Peace theory

Jan Øberg 23. oktober 2020 Den norske arkitekt og fredsforkæmper, Susanne Urban har forfattet en righoldig bog, som netop er udkommet for at markere at en af verdens absolut ledende samfundsforskere, Johan Galtung, fylder 90 den 24. oktober 2020. Han er matematiker, sociolog, freds- og fremtidsforsker med en utrolig produktion af foredrag, artikler, gæsteprofessorater og hederdoktorater bag sig – f.eks. medvirket i 170 bøger heraf som eneforfatter af 96. Her mere om ham på Norsk Biografisk Leksikon. Den hedder Galtungs Metode For Fred. Fredsforsker Johan Galtungs liv, teorier og innflytelse – som du kan bladre i hér og købe hér. Bogen er det 7. skrift fra Hardangerakademiet for fred, utvikling og miljø. Den er på 115 sider og har tre hovedkapitler – de som udtrykkes i undertitlen – og den er fyldt med forklarende tekster, figurer, tegninger og fotografier – så man drives videre i denne forskers univers på en...

Johan Galtung 2010 © Jan Oberg Johan Galtung October 23, 2020 On the occasion of Galtung’s 90th birthday tomorrow on UN Day, we bring you a conversation he had ten years ago with Riz Khan at Aljazeera about his life. Johan and co-founder Jan Oberg have been friends and collaborated since 1974 and he’s been a TFF Associate since 1985 when TFF was set up. Antonio Rosa, his friend and director of Transcend Media Service (TMS) summarizes: “Johan in a nutshell – wrote more than 170 books on peace and related issues, 96 as the sole author. More than 40 have been translated into other languages and Transcend and Transform was translated into 25 languages. He has published more than 1500 articles and book chapters and over 500 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service.” More about Galtung academic life here. You’ll find hundreds of articles by Galtung on our old homepages here and...

This paper was written in 2015. Republished here on the occasion of Galtung’s 90th birthday, October 24, 2020. It was originally published at TMS, Transcend Media Service 1.  Definitions and Hypotheses: An Overview Definition: An empire is a transborder Center-Periphery system, in macro-space and in macro-time, with a culture legitimizing a structure of unequal exchange between center and periphery: Empires have different profiles. The US Empire has a complete configuration, articulated in a statement by a Pentagon planner: “The de facto role of the United States Armed Forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing”. (1) In other words, direct violence to protect structural violence legitimized by cultural violence. (2) The Center is the continental USA and the Periphery much of the world.  Like any system it has a life-cycle reminiscent of an organism, with...

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...

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...

60 years of peace theory and peace practice can be summarized in:                                                 EQUITY x HARMONY                              PEACE =   ——————————-                                                 TRAUMA x CONFLICT Four theory foci, four policy tasks, and four education topics. Any true education should prepare for practice, guided by general theory. Moving from denominator right to numerator left, this means: Mediation is verbal, based on dialogues with the parties, but the four tasks are very concrete, practical.  For doers not only talkers; for practical people like officers.  Hence the Big Question: Is peace theory-practice-education compatible with the military mind – however defined, and there are many military cultures in the world – or not? Originally published at TRANSCEND Thinkers so diverse as Nietzsche and Gandhi saw the military as exemplary because of the ésprit de corps and willingness to sacrifice, even their own lives. For Gandhi the kshatriya (military) caste was a model: he wanted non-violent warriors, with the same perseverance, also indispensable...

Johan Galtung June 02, 2020 Here is a Table with fifteen faiths organized according to mono-poly-pan-atheism; some might find the table somewhat controversial: Originally posted on Transcend Media Service’s website February 3rd, 2020 here Table 1.  Figures of thought, faiths, and beliefs of true believers Figures Faiths Beliefs Mono Judaism Israel, Zion; as Chosen People Mono Catholicism Pope (infallible), Vatican Mono Evangelism Dualism-Manicheism-Armageddon, DMA Mono Islam Togetherness under Alla’h, sharing Poly Hinduism Creation-Preservation-Destruction Pan Buddhism dukkha-sukha, sentient life networks Pan Daoism Holism-Dialectics-Transcendence, HDT Pan Confucianism Authority-Harmony; educated old men Pan Shintoism Japan; as Chosen People Pan Polynesism lokahi, ‘ohana, alo’ha, mana A Humanism Humans; as Chosen species with rights A Liberalism Individuals-Choice-Equilibrium;Markets A Marxism Classes-Struggle-History;Plans A Nature Diversity, Symbiosis The focus of this table is on concrete, this world, implications. Abrahamism, mono-centric, indicative of a centrism that could serve Occident I.  Jesus Christ universalized tribal Judaism to global Christianity, expressed institutionally...

The author in front of a part of his photo-based, multi-media installation, “Silk Peace Art Road – SPAR” which was exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2019 and will be shown in China 2020. Yesterday, The Necessary Teacher Training College, DNS, in Denmark held its annual conference on peace and justice. As a couple of times before, I had the honour of being invited to be the keynote speaker. Because of the Coronavirus, it was online and not onsite – and I had produced the lecture in advance and then there was a Q&A session in the afternoon via Zoom. The two-part lecture is now on TFF’s Vimeo Channel here: Part 1 Part 2 The discussion that followed after group work If you found this lecture interesting or useful, please help us do more in the future. Remember, TFF is 100% people-financed and therefore completely independent of the government and corporate...

Illustration by Shenuka Corea By Richard Falk, TFF Associate March 12, 2020 Prefatory Note International law – as so much else of value – has fallen on hard times, violated and ignored, where applicable and needed. Although this is a deplorable state of affairs as the planet burns and vulnerable people suffer from ecological hazards and predatory geopolitics, it is the time to heighten struggle, and not sit home in despair. This essay in a slightly modified form was written at the request of Fikir Turu, an online source of commentary operating from Turkey, and published in Turkish. An English version was also published in Transcend Media Service, TMS, 17 February 2020. Published at Richard Falk’s personal blog  Respecting International Law: A Practical Argument International law disappoints in so many ways, making it easy to overlook why, despite its flaws, it remains valuable and indeed vital for human wellbeing. I put here...

By Richard Falk, TFF Associate March 16, 2020 Prefatory Note This post is something new for me, an autobiographical fragment written at the request of an online listserv as a suggestive model for academics at the start of their careers as diplomatic historians. I publish it here on my blog. It was found unsuitable for publication by the group that made the initial solicitation for unspecified reasons. Maybe because my work and career were not relevant to the scholarly life of a diplomatic historian, maybe because I seemed too flaky professionally to serve as a heuristic model, maybe because what I wrote risked an angry reaction from those who have weaponized anti-Semitism as (mis)defined by the IHRA definition, maybe because…a hundred other good reasons, including what was most plausible, least paranoid, that I was in a different lane when it came to a scholarly career, making my condensed narrative a...