EU foreign policies

Palestinians search the rubble of destroyed buildings following an Israeli strike, as battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continue for the sixth consecutive day in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2023.© Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images Jan Oberg October 12, 2023 This is the text of TFF PressInfo 723 sent out earlier today. I suggest that you subscribe to our free about-weekly newsletter here. In civilisational terms, war is a backward, primitive thing; it solves no conflicts and creates no security – only hate, which fuels more war. It’s a system or structural evil – much more than a human evil.   Equally primitive and uncultured is, of course, the type of black-and-white, simplified narrative: there is only one evil party – the Palestinians and Hamas. The war has only one cause, and we need neither history nor conflict analysis to understand anything....

It’s about fighting against evil/Putin/Hitler and fighting for democracy… NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg admits that Russia was motivated by NATO to invade Ukraine. Video creator Matt Orfalea shows how often we were told that the war was absolutely “not about NATO”… October 3, 2023 There is no need for an intro or comments to this short documentation of lies by high-level people and mainstream media. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic… Always help spreading this tag #NOTONATO, thanks!

Michael Gfoeller & David H. Rundell September 27, 2023 In 1919, John Maynard Keynes was a young economist with the British delegation negotiating the Versailles Treaty. Keynes strongly objected to the harsh economic treatment being meted out to Germany. He resigned and went home to write “The Economic Consequences of the Peace,” which accurately predicted how the treaty would sow the seeds for future conflict. Had Keynes been alive last year, he might well have written “The Economic Consequences of the War,” predicting how the economic sanctions being placed on Russia would, in fact, unravel Europe’s political order. Few products contribute more to economic prosperity and political stability than affordable food and energy. Increased energy costs retard every aspect of economic growth. Rising food costs act much like a regressive tax increase. By imposing economic sanctions on Russia, Europe destroyed its own access to inexpensive food and energy. One did...

This is one of the most elucidating – and thanks also to the author’s special background, convincing – analyses I have seen of why there is war in Ukraine and how it could all have been avoided had the US/NATO not, over the last 19 years, been cynically manipulating Ukraine, conducted two reckless government changes and armed the country – not to help it but to use it to weaken Russia. Incidentally, it connects very well with another recent article published by TFF that shows that the Ukrainian people does not trust NATO and the EU. If there is one short article that can advance the intellectual and moral struggle to reveal the cynicism of the US/Western orchestrated media campaign and systematic lying in the service of rampant militarism, it is this. I ask you to share it widely. I have italicised a few paragraphs to enhance your reading. Jan...

71% of the respondents said NATO and the EU only follow their own interests and simply use Ukraine for their own purposes. The survey below should be a shocking story to Western decision-makers: A large majority of Ukrainians don’t believe them at all. They are clearly aware that it is not Ukraine’s best that is in focus, it is the interest only of NATO and the EU – using Ukraine for their own interests. This is even more significant when you consider that the survey reported below does not include the opinions of Ukrainian people who live in the areas that Russia now controls. Their voice would likely be vastly more negative to the West’s policies. Furthermore, one must draw the conclusion that the economic, military and political elite groups in Kiev have very little backing from the people they rule – but they hardly notice because all opposition media...

Harold Pinter in 1970. / Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Lessons in Western self-sabotage from the Ukraine War Seymour Hersh August 16, 2023 The British playwright and Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter was an early critic of the Bush administration’s decision, endorsed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to declare a worldwide war on Islamist terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. In the fall of 2002, Pinter was invited to make his case against the war before the House of Commons. He began his talk with a bit of embellished British history about an earlier wave of terror in Ireland: There’s an old story about Oliver Cromwell. After he had taken the town of Drogheda, the citizens were brought to the main square. Cromwell announced to his Lieutenants: ‘Right! Kill all the women and rape all the men.’ One of his aides said: ‘Excuse me General. Isn’t it the other way...

Nancy Pelosi, then U.S. House speaker, center, gestures as she leaves parliament in Taipei on Aug. 3, 2022. © Reuters Kishore Mahbubani June 8, 2023 Outspoken Western leaders are putting region’s peace at risk A war over Taiwan would be disastrous for Asia. By contrast, it would have only a marginal impact on Europe. The total population of the 53 countries that make up the U.N.’s Asia and the Pacific Group comes to about 4.5 billion. By contrast, the total population of the 27 countries that make up the European Union comes to around 446 million, less than 10% as much. So whose voices are making the most noise about Taiwan? Originally published at NIKKEI ASIA on May 12, 2023 Asian leaders have generally had little to say about Taiwan, notwithstanding some recent statements made jointly with their U.S. counterparts. European leaders have been much more outspoken about the island. European Commission...

By Lily Lynch May 29, 2023 The anti-war movement has fallen for a progressive circus In January 2018, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held an unprecedented press conference with Angelina Jolie. While InStyle reported that Jolie “was dressed in a black off-the-shoulder sheath dress, a matching capelet and classic pumps (also black)”, there was a deeper purpose to this meeting: sexual violence in war. The pair had just co-authored a piece for the Guardian entitled “Why NATO must defend women’s rights”. The timing was significant. At the height of the #MeToo movement, the most powerful military alliance in the world had become a feminist ally. “Ending gender-based violence is a vital issue of peace and security as well as of social justice,” they wrote. “NATO can be a leader in this effort.” Originally published at UnHerd on May 16, 2023 This was a new and progressive face for NATO, the same one it has...

Meetings of the G7 and NATO (top) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (bottom) Ben Norton March 29, 2023 A study by the elite EU-funded European Council on Foreign Relations found the West is out of touch politically with the rest of the world. Most people in China, India, and Türkiye see Russia as an important ally, and they want multipolarity, not continued “American global supremacy”. Originally published at Geopolitical Economy on February 25, 2023 A study by an elite European government-funded think tank found that, while the United States and Europe are growing closer together, the West is increasingly out of touch politically with the rest of the world. The report, from the EU member state-financed European Council on Foreign Relations, conceded that the system of “American global supremacy” is in rapid decline, and many people in the Global South want a new “multipolar world”. The series of polls concluded that NATO’s proxy...

Map Shows Countries That Support Western Govt Sanctions Against Russia vs Those Who Do Not By Krishen Mehta February 22, 2023 In October 2022, about eight months after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the University of Cambridge in the UK harmonized surveys that asked the inhabitants of 137 countries about their views of the West, Russia, and China. The findings in the combined study are robust enough to demand our serious attention. These findings have caused some surprise and even anger in the West. It’s difficult for Western thought leaders to comprehend that two-thirds of the world’s population is just not lining up with the West in this conflict. However, I believe there are five reasons why the Global South is not taking the West’s side. I discuss these reasons in the short essay below.  Originally published at US-Russia Accord on February 22, 2023 1. The Global South does not...

Jan Oberg February 20, 2023 This comment was written and video created for and published by China Daily on February 20, 2023. The daily also used it for a special feature with three experts, which you may read here. It has also been published by The Citizen in India. Whatever other reasons that a war is raging in Ukraine, one major reason is that we live in times characterised by the increasingly dangerous – perhaps fatal – combination of intellectual-moral disarmament and military re-armament. Militarism is now the main factor holding the West NATO/EU world together. It’s a religion and NATO its church. In different ways, militarists argue that their side was historically innocent and are justified to do what they do now; NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg even states that NATO is not a party to the conflict. Secondly, they argue that they must win, meaning others must lose. The latter...

The Danish foreign, defence and the prime minister is greeted by President Zelensky (right) Jan Oberg February 2, 2023 In Danish here The West/NATO has always lacked a long-term strategy. After all, it was militarily, economically and politically superior and could impose its will. Didn’t have to think. Hoping Ukraine would join NATO without fuss was hubris-ridden wishful thinking, and stupid to boot, in that it’s been convincingly documented that Russia’s leaders, from Gorbachev to Putin for the past 30 years, have said that NATO expansion was: a) a clear violation of the promises made by all important Western leaders to Gorbachev – and it’s true; b) a humiliation and counterproductive if you want common security; and c) that if it could be no other way, then Ukraine would be Russia’s definitive red line. No one listened. Because, as former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen so aptly put it:...