Peace

Jan Oberg March 19, 2024 I was very pleased to be re-invited very quickly to “Through the Eyes of…” run by Ania K, whose YouTube channel has more than 100,000 subscribers. Please watch our conversation here and also run through the many – 99% appreciative – comments. There is no doubt that people want to hear more about peace possibilities than about war, that they have heard enough doom and gloom to cover up for NATO’s own warmongering and blaming everything on one side in a conflict, namely Russia. It won’t last for long. And peace is eminently possible. Press YouTube at the bottom right to watch it on YouTube and see the comments.

Dedication To all the brave people who refuse to participate in war, in Ukraine, Russia and everywhere else. “War is a crime against humanity. I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war, and to strive for the removal of all causes of war”The pacifist declaration of War Resisters’ International. Back cover text “How can you be a pacifist in times like these?” THE SCEPTIC asks, the Russian invasion of Ukraine fresh in mind. Majken Jul Sørensen’s first response is to counter with the opposite question: “How can you not be a pacifist in times like these? With all that we know about the consequences of modern warfare, why are all the alternatives to war not on the table?”  In “Pacifism Today”, Majken illustrates with numerous examples her understanding of pacifism and her commitment to nonviolent action and unarmed resistance to war. In this personal reflection on why...

A video conversation about those three connected themes was published in December 2023 on various Chinese Channels and on two YouTube channels, Wave Media and Thinkers Forum, where you may also see the viewers’ comments. In the first two months, they were seen by around 100,000 people and stimulated 1200 positive, even moving, comments. These days, such an interest in peace – and in Western historical wrongdoings – is unusual and can be found almost exclusively outside the Western world. It was recorded and produced in November 2023 by The China Academy, a media syndicating organisation in Shanghai. Please also consult the TFF report Yugoslavia – What Should Have Been Done? It contains all texts – the equivalent of 2000+ A4 pages – by Johan Galtung, Håkan Wiberg and Jan Oberg and published as written back then and not changed or editor ex-post, so everyone can see where they were...

February 24, 2024, marks the second anniversary of the tragic Russia-Ukraine war – with its underlying conflict between NATO and its reckless expansion on the one hand and Russia on the other. In this video produced by The China Academy in Shanghai, I talk about the four basic chapters of that drama and why, as it seems, none of the parties has learned any lessons yet. See this 8.02-minute video, which the important Global Times has re-posted on its YouTube Channel. And take a look at the comments, too. I have also been asked to comment, in 100 words, on this anniversary by the Chinese national news agency, Xinhua. Here is what I wrote: “Both the EU and NATO keep denying that the conflict was caused by NATO’s unnecessary expansion; they focus conveniently on the Ukraine war that Rusland caused. That serves only the Military-Industrial-Media Complex, MIMAC. The US/European ill-considered response to Russia was...

Cole Keister on Unsplash Johan Galtung (1930-2024) February 20, 2024 IntroJohan Galtung published a comprehensive peace plan for the Middle East as early as 1971 – in the Journal of Peace Research (JPR). However, today SAGE Publications seems not ashamed to charge you £ 29 to download single articles. So here is a 2015 short summary of Johan’s insights and thoughts on the issue. While everybody is focused on disappointing Israeli election results and the liberals and progressives of this world are justifiably fearful of a future pregnant with “more of the same – or worse”, it may be useful to take a look at the solution-indicative policy proposal below, to muster an idea of what measures may eventually usher in a more desirable future. Whatever the current situation may yield; releasing the peoples of the region from the grips of structurally oppressive, culturally alienating and directly destructive violence for...

Johan Galtung – over 50 years my dear friend, collaborator and one of my two peace research mentors – died this morning. He was 93. He was, beyond any doubt, one of the greatest and most innovative social scientists of our time and one of the early pioneers of the academic field of peace and conflict research. He was a controversial intellectual to some extent – the envy, of course, by others – but kept true to his Gandhian-inspired nonviolent values where many succumbed to ‘security’ with weapons. He was also a TFF Associate since 1986 and we remained in contact – last, just a few days ago. You’ll find hundreds of articles by his hand on TFF’s present and earlier archive sites. I smile when I think of the countless hours we spent together exploring the world and coming up with new ideas. I owe him more than words...

H. Peter Langille February 14, 2024 Now more than ever, we need a more effective United Nations; one with an appropriate instrument for preventing armed conflict and advancing sustainable common security. Despite having primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the UN still lacks a dedicated capacity to respond rapidly and reliably to prevent armed conflict and protect people. As a result, the world has witnessed humanitarian crises in Rwanda, Srebrenica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sir Lanka, Darfur, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, Tigray, the Ukraine, Sudan and Israel/Palestine/Gaza. Despite the promise of “never again”, mass atrocities occur again and again. Even before the war on Gaza, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned, “the world is now facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945. He identified the crux of the problem, “we have no instruments to deal with crisis…we live in a dangerous...

, I had the great pleasure of being Ania K’s guest on her YouTube Channel. Here is a link to it – and I want you to use the link to access it on YouTube and not here. The amusing thing is that it’s been viewed by 11,000 people in a few days, and less than a week later, there are 160 comments, 99,99 % positive about the whole thing. I note a frequent comment from Ania’s viewers: Where have you been hiding, Jan? How come I did not hear about him before and that sort of “we never heard about him…” comments. This is striking after having been the co-founder and director of the Transnational Foundation since 1986 – and quite active in doing research, on-the-ground conflict mitigation work and having written thousands of articles, book chapters and comments. But I’ve heard it before and here are some reasons: One,...

Jan Oberg February 6, 2024 Regrettably, the world’s allegedly most prestigious prize has been awarded to many who did not qualify according to the will of Alfred Nobel. I want to direct your attention to the most important book written about the peace deception called the Nobel Peace Prize. In his last meticulously researched book, “The Real Nobel Peace Prize. A Squandered Opportunity to Abolish War,” my friend and TFF Associate Fredrik Heffermehl (1938-2023) showed that only 36 out of 134 awards would qualify according to Nobel’s clearly anti-militarist intentions. Here is how Nobel himself formulated, in his will, that this prize should go “to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses” and that this prize for the “champions of peace” should be awarded “by a committee of...

Action Committee For Call to Conscience About Gaza February 5, 2024 To be updated As mentioned earlier here on The Transnational, the “Emergency London Conference of Global Intellectuals of Conscience Concerning the Genocide in Gaza”, arranged by Turkey’s former PM and former foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu and Richard Falk, professor emeritus at Princeton University and TFF Associate since 1986 was held January 27-28, 2024. It was based on this Declaration created prior to the conference. The conclusions and planned actions from the London conference “Supporters of the Declaration of Conscience and Concerns to stop genocide in Gaza met in London on January 27, 2024. Participants came from more than 25 countries. The emergency conference was responding to the genocidal catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, and the recent interim order of the International Court of Justice. The Conference was convened by former Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, and Queen Mary...

Published here on the birthday of Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) Last October, we had two important anniversary messages. One came through loud and clear in the Western media: the anniversary of the triumph of the Chinese Revolution, guided by Mao, restoring China to its own people, violently, on October 1. The other message was considerably more subdued: the anniversary of the birth of Gandhi, the Father of the Indian nation, restoring India to its own people, nonviolently, on October 2. Of course, the West focused on China, its military parades, its display of glittering affluence after decades of growth, true to its fascination with violence and economic growth.  Of course, India is also a BRIC country–Brazil-Russia-India-China–to be taken seriously because of its high growth and “muscle”. But this obsession with military and economic power makes the West lose the essence of the two anniversaries, the...

Jan Oberg December 13, 2023 One of the enigmatic aspects of international politics is that big and militarily superior countries have systematically lost wars in smaller countries – the last 50 years, from Vietnam to Ukraine. ’Losing’ here means military defeat, being forced out, losing the struggle for the hearts and minds of the people, and facing fiasco when it comes to achieving the presumed noble motives like introducing human rights, democracy, freedom or liberating women. And given the tremendous human costs, particularly in the Middle East, the US’s Global War On Terror since September 11, 2001, is also an intellectual and moral disaster. The United States – the world’s by far largest military spender, interventionist, warrior, occupier, global base-builder with the most militarised foreign policy – is in a class of its own. In losing wars too. It is now rapidly losing legitimacy, relevance and credibility in the eyes...