TFF Blog

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...

AI generated imagine on Freepik A 2-minute “appetiser” for an extended interview by China’s CGTN. More to come!

Naturally, nobody cares about that fraud in today’s Sweden. Jan Oberg April 15, 2025 SIPRI is the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, established in 1966. Read about it here and see how it has twisted its aims to not include the words ‘peace research.’ Because here is what it should do according to § 2 of its statutes: “…to conduct scientific research on questions of conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security, with the aim of contributing to an understanding of the conditions for peaceful solutions of interstate conflicts and for stable peace. (My italics). The rather low intellectual level is indicated by the statement that “SIPRI’s vision is a world in which sources of insecurity are identified and understood, conflicts are prevented or resolved, and peace is sustained.” Sources of insecurity shall not be removed, they shall only be identified and understood. Conflicts shall be ‘prevented’...

Today is 9 April. It marks the 80th Anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of Denmark. Denmark’s Radio reports today on how the country’s war museums have become ‘attractions’ where people queue to get in and go on guided tours, and ticket sales are booming. Of course, it never occurs to anyone to ask why Denmark and so many other countries are so preoccupied with war – monuments, anniversaries, museums, have so many bookshops with lots of books about war, war history, weapons, uniforms – use military-inspired fashion or drive city jeeps and other modern cars that look like armoured vehicles. Not to mention why there aren’t the same peace-inspired things – peace monuments, peace museums, bookshops with peace books… The answer is simple enough. The West as a culture, as a social cosmology and a collective way of thinking and behaving, is a terrible violence-based apparatus of world wars, armament, colonialism,...

1.  Definitions and Hypotheses: An Overview Definition: An empire is a transboundary 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 continental USA and the Periphery much of the world.  Like any system it has a life-cycle reminiscent of an organism, with conception, gestation, birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, senescence and death.  Seeded by the British Empire, the maturing colonies honed their imperial skills on indigenous populations,...

. It points to the scandalous situation the Trump Regime is now causing in 2025. Re-published on March 30, 2025 With Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod at the helm, Denmark is now heading for its biggest foreign policy scandal – and that’s saying a lot – since the occupation of Iraq. According to this article on DR.dk, neither the Foreign Policy Committee nor the Greenland Committee has been informed about the US ‘offer you can’t refuse’ to Greenland – as presented by the US ambassador in Copenhagen, Carla Sands, on Altinget.* © Jan Oberg Members of parliament from both SF and the Danish People’s Party call the US announcement ‘reprehensible’ and ‘unheard of.’ Former Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard says he has not been informed about it. So either the government has been informed by the US but has kept the negotiations secret, or the US is now in the process of...

Aannguaq Reimer-Johansen/ has created the popular hat My 20-year-old analysis of the military Igaliku Agreement signed between the US, Denmark and Greenland in 2004. I emphasise Greenland’s role as a leg in the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD), suggest that it could drive a parallel international peace policy, and I raise the possibility of a future conflict with the US – which is now a fact. Jan Oberg March 30, 2025 Donald Trump was out in 2019 to get Greenland. The Danish PM, Mette Frederiksen, replied that that was an ‘absurd’ proposal. Trump felt hurt and cancelled his planned visit to Denmark; in a follow-up phone conversation, I assume that he scolded her very seriously and I assume that, behind the scenes, this was one of the most serious foreign policy crises Denmark has faced – the alliance relations with the US being sacrosant in that country. They then, according to...

Wang Yuewei（王玥玮） March 24, 2025 This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. How to treat others is a core issue in a nation’s foreign policy and a direct reflection of its moral tradition. Throughout history, the performance of Western civilizations and Chinese civilization has been different. When it comes to dealing with others, China insists on pacifism and coexistence, whereas the West adopts expansionism and interventionism. Pacifism and expansionism are neither inherently good nor bad; each has its own achievements and losses. Pacifist China did not launch bloody colonial conquests despite its strength, but its conservative stance caused it to miss the Industrial Revolution. The expansionist West, through both violence and peace, spread modern technology and systems globally, but this often resulted in slaughter, plunder, and sometimes genocide in the colonies. National...

– We in Greenland have done everything we can to make the Americans understand that they are violating us as a people and our sovereignty through their constant pressure. But nothing has got through to the Trump administration; on the contrary, they are increasing the pressure with each passing day, and now the international community, at least those we consider friends and allies, must step in instead of making small hesitant statements of support, says Múte Bourup Egede (IA), Photo: Oscar Scott Carl. Jan Oberg March 24, 2025 Denmark’s Broadcasting (DR) has an article today about the upcoming – provocative – official US visit to Greenland. It mentions an article in the Greenlandic newspaper, Sermitsiaq, which is better read here than in DR’s version: Múte: Now the international community must step in – The very aggressive American pressure on Greenlandic society is now so serious that the level cannot get...

This is a chapter in a TFF anthology in the making “If You Want To Understand China.” Foreword, Introduction, Authors and Table of Content here. Cultural bias Before looking at concrete patterns of manipulation, it is necessary to point at the cultural bias that is partly driving the manipulation. Not only the regulations and protocols of most international organizations like the UN, WTO, NATO, etc., are culturally biased, the very idea of a ‘rules-based world’ as the ultimate goal of humanity is rooted in Western cultural values that are not supported by most non-Western nations. In fact, the basic idea behind TFF’s Smokescreen Report cannot be fully understood without taking the cultural bias into account. Dimensions of culture This section uses the 7-Dimension (7-D) model of national culture developed by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. These two management consultants identified the seven dimensions of culture, and the model was published...

February 28, 2025 Every few days, I was on TV in Russia and China – Russia TV1 and CCTV – the latter as part of a much longer studio discussion and documentary about Ukraine, Russa and the EU. February 14, 2025 – about half an hour on Russia’s leading TV Channel – 1TV – a kind of portrait with lots of views on current affairs. February 24, 2025, at China’s CCTV Channel 13, appearing about 43 minutes into the documentary. Hundreds of other videos with Jan Oberg are at TFF Substack, where TFF now has its video library after being thrown out by censoring Google-owned YouTube. And many more videos with other TFF Associates and a series of world issues. It’s a great way to learn new angles from some of the most experienced people of our time. And the best part – new videos are selected and uploaded almost...

Jan Oberg February 21, 2025 How amazing! The Danish government seemed unprepared for the eventuality that President Trump, if elected, would insist once again on getting Greenland – and a few other “things.” Who was asleep – or much too occupied with hating Russia and helping Ukraine to see what was coming? Secondly, Trump – who is no peace-maker but has other motives – grabbed the phone to Russian President Putin. Why did no European leader do exactly that during the last almost three years? And why did Europe not foresee that he would do that; Trump had said time and again that he would engage in the Ukraine war and stop it. They sat there hearing and seeing nothing of what – very predictably – happened outside their European groupthink box. This interview by the China Academy and Thinkers Forum was recorded on February 12, that is, before the...