TFF Blog

Easter Island Rapa Nui “Best wishes for the Season,” we easily write and read these days. So let us reflect on religare, reconnect between that out there and that in here, in us, for globalizing truths. A few years ago, these unpublished lines for the Season were written in the Pacific, under a cloudless sky, with waves peaking, with white foam at the top. Rapa Nui, Easter Island was on the horizon, one of these places where the creation of humans looks about as old as God himself and human beings have not yet been able to pollute (deplete, yes!) everything.  Gratitude is seeping in, attaching itself to good emotions in body, mind and spirit. Happiness is the word, some kind of release. Sukha is the word in the Hindu-Buddhist tradition. Further out is nirvana, the dissolution at the end of the pilgrim’s journey. First published on Transcend Media Service,...

Photo by Tim Mossholder “We’re the greatest nation on the face of the earth… I have never been more optimistic about the future of our country… There’s no country in the world better positioned to lead the world than America… Just remember who we are. We are the United States of America, for God’s sake.” Joe Biden, US President Richard Falk July 11, 2024 The Democratic Party is waging its 2024 electoral campaign by focusing on two themes: first, a denunciation of all that Trump proposes to bring to the presidency, centering on the destruction of American democracy if elected, and secondly, a positive domestic record of the Biden years with several notable benefits for the American people including jobs and wages, climate, energy policy, social protection, gun control, and a stock market at record highs. What is missing from this rosy picture of America and even more so from...

The issue of state sovereignty under international law and its inconsistencies and duplicities has become more complex than ever, especially after the outbreak of the Ukraine war and the “Ukrainization” of the Taiwan issue (even though Taiwan is not a sovereign state like Ukraine). However, the focus of this analysis is relatively modest: we examine a region of the Western Balkans in which the countries have already (more or less voluntarily) lost or given up their statehood and sovereignty. The concept of the so-called “Western Balkans” (WB) – comprising Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina – was concocted in the corridors of power in Brussels and Washington. This artificial sub-region, with its flexible geography and borders, lacks logical coherence. It effectively creates a buffer zone of weak states that are unlikely to ever meet the criteria for EU integration despite being offered European perspectives and hopes. However, these...

Richard FalkAnd TFF Associate and dear friend since 1986. June 5, 2024 An intriguing sideshow during the seven months of savage genocidal violence against the entrapped Palestinian population of an estimated 2.3 million has been the attention given to international law and to international procedures available for its interpretation and enforcement. To begin with, many concerned persons wonder about why there are two distinct tribunals: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Beyond this, for many never exposed to a sophisticated explanation of the process by which international law is judicially implemented the distinction between these two tribunals, both located in The Hague, is far from transparent. This short essay is a simplified introduction to the ICJ and ICC, both indispensable judicial resources of a functionally effective and equitable international legal order. Their positive contributions to law and justice are diminished to the extent that...

Now his caring daughter needs your help. Jan Oberg May 17, 2024 Johan Galtung – my dear mentor, colleague, TFF Associate and friend over 50 years – died on February 17, this year in Norway, his native country. Sadly, he did not die in a way he – or anybody else for that matter – should have a right to in a humane welfare state, i.e. with the best treatment and with dignity. Over an extended period of time, his daughter, Irene, cared lovingly day and night for him until he was taken away from her home and care against his expressed will. She was met by systematic and difficult obstacles from her surroundings. The fact is that she paid more than money for her noble efforts, and she is now burdened with large lawyer fees she cannot pay. Dag Poleszynski in Oslo is a friend and former peace researcher...

Jan Oberg May 16, 2024 This is a column from May 5, 2024, in The China Daily Chinese and Western ways of thinking are complementary not mutually exclusive We learn about other cultures mostly through the media and through books, films, travels and personal encounters. All news reports are micro glimpses of a time and place. This challenges us in at least two ways: how do we get a more accurate and holistic perspective of the world, and how can we learn to understand each other across cultural diversity. One way to understand societies is to look for similarities and differences in the ways people think. Or, what is in their general attitude to “others” — are they perceived as a danger, potential friends, “barbaric”, or as someone to be curious about, explore and learn from? Next, do the citizens think in terms of either/or, or both/and? Exclusivity or inclusivity?...

1. Israel: The policy’s background As a small country with a tiny population surrounded by large and hostile countries, Israel’s policy ever since its establishment has been to rely on some external forces, the British Empire at the beginning of its creation and later on the American superpower to protect herself. It has also involved the creation of a nuclear arsenal in contravention of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (the NPT) and by means of lies and deception, while being the most vociferous opponent of any other country in the Middle East to even have a peaceful nuclear programme for producing energy. Another aspect of this policy of self-preservation has been to divide and partition the neighbouring countries so that they would lose their advantage of larger size and greater population vis-à-vis Israel. As early as 1982, the Israeli scholar Oded Yinon authored an essay called “A Strategy for Israel in the...

Liberal democracies remain shamefully complicit with Israel, despite its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people Students of world politics have long understood that when it comes to the strategic interests of leading states, international law is marginalised unless it is useful in waging a propaganda war against adversaries.  Indeed, the United Nations was designed in ways that recognised this feature of international political life. Otherwise, giving the winners of World War II a right of veto would make no sense.  Such an exemption from international law was also evident at the war crimes trials held in Nuremberg and Tokyo after World War II, at which only the crimes of the losers were scrutinised for legal accountability, and obvious crimes of the victors – such as the indiscriminate bombing of Dresden and the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – were not prosecuted.  To this day, for understandable reasons, many...

. He first tells why he was in Belgrade during the bombing and then explains how that bombing was a turning point towards the new multipolar – and better – world we are now approaching. First Beoforum’s version on YouTube. Then you can always find it on TFF’s Vimeo Channel – because we boycott Goggle-owned YouTube as much as we can.

The agreement has much more serious consequences for Sweden than the people have been told – and it’s a binding agreement that shall be debated in parliament ex-post in violation of normal democratic procedures. We publish it in English to alert an international audience to the DCS’s extremely problematic character and warn other countries not to sign DCAs with the U.S. The Swedish original follows the English edition. Ola & Erni Friholt – TFF Associates The Peace Association at Orust, Sweden April 17, 2024 Response to the consultation on the Government Office’s registration number FÖ2024/00152 on the so-called DCA agreement. From Erni & Ola Friholt on behalf of the Peace Movement on Orust.Address: Torget 1, Stocken, 474 92 Ellös. Tel: 0304-51215.E-mail: ernifriholt@gmail.com and friholtola@gmail.com On 5 December 2023, the Swedish and US defence ministers unexpectedly signed an agreement on defence cooperation between Sweden and the US, known as the Defence...

A major publishing event in the field of security studies A unique and very thorough 11-part analysis of the US National Security Strategy from October 2022. Christman began publishing it at the beginning of May 2023. If you want to know what the United States is up to in terms of its ‘national security’ and what the costs and risks will likely be – to itself and to the world – this is where you begin. Kristin Christman’s eleven articles were originally published by Countercurrents. Note that they were not published by a leading American magazine or the weekend edition of a large daily; they were not in any mainstream media in the US or Europe. And we know why. TFF is proud to follow up and give her genuinely independent and tremendously knowledgeable research a further boost. All her texts are also published on Christman’s YouTube Channel. The links to the following ten...

Farhang Jahanpour Professor emeritus & TFF Associate* April 10, 2024 The world is in turmoil and perhaps closer to the possibility of a devastating nuclear war than at any time since the Second World War. There are at least three ongoing conflicts that have the potential of expanding into something much more serious that will lead to regional or even global wars. Wars are raging in the heart of Europe, the Middle East and, if some US hawks can get their way, soon there will be another disastrous war between the West and China. Yet, world leaders seem to be asleep and are moving blindly towards the precipice. War in Ukraine On 25 March 2024, in a letter to President Joe Biden, a large number of the members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity warned that in the light of the reports that France was preparing to dispatch a force...