TFF global posts 2019

In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was famous for the taste of the tea it poured. Unbeknown to her, its quality derived from the residue that had accumulated on the inside of the pot. In her eagerness to prepare the pot for sale she cleaned and polished it. When the purchaser came to try using the pot the tea was dreadful and he demanded his money back. In this way Li Ruthuan made his point that the majority of the Chinese leadership didn’t have a proper understanding of what were the important factors that enabled Hong Kong to be such a successful commercial centre. It also should remind...

I would like to announce the publication of a book describing the lives of some of the people who have contributed importantly to economic thought. Their lives can help us today, as the world faces a crisis that has profound economic dimensions. Here is the table of content of this large book: The book can be freely downloaded as PDF here. The climate crisis Appendix A outlines the present climate emergency, made vivid by the October 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In the words of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, “According to the IPCC, we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place, including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%…” Although the worst consequences of out-of-control catastrophic climate change lie...

A map of the Korean Peninsula showing the 38th Parallel where the DMZ was established in 1953. (Wikipedia) “Do not demonise North Korea. Demons do not negotiate. If there are no negotiations, there will be war.” The words of Chung-in Moon to journalists who gathered for the Korea Press Foundation journalism conference in Seoul, last October, as diplomatic efforts were being stepped up for a second summit meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. Moon is a sage old hand of arms control talks. A current member of the South Korean government’s advisory committee on diplomatic strategy, he previously served as Ambassador for International Security, combining these posts with his career in universities. His advice was timely, given the findings of new research on Australian media and how they refer to the Democratic People’s Republic [i]. In coverage from two major newspapers and the public broadcaster, the ABC,...

The essay below is a modified version of the 2018 Annual Lecture of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) of Queen Mary’s University London, given on March 22 of that year. Its original title was “Geopolitical Crimes: A Preliminary Jurisprudential Proposal.” The text of the lecture has been further revised since publication in the Spring 2019 issue of the Journal of State Crime.  Its major premise is that international criminal law has developed a framework for judging the criminal conduct of states with respect to armed conflict and in the relations of state/society relations, but is silent about even the most severe crimes of diplomacy. It is these ‘geopolitical crimes’ that are more responsible for inflicting mass suffering on civilian populations than are most of the forms of international behavior currently criminalized. I am aware that criminalizing acts of diplomacy is a revolutionary idea, but no less for that, deserving of commentary and debate....

In her famous decree in 1767 Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed Russia to be a European power. She wanted Russia to be a major player in European politics. She compelled the Europeans to accept Russia as a great power as a condition for doing business. In 1815 Russia was considered an equal in the 1815 Concert of Europe. In contrast, Imperial China at that time was self-sufficient and inward looking. It basked in its own superior culture. It did not want to open up trade relations with Europe and the emperor questioned the ability of the British who were knocking on the door to “acquire the rudiments” of Chinese civilization. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, what have we? The heart of Russia, economically, politically, scientifically, culturally and educationally is west of the Ural mountains. This part would like to be European and at one time there was talk from...

Somebody once said that courage is when you do something today you wouldn’t dare doing yesterday. That is why I decided to express my opinion whereas normally I would choose – wisely – to restrain my lips. Have you ever had an opportunity to speak with your friends about migrants and mass immigration? Especially with your international friends living in different parts of the world and changing their residence like migrating birds? How do you explain your views if they differ from the usual, dominating or politically correct one? Or, how do you actually explain that you are against immigration without risking being categorized as a racist? During my latest visit to Switzerland, while conversing with a friend about many topics including politics, somehow we started discussing immigration. My friend’s opinion was that Swiss people may seem cold and distant, but in reality they are very open-minded and friendly to...

With due respect, Mr. Pompeo, civilisation’s clock should be ticking for what I allow myself to consider inhuman, unfair and tension-creating policies such as those you conduct. You and your President constantly tell others not to do what the US itself does tenfold worse – because, as it seems, you believe in exceptionalism and yourselves as God’s chosen people. I’ve always admired the American society for its innovative, creative and idealistic qualities. As much as I’ve loathed its imperialism, militarism, nuclearism and its fundamental inability to respect the world’s diversity. Sadly and thanks to hubris and lack of humility, the good sides of your socieety are now widely overshadowed by its (self)destructive propensities. And that’s why the West is declining and the Rest is ascending. Do something about your own clock! Do something good for the welfare and security of your own citizens at home. And try for once to...

Trump besøger Danmark, og verdens økonomiske og militære supermagt har haft travlt over sommeren med at håndtere konflikter med Kina, Rusland, Iran, Sverige og Tyrkiet. For USA er altid en af parterne i verdens konflikter, og måske vi skulle tale med den amerikanske præsident om netop det?   Onsdag den 31. juli 2019 kunne man læse i de danske medier, at den amerikanske præsident Donald Trump og hans kone Melania Trump besøger Danmark den 2-3. september 2019. Det er en stor nyhed, for det sker kun sjældent, at verdens muligvis mægtigste menneske besøger Danmark. I juli 1997 holdt Bill Clinton tale på Kongens Nytorv i København foran 80.000 mennesker, hvor han takkede Danmark for deltagelsen i krigen i Bosnien. I juli 2005 kom George W. Bush og besøgte Anders Fogh, der sammen to år forinden havde kastet deres nationer ind i Irak-krigen uden FN-mandat. I 2009 kom Barack Obama forbi...

/07/31/the-law-against-aggression/”>illegal according to the Rome Statute. There is also the 1996 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice to back up that assertion. The argument concerning terrorism has to do with the fact that it is a central element in any definition of the concept of terrorism that it implies a deliberate attempt to harm or kill innocent people – people who are not party to a conflict – in order to instill fear and achieve a political purpose. And there is no way nuclear weapons can be used without killing masses of innocent people. Therefore, they should have no place in a civilized society. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-GftG4fThI

– Hiroshima Day If MAD was Mad then the decision of President Donald Trump to renounce the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is MADDER. MAD is Mutually Assured Destruction, a concept which underlay the nuclear deterrence of the Cold War. Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan began the hard work of dismantling MAD with the INF, a treaty affecting the land-based missiles of Europe. It abolished missiles with a range of 500 to 2000 kilometres. They were dangerous beyond their size (small relative to Inter-continental missiles), more dangerous in the sense that their flying time was a short ten minutes, which made pre-emptive action by Russia truly a possibility and nuclear war then a near certainty. No wonder that the abrogation of the INF has been treated by dismay by many people inside the Pentagon and the State Department and among nuclear strategists in EU countries. In the forthcoming issue...

The following statement on US warmongering in relation to Iran was prepared by Mark LeVine, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine and myself. Some of the early signatories are among the leading scholars in the field of Middle East Studies. Their names are listed below. It seeks to make two major arguments: First, that the unlawful threats and coercive moves made by the United States point toward a political disaster that would include the commission of the most serious of international crimes, that of aggression via threats and uses of force that do not constitute self-defense under international law; and Secondly, that it is essential to shift the relationship with Iran from one based on coercive to an approach resting on restorative diplomacy involving a deliberate reversal of American Foreign Policy with the overriding objective of normalization of relations between our two countries. Statement by leading Middle East/Islamic studies...

, marks for Europe. Comment Today is a tragic day for Europe, indeed for the world – but do the media highlight that fact on their front pages? Of course, they don’t. The INF Treaty has made Europe less insecure since 1987. But Russia and the US have accused each other of violating it. The bigger reasons for this tragedy are that a) there is a new Cold War in Europe and b) since other countries are now able to develop similar INF weapons – Inter-mediate range Nuclear Forces (INF) with the particular range mentioned in this movie – they want to have their hands free. And, one might almost say, as usual – the policies of the US have spearheaded today’s tragedy, particularly with the totally counterproductive and de factor offensive Ballistic Missile Defence, BMD, that Russia – legitimately – sees as a threat. Just listen to a man...