Peace

Fredrik HeffermehlThe Nobel Peace Prize Watch and TFF Oslo & Gothenburg, October 9, 2020 To the mediaCOMMENT – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2020 – NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WATCH: We recognise the great value of the World Food Program, but the 2020 prize is much less ambitious than Nobel’s idea of “conferring the greatest benefit on humankind”. The committee again deals with arbitrary, single aspects of the war problem, and never addresses the root causes that Nobel wished to remove. (See his will here). TFF Associate David Swanson, World Beyond War, has this to say: The Nobel Peace Prize Avoids Peace Again With this addition – in English, Norwegian, Spanish, German, French, and Russian: We had hoped the Norwegian committee this year would have formulated the idea of Nobel and committed to promoting his visionary plan for peace. As long as it fails to do so, the committee is handing out its own...

“Crystal Opalescent” by Jan Oberg 2020 Jan Oberg October 8, 2020 The discourse about, or for, peace has mostly disappeared over the last 2-3 decades. It applies to research (and its non-governmental funding possibilities), to politics in general and to the media.  In foreign and security politics, the intellectual level is now such that it does not even seem strange to decision-makers that they never obtain peace advice or consult peace experts. The fantasy-assumption is that if only there is enough military’ security’ means applied to enough societal problems, peace will automatically come about.  I can’t remember having heard a parliamentarian or minister mention or conceptualise peace beyond the level of the state dinner speech – that is, devoid of theoretical and factual content as well as of meaning.  Originally published as an editorial on the Transcend Media Service, TMS. The mainstream media have no one who can focus on...

Collected Stephen Frand Cohen was an American scholar of Russian studies. His academic work concentrated on modern Russian history since the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s relationship with the United States. Cohen was a contributing editor to The Nation magazine, published and partially owned by his wife Katrina vanden Heuvel. Cohen was a founding director of the reestablished American Committee for East–West Accord which was revived in 2015. Wikipedia Born Stephen Frand Cohen, November 25, 1938, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.Died on September 18, 2020, New York City, U.S. Considering him one of the most important, knowledgeable and wise voices, TFF is proud to have printed some of his articles and interviews here at The Transnational. Here his many contributions to The Nation. Katrina vanden Heuvel – “My Steve” The New York Times obituary Bill Bradley, in The National InterestA man who knew Russia: A tribute to Stephen F. Cohen War with Russia?...

Erni & Ola Friholt TFF Associates och Fredsrörelsen på Orust 5:e oktober 2020 Sedan urminnes tider anses försvar bestå av motvåld mot en erövrare eller ockupant. Och våldet har fungerat till priset av ett stort antal döda, betecknade som hjältar och hjältinnor, som offrat sina liv för de efterlevandes frihet. Med det moderna bekväma livet ter sig hjältedöden mindre lockande. Nu motiveras militär upprustning med begreppet avskräckning. Det ska bli för dyrt för en fiende att försöka inta Sverige. En beväpnad fred skall råda. Det har övats krig på Gotland under förevändning av ryska hot. Att Ryssland känner sig hotat av NATO:s närvaro vid dess gränser faller ingen in. Avskräckning gäller mot en utmålad fiende, demoniserad till omänsklighet. Även för avskräckningsstrategin blir priset högt. De tekniska samhällsfunktionerna blir alltmer sofistikerade och sårbara. De är nu så omfattande att militär avskräckning kräver skyhöga försakelser av ekonomiska resurser och nära samarbete med...

Louis Kriesberg By Louis Kriesberg September 25, 2020 Since Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as president, many Americans have carried out a wide variety of collective nonviolent actions to oppose many of his and his administration’s policies. The actions include massive marches in Washington, D.C. in concert with marches in cities across the nation. They also include strikes, boycotts, walkouts, and regular meetings to plan and conduct ongoing programs of resistance. The actions have been conducted by diverse segments of the American people. These nonviolent strategies and tactics follow and build on those used throughout American history. Many of the social movements relying on nonviolent methods of struggle have yielded widely beneficial changes in American society. But often they have failed to make substantial lasting change and sometimes they have been counterproductive. Frequently, there are mixed results over time. Originally published at lkriesbe.expressions.syr.edu Fortunately, there are resources that increase the...

Fredrik Heffermehl 23. september 2020 Fredrik S. HeffermehlTlf.: +47 917 44 783, fredpax@online.no Oslo September 21, 2020Den norske NobelkomiteHenrik Ibsens gate 51, 0255 Oslo To the Foreign Press Association in OsloEnclosed please find: 1) today´s media release 2) a letter sent Monday 21 to The Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo Sincerely,Fredrik S. Heffermehl,  lawyer and authortlf. 917 44 783, fredpax@online.no    Oslo, September 23, 2020 For the media Nobel Committee condemned in new report / book  — Many speculate who will win the 2020 peace prize, but in my view the vital issue this year is that the committee must formulate its interpretation of Nobel’s intention, says Norwegian lawyer and author Fredrik S. Heffermehl, who on Monday submitted his new book “Behind the Medals” (Medaljens bakside) to the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee that selects the winner. His conclusion is that the committee in all years since 1901 has failed to understand its mission as the...

Fredrik Heffermehl 23. september 2020 Fredrik S. HeffermehlTlf.: +47 917 44 783, fredpax@online.no Oslo 21. september 2020Den norske NobelkomiteHenrik Ibsens gate 51, 0255 Oslo Vurdering av testators intensjon og måloppfyllelse i Nobelprisforvaltningen Min forskning om Nobels «prisen for fredsforkjempere» har nå pågått i 13 år og resultatet er nylig gjort tilgjengelige for et bredt publikum i boken “Medaljens bakside” (Sandnes 2020). Konklusjonene er alvorlige. Testamentet ble aldri fagmessig tolket og aldri fulgt, det har skjedd en omfattende krenkelse av rettighetene til de mottakerne Alfred Nobel ønsket å støtte. Nobelkomiteen har gitt allmenne fredspriser til mange fine mottakere, men dette hjelper lite så lenge den fortsetter å motarbeide de visjonene og den løsning det var Nobels intensjon å støtte. Jeg har gjennom to år forsøkt å komme i dialog med Nobelstiftelsen og Nobelkomiteen om resultatene av min forskning, både for å følge Gandhis prinsipp om å ikke overraske motparten og for å få...

René Wadlow September 16, 2020 “We possess a single infallible guide, the Universal Spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us, which makes us aspire to what we should aspire: it is the Spirit that commands the tree to grow toward the sun, the flower to throw off its seed in autumn, us to reach out towards God, and by so doing, become united to each other.”— Leo Tolstoy (9 Sep1828 – 20 Nov 1910) November 20 marks the death of Leo Tolstoy in 1910 when he left his estate Yasnaya Polyana and walked to a railroad station at Astopovo, a journey with no set destination.  As Isaiah Berlin writes at the end of his well-known essay on Tolstoy’s philosophy of history, The Hedgehog and the Fox: “At once insanely proud and filled with self-hatred, omniscient and doubting everything, cold and violently passionate, contemptuous and...

Jake Sherman August 3, 2020 Today, February 28, 2019, is the 100th birthday of Sir Brian Urquhart, whose distinguished career at the United Nations began at its creation and lasted until the final years of the Cold War. As an adviser to five secretaries-general, his influence over the first generation of UN peacekeeping missions was without peer. A committed multilateralist, Sir Brian was clear-eyed about the idealism of the UN as a mechanism to address international crises—and the reasons it often failed. Originally posted on International Peace Institute (IPI)’s official website on February 28, 2019 His centennial is an apt moment to reflect on his legacy and how his experiences at the UN continue to inform contemporary challenges facing the organization. Two aspects of Sir Brian’s legacy stand out: his ability to find imaginative solutions to crises despite fundamental differences among the five permanent members—the “P5”—of the Security Council, and his...

In times of fake and omission – not to speak of deliberate deception and lies – society’s very foundation is shaken: What can we believe? Who can we trust? What is reliable and truthful information – and how do I know? Tragically, substantial knowledge with complex reasoning about our complex world and its problems has been overwhelmed by marketing, smart soundbites, tweets and ignorance. Diversity has been substituted by uniformity, political correctness and, more recently, the awfully destructive cancel culture and its close companion, self-censorship. People read less, and less and less the long argument – such as (good) books about global problems. Perhaps because we think we are so busy? Whatever the reason, the attention span has shrunk and many have a comfort zone the size of a pinhead. It bodes ill – no matter the kind of social body in which this disease takes root. It spread like...

Jan Oberg July 29, 2020 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) decried July 23 remarks from Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) This is a political speech to be remembered for what she says and how she says it. It’s an important contribution to non-violent ethics and politics – although this is not stated explicitly. It should also be remembered for the fine way she connects the personal and the political. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s consistent stand against US militarism and for social justice evidently comes from a deeper place. Concerning justice and peace, she does a great spontaneous walking talk on this link. In it, Ocasio-Cortez illustrates how structural violence and direct violence are connected and argues that you should never just demand that violence stops without asking what caused it in the first place. And that the remedy is to make changes that abolish those causes. She ends with justice and peace. As any...

Human nature, Gandhi said, “will only find itself when it fully realises that to be human it has to cease to be beastly or brutal”. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar) Charles P. Webel with Sofia Khaydari July 28, 2020 The UN’s peacekeeping mission is premised on the Declaration of Universal Human Rights, based on the assumptions that nonviolent means of conflict resolution are preferable to violence, and that all nations and trans-national organizations need to affirm and institutionalize global values. Unfortunately, despite the UN, humanity is far from being delivered from its bellicosity, and a “global ethics” in general, with nonviolence at its core, is far from realization. To understand the desirability but seeming fancifulness of a “Global Ethics” with nonviolence as one of its cardinal values, it is helpful to examine the theoretical and empirical foundations, as well as the possible shortcomings, of global values in general and nonviolence in...