-domstole eller sand-heds- og forsoningskommissioner? Mange har igennem lang tid arbejdet specifikt med konfliktråd eller internationale tribunaler eller sandheds-kommis-sioner, og besidder megen specialviden om enkelte eller flere af disse reak-tionsmodel-ler. Min vinkel har gennem de seneste år været kon-flikthåndtering i bred forstand, sammen-ligning mellem traditionelle og alternative måder at håndtere konflikter på og med hovedvægten på det vi kan kalde basal konfliktløsning. Herved forstår jeg en teori med dertil knyttet teknik, som i videst muligt omfang tilstræber en løsning, der tilgodeser begge parters behov. Filosofien bag lægger vægt på den gen-sidige afhængighed, som medlemmer...

BokenVÄRLDENS CENTRUMEn essä om globaliseringAv: Stefan JonssonNorstedts “Världens 358 rikaste människor tjänar tillsammans lika mycket som världens 2.5 miljarder fattigaste.” Författaren och journalisten Stefan Jonsson bevakade 1995 FN:s stora sociala konferens i Köpenhamn. I sin nya bok “Världens centrum”, med undertiteln “En essä om globalisering” låter han en indisk utvecklingsteoretiker lägga fram uppgifter om tillståndet i världen. Medan konferensen pågick rapporterade han från den som journalist. I ett av avsnitten i sin bok reflekterar han över tillståndet i världen utifrån konferensens kartläggning av det globala tillståndet. Hur ska man kunna förstå en så ojämlik värld, där samma ekonomiska mekanismer skapar både gigantiska rikedomar åt få och massfattigdom åt andra? Kanske kan man överblicka situationen genom att uppsöka “världens centrum”, för att där finna en punkt varifrån världen kan överblickas. Men hur finner man “världens centrum”? Jonsson funderar. Följ ledarnas limousiner, säger någon. Följ pengarna och penningflödet, rekommenderar en annan. Och...

LONDON – The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former strong man of Yugoslavia, set to open in The Hague next week at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, may raise as many questions as it answers. It is not just the double standards of the United States in being the prime instigator of this trial while it refuses to put itself under the writ of the soon-to-be International Criminal Court established to try all crimes against humanity, but also the many underhand and compromised methods used by the Western powers in an attempt to placate the demons of Belgrade during the civil wars of the 1990s. Yet the trial is a major marker in the development of international jurisprudence. After the success of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that convicted Nazi and Japanese war leaders, and were conducted despite Churchill’s initial hostility who wanted them just to be taken...

By Richard E. Rubenstein* The failure of the Democratic Party and the mainstream news media to criticize President Bush’s overwrought, alarmingly bellicose State of the Union speech is no less appalling for being predictable. Their vacuous, timid responses remind us once again that democracy and freedom depend ultimately on ideas and the courage to voice them, not just on forms of legality. Bush makes three points in his speech. (1) The war on Afghanistan was a great victory. (2) The war on global terrorism must be continued and expanded. (3) We will “defeat” the economic recession as well as the terrorists. For the moment, we can forget point (3), which simply dresses up the Bush Administration’s economic program in military rhetoric, and point (1), which represents the worst sort of tub-thumping propaganda. Afghanistan has been “freed from oppression,” although upwards of 40,000 new refugees have fled their homes to escape...