TFF PressInfo

Jan Oberg February 9, 2024 Quite as could be expected politically, Sweden’s Public Prosecutor announced on February 7, 2024, that Sweden had closed down the investigation of how Nord Stream was destroyed and by whom – and of whether there were any Swedes involved in the affair. The main, actually only, argument he gave was that Sweden does not have jurisdiction over the area despite the fact that the pipelines run through Sweden’s Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ. The other remarkable fact was that the Prosecutor did not hold a press conference but only issued a statement and emphasised at the end of it that he had no further comments. I reflect a bit on this here – in four small but important points: I was also asked to comment on China’s national TV Channel, CCTV: And on RT – Russia Today. Thanks to the West’s violation of the human right...

Jan Oberg February 6, 2024 Regrettably, the world’s allegedly most prestigious prize has been awarded to many who did not qualify according to the will of Alfred Nobel. I want to direct your attention to the most important book written about the peace deception called the Nobel Peace Prize. In his last meticulously researched book, “The Real Nobel Peace Prize. A Squandered Opportunity to Abolish War,” my friend and TFF Associate Fredrik Heffermehl (1938-2023) showed that only 36 out of 134 awards would qualify according to Nobel’s clearly anti-militarist intentions. Here is how Nobel himself formulated, in his will, that this prize should go “to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses” and that this prize for the “champions of peace” should be awarded “by a committee of...

TFF Associate Since the end of the Cold War and increasingly in recent years, US officials followed as usual by their European allies, have coined a new phrase which they use instead of international law, namely ‘rules-based international order’ (RBO). Leiden Journal of International Law has published an online book (published by Cambridge University Press) that explores the ramifications of this new term. It asks: “What is this creature, the ‘rules-based international order’, that American political leaders have increasingly invoked since the end of the Cold War instead of international law? Is it a harmless synonym for international law, as suggested by European leaders? Or is it something else, a system meant to replace international law which has governed the behaviour of states for over 500 years?” It argues that the RBO is the United States’ alternative to international law, an order that encapsulates international law as interpreted by the...

8,”sizeSlug”:”large”,”linkDestination”:”none”} –> I’m grateful to be given the opportunity to think back on the dissolution conflicts and wars of the 1990s and reflect on what it was NATO illegal bombings in the spring of 1999 – when I was there under the bombs – turned out later to have set in motion into the Second Cold War. Also, it was indeed an honour to participate in this world-renowned daily’s 120th anniversary. It’s the oldest daily in the Balkans. I shall participate in a commemorative conference in Belgrade in March 2024 when it is 25 years ago, NATO committed its crimes and began its out-of-area – and out-of-Treaty – activities, from which there is a straight line to the foolish NATO expansion and attempts to get NATO into Ukraine and Ukraine into NATO. I’d like to direct the reader’s attention toward TFF’s study – 2000+ A4 equivalent and probably the largest...

Action Committee For Call to Conscience About Gaza February 5, 2024 To be updated As mentioned earlier here on The Transnational, the “Emergency London Conference of Global Intellectuals of Conscience Concerning the Genocide in Gaza”, arranged by Turkey’s former PM and former foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu and Richard Falk, professor emeritus at Princeton University and TFF Associate since 1986 was held January 27-28, 2024. It was based on this Declaration created prior to the conference. The conclusions and planned actions from the London conference “Supporters of the Declaration of Conscience and Concerns to stop genocide in Gaza met in London on January 27, 2024. Participants came from more than 25 countries. The emergency conference was responding to the genocidal catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, and the recent interim order of the International Court of Justice. The Conference was convened by former Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, and Queen Mary...

Interview on CGTN’s “First Voice.” CGTN is China’s main global TV network. At present, CGTN Digital has over 150 million followers across the globe. Instead of embedding the video here, we offer the direct link so you can see the comments that it elicited and also comment yourself if you like. And when there, browse CGTN as an absolutely leading global news outlet. And then… Please support TFF, which continues to deliver truthful, pro-peace public education based on decades of research. So press that red button for peace!

You know the TFF Statement on the Gaza Genocide – if not, read it here. This Declaration was initiated by professor Richard Falk – TFF Associate since 1986 – and the former Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu – a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party from 2014 to 2016. Read this Declaration today. We urge you to sign it – the sooner, the better. This must not continue!

WP logo to the left by Norebbo 2020 Jan Oberg January 11, 2024 WordPress – WP – is huge. One source states that it’s the world’s most popular and widely used content management system that now powers 42.7% of all websites on the internet. TFFs, my PhotoGraphics and my personal online home, plus 12 more I am responsible for, are all on WordPress. I love WordPress and have used it almost since it was established in 2003. It is very reliable, stable and logical to build sites on, and the variety of themes, plugins, etc – all you need – is amazing. And there exists no better support department than WP’s. For very good reasons, they call themselves Happiness Engineers. I could go on, but – there is a simultaneous thing to report: My first really bad experience with WP concerning its boost/promotion mechanism, Blaze. Here on The Transnational, we...

Photo – Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash Jan Oberg December 30, 2023 ”It is difficult to make predictions, particularly about the future.”Unknown but wise person’s statement. I do not pretend my predictions below are scientific or based on a sophisticated social science methodology. They are merely intuitive and hypothetical and based on some of my accumulated knowledge and experience about international affairs over more than four decades. You may say they grow out of a Wright Mills-like sociological – and peace research – imagination. I regret I can’t mobilise more optimism at this point in world history. I hope, therefore, that many of these predictions will turn out to be wrong. But keep or archive them. Time will tell. (1) The war on Gaza will continue, probably for months or years, and the worldwide anger directed at Israel will increase exponentially. Israel will be more and more isolated and attacked in...

Becomes a TFF Associate in December 2023 Ali Akbar Alikhani was born in Iran in 1968 and serves as a Professor at the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, in the field of Islamic political thought, peace studies, ethics and justice. A part of Dr. Alikhani’s scholarly works is dedicated to the field of “peace and negation of violence”. He established the permanent secretariat of the annual international conferences on “Peace and Conflict Resolution” at the University of Tehran in 2017. So far, he has managed to organise four of these conferences. The first conference was held on April 29–30, 2019, and the second one on November 23 – 24, 2020. The third and fourth conferences were held October 18-20, 2021, and May 29-30, 2023, at the University of Tehran. The Fifth Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution will be held on May 27 – 28, 2024....

Published here on the birthday of Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) Last October, we had two important anniversary messages. One came through loud and clear in the Western media: the anniversary of the triumph of the Chinese Revolution, guided by Mao, restoring China to its own people, violently, on October 1. The other message was considerably more subdued: the anniversary of the birth of Gandhi, the Father of the Indian nation, restoring India to its own people, nonviolently, on October 2. Of course, the West focused on China, its military parades, its display of glittering affluence after decades of growth, true to its fascination with violence and economic growth.  Of course, India is also a BRIC country–Brazil-Russia-India-China–to be taken seriously because of its high growth and “muscle”. But this obsession with military and economic power makes the West lose the essence of the two anniversaries, the...

Jan Oberg December 13, 2023 One of the enigmatic aspects of international politics is that big and militarily superior countries have systematically lost wars in smaller countries – the last 50 years, from Vietnam to Ukraine. ’Losing’ here means military defeat, being forced out, losing the struggle for the hearts and minds of the people, and facing fiasco when it comes to achieving the presumed noble motives like introducing human rights, democracy, freedom or liberating women. And given the tremendous human costs, particularly in the Middle East, the US’s Global War On Terror since September 11, 2001, is also an intellectual and moral disaster. The United States – the world’s by far largest military spender, interventionist, warrior, occupier, global base-builder with the most militarised foreign policy – is in a class of its own. In losing wars too. It is now rapidly losing legitimacy, relevance and credibility in the eyes...