PressInfo #150 – Hvad, hvis …Så er freden måske mulig

fortsættelse af PressInfo 148 og 149.

Militarisering overfor demilitarisering.

Våben og ammunition er strømmet ind i Mellemøstkonflikten i årtier. De, der tjener på våbeneksporten, har undskyldt sig med, at det bidrog til en eller anden slags balance og til “sikkerhed” og “stabilitet”.

Hvad, hvis vi endelig brugte Mellemøsttragedien til at stoppe denne form for (selv)bedrag.

Hvad, hvis en stor fredsbevarende mission var fløjet ind for længe siden og på en kontant måde havde afvæbnet alle sider og dannet et sikkerhedssystem sammen med dem og havde skabt en Fredszone.

Hvad, hvis vi endelig begyndte at se på våben og andre voldelige midler som det store problem (sammen med de konflikter, der har dybe rødder, selvfølgelig) ? Vist bliver man fortvivlet, når man ser folk bruge våben og slå hinanden ihjel. Men hvad, hvis vi også fordømte de private og statslige interesser, der tjener på at udvikle, producere og eksportere disse våben ?

Hvad, hvis vi fordømte de våbeneksporterende lande og selskaber som hyklerisk siger: “åh, det er ikke meningen, at I skal bruge de våben, I har betalt os så godt for ! I må stoppe volden før vi vil handle med jer !”

Hvad, hvis medierne rejste spørgsmål som: Har USA og andre lande ret til at give Israel våben og fortælle dem, at de ikke må bruge dem ? Er USA troværdig, når det samtidig taler mod militær udfoldelse og er historiens største producent og forbruger af våben og har en historisk rekord i antallet af krige, interventioner, besættelser, hemmelige aktioner og andre militært understøttede politiske handlinger ?

Kan USA troværdigt bede Israel om ikke at bekæmpe, hvad Israel kalder terror, når de har lært tricket og retorikken fra USA selv siden 11. september?

Har USA nogen moralsk ret til at fordømme palæstinensisk terrorisme, når USA selv bygger en betragtelig del af sin globale politik på udøvelsen af statsterrorisme ?

Hvad, hvis … så måske

Hvad, hvis vi begyndte at se lokale konflikter som en næsten uundgåelig konsekvens af den kortsigtede og brutale politik, som det internationale samfund har ført i fortiden, i dette tilfælde siden 1948 ?

Hvad, hvis vi vovede at drage den konklusion, at vold, hvad enten den begås af George W Bush, bin Laden, Sharon eller palæstinenserne gror ud af den ene sides magtarrogance og den anden sides desperation og magtesløshed ?

Hvad, hvis borgere begyndte at forlange en lige anvendelse af visse principper ? Hvis man sammenligner, hvad Slobodan Milosevic antages at være ansvarlig for i Kosovo op til anklagen mod ham i 1999 med, hvad Ariel Sharon formodentlig er ansvarlig for i de sidste godt 20 år, er det ikke selvklart hvorfor den første sidder i Haag og den anden kaldes en “fredens mand” af den mest magtfulde leder (i militær, ikke i intellektuel eller moralsk betydning) i vesten.

Hvad, hvis vi vovede at sige højt, at brugen af vold altid er et moralsk og intellektuelt nederlag ? At det hverken er heroisme eller statsmanskab, men disses modsætning ? For dem, der ikke ved noget om konflikt, mægling og fred, er volden en løsning. De millioner, som ved at vold ikke er en løsning, er de almindelig uskyldige og fredselskende borgere, som betaler prisen på Balkan, på Afrikas Horn, i Afghanistan, Mellemøsten og alle andre steder.

Hvis man i det mindste diskuterede og forskede mere i nogen af disse problemer blev der måske mindre vold rundt om. Vi slap måske for militær besættelse med tanks og bulldozere, ingen stats- eller smågruppeterror og ingen selvmordsbombere. For en professionel konfliktekspert, for en fredsarbejder er disse spørgsmål helt naturlige at stille og at udforske.

Min ydmyge konklusion er, at så længe der er så megen konflikt “analfabetisme”, så lidt intellektuelt interesse og professionel viden blandt magteliterne, så vil der være vold.

Når vi ønsker at reducere volden i trafikken, forlanger vi, at folk læser teoribøger og studerer trafikregler, øver sig bag rattet og så aflægger en prøve, kun da, kan de få kørekort. Vi bygger også sikrere veje og biler. Sådan er det ikke i den internationale politiske trafik ! Her kører folk hurtigt uden grundlæggende regler, uden praktisk erfaring eller kørekort vedrørende konflikter; og de største og hurtigste køretøjer bestemmer…

Det er klart, at de gamle intellektuelle kort er forældede, at de gamle veje er blokerede. Tragedien i Mellemøsten handler ikke kun om Mellemøsten. Den handler om rå magtpolitik forklædt som “freds”skabelse, konfliktkontrol, “sikkerhed”. Det sker i kølvandet på konfliktfejlhåndteringen på Balkan, i Somalia, Afghanistan og mange andre konfliktområder, hvor udtalte ædle motiver konstant er blevet trampet på af interesser som olie, afprøvning af våben, diamanter, grådighed, økonomisk vinding, almindelig demonstration af mandemagt, skabelsen af militære baser, privatisering og NATO udvidelse. I ingen af disse frygtelige kriser prøvede regeringerne altruistisk at hjælpe de lokale stridende parter til at leve fredeligt sammen.

Mellemøsten skal blive det sidste bevis på freds-skabelses bedraget fra det såkaldte internationale samfund og i særdeleshed USA. Siden 1989 har vi kun set foragt for international lov og menneskerettigheder. Vi har set, hvordan den potentielt mest relevante og internationalt mest demokratiske organisation nogensinde, FN, er blevet sat ud på en sidelinie og undertrykt af USA, især.

Hvis en leder på højt niveau har mod til at se og sige noget i retning af dette, kunne der åbnes nye veje til global fred, hvilket ville være en smule mere værdigt for de vestlige ledere, som påstår, at de er uddannede og civiliserede.

© TFF 2002

PhD, Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer, Professor Emeritus and media commentator

Related Posts

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...
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....
The agreement is catastrophic both because of what it says and what it doesn’t mention. It reduces further the major asset of security policies: Freedom of action. Jan Oberg TFF director September 25, 2026 A couple of hours before the agreement was signed on September 22, 2026, I published the following 13 hypotheses about what it would most likely contain on TFF Substack (in English). I was wrong on only the first point. Contrary to what Trump had written on his Truth Social platform, it does not appear to come into force immediately. In fact, it turned out to be worse than even I had anticipated. After these hypotheses now come a number of reflections in light of what the agreement actually contains, and does not contain, as well as the way in which it has generally been presented by major media outlets and by the public-service broadcaster DR. My...

Recent Articles

Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....

TFF on Substack

Discover and subscribe to more peace materials on TFF Substack

Most Popular

Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....
Read More
knotted gun
Photo above: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s Non-Violence outside UN Headquarters in New York. Kirill Levin, CC BY-NC-SA 2. Jan Oberg November 3, 2026 I am happy to be published in Horizons which is produced by the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, CIRSD, in Belgrade. My contribution brings out a radical re-thinking of what concepts such as defence, security, deterrence – and peace – may mean if we want to create a more peaceful world. It also summarises a few things I have been working with the last few decades. Please read it here Og her er den på dansk, takket være Johnny Baltzersens lynhurtige oversættelse
TFFPortfolioVign
UNITE-tillid, DREAM-velstand og andre konstruktive komponenter Normally we publish articles in English here. But this is a translation of a very important TFF document that should reach as many as possible in Denmark since this country’s government has been one of the most hardline in Europe and, up till now at least, has refused to use diplomacy and, instead, spent tremendous sums on arming Ukraine with the express goal of defeating Russia. Thus this – unique – article is in Danish. Vi er Johnny Baltzersen og hans Fælles Sikkerhed – Fælles Fremtid på Substack overmåde taknemmelige for at have oversat og publiceret TFF’s 2025-portfølje for fredsidéer med henblik på Ukraines fremtid. Vi håber den nu kan nå mange flere danskere – som også vil sprede den og skabe debat – nu den danske regerings og folketingspartiernes politik på dette område siden 2022 står nu – forudsigeligt – ved vejs ende....
JoGSS-Silent
Jan Oberg TFF director October 28, 2026 Exactly one month has now passed since I published my criticism of the introduction to the special issue on Johan Galtung published by the Journal of Global Security Studies, JoGSS, and of Tor Egil Førland’s chapter about Galtung which serves as a preview to his forthcoming biography of Galtung to be published by PRIO. See the original on The Transnational here and the same article on TFF Substack with many general and critical comments and, in particular, the people who decided to withdraw from the biography project in protest. The special issue itself was extraordinary. It was devoted to the intellectual legacy of one of the founders of peace research and contained a number of strong assessments of his personality, scholarship, intellectual trajectory, and public role. Such assessments are, of course, entirely legitimate. No scholar is beyond criticism, and neither was Johan Galtung....
Screenshot 2026-10-26 115647
An aspect of Iran’s culture and civilisation you’ve probably never heard about. Don’t be surprised if the US and Israel also try to bomb them. Jan ObergTFF director October 26, 2026 Today – under the “USraeli” threat of new “annihilating” bombings – opens the 7th International Conference on Peace and Conflict Resolution at Tehran’s University. As far as I can tell, this is the only permanent, advanced peace research institution in West Asia/the Middle East. Perhaps more countries in that region could be inspired? I mean, how many military “security” institutes and military academies do they have? Many peace research institutes and university departments have been established since the 1950s in the West. They are now all under attack; some have closed down, some have gone mainstream, yet others kept the name but do nothing to research peace and disseminate results or advice; instead, they cooperate with militarism’s platforms such...
Screenshot 2026-10-15 141837
Let’s discuss using AI to create peace – in contrast to boring geopolitics devoid of creative healing and visions. Jan Oberg TFF director October 15, 2026 I asked VEED to create a short video exemplifying how peace is preferable to war, then chose the lady as a template. Simple as that. In less than a minute, it produced this video, which any peace-loving person would appreciate. The only problem is that human intelligence (HI), at least the one that exists among Western decision-makers, isn’t half as moral or smart as AI. I have used AI to dialogue about peace and peace plans, creative conflict resolution and visions of a better future for humankind. It so happens that I am having more stimulating, intelligent, creative and moral discussions with AI than I could possibly have with any EU or NATO leader today. Yes, AI has very problematic and dangerous aspects; used...
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...