Pro-peace proposals

Lund, Sverige – 22. december, 2020 Deklarationen for TFFs Globale Omstillings-kampagne Vær rar at skrive på!Sammen med millioner kan du gør en forskel. Og bed dine familie og venner om at skrive på den også (længst nede). Hvis du ikke vil læse hele deklarationen, så læs blot denne korte udgave og gå ned til “Jeg støtter forslaget…” Kort udgaveOveni de store globale problemer, vi skal have løst, er så kommet Coronaen. Deklarationen argumenterer for at verdens prioriteter er – lad os sige, perverse. For eksempel så koster alt hvad FN gør bare 3% af verdens militære udgifter.TFF – Den Transnationale Stiftelse for Freds- og Fremtidsforskning i Lund – foreslår derfor at alle lande omgående reducerer militærudgifterne med 50%. Det vil frigøre 1000 milliarder dollar – ja, du læste rigtigt. Dette ufatteligt store beløb skal bruges til at få løst de globale problemer – som klimaforandringen, fattigdommen, sulten etc – og...

“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...

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...

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...

Pulling down statues may make us feel good but will not eliminate the root causes of racism and discrimination Farhang JahanpourTFF Associate June 23, 2020 Part Two – Part 1 here The protests to the cruel killing of George Floyd and many others before him and even some after him have not remained confined to the United States or among black people alone, but have given rise to a global movement for change and an end to racism and discrimination. Many protestors in the United States have called for the toppling of the statues of Confederate generals and for the names of places and institutions named after them to be changed, while in many European countries demonstrators have called for the toppling of statues of those who are symbols of racism, imperialism and white supremacy. Clearly, toppling a few statues may give temporary satisfaction to those who have been the...

Imagine, it is the year 2050 and we are looking back to the origin and evolution of the coronavirus pandemic over the last three decades.  Extrapolating from recent events, we offer the following scenario for such a view from the future. As we move into the second half of our twenty-first century, we can finally make sense of the origin and impact of the coronavirus that struck the world in 2020 from an evolutionary systemic perspective. Today, in 2050, looking back on the past 40 turbulent years on our home planet, it seems obvious that the Earth had taken charge of teaching our human family. Our planet taught us the primacy of understanding of our situation in terms of whole systems, identified by some far-sighted thinkers as far back as the mid-nineteenth century.  This widening human awareness revealed how the planet actually functions, its living biosphere systemically powered by the...

PhotoPainting by the author Diagnosis, prognosis and treatment in the light of Turkey’s invasion and the risk of a larger catastrophic war. By Jan Oberg March 7, 2020 Diagnosis The world looked at the violence but didn’t have the capacity to analyze the underlying conflicts in and around Syria. For sure, it is a civil war but, to a much larger extent, it is an international regime-change war. In 2006 William Roebuck, US chargé d’affaires in Damascus, advocated that US policy should focus on destabilizing the Syrian government and al-Assad. At a meeting in Marrakech on December 12, 2012, lots of countries under Western leadership – perversely calling themselves Friends of Syria on the initiative of French President Sarkozy – decided to oust President Assad by decree and establish a National Council which, from then on, was supposed to be the only legitimate Syrian governing body and representative of the...

A must-see and must-followup! February 6, 2020 Here is the knowledge, the experience, the passion and the vision that the US needs – and needs to set through before the militarists destroy America and more or less the rest of the world too. And while Kinzer’s introduction to Iran is impressively forceful, correct and pedagogic – listen to it even twice! – this 76 minutes conversation contains so much more than what pertains to Iran which makes it even more important. Now share everywhere you can… And please take note of this: This type of – free, critical – discussion can happen in the United States but how often do you see Europeans talk about these issues in this way? I know of no Danish, Swedish or Norwegian channel, intellectuals or active politicians who would come anywhere near these three personalities and would produce a similar high-quality debate. If you...

February 3, 2020 By Fredrik Heffermehl The annual screening of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 by the Nobel Peace Prize Watch (NPPW) has now been posted on its website and sent to the Nobel Committee. We have found 30 of the known candidates qualified and eligible, within the purpose of Nobel’s will. NPPW offers advice and assistance to nominators and candidates and each year supplies the committee with a wide range of genuine candidates. Believing in openness and transparency as indispensable to reaching good decisions and preventing corruption, here as everywhere else, we also publish the secret nominations. In 2020, the NPPW recommends the Committee to recognize the indispensable role of international law, pointing in particular to Klaus Schlichtmann and Ikuro Anzai, both Japan. Their efforts to complete the original security structure of the UN by empowering the Security Council is at the epicentre of the “brotherhood of...

Each and every problem humanity faces is rooted in violence. Why do so many continue believing in violence, the most counter-productive, unintelligent and expensive means of all? Violence invariably makes a problem between conflicting parties deeper and broader and every solution more difficult. It makes the original problem ten times bigger. All problems in this world are tied to one thing: Violence – the tacit or open acceptance of the use of violence in all its many forms. Think of wars, hatred, human rights violations, torture, poverty, injustice, prejudice, media profits (fake-omission-deception), arms trade, racism, regime-change, imperialism, nuclear weapons, environmental destruction, corruption – and hateful comments on social media… Will anybody, from social democrats and left out, listen better in 2020 as they once did? I mean, if we imagine it is still meaningful to talk about Left and Right. Will others? Or shall we leave them out of civilized...

This is the digitalized version of a TFF Statement published by TFF’s Board almost 31 years ago. Could that be of any interest today? First, it reflects the situation and the issues discussed at the time as well as the hopes for a better future – now sadly lost. Secondly, it is one example of how peace researchers were thinking and made constructive political recommendations, available for anyone to take inspiration from – which virtually no one in power did. So, it’s a piece of international political as well as intellectual history. Third, it is an indicator of what the West could – and should – have done to have been in a much better situation than it is today. Admittedly, this is a contra-factual argument, but it can be defended on intellectual grounds although not empirically proven. Fourth, the authors pointed out a series of longterm priorities which match...

By Scott Ritter November 4, 2019 At a time when the credibility of the United States as either an unbiased actor or reliable ally lies in tatters, Russia has emerged as the one major power whose loyalty to its allies is unquestioned, and whose ability to serve as an honest broker between seemingly intractable opponents is unmatched. Originally posted on Truthdig.com on October 30, 2019 here If there is to be peace in Syria, it will be largely due to the patient efforts of Moscow employing deft negotiation, backed up as needed by military force, to shape conditions conducive for a political solution to a violent problem. If ever there was a primer for the art of diplomacy, the experience of Russia in Syria from 2011 to the present is it. Like the rest of the world, Russia was caught off guard by the so-called Arab Spring that swept through the Middle...