TFF global posts 2019

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman remains at large, the unapologetic murderer (according to the CIA) of the respected dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Even though President Donald Trump came close to accusing him of the deed, he has pulled back, citing Saudi Arabia’s importance as an oil producer and arms buyer. The prime minister of the UK, Theresa May, is too preoccupied with Brexit to want to give up an important market. President Emanuel Macron of France is silent after an initial outburst. Now pressed by the demands of the demonstrators, he also wants to keep sources of revenue that come from sales of jets. Last week King Salman stepped into the crisis. Whatever admonishment he may have given his son, he is clearly not prepared to sideline him from his seat of power. Instead he has compromised by merely reshuffling the cabinet. The acceptance of the status quo must be...

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...

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...