Peace

People’s criticism without offering any solutions and their focus on the past and present, but almost never on the future, are the two biggest obstacles to real change. And to making peace… Jan Oberg August 21, 2025 This conversation is not about Endless Militarism. The real title of Pascal Nottaz’ and my conversation is the one on top – “If You Want Peace, Be Creative And Focus On The Future.”  Jan Oberg considers it one of his most important online conversations.

Editorial for Transcend Media Service, TMS, and published in an edited Q & A version by the China Social Science Network-China Social Science News. See also this follow-up, “Condemn all UN member states: They spend 100 times more on militarism than on the entire UN system.” The UN has been extremely important over the last 80 years in terms of, for instance, global dialogue, multi-dimensional development, international law, peace-keeping, normativity, violence condemnation, and ethics. It has been the place to hold member states accountable. The UN Charter is the most Gandhian document ever signed by the world’s governments. If the great majority of member states lived up to their obligations in accordance with the UN Charter and including the resolutions they have signed up to, the world would be a much more peaceful, just, democratic, and lawful place. Regrettably, there are several reasons why the world is not in accordance with those fine Charter norms and provisions:a) The majority...

Professor Zhang Weiwei is a highly respected Chinese intellectual and professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. He is the director of its China Institute and also runs a series of conversations with many different people around the world. Here is what came out of their meetings there and in Skopje, Macedonia in October 2024: & As you can see, also at the end of the second one, we both enjoy win-win exchanges like these about world order issues. Zhang Weiwei is known for using videos and social media to reach a large audience in China and worldwide. We suggest you see many more of Zhang Weiwei’s conversations – like recently with Professor Jeffrey Sachs – on the Thinkers’ Forum on YouTube. PSTFF posts hundreds of videos, its own and those of others, in our Video Collections on TFF Substack – including those that appear on YouTube. However, TFF has been cancelled by Google-owned...

Joie De Vivre, 1946 by Pablo Picasso Not recognizing the magic of the present moment may just be a crime against our humanity. David Andersson August 5, 2025 TFF publishes this with particular joy because, while we have always been pro-peace, future-oriented and proposal-making, we need even more of that now: Peace is to be FOR something and go for it. In my recent article, From Personal Development to Human Development, I explored the imbalance between our inner growth and society’s relentless focus on external activity. One of the greatest obstacles to genuine human development today is the sheer level of negativity we encounter daily. As an editor, I regularly receive submissions from Western contributors. Many center on themes like political corruption—even among progressive leaders—technological control, cognitive warfare, genocide, alarming climate forecasts (“only three years left to avoid the worst”), and Europe’s persistent, deadly hypocrisy. The list continues, each entry more...

Photo by Shahab Zolfaghari on Unsplash Farhang JahanpourTFF Associate since 2006, former Board member. Here his unique homepage. July 28, 2025 Transcript of a lecture given by Farhang Jahanpour during an online conference on the future of Iran on 16 March 2025. When we speak about “transition”, some people believe that in fact there is no need for transition and everything will remain as it is forever. Of course, transition is not a precise term and each person can have his/her own interpretation of the term. The way that I interpret this term, transition means moving from one state to another. History has shown us that nothing, not even the most powerful regimes, such as that of the late Shah or even the British or French empires or the Soviet Union or, dare I say, the current US empire whose decline is being accelerated as the result of the current...

◪ Brian C Barnett (2019) July 9, 2025 In times of rampant militarism and denial of every type of civilian conflict-resolution method, we must speed up our public education work about all the alternatives to military non-resolution of problems. This article is an excellent point to start – or refresh your knowledge about intelligent and civilised conflict-handling. And it has, long ago, proven more effective. The problem is that today’s militarist kakistocrats want and promote war as the only solution, and do not have the intellectual or moral civil courage to see anything outside their dark boxes. This is re-posted from the excellent peace news site that you would do wise to follow if you don’t already – the Transcend Media Service, TMS, once created by Johan Galtung and edited ever since by its tireless legend, Antonio Rosas. Jan ObergTFF director Gandhis-Philosophy-of-NonviolenceDownload

Foreword The Board of The Transnational Foundation in Sweden has decided to publish an easy-to-read, scholarly anthology that addresses one of the most important – and potentially dangerous – issues of our time: Why are the political, economic, and medialised Western images of China so consistently negative – and what can you do to understand China better? These images may be expressions of a political will to present only various shades of grey and black with the aim of building a consciousness about China as an enemy and not a partner. They may also be seen as a sort of world-dominating ethos of ignorance based upon the assumption that “we’ve-got-nothing-to-learn-from-others,’ we are the teacher. Another possibility is that the West, deep down, feels that it is getting relatively weaker from a macro-historical perspective and comforts itself with denial and accusations against “the other” of being the reason for its manifest...

The Gaza People’s Tribunal, at the end of its first public assembly in Sarajevo, issued a Declaration that expresses our commitment to peace and justice for the Palestinian people in their struggle to realize their basic rights, above all their inalienable right to self-determination. We are inviting like-minded friends to read and endorse the Sarajevo Declaration and to share the link with others who might join our solidarity initiative at this critical time. Here is the link to Change.org where you can find the full text of the Declaration and endorser information.

Johan Galtung (1930-2024)TFF Associate 1985 to his death June 18, 2025 Johan Galtung wrote this article in 2010, the original here. It is remarkable, bordering on the prophetic, that Galtung already suggested – in section 4 below – what closely resembles China’s and President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was launched in 2013. 1. East Asia With the current regionalization of the world where and even the biggest states will find their place, an East Asian Community of the two Chinas, the two Koreas and the three Japans (with the Ryu Kyu Islands–Okinawa–and an Ainu region both at high autonomy levels), is inevitable.  The European Community-Union got started around steel and coal, ESC; how about starting with the tricky issues, like right now Diaoyu, of the islet clusters and their economic zones in the East Asian Sea?  An East Asian Sea Authority could declare joint sovereignty, and go beyond joint...

War-preparation and militarism are now the main factors that keep the West together, and will make it fall faster. The Western world has lost its consciousness, perception, and instruments of conflict analysis, resolution, peace-making, and reconciliation. They’ve been squeezed out by militarism’s kakistocrats – a political science term that means government by “the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people.” Consequently, there is now a risk of more than 50% that a major war will happen in Europe. I’ve been observing silently for weeks and months now how geopolitical experts – also very qualified ones – and people who comment independently as well as in the mainstream media and many others have worked on the tacit, implicit assumption that President Trump would help create peace in Ukraine; they seem to believe that what we have witnessed has anything to do with knowledge-based, professional peace-making or would have even the slightest...

On the invisible codes of culture that shape our worldviews long before memory or reason. This analysis was initially published on the author’s “China21 Journal” which contains several analyses of related issues, China-Western relations and how to increase knowledge and mutual understanding. Last week, we picked up our 5-year-old son from his public kindergarten in Beijing. On the way home, he proudly recited a Tang Dynasty poem by heart — 春望 (Chūnwàng, or Spring View, 757 AD), one of the most famous and widely recited works from that vibrant dynastic era over a thousand years ago, written by the renowned poet 杜甫 (Dù Fǔ, 712–770). The poem reflects on wartime and exile — hardly light or child-friendly themes. But that’s not the point. Children (and adults) recite ancient poems not just for their content, but for their rhythm, rhyme, tone, and the cultural feeling embedded in them. This is how cultural programming begins: not through rules or explanations,...

TFF board member If we’re being honest, with few exceptions, most of us have stopped counting the days since the genocide in Gaza began. We’ve also lost track of the death toll—especially the number of children. We can offer excuses: being overwhelmed with our personal and professional lives, the sheer intensity and frequency of global crises (Ukraine, trade wars, or the unbearable ease with which Trump is reshaping the world in his own image). But the truth is, sporadic mass protests in some Western cities, citizen petitions, intellectuals’ appeals, and podcast appearances do little to change the reality—or rather, the nightmare—of the people in Palestine. You’ll often read a post saying that eight billion people condemn the genocide that keeps going and going, seemingly with no end in sight. We blame ourselves for our helplessness, our despair, and our rage—at least those of us who refuse to forget the images...