Nato

SIPRI latest analysis of the global arms trade is just out. When one reads the summary, one may ask: If not now, when is the time to criminalize the international arms trade? Weapons imported into warzones have – without exception – four major effects: a) those who buy or receive the weapons get emboldened to continue war rather than seek a negotiated solution; b) the wars last longer than they otherwise would had there been a moratorium by all external factors on these sales to conflicting paeties; c) human suffering and social costs increase because of a) and b); d) the arms trade economy and world is an integral part of global law-violating behaviour, mafiosi, terrorism, dirty money, corruption, death, drugs, trafficking – you name it. A murky community, indeed. In addition, arms trade is the most immoral of all: private and government dealers sell arms mainly to earn money....

This is how Dr. Vankovska, TFF Associate for over 20 years, succinctly has responded to an inquiry by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  And on this very day, Macedonia signed its accession protocol to NATO. Let’s make clear a few things: first, the so-called Prespa process, in which the Republic of Macedonia had to change its name and the constitution, had primarily been inspired by wider geopolitical reasons and run by Western power centers. In my view, the collateral damage of this – alleged Nobel Peace Prize worthy – success is the internal political situation and stability. Second, if the NATO enlargement process teaches us anything it is that the political will of the member-states has dominance over the declared criteria for admission to the Alliance. It seems that everything is set now (unlike 2008) so there is no doubt that Macedonia’s accession to NATO is certain. Objectively speaking, the country finds...

The number of nuclear weapons possessed by the US and Russia is a fraction of what it was during the height of the Cold War. Successive presidents on both sides, since the time of John F.  Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, have feared their destructive power. Their supposed value, so called Mutually Assured Destruction, known by its capitals, MAD, is in fact valueless. They cannot be used, and nearly everyone accepts that. Yet they continue to exist and, as President Mikhail Gorbachev and his ally in nuclear arms control, President Ronald Reagan, both said, there  is the fear of a false alarm or two errant officers in the silo entering simultaneously their keys which allows the firing  of the rocket. Yet here we are in 2019 with a new American nuclear initiative just announced last weekend. (I doubt that president Donald Trump is in the clutches of Russia. Otherwise, why would...

By Gordon M. Hahn January 29, 2019 The alienation of post-Cold War Russia has proceeded in waves. Each successive Western overreach for not just maintaining but expanding its global hegemony has produced a new wave of Russian alienation. What will probably be the last wave, one that might help spark a wave of ultra-nationalism afterward has begun. This new wave is alienating the West’s last base of support for Russian democratization and international cooperation: Russia’s liberals. The first wave: The alienation of Russia began with the West’s failure to significantly assist Russia during its very great depression and talk of NATO expansion in the early 1990s but was staunched somewhat by the then still unbroken Western promise not to expand NATO beyond reunited Germany. This alienated a large part of the elite. Originally published on Gordon M. Hahn’s excellent blog here The second wave of Russian alienation began with the...

Sverige borde klippa banden med den västliga militäralliansen Nato. Dessutom ska vapenexporten till USA, Saudiarabien och andra krigförande länder stoppas, skriver fredsaktivisten Ola Friholt. Vi 55 deltagare vid utdelningen av ”Folkets fredspris i enlighet med Nobels testamente” till Agneta Norberg yrkar härmed att Sveriges riksdag och regering snarast avvecklar sitt förstuckna engagemang och öppna samröre med Natostaternas upptrappade militära angrepp, bland annat i krigen mot Serbien, Afghanistan, Irak och Libyen, med flera miljoner direkta och indirekta dödsoffer. Det är en skam för Sverige att olaglig vapenexport till krigförande länder ogenerat tillåts även i dag. Vi uppmanar regering och riksdag att omedelbart avbryta vapenexporten till USA, Saudiarabien och övriga inblandade. Läs hela artikeln i Dagens Nyheter 8:e december 2018 Foto: Gunnar Svedenbäck

  By Farhang Jahanpour, TFF Board Professor Farhang Jahanpour, part-time tutor on Middle Eastern affairs in the Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford, and a member of Kellogg College says that the main reason for the idea of forming a joint European army “has been President Trump’s unilateral and ultra-nationalist approach that puts America first and, by implication, ignores the interests of other countries and tries to impose his views on them.” Former Senior Research Scholar at Harvard adds that “He seems to have no concept of a multipolar world and he wishes to rule other countries like a global hegemon, in the same way, that he is trying to establish an imperial presidency at home.” Following is the full text of the interview: Q: The idea of forming a joint European army is not a new idea, but in recent days, with the comments of French President Emmanuel...

  At last a book that attacks the “Blob” and holes it below the water line. Whether it can sink it is another matter. I’m talking about a book published last week by the Harvard professor of international affairs, Stephen Walt, “The Hell of Good Intentions”. The “Blob” is a wonderful word conjured up by President Barack Obama’s deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes. It means the group of congressmen, generals, industrialists, academics and journalists who specialize in foreign policy and have an influence promoting what Walt calls “Liberal Hegemony”. This, he defines, as the default setting for US foreign policy by the ingrown foreign policy establishment. “Open-ended efforts to remake the world in America’s image gives them plenty to do, appeals to its members’ self-regard and maximizes their status and power”. It’s a full employment policy (by those who were thrown out of work at the end of the...

  By Farhang Jahanpour September 26   Last year I wrote that Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly was perhaps the worst speech ever delivered from that podium, certainly by a Western leader. This year he surpassed himself. Why is there no rule to say that someone who openly violates the basic norms of the United Nations continuously threatens other countries in contravention of the UN Charter’s Article 2.4 condemns internationalism and multilateralism advocates a narrow nationalism/patriotism (to make America great again) stops funding the UNESCO condemns the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatens its officials withdraws from UNRWA withdraws from the Paris Climate Accord withdraws from the UN Human Rights Commission withdraws from the UN Security Council-based nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) etc. – can not automatically expect to remain a member of the UN world body that is in charge of those organisations and advocates those principles...

  Utterly destructive, self-defeating and spelling the end of the U.S. Empire   By Farhang Jahanpour September 22, 2018 In view of the macro-historical perspective on the Middle East-West relations and the concrete cases referred to in this series – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria – it is clear that the demonization of Middle Eastern leaders as a prelude to invasion and their downfall has a long history. Such rulers are often used to serve the economic and political interests of various Western countries, in the same way that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates’ Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Zayed are being used at the moment to make them purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of US, British and French weapons. When they have outlived their usefulness, they will probably meet the same fate as that of Qadhafi or Saddam Hussein. However, despite...

    By Farhang Jahanpour September 20, 2018   1. An ally in warfare and torture Although the tragic events in Syria are too close to us to pass a definitive judgement about what has happened there and we need some perspective before we can make any definitive statements, nevertheless, some of the outlines of what led to that catastrophe are already clear for all to see. When the United States invaded Kuwait in order to dislodge the Iraqi forces that had occupied that country, Syria was one of the countries that joined the US-led coalition. Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Syria was one of the main destinations for rendered suspects to be tortured in Syrian black sites. In the chilling words of former CIA agent Robert Baer in 2004: “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured,...

    By Farhang Jahanpour September 20, 2018   On 20 March 2018, the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody in Paris to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of Euros in illegal funding from Qadhafi for his presidential campaign. Investigators were examining claims that Qadhafi’s regime secretly gave Sarkozy €50 million overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit and also violates French rules against foreign financing of elections. (See: “Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in police custody over investigation into Gaddafi funding”, The Independent, 20 March 2018. Sarkozy entertained Qadhafi lavishly at the Elyse Palace, even allowing him to pitch his tent in the grounds of the palace. Yet, later on, Sarkozy was the cheerleader for the attack on Libya, which resulted in the brutal murder of Qadhafi and the destruction of...

U.S Vice President Mike Pence, left, joined by Montenegro’s Prime Minister Dusko Markovic during a joint press conference in Villa Gorica in Podgorica, Montenegro on August 2, 2017. (AP Photo / Risto Bozovic)   Did Montenegro’s NATO accession increase the collective defense of the West or merely protect a corrupt regime? When Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently asked President Donald Trump why the United States should defend Montenegro, Trump responded by saying that if Montenegrins decided to “get aggressive.… Congratulations, you’re in World War III.” The subsequent outcry was predictable; a New York Times editorial quickly attacked Trump’s comments as revealing “another facet of his ignorance of and disdain for America’s historic place in the world and its alliances.” Yet Trump’s comments—inarticulately expressed as they were—were in fact in line with the thinking of past American presidents leery of getting the country involved in foreign problems with no bearing...