Forsvarskommissionen forstår ikke konflikthåndtering

Under den kolde krig handlede sikkerheds- og forsvarspolitik ikke om at løse konflikter eller forebygge vold. Konflikten mellem Øst- og Vestblokkene blev bevaret gennem at balancere, afskrække og forberede sig for det tilfælde at krig skulle blive en realitet. I næsten 50 år betragtede politikere, intellektuelle, diplomater og medier derfor konfliktanalyse, mægling, konflikthåndtering og -løsning, voldsforebyggelse og emner som forsoning og tilgivelse som stort set irrelevante. Ikkevoldelige, civile indsatser derfor en beskeden rolle. Øst-Vestkonflikten blev da heller ikke løst; hvad der skete var at Østblokken gik i opløsning.

Nu er det anderledes. Der er ikke to blokke og et sæt veldefinerede spilleregler; der er sammenbrud i en række stater, opløsning af spillleregler og udvikling af paramilitære hære og private krigsherrer. Der er én supermagt, USA. Der er alt andet end orden. Vi har oplevet krig i Europa og Danmark er med langt fremme i udviklingen af det ekspansive, såkaldt nye NATO, der af USA er udset at blive “fredsbevareren” par excellence, mens FN udsultes, misbruges og agtersejles.

Det er da pikant at hele denne udvikling ikke er objekt for egentlig analyse i den nyligt udgivne danske Forsvarskommission. Udviklingen beskrives, den problematiseres ej.

Kommissionen bygger på en enestående illusion om at konflikter som dem i Jugoslavien eller Somalia, Irak eller Mellemøsten er isolerede, skabt udelukkende af parterne selv og ikke af hverken EU-landene eller USA. Sidstnævntes rolle er at komme ind som dem, der dysser gemytterne ned og eventuelt bomber de onde og støtter de gode, mægler, skaber fred og giver penge til genopbygning.

Virkeligheden er dog en anden. I disse konflikter har der uden undtagelse været tale om at Vesten har været delagtig i de historiske forløb og har større eller mindre økonomiske, politiske, strategiske eller ressourcemæssige interesser. Vestlige lande har haft deres sikkerhedstjenester i områderne, stukket fingre i interne magtspil og leveret våbnene, ammunitionen og træningen, der har skullet til for at starte krigene og holde dem gående.

Kommissionens perspektiv er fuldstændigt groteskt i en tid hvor det overalt påpeges at verden blir stedse mere “interdependent” – at alle hænger sammen med alle andre. Men just når det gælder konflikter og krige så er vi selv – de gode – ikke involveret. Vi er uskyldige, ædle fredsskabere. Til almindelig oplysning tegner de fem permanente medlemmer af FNs sikkerhedsråds (USA, Rusland, Frankrig, England og Kina) sig for 85% af verdens våbeneksport og de har været ude i flere krige end nogen anden gruppe.

Dertil kommer at de, der har forsøgt at håndtere krigene udefra, har gjort ondt værre – fordi der ikke har været nogen adekvat analyse men en skjult målsætning om magtpolitik netop i tiden efter den kolde krig. Eksempelvis har Balkan, der siden 1990 også har været kastebold i magtspillet mellem EU-landene indbyrdes og mellem USA og Europa.

Kort sagt, i Forsvarskommissionens verden findes der ikke magtpolitik, og vore egen kreds af lande har kun gode motiver – hvilket illustreres af at vi udelukkende har “humanitære” eller “fredsbevarende” eller “fredsstøttende” og “fredsskabende” forpligtelser og opgaver. Hvad NATO og EU hidtil har gjort i disse konfliktområder analyseres overhovedet ikke – det er per defintion godt fordi det er NATO og EU, der har gjort det.

Konflikthåndtering og voldsforebyggelse er altså de centrale elementer i en tidssvarende politik. Der er fem typer af aktører, der kan det – FN, OSCE, folkelige organisationer, professionelt uddannede konflikteksperter og mæglere samt små lande, der kan stå neutralt mellem stridende parter og lytte, analysere, mægle og hjælpe dem til at undgå vold eller få stop på den hvis den er brudt ud.

Det er da pikant at ingen af disse fem aktører eller typer af sikkerhedspolitiske “interventioner” tillægges nogen betydning i Forsvarskommissionens rapport. Den behandler end ikke hvad konflikter er – holderninger, adfærd og grundproblemer – eller hvorledes man skal sætte ind i “konfliktkredsløbet” – fra det begynder at ulme et sted over analyse, tidlig varsling, forebyggende diplomati, facilitering, mægling, fredsbevarelse, fredsskabelse (forhandlinger m.m.) og fredsbygning (efter vold) frem mod normalisering gennem forsoning, tilgivelse og ny-udvikling.

For nu at sige det rimeligt brutalt: På og mellem linjerne i Forsvarskommissionen skal Danmark og NATO under USAs ledelse ikke satse på tidlig intervention med civile midler og uvildige råd. De skal – som gribbe der venter på forrådnelsen – først gribe ind når den militære “løsning” er blevet “nødvendig,” påtvinge parterne en “løsning” i form af deres egen fikse fredsplan for siden at kunne omskabe konfliktområderne til egen fordel med privatisering, Verdensbankslån, investeringer, demokrati, frie medier og lignende standardvarer, vi kender fra den såkaldte Dayton-aftale.

Måske nogen synes det er en overdrivelse, en tarvelig beskrivelse? Men find så først fuldgyldige svar på: Hvorfor gjordes intet i Somalia i tide; allerede da jeg arbejdere der 1977-81 var der tydelige tegn på sammenbrud, men da var landet en brik i spillet mellem USA/Vesten og Sovjetunionen. Hvorfor var Saddam Hussein længe en sådan god ven af Vesten indtil sin famøse invasion af Kuwait? Hvorfor hjalp EU ikke parterne i det tidligere Jugoslavien allerede i 1980erne, da opløsningen tydeligt var på vej, til at finde fredelige måder at dele landet på? Hvorfor ventede USA i tre år med at gøre noget i Bosnien? Hvorfor gjorde ingen det mindste for at forebygge volden i Kosovo, hvor serberne optrappede undertrykkelse og kosovo-albanerne opbyggede deres hær(e) allerede fra 1992? Hvor har vestlge våben flydt ind først og hjulpet dem til at forgøre hinanden?

Overalt venter man så længe med at “gøre noget” så militære indsatser kan præsenteres som løsningen for en hjemmeopinion, der er blevet fyldt med propaganda eller krigsrapporter om de klart gode og onde parter i disse konflikterne.

Hvorfor har Danmark og andre civiliserede, fredelige lande ikke et beredskab af professionelt uddannede konfliktektløsere, mæglere, forhandlere og områdeeksperter, der kan sættes ind før alle disse frygtelige ting sker? Hvorfor satser vi ikke på voldsforebyggelse som en integreret del af dansk forsvarspolitik? Så ville vi kunne opfylde FN-erklæringens norm om at alle ting skal være prøvet før der indsættes militære midler i konflikterne.

En Forsvarskommission, der i dagens konfliktfyldte verden end ikke tager sig for at se på disse ting, har begrænset relevans for Danmarks sikkerhed. Men den forsvarer naturligvis de danske militære budgetter og dansk NATO-fundamentalisme. Alternativet? Nedsæt en ny med bredt kompetente deltagere – civile og militære – et andet mandat, en åben holdning til fremtiden og verden, med mennesker der har erfaringer fra konkrete konflikter og tilknyt en multidisciplinær og multikulturel international rådgivergruppe.

Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer

Related Posts

LONDON – So far so good, at least on the wider level. While internally Iraq seems on the edge of chaos, the much heralded clash of civilizations between the Muslim and Judaeo-Christian worlds has yet to become apparent. We have anger and despair aplenty in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But very little rushing to the standard and there was no great pilgrimage of warriors to join the fight, as happened when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan twenty years ago, and then, having driven the Red Army out, were left to ferment in that mountainous redoubt. With the armaments supplied by the CIA the mujahidin were transformed into Al Qaeda that became, for a relatively brief moment as these things go, ‘the greatest threat to the homeland that America has ever known.’ Nevertheless a ‘Cold War’ between much of the Muslim world and the West is certainly in full swing. Winston...
The Challenge of Nuclear Weaponsin the Twenty-first CenturyA Path Forward The peoples and governments of the world face an urgent challenge relating to weaponry of mass destruction and particularly to nuclear weaponry.  At the crossroads of technology, terrorism, geopolitical ambition, and policies of preemption are new and potent dangers for humanity. Despite ending the nuclear standoff of the Cold War era, nuclear weaponry is again menacing the peoples of the world with catastrophic possibilities.  We recognize the need for any government to pursue its security interests in accordance with international law; and further, we recognize that distinctive threats to these interests now exist as a result of an active international terrorist network having declared war on the United States and its allies. Nonetheless, we reject the assessment of the current US administration that upgrading a reliance on nuclear weapons is in any sense justified as a response. We find it...
By Karin Wegestal MP, the Social Democratic Partyon behalf of the Swedish Committee for Solidarity with the Yugoslav People During the last decade, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has received more than 500,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, and another 300,000 internally displaced persons, mainly from the province Kosovo and Metohia. For a country with about ten million inhabitants, such an influx of homeless people is obviously a very heavy burden – even under peaceful conditions. But in addition to that, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been the subject to sanctions from the western powers for close to ten years and its infrastructure was badly hurt through Nato’s intense bombardment during 78 days in 1999. The result of all this is that Yugoslavia, once the most developed industrial country in Eastern Europe, is today the poorest country in Europe. In Serbia excluding Kosovo, with about ten million inhabitants and...

Recent Articles

Below are TFF-related media mentions, comments, videos and social media posts published elsewhere but not on this homepage. We happen to catch and list only a fraction. Regarding video comments and debates, we recommend that you go to the TFF Video Channel on Substack where many of them are reproduced. Jan Oberg is a contributor to China Daily – 52 million daily clicks – and Global Times, CGTN and CCTV (the national television), China Investment, Xinhua News Agency and several others. Articles and videos on these media very often multiply into countless Chinese (and Western media) that re-post them from these main media. Thanks to The China Academy, his analyses, interviews and comments are frequently posted on YouTube channels such as Thinkers Forum and Wave Media. These videos are often re-posted on Bilibili (China’s YouTube), the China Content Center on TikTok, and on the Chinese edition of TikTok, Douyin.com. This means reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide over a year. While there are too many to catch on all these...
Jan Oberg TFF director October 13, 2026 According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Peace Prize shall be awarded: ”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.” Further down, he also expresses how the prize for the “champions of peace” shall be decided: “that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting. Alfred Nobel’s will is remarkably short and clear. But few seem to have read it. Nobel did not say that the committee itself should consist of members of parliament. He entrusted the Storting with appointing five persons. In principle, it could have selected diplomats, mediators, peace researchers, conflict-resolution specialists, or other individuals with recognised expertise in matters of peace from around the world. Instead, the Storting gradually...
The Quest for Humane Survival Richard Falk Professor emeritus, Princeton UniversityTFF Associate since 1986October 12, 2026 After decades of teaching and writing about international law in academic frameworks that were not institutionally situated within law school environments—at Princeton and the University of California, Santa Barbara—I found myself most receptive to the TWAIL outlook. It has been especially illuminating in clarifying the extent to which international law evolved as a dialogical critique of Europe’s efforts to legitimize its colonial undertakings. In particular, TWAIL has exposed how international law has functioned to legalize the subjugation of Third World peoples, securing conditions for exploitative investment and trade relations, the coercive enforcement of public debts, and an ideology of cultural superiority. TWAIL’s exposure of these economic legacies of colonialism has influenced my understanding of the history and development of international law, broadly conceived, as an ideological project of the Western sub-system of the world...

TFF on Substack

Discover and subscribe to more peace materials on TFF Substack

Most Popular

Below are TFF-related media mentions, comments, videos and social media posts published elsewhere but not on this homepage. We happen to catch and list only a fraction. Regarding video comments and debates, we recommend that you go to the TFF Video Channel on Substack where many of them are reproduced. Jan Oberg is a contributor to China Daily – 52 million daily clicks – and Global Times, CGTN and CCTV (the national television), China Investment, Xinhua News Agency and several others. Articles and videos on these media very often multiply into countless Chinese (and Western media) that re-post them from these main media. Thanks to The China Academy, his analyses, interviews and comments are frequently posted on YouTube channels such as Thinkers Forum and Wave Media. These videos are often re-posted on Bilibili (China’s YouTube), the China Content Center on TikTok, and on the Chinese edition of TikTok, Douyin.com. This means reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide over a year. While there are too many to catch on all these...
Jan Oberg TFF director October 13, 2026 According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Peace Prize shall be awarded: ”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.” Further down, he also expresses how the prize for the “champions of peace” shall be decided: “that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting. Alfred Nobel’s will is remarkably short and clear. But few seem to have read it. Nobel did not say that the committee itself should consist of members of parliament. He entrusted the Storting with appointing five persons. In principle, it could have selected diplomats, mediators, peace researchers, conflict-resolution specialists, or other individuals with recognised expertise in matters of peace from around the world. Instead, the Storting gradually...
The Quest for Humane Survival Richard Falk Professor emeritus, Princeton UniversityTFF Associate since 1986October 12, 2026 After decades of teaching and writing about international law in academic frameworks that were not institutionally situated within law school environments—at Princeton and the University of California, Santa Barbara—I found myself most receptive to the TWAIL outlook. It has been especially illuminating in clarifying the extent to which international law evolved as a dialogical critique of Europe’s efforts to legitimize its colonial undertakings. In particular, TWAIL has exposed how international law has functioned to legalize the subjugation of Third World peoples, securing conditions for exploitative investment and trade relations, the coercive enforcement of public debts, and an ideology of cultural superiority. TWAIL’s exposure of these economic legacies of colonialism has influenced my understanding of the history and development of international law, broadly conceived, as an ideological project of the Western sub-system of the world...
Read More
girl-5894831_1280
Below are TFF-related media mentions, comments, videos and social media posts published elsewhere but not on this homepage. We happen to catch and list only a fraction. Regarding video comments and debates, we recommend that you go to the TFF Video Channel on Substack where many of them are reproduced. Jan Oberg is a contributor to China Daily – 52 million daily clicks – and Global Times, CGTN and CCTV (the national television), China Investment, Xinhua News Agency and several others. Articles and videos on these media very often multiply into countless Chinese (and Western media) that re-post them from these main media. Thanks to The China Academy, his analyses, interviews and comments are frequently posted on YouTube channels such as Thinkers Forum and Wave Media. These videos are often re-posted on Bilibili (China’s YouTube), the China Content Center on TikTok, and on the Chinese edition of TikTok, Douyin.com. This means reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide over a year. While there are too many to catch on all these...
Nobel-Prize-Plaque
Jan Oberg TFF director October 13, 2026 According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Peace Prize shall be awarded: ”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.” Further down, he also expresses how the prize for the “champions of peace” shall be decided: “that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be selected by the Norwegian Storting. Alfred Nobel’s will is remarkably short and clear. But few seem to have read it. Nobel did not say that the committee itself should consist of members of parliament. He entrusted the Storting with appointing five persons. In principle, it could have selected diplomats, mediators, peace researchers, conflict-resolution specialists, or other individuals with recognised expertise in matters of peace from around the world. Instead, the Storting gradually...
law-419057_1280
The Quest for Humane Survival Richard Falk Professor emeritus, Princeton UniversityTFF Associate since 1986October 12, 2026 After decades of teaching and writing about international law in academic frameworks that were not institutionally situated within law school environments—at Princeton and the University of California, Santa Barbara—I found myself most receptive to the TWAIL outlook. It has been especially illuminating in clarifying the extent to which international law evolved as a dialogical critique of Europe’s efforts to legitimize its colonial undertakings. In particular, TWAIL has exposed how international law has functioned to legalize the subjugation of Third World peoples, securing conditions for exploitative investment and trade relations, the coercive enforcement of public debts, and an ideology of cultural superiority. TWAIL’s exposure of these economic legacies of colonialism has influenced my understanding of the history and development of international law, broadly conceived, as an ideological project of the Western sub-system of the world...
images-2
Advocates of nuclear disarmament are regularly dismissed by the champions of nuclear deterrence as naïve and unrealistic, utopian or even irresponsible. Yet this ‘doctrine’ of deterrence, regarded by France as the ‘cornerstone’ of its national security, is based on quasi-religious beliefs, a theory that cannot be proven, risky gambles and fragile assumptions. So much so that one might legitimately ask which side the ‘Care Bears’ are on. Marc FinaudVice-President of Initiatives for Nuclear Disarmament (IDN) October 9, 2026 This article was originally published on Pressenza When it comes to these things being treated as religious concepts, look here. Idealists and realists It was Hubert Védrine, François Mitterrand’s former Foreign Minister, who repeatedly coined the phrase: ‘Europeans are a sort of Care Bears who don’t realise they’re living in Jurassic Park’. He applies this reference to the cartoon for well-behaved children not only to what he regards as weakness or idealism...
8824b09f-33a5-43f9-9fd0-550f28cda24d_1536x1024
What the West Borrowed from Asia and What It Left Behind Jan Krikke October 8, 2026 The article was originally published here In the late 1960s, the musical Hair announced that the Age of Aquarius was dawning. Its opening anthem promised a transformation of human consciousness: an era of peace, harmony and understanding. Half a century later, a familiar echo of that promise is a meditation app offered by your employer. You can find it in the same list of benefits as the pension plan and the gym discount. How did a spiritual revolution become an employee benefit? The answer lies in the history of the movement known as New Age: where it came from, what it borrowed from Asia, and why the meaning of what it borrowed changed in the process. Two definitions will help. New Age is a loose label for a wide range of spiritual practices and...
Screenshot 2026-10-04 210142
Small and different + among the 10% most active + 9,000 texts + 150 Associates + 60 000 a day — and a stubborn belief that peace is smarter and must be secured by peaceful means. In 2026, the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) turns 40. On Monday, October 5, 2026, a new TFF homepage will go live — a new gateway to more than 9,000 articles, analyses, research papers and other contributions produced over four decades of independent peace research. But this is not simply a new website. For four decades, TFF has worked from a simple conviction: peace is smarter than militarism and can be brought about by peaceful means. This is not merely an aspiration. It is the principle expressed in the UN Charter and the Gandhian tradition that has guided our work from the beginning. TFF is a research-based, independent and people-financed foundation....