TFF Blog

Keynote Speech, International Peace Research Association (IPRA) – 7 Jan 2006 On professionalization in general Generally, the sociology of professions identifies three characteristics of a profession: The purpose of peace research is to produce intersubjectively communicable and verifiable KNOWLEDGE according to the general rules of research. Thus, research is incompatible with secrecy, as research has to take place in public space. And one purpose of peace studies is the communication of the findings of peace research, in line with general rules for education, another public space activity. The free access of the rest of society to what happens is of the essence. As peace workers are not planning to hurt or harm, in other words to exercise violence, s/he has nothing to conceal. In the following a person exercising the peace profession will be referred to as “peace worker”, like “social worker”, or “peace professional” like “health professional”. Others may...

  • The nuclear weapon missile business is contradictory, full of missteps, highly dangerous and prepared in its madness (Mutually Assured Destruction, aka MAD, they used to call it in Cold War days) to plunge the world into a nuclear war that will reduce most of the world to dust. A new book, “The Doomsday Machine” by Daniel Ellsberg tells the whole nuclear bomb story in detail. No one has done it better. The only rival is the movie, “Dr Strangelove”, that got the essentials right without being privy to much of the Ellsberg’s knowledge. Ellsberg is the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon papers, an expose of the US role in the Vietnam War. In this book he tells of his time in the 1960s as consultant to the Department of Defence and the White House. He drafted Robert McNamara’s plans for nuclear war- McNamara was secretary of defence...

 Peace journalism is when editors and reporters make choices – about what to report, and how to report it – that create opportunities for society at large to consider and to value non-violent responses to conflict. If readers and audiences are furnished with such opportunities, but still decide they prefer war to peace, there is nothing more journalism can do about it, while remaining journalism. On the other hand, there is no matching commitment to ensuring a fair hearing for violent responses, if only because they seldom struggle for a place on the news agenda. How come? To report is to choose. ‘We just report the facts’, journalists say, but ‘the facts’ is a category of practically infinite size. Even in these days of media profusion, that category has to be shrunk to fit into the news. The journalist is a ‘gatekeeper’, allowing some aspects of reality through, to emerge,...

December 12, 2017, marks the anniversary of the liberation – the West called it fall – of Aleppo in Syria. What happened is conveniently forgotten today by the West. Some of us can’t and won’t forget what was both world, regional and local history. Important for Syria, for the West and for the future world order – for at least 5 reasons:   1. The Western mainstream media’s deceptive – constructed, ignorant, or both – narrative since 2011 was debunked. Perspectives that media and political decision-makers deliberately omitted (remember omitted stuff is more important than fake): • History and the colonialists’ role in Syria. • The immense complexity of the Syrian society. • Syria as a 7000 year-old civilisation and as end of the Silk Road. • The decades-long conflicts underlying the violence, since CIA’s coup in 1949. • The Western-driven regime change policies years since before 2011. • Other...

Via transcend.org • The People’s Peace Prize According to Nobel’s Will Celebration-Seminar-Banquet, Orust Peace Movement at Svanvik, Sweden, 2 Dec 2017 – Most gratefully received: a beautifully engraved granite stone that will adorn our garden in Spain, and a wonderful diploma!   I am deeply moved, with a feeling that my long life dedicated to the theory and practice of peace, particularly since 1958, 50 years ago, has arrived, has been understood, and has been appreciated. The “Nobel Peace Prize” administered by Norway is fake. Far from Nobel’s will inspired by Bertha von Suttner’s Nie mehr Krieg as a prize for reducing standing armies, understanding among nations, and peace conferences, to a prize compatible with US-Norwegian policies.  The 2017 prize to ICAN was a felicitous exception to that rule. – – – Read more…

By Richard Falk Via ahtribune.com A wide-ranging conversation with Richard Falk at the American Herald Tribune on October 5, 2017. Here a few excerpts: • Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You wrote the book “Achieving Human Rights”. Don’t you think that the many interventions of American imperialism, under the pretext of spreading human rights and democracy, have emptied the concept of human rights from its substance? Prof. Richard Falk: I would place the stress on the discrediting effects of the disastrous American imperial intervention, and subsequent occupation, of Iraq starting in 2003. Especially when the allegation of hiding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction proved false, the United States justified the intervention as a textbook liberation of the Iraqi people, an exercise in what was called ‘democracy promotion.’ Even earlier, the U.S. Government attempted to justify its regime-changing intervention in Afghanistan as beneficial for women, as an undertaking that was described under such...

Fifteen months ago TFF predicted, grosso modo, what has now become clear in the Middle East namely a rather new power constellation. It centers around Saudi Arabia – the world’s third largest military power and main supporter of global terrorism – and its allies of Gulf States, Israel and various terrorist organisations including ISIS. See “A Sunni-Salafist-Zionist Coalition Changing Middle East?” The main characteristics that holds this coalition or alliance together is hatred of Syria’s and Iran’s governments. The alliance is – albeit with nuances – supported by the US, England, France and Turkey and others, e.g. Denmark. Flashback We’ve described the liberation of Aleppo as a fundamental turning point after exactly 4 years of anti-intellectual, immoral and illegal Western policies. It started on December 12, 2012 in Marrakech with the so-called “Friends of Syria” declaring that the elected president of Syria (with over 80% in internationally monitored elections) was no longer the country’s leader. Secondly, that...

LinksTFF’s Comprehensive Link Library Collection Iraq 4Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 1Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 2Read the newest materials on Iraq here Articles by non-TFF Associates Articles by non-TFF Associates F e a t u r e s “Transfer” to IraqJune 30, 2004 Iqbal Siddiqui, Media Monirots NetworkTransfer of power in Iraq is no more than a cynical exercise in public relations Robert Fisk, ICHA Pitiful Occasion for the People Annia Ciezadlo, CSMOld Iraqi council clings to key roles Dan Murphy, CSMSurprise ending: occupation over Warren Hoge, TruthoutU.N. Rights Chief Warns of War Crimes in Iraq TomDispatch.comA cut-and-run transition Rajiv Chandrasekaran & Walter Pincus, WashingtonpostU.S. Edicts Curb Power of Iraq’s Leadership Iraq Occupation FiascoJune 30, 2004 Mark Follman, ICHA Temporary Coup Robert Parry, consortiumnews.comBush Sr.’s Iraq-Iran Secrets CBC NewsBush continues to insist on link between bin Laden and Saddam...

TFF’s Comprehensive Link Library Collection Iraq 1Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 3Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 2Read the newest materials on Iraq here Articles by non-TFF Associates F e a t u r e s TFF Feature Collection, February 1, 2005Iraq Analyses: The resistance & the electionsPlus human rights, WMDs, the occupation in a wider strategic perspective and the destruction of BabylonSome 40 articles on aspects we should keep in mind in the future. They offer perspectives on what to learn and what to remember when they build up the next crisis… TFF Feature – Farhang Jahanpour, January 14, 2005The Iraqi elections must go ahead as scheduled: the alternative is much worseThere are four main groups inside Iraq who oppose the elections. In spite of spiralling violence, elections should be held. Jahanpour argues postponing the elections does not promise a...

LinksTFF’s Comprehensive Link Library Collection Iraq 4Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 3Read the materials on Iraq from 2004 here Collection Iraq 1Read the newest materials on Iraq here Articles by non-TFF Associates F e a t u r e s Occupation Crisis (Dec. 5, 2003) Howard LaFranchi, CSMBound to Iraq, Kurds eye options John Gershman, Foreign Policy in FocusThe Progressive Response Oliver Burkeman & Julian Borger, the GuardianWar Critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal Susan Sachs, NY TimesIraq Picks American as Ambassador to U.S. Randall Richard, TruthoutAt Least 17 U.S. Troops Have Committed Suicide in Iraq, Army Seeks Answers Mark Matthews, TruthoutIraq War Providing a Boost to Al-Qaida Eric Boehlert, Truthout“The President Ought to be Ashamed” Andrew M. cockburn, Common DreamsTired, Terrified, Trigger-Happy Jeff Wilkinson, Common DreamsU.S. Tactics in Iraq May Backfire, Critics SayIn Tikrit, US Destroys Homes of Suspected Guerrillas Robert...