Conflict

By Dr. Lawrence Wittner June 5, 2019 In late April, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that, in 2018, world military expenditures rose to a record $1.82 trillion. The biggest military spender by far was the United States, which increased its military budget by nearly 5 percent to $649 billion (36 percent of the global total). But most other nations also joined the race for bigger and better ways to destroy one another through war. Originally publishes on Counterpunch.org on May 29th, 2019 here This situation represents a double tragedy. First, in a world bristling with weapons of vast destructive power, it threatens the annihilation of the human race. Second, as vast resources are poured into war and preparations for it, a host of other problems―poverty, environmental catastrophe, access to education and healthcare, and more―fail to be adequately addressed. But these circumstances can be changed, as shown by...

Islamophobia can be said to refer to the way Islam is being alienated in society by other cultures through fear and distrust against people belonging to the Islamic faith. Muslims are often portrayed in an increasingly negative context as witnessed in media, legislation and public debates. By Idriss Jazairy June 1, 2019 Islam is often presented as an ‘isolated culture’ with its own distinct features, which are allegedly incompatible with certain values upheld in Western societies. It is the rise of such a polarizing context that results in growing fear against Muslims, prejudice of other cultures and the ‘us versus them’ paradigm. Originally published human-wrongs-watch.net Although Arabs are a Semitic people like the Jews themselves, the media know that anti-Semitism is banned for the latter but tolerated for the former in the name of freedom of expression. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US by individuals – who were...

Trump’s statement amounts to a de facto declaration of war on Iran. Objectively speaking, it is a lie that Iran threatens the US. It is a lie that the US sends aircraft carriers to the region in self-defence. It’s lies as blatant as the one about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. You may think that this is just psychological warfare and positioning. It is not. Because: Over time, this type of statements develop its own dynamics and the US will not be able to back down from what it threatens to do without loosing face. President Trump’s statement is a blatant violation of international law, the UN Charter’s Article 2.4 which states:“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” In...

Remissvar om Lars-Erik Lundins utredning avgivet av Fredsrörelsen på Orust 24:e april 2019 Inledning Under läsningen av utredningens 215 sidor framtonar några grundläggande drag i den världsbild och den begreppsapparat som utredaren utgår ifrån och använder. Ingen öppen redovisning eller definition görs av dessa grundläggande drag i utredningen och dess slutsatser. Här följer ett representativt urval av begrepp som de kan förstås i utredningen. (Video med Lars-Erik Lundins presentation av utredningen). Säkerhet ett ord för trygghet i världen och frånvaro av osäkerhet för Sverige. (sid 69) Säkerhetspolitik utgörs av militära rustningar och samarbete med militäralliansen Nato och dess kärnvapenparaply (sid 24) Samarbete innebär verksamhet, avtal och militär utveckling tillsammans med Nato. (sid 69 och 153 Exempel: ”Rysslands ökade aggressivitet understryker vikten av samarbete”.) Försvar utgörs av militär styrka (överallt där ordet används) Avskräckning är målet för säkerhets- och försvarspolitik riktad mot Ryssland. Trovärdigt hot om användning av kärnvapen ingår. (sid...

The amazing person and phenomenon called Greta Thunberg can be looked at from many perspectives. What connects them all is the energies of hope. Thus, for instance, her own personal story and what drives her so passionately – and scientifically – at the age of only 16. Or, how she is challenging the entire global establishment as a youth leader not allowed to vote herself but demanding that decision-makers take into account the millions and millions she speaks for as well as the yet unborn generations. That’s a non-contractual, non-reciprocal way of thinking foreign to Western culture’s “I do something for you if/when you do something for me”. And you can’t ask something in return from the yet unborn. Or, how the role she plays now makes visible and catapults a fundamentally moral criticism into the political discourse where it hasn’t existed, I would say, for decades. Or, how her...

It’s Friday, April 5, 2019, at 9 PM. An entertaining talk show, “Skavlan”. A dialogue between a prime minister and a special forces soldier who has no regret having kicked in doors and “killed a lot” in Afghanistan. He justifies himself by the most primitive and long-ago debunked theory about Good and Evil in this world. And then the listening prime minister expresses his admiration. Something roamed around in my mind hours after the event and I had to check: Did he really say what I think I heard? It made me think about theories and worldviews on which political decisions can be founded. About the general, normalized fascination of war and killing, and about the soldier as hero and the victim as invisible, non-existent. It made me think about the sophisticated, almost imperceptible, media methods by which perpetrators of law violations and war crimes are turned (and turn themselves)...

By Dragana Maksimovic January 28, 2019 The author, MA student at University of Belgrade, become a TFF Associate in 2018. More here. There is one thing about which many peace researchers disagree and constantly debate: Are we really living in the most peaceful era ever, or are we facing a dangerous era of conflicts and struggles for global supremacy – very often masked as a fight for human rights but which can lead to a global war? There are those who agree with Steven Pinker when he claims that “today we are living in a most peaceful time in our species’ existence” (1) or with Barack Obama, the 44th president of The United States, who wanted to highlight how “worth it is reminding ourselves of how lucky we are to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history.’’ (2) Trying to validate his claims,...

– Martin Luther King Day Since The Transnational is also a public education site, we believe a handy, comprehensive guide to materials about Martin Luther King, Jr. should be found here: For his indisputable greatness as a human being, thinker and activist and for you to see just how far today’s United States of America is from its basic ideals, ideals that he stated so clearly and convincingly. Such ideals must never be allowed to die, neither be turned into lifeless traditions over time that are only paid lip service to at memorial occasions. Martin Luther King, Jr. has a series of messages for today’s world – and inspires anyone who wants to bring about change towards peace. We are particularly fascinated by his elaborations of the concept of The Beloved Community. And we’ve published two other guides earlier: Michel Chossudovsky, TFF Associate, Global Research Guide to Martin Luther King,...

The icon’s legacy is no longer secure, but he anticipated much about our current political moment By Pankaj Mishra January 11, 2019 In 2015, in South Africa, where Mohandas Gandhi lived from 1893 to 1914, a statue of him was defaced by protesters. The following year, the University of Ghana agreed to remove Gandhi’s statue from its campus, after an online campaign with the (misspelled) hashtag #Ghandimustfall charged the Indian leader with racism against black Africans. Compared with other recent targets of political iconoclasts—stalwarts of the Confederacy and Cecil Rhodes—Gandhi seems an unlikely symbol of racial arrogance. Nelson Mandela claimed that Gandhi’s tactics offered “the best hope for future race relations”; Martin Luther King, Jr., held Gandhi up as a model; decades before that, black activists such as Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., and Benjamin Mays were enthralled by the phenomenon of an Indian leading people of color in the campaign...

  “We need jaw jaw not war war”, said Winston Churchill rather hypocritically. Still, he would be glad to see that the number of wars around the world has fallen dramatically since the end of World War 2, despite the wars in Korea, Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan versus India, Central America, Cyprus, ex-Yugoslavia, Syria and now Yemen. Compared with centuries past this has been a remarkable era, yet one not often acknowledged. Interstate wars, apart from India versus Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, have vanished off the map. The wars that remain are civil wars. The democracies do not go to war with each other, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher long ago observed. According to a detailed study made by the Economist last month, analyzed all international wars since 1900, along with the belligerents’ wealth and degree of development. It counted all conflicts in which at...

Photocredit: nousnatobases.org   By Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and TFF Associate Presented at the International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases, 16-18 Nov 2018, Dublin, Ireland. November 27, 2018   Dear Friends, It is good to be here with you all. I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to address the conference. Firstly I thank you all for your work for peace. It is good that we will have an opportunity in the next few days to get to know each other and together discuss what kind of a world we want to live in? There will be many different perspectives on this and the way forward, but let us agree to respect each other and to engage in deep listening and conversation no matter how hard and where the dialogue might take us! Originally published at transcend.org Let us be encouraged by the fact that we have made...

The Belt and Road Initiative has turned 5 years. On September 7, 2013, at the Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, President Xi Jinping of China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This initiative – which has attracted a lot of attention from all over the world – was launched to “promote the economic prosperity of the countries, strengthen mutual learning between different civilizations and promoting world peace and development.” The historical roots, of course, is the ancient Silk Road from China through Eurasia to Europe and Africa. At the time of the mentioned speech, 60+ countries were on the list. Now, 5 years later and as the initiative gains momentum, there are more than 100 countries involved in various ways and roles. And the “Silk Roads” now points in all directions, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, even the USA. The BRI has become a global force – a civilian...