Hotel Abbasi, Isfahan, Iran © Jan Oberg By John Scales Avery May 31, 2019 On Monday, 13 May 2019, the New York Times posted an article with the title “White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War”. Besides the aircraft carrier and other naval forces already sent to the Persian Gulf, […]
By Jonathan Power May 29, 2019 Brexit grabs the attention of much of the world, not least because Britain once had an Empire and ruled a great part of the world’s peoples. And it’s the caretaker of the English language, the Empire’s most important legacy. Add to that the BBC, the world’s favourite and most […]
Lund, Sweden, May 27, 2019 HE Secretary-General of the United NationsAntónio GuterresUnited NationsNew York NY REGARDING: Request for action in accordance with the UN Charter Article 99 to seek to prevent war between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The relation between the USA and Iran has been tense for […]
By Jonathan Power May 22, 2019 Amnesty International reported this week that an Iranian lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has been sentenced to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes. She has dedicated her life to defending women accused of removing their hijabs in public. The persecution of human rights dissidents in Iran appears to be getting […]
May 20, 2019 By Jan Oberg Remember President Trump’s tweet and accompanying statements by the Trump administration officials concerning Iran – as reported here by CNN on May 19, 2019. Trump’s statement amounts to a de facto declaration of war on Iran. Objectively speaking, it is a lie that Iran threatens the US. It is […]
By Jonathan Power May 15, 2019 Maybe, after all, there is an argument for saying that the world needs more violence not less if we are to make its societies more equal. This is one conclusion one can derive from Walter Scheidel’s new book, The Great Leveler. He starts from what we all know by […]
By Jonathan Power May 8, 2019 They hadn’t realized they were living in a world, as Barack Obama once said, is the best time to be alive in human history. Yet the bits and pieces of this information had been around for a long time and I’ve drawn on them in many of my columns. […]
By Johan Galtung May 8, 2019 There is much diversity. Let us praise that mega aspect of our world as multipolar, passive but peaceful, coexistence of civilizations: Anglo-American; Latin American-Caribbean; Islamic; African pre-, post-colonial; European from Ireland to Russia Far East; West Asian Islamic; with Israel Jewish; Iran Persian; South Asian, SAARC, Hindu and Islamic […]
By Jonathan Power May 7, 2019 Traditionally old men have sent young men to fight the wars they have started. Today it may be somewhat different. Old men may be shying away from war while young men are still beholden to it. The world, as never before, is becoming demographically lopsided, with older people concentrated […]
Remissvar om Lars-Erik Lundins utredning avgivet av Fredsrörelsen på Orust 24:e april 2019 Inledning Under läsningen av utredningens 215 sidor framtonar några grundläggande drag i den världsbild och den begreppsapparat som utredaren utgår ifrån och använder. Ingen öppen redovisning eller definition görs av dessa grundläggande drag i utredningen och dess slutsatser. Här följer ett representativt […]