TFF global posts 2022

No, these three themes are not directly related to each other, except that they were suggested to me /” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Schiller Institute in Denmark when she kindly invited me to participate in a longer interview. If you prefer, you may also listen to it as podcast and read it here.

March 1, 2022 This is a recorded lecture from 2015 by Professor John Mearsheimer. In the perspective of what has just happened with and in Ukraine, this is simply prophetic. Here is a rather complex set of intertwined arguments that makes an incredibly clear-headed analysis – and warning. No decision-makers listened and thus, we are where we are today. Mearsheimer is in many ways a classical Realist thinker. It’s indeed deplorable that that approach – combined with tremendous knowledge and great skills at conveying it all in a delightfully pedagogical manner – has become so rare and that those who operate US/NATO/EU politics these very days would hardly be able to understand what he is saying – and much less, take in his analysis. Because, as he also hints somewhere – “we” know better and “we” never did anything wrong! And, so: Why listen to knowledge-based critics? Now sit down....

Sergey Vinograd, Unsplash Richard Falk TFF Associate February 7, 2022 The post below is my stimulus essay for a Forum sponsored by Great Transition Initiative, a project of the Tellus Institute, dedicated to the exploration of humane and ecologically resonant adjustments to the challenges and threats posed by the onset of the Anthropocentric Age. The text of the full Forum can be found by clicking here. It contains many wise and illuminating responses to my reflections, including by leading thinkers of our time. The Forum closes with my effort to respond to the responses, but due to space limitations, in a very truncated manner. Also, the Forum format conveys some information about the underlying philosophy that guides this ambitious undertaking. Global Solidarity: Toward a Politics of Impossibility  A Captive Imagination As the COVID-19 pandemic slowly subsides, it is not clear what lessons will be drawn by political leaders and publics around...

Please read this carefully because it is essentially important and not on the front page of all media – while Djokovic, Britney Spears, Epstein/Maxwell and the latest Netflix series you just must see all are: “UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2022 (IPS) The numbers are unbelievably staggering: the world’s 10 richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day, according to a new study from Oxfam International. These phenomenal changes in fortunes took place during the first two years of a Covid-19 pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall, and over 160 million more people forced into poverty—60 million more than the figures released by the World Bank in 2020. “If these ten men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99...

None Dare Call It “Encirclement” Washington Tightens the Noose around China Michael Klare Since he published “War Without End: American Planning for the Next Vietnams” in 1972, Michael Klare has established himself as one of the world’s leading experts on US military foreign policy, warfare, weapons, military intervention, energy policies and the nexus between militarism and climate change. I’ve known and followed him during all these years. Within the last few weeks, Michael has written two analyses pertain to the one-sided US Cold War on China that are frightening. They provide you with cool documentation of the systematic planning and the impossible-to-understand sums the US has now allocated to this destructive – also self-destructive – project for the years ahead. Western mainstream media will keep you in the dark about this perversely world-endangering policy. I call it that for the simple reason that the problems humanity faces which must be...

, as Op-Ed for China Daily * One description of the contemporary world is more accurate and ominous than any other, namely that we live in the nuclear age or the age of nuclearism, i.e. the weapons plus the thinking and power structures that surround these doomsday weapons. In 1946, Albert Einstein stated that “the unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Even limited use of nuclear weapons would lead to a global human and environmental catastrophe. It is enigmatic that everybody talks about the much slower climate change, while the numerous destructive links between militarism and environmental destruction are hardly ever made even by leading experts, politicians or civil society leaders. Therefore, it must be welcomed that the five nuclear weapons states of the UN Security Council have issued a joint statement. They know there is...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg January 13, 2022 Jan Oberg To deceive, telling half-truths, or a complete lie is nothing new in politics, particularly security in politics. But until some 20-30 years ago, I would – perhaps naively – see it as an exception. Tragically – and perhaps to many readers’ surprise – it is now the rule. At least in U.S. and NATO circles, and that is particularly regrettably since The West professes to be a democratic system with specific values and even a moral leader to The Rest. Lying systematically about facts – historical facts – and other countries and cultures should be incompatible with The West’s perception of itself. But, today, it isn’t. Lies are widespread in so-called security politics when some militarist project doesn’t make any (common) sense to intelligent people, when the real motives have to be covered up and...

January 11, 2022 My most significant others I firmly believe that what people are at any given moment has formed by combining insights from a number of disciplines that they acquired in the course of their life. Several of these disciplines are related to specific persons that one meets in various stages of one’s life and who had a profound influence on who you are and what you stand for. I started learning Chinese at age 14 (1970). This was primarily driven by a wish to learn a non-Western language, but it quickly evolved into a general interest in Chinese culture. I spent several periods in China as a student (1975-76), researcher (1981), professor of Dutch (1982-84), chief representative of a Dutch company (1986-91), etc., during which I developed friendships with Chinese of all walks of life. However, the influence of sharing my life with my wife (since 1984) undoubtedly...