PressInfo #159 – Lydstaten Danmark: Udenrigspolitik og forskning ved en korsvej

Danmark må som mange andre af USAs traditionelle allierede omtænke og reorientere sin udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitik væk fra afhængigheden af USA. For lande, der har haft USA som rollemodel og autoritet i sikkerhedsanliggender – og som en slags beskyttende faderfigur – er det hurtige fald af USA som ansvarlig og respekteret supermagt så chokerende, at det vil have en tendens til at blive benægtet.

George W Bush’s regime udgør en meget farlig kombination af historisk set helt overvældende magt, intellektuel fattigdom og faldende legitimitet i resten af verdens øjne. Ansvarlige magter, store såvel som små, ser forgæves til Washington for lederskab eller visioner. Men de må nok begynde at lære at stå på egne ben. 

Ved den kolde krigs afslutning opstod en mængde nye muligheder for at skabe et fredeligt forenet Europa, for at løse konflikter med et minimum af vold og for at afskaffe kernevåbnene. Med opløsningen af Sovjetunionen og Warszawapagten, som var NATOs raison d’etre, ville NATOs opløsning have været den naturlige udvikling og det ville have åbnet døre til noget helt nyt. Med denne og mange andre muligheder forspildte, er verden blevet et meget farligere sted uden ledelse.

Danmarks uudnyttede muligheder ved den kolde krigs slutning

Der udførtes ikke analyser af alternativer til NATO eller af fredelige konfliktløsninger i EU regionen. Successive danske regeringer, dominerede af socialdemokratiet, gav Danmark den rolle at gå ud i verden som en hyperaktiv interventionist og loyal mini-militarist. Danmark støttede NATOs udvidelse uden tvivl og afstod fra at forsøge at få ændret alliancens udemokratiske kernevåbenstrategi, som i øvrigt også strider mod international ret. Og landet støttede humanitære interventioner, som de eufemistisk blev betegnet.

Mens Danmark under den kolde krig var en “fodnote”-nation, som bl.a. kunne arbejde for kernevåbenfrie zoner og som havde egne synspunkter på en del områder, så så vi, at i 1990erne blev Danmarks diskret kritiske tankevirksomhed og stemme tavs. Paradoksalt nok netop da det blev meget mere muligt at komme igennem.

Bombninger, interventioner og følg den store leder

Det var et fundamentalt brud med tiårs fredspolitik – og temmelig ikke-dansk – at Danmark faktisk gik i krig for første gang siden 1945, da landets F16 fly deltog i den skændige bombning af Jugoslavien. Dette skete efter 8 – 9 år af konflikt mellem forskellige parter i det tidligere Jugoslavien, en tid hvor man helt ignorerede selvstændig konfliktanalyse i de danske kredse, der havde afgørende indflydelse på beslutninger om udenrigspolitikken. Danmark kunne have taget egne eller nordiske fredsinitiativer, fordi Danmark nød en særlig goodwill på Balkan. Det gjorde man ikke.

I stedet bakkede Danmark USA op og ringede til Bruxelles for at finde ud af, hvad sværvægterne i EUs Fælles Udenrigs- og Sikkerhedspolitik syntes at den danske holdning skulle være. Danmark fik bl.a. besked om, at have den opfattelse, at det var korrekt at foretage en forhastet og ensidig anerkendelse af Sloveniens og Kroatiens uafhængighed (selvom FNs generalsekretær og ledende internationale diplomater i Jugoslavien kraftigt advarede imod det). Hermed sikrede man, at Bosnien-Hercegovina blev dømt til uundgåelig krig.

Naturligvis ville selvstændige analyser og mæglingsforsøg også have kunnet bringe Danmark i unåde hos EU, NATO og i Washington. Danmarks loyalitet lå, synes det, snarere hos disse organisationer end hos dem, der led på Balkan. Det var en politik baseret på intellektuelt eftergivenhed på grænsen til det selvopgivende. Konsekvenserne er velkendte, men diskuteres ikke meget; der, hvor Vesten har interveneret, er der nu mere etnisk rent, end der var før, få flygtninge er vendt tilbage og der er kun “fred” under kraftig international militær kontrol. I Kosovo har det internationale samfund sat sig selv i fængsel og samarbejder dagligt med ekstremister og formodede albanske krigsforbrydere, som næppe er uden forbindelse til europæisk narkohandel og prostitution.

I kølvandet på bombningerne af Jugoslavien kom EUs militarisering. Hovedårsagen var, at USA gennem sin infiltrering (OSCE, CIA, MPRI, NATO-KLA) havde givet Europa en lektion: Europa kunne ikke på 10 år selv løse problemerne i sin egen baghave. Denne ydmygelse, sammen med de tidligere i Bosnien og Kroatien, sidder dybt i EUs udenrigspolitiske ledere, som kan lide at forestille sig EUs fremtid som en stormagt i verdenssamfundet.

EUs udenrigspolitiske administration omfatter Javier Solana, der som NATOs generalsekretær bærer det højeste civile ansvar for bombningerne i Jugoslavien. Disse bombninger var i strid med international ret. Den andel af den jugoslaviske befolkning, der uskyldigt blev dræbt var 3 gange den andel af den amerikanske befolkning, der dræbtes af terroristangrebet den 11. september. I hvert fald kan det nu forventes, at det kun er et spørgsmål om tid, før den kendte danske modstand mod at deltage i et militært EUsamarbejde forsvinder, specielt da SF og Enhedslisten også synes at have besluttet at bortkaste alle alternative ideer.

Grønland, missilforsvar og Echelon: stil ingen spørgsmål !

Danmark har også valgt at være eftergivende ved ikke overfor USA at ytre mishag ved tanken om missilforsvar. De, der har forstået grundlaget for strategisk teori, inklusive forhenværende amerikansk forsvarsminister McNamara, i hans fremragende bog, Wilson’s Ghost, ved, at der kun er en ting at sige om en så vanvittig idé – nemlig, at den øger risikoen for et nyt kernevåbenkapløb, kernevåbenoprustning og kernevåbenkrig. 

Danmark har en særlig fordelagtig position når det gælder at yde modstand mod denne politik, idet det er en kendt sag, at antimissilforsvaret bygger på anvendelsen af Thule-basen. Men man er ikke imod. Det er en lige fortsættelse af Danmarks politiske linie, idet man heller ikke modsætter sig at være værtsland for Echelon og andre elektroniske lytteposter som ellers angriber et antal moralske normer, for eksempel den om privatlivets fred. (Man må tage for givet, at dette manuskript registreres af amerikanske efterretningsorganisationer, når det sendes ud som e-mail og lægges ud på internet. Det samme gælder al fax og telefonkommunikation i praksis hver gang, du anvender dem).

Danske sikkerhedsintellektuelles roller

 En yderst god mulighed for at opnå et mere stabilt internationalt system og en varig fred i Europa blev spildt på forhastede nye eksperimenter. Meget få intellektuelle fik (eller tog) chancen for at skabe et udvalg af modeller for, hvordan det nye Europa kunne udvikles. Den gamle kold-krigs mentalitet forblev dybt nedgravet i både de udenrigsministerielle cirkler og i de akademiske. Der var endda dem, der mente at krigen og våbnene havde ændret karakter, at de var blevet helt symbolske eller ville tabe deres betydning, krig ville være et indslag i “diskursen”, men ville ikke have en reel praktisk eller militær betydning. L’art pour l’art kunne man sige – ikke alene praktisk uanvendelig men direkte legitimiserende for udviklingen af den globale seriekrig, som vi nu ser.

Genoprusternes og krigens arkitekter må have moret sig over disse intellektuelles erklæringer om krigens irrelevans i et af de mest afgørende øjeblikke i samtidshistorien.

De danske udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitisk besluttende kredse – diplomater, intellektuelle og journalister – havde reelt kun studeret amerikanske lærebøger om international politik og strategiske problemer. De havde enten studeret i USA eller havde været på delegations- eller studierejser til NATOs hovedkvarterer eller til nogen af de andre magtcentre, som ikke alene kontrollerer våben og politik, men også – formentlig for de fleste – har angivet de rette vinkler og dannet de politisk korrekte opfattelser i lydstaterne. Der var ret langt mellem de få uafhængige hjerner og frie stemmer.

En anden gruppe indenfor den nu herskende sikkerhedspolitiske elite voksede ud af det “oprør”, der var fra antikernevåben- grønne og pacifistiske grupper i 1970erne og 1980erne. Med den kolde krigs slutning svingede de, som f.eks. den nuværende tyske udenrigsminister Fischer 180 grader og støttede den nye udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitiske filosofi. De så krig som utænkelig, symbolsk eller som diskurs og derfor, som de så det, som en mulighed for at på én gang spille realpolitikere og humanister. Humanitær intervention blev en smuk mulighed for at bevare lidt idealisme og alligevel gøre en karriere i forhold til det udenrigspolitiske establishment. Dette projekt er nu kuldsejlet med den vestlige elites egen balkanisering og dens nye kolde krig mod terroren, som har erstattet den gamle mod kommunismen. Det er ikke nødvendigt at sige, at kun få af disse intellektuelle nogensinde overvejede at tage til krigszonerne og selv finde ud af forholdene og danne sig deres egne meninger. Føjelige stater ved, hvordan de skal dyrke og belønne føjelige forskere.

Separationsangst ved korsvejen

 Kløften over Atlanten gror dag for dag. Folkelige protester og fredsbevægelser mobiliserer, selvom de stadig er som David mod propagandaens Goliath (det sker, selvom man ikke ser det afspejlet i sin daglige avis). Den amerikanske enegang har ikke kun ydmyget EU men også NATO, en alliance i dyb identitetskrise. Faderfiguren antager væmmelige former.

 Hvis Bush-regimet skubber USA videre til højre, mod potentiel fascisme, mod isolationisme, kernevåbenbrug, interventionisme og krig, så bliver det før eller senere på denne glidebane politisk og etisk umuligt for lande som Danmark at følge USAs linie med samme lydighed. Der bliver stort behov for uafhængige analyser, der tager andre perspektiver i betragtning end de amerikansk-vestlige og som respekterer andre kulturer og religioner i den sikkerheds- og udenrigspolitiske forskning.

 Den danske ministerielle stab og eksperter er dårligt forberedte for denne hurtige globale forandring. De har aldrig samlet viden om eller følelse for ikke-vestlige dimensioner af udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitikken. De har ikke udforsket andre synsvinkler på globale problemer eller på deres eget lands rolle som den ses af dem, der lever i andre verdensdele. I fortiden var der grundlæggende én politisk korrekt forklaring – den der tjente status quo og Vestlige interesser. USA var Europas beskytter, som man bestemt ikke skulle provokere.

 Efter 1989 var USA også eneste supermagt. Det var en bekvem mulighed at hvis du som politiker eller intellektuel kunne gentage mesterens lektion korrekt og med akademisk vægt, så blev du belønnet, kom indenfor og vandt status og stipendier.

 Alt dette havde en pris selvfølgelig: Man måtte sige nej til den frie tanke og intellektualismen selv og der skete en sammensmeltning mellem intellektualismen/ekspertisen og statsmagten. Det hele tjente samme gamle paradigme, den gamle legitimitet og den gamle status quo. Der var kun et problem: hvad hvis verden derude pludselig ændrer sig ? Og det var netop det, der skete.

(fortsættes)

© TFF 2002

Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer

Related Posts

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...
Jan Oberg May 15, 2026 Go to this Fox News page and scroll the whole way down: President Donald Trump tells the world that his meeting with President Xi Jinping yielded a lot of very concrete political and economic results – of course, only where the Chinese side, according to him, agreed with him. He does not mention the Taiwan issue, but Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says that it did not feature prominently in their talks and that the US policy on Taiwan has not changed. Then go to China Daily – or Global Times – and you will see that for the Chinese it is framework, principles, structure of cooperation etc. that matters – all embedded in the overall idea of “constructive bilateral relationship of strategic stability.” Nowhere is any concrete agreement or deal – all that Trump refers to – mentioned. At the general level, this gives you insights into the very different social...

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....