Links to Facts & Views
You want to find interesting analyses, reports, articles and papers on peace and conflict issues from around the world?
Now we do the job for you. This page provides links to a selection of the best critical and constructive materials – the essential stuff we benefit from ourselves and want to share.
Just click below at what catches your interest – read, download or send on to a friend.
Nonviolence & forgiveness
• News about the World Civil Society Conference in Montreal, December 1999 Building Global Governance Partnership
Leaders of civil society organizations from around the world coming together at the turn of this century to propose changes and take action for new global governance partnerships and to create a wider support base for a stronger United Nations. Hisatory, program, documents – as they ask: Whose world is it anyway??• The concept of ahimsa – a note on nonviolence philosophy Nonviolence and the Self in Early Buddhism
In Buddhism, the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa) projects an ideal of universal peace, which can be expanded to include the notion of a peaceful mind. The logic of Buddhist doctrine in fact places the mind first…• There is a small but growing body of research in forgiveness Forgiveness and self-respect
An article by Margaret Holmgren, featured at the International Forgiveness Institute’s website
“In fact I believe that if we truly respect ourselves,we will work through a process of responding to the wrong, and this process will lead to genuine forgiveness of the offender. If we attempt to forgive the offender before we do this work, our forgiveness may well be incompatible with our self-respect.”
Disarmament & alternative defence
• Have a look at The Nation’s exciting site on The Gift of Time
The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
It contains Jonathan Schell’s thought-provoking essay.• Support the “Back from the Brink Campaign
“It is simply too dangerous to leave these weapons poised for a quick launch of massive retaliation. Political realities don’t justify this defense posture, and human error is far too likely. We demand that the leadership of the U.S. and of Russia move into the new millennium, standing down our weapons of mass destruction. We support the following petition statement: “It’s time for the U.S. and Russia to ‘de-alert,’ taking nuclear weapons off their hair trigger.”
Democracy
• Can there be democracy and freedom under globalisation? Or will we get statism and more right-wing swings?
Globalism and our march right“As Bowles pointed out, “The majority of people did not want NAFTA and GATT or the World Trade Organization, but got them, anyway. They did not want American troops sent to Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia or Kosovo, but they were sent, nevertheless.” No one is saying that making a better living is not a desirable thing. What is happening, however, is that more people are beginning to examine the cost of acquiring “better economic conditions,” and are coming to the conclusion that if it ultimately costs them their country, it’s not worth it. I agree,” says Jon E. Dougherty or the World NetDaily.
Militarization, New Cold War – and the EU militarization
• The U.S. wants Europeans to accept the Ballistic Missile Defence or “Son of Star Wars” project:
Cohen Warns Allies About Missiles
Cohen, armed with the latest U.S. intelligence, warned the NATO allies Thursday about the increasing missile threat from rogue states and outlined Washington’s plans for a defense system to combat it. Those plans, however, worry not only the Russians, but some of America’s allies as well. “I think it’s very important for the allies to understand that the threat is real,” Cohen told reporters after briefing defense ministers from the other 18 NATO nations.• EU readies for war without – and with… – the United States
Leaders meeting Friday in Helsinki are to approve a beyond- NATO military force
Time after time this century, Europe has had to turn to the United States to help fight its wars or keep its peace. This week, European leaders will commit themselves to coping on their own – at least with smaller crises – next century. At a two-day summit that opens tomorrow in Helsinki, Finland, European Union heads of state will put their names to a plan for a 50,000-man rapid-reaction force that could deal with flare-ups on their doorstep, such as this year’s Kosovo crisis.• China-US relations in mixed mood, increasing instability in the Pacific
Military aspects of US-Chinese relations
While the US and China have come to terms on international trade, the two countries are still struggling with security issues that are crucial for stability in the Pacific region. A US delegation visiting Beijing recently got a “lukewarm” reception when trying to reestablish military-to-military relations, according to a Pentagon official. And new rivalries are surfacing over high-tech weapons systems.• So, what are intelligence organisations good for – if they are?
At DIA, Excess Is in the Details
We hardly ever get much of a peek into what our $28 billion- a-year spy agencies really know. Recently though, a source provided me with a bibliography of secret intelligence reports prepared over the past few years by the Defense Intelligence Agency, DIA. See what Bill Arkin’s peep lead him to write.
Conflict-resolution – Burundi
• Good news from Burundi – and a background to the country’s problems
New peace talks mediated by Nelson Mandela
Kosovo
• OSCE releases a scatching report on ethnic violence, earlier and today Guardian on OSCE’s report from Kosovo/a
The west’s post-war failure to stop the persecution of minorities in the province comes under scrutiny. And here is the 900-page report with summaries, at OSCE’s site.• And here are some of the desparate attempts to break the cycle of violence Keeping young Albanians from avenging Serbs
While the behavior of their new charges has Western officials outraged and embarrassed, relief workers on the ground are scratching their heads, wondering what can be done to break the cycle of violence. In particular, the focus is on youths, who are blamed for most of the killings.• And here is the Report from the United Nations on Srebrenica
• NATO’s S-G keeps on trying to persuade the world about What’s going right in Kosovo
Are there limits to the propaganda, you may ask when reading it…
Globalisation & WTO
• What the political trade war – WTO/globalization – is really about. A good summary of the basic, even philosophical issues:
Trade war and capitalism
Thousands of demonstrators mobbed Seattle this week to protest the Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization. They argued that the WTO, a 135-nation club in which membership is voluntary but “free trade” rules are mandatory, threatens to dissolve human rights, labor laws, and health and environmental protections in the acid of global capitalism.• Jesse Jackson is convinced that the Seattle demonstrators have got it right:
World Trade Disorganization
Will government protect the corporations from democracy or the people from the corporations? This is the key point in an ever more pointed global, structural conflict.
Media in war and peace
• In space, on Earth, in the oceans – there is no place you cannot fight a war anymore. Now:
The Internet as war’s newest battlefieldA recent article in the Chinese Liberation Army Daily was direct in its assessment that integrating Web warfare with combat on the ground will be essential to winning future conflicts. Add to that a heightened effort by the United States to protect crucial online infrastructure and you have what one cyberwarfare expert calls the onset of a “cool war.”
Militarism versus development
If you read only one, let this be it:
• This is the reality about the rich countries ‘humanitarian’ concerns..The Reality of Aid 2000 provides the most up-to-date information on official aid, examines how that aid is spent, assesses its impact and analyses its shortcomings. An Independent Review of Poverty Reduction and Development Assistance: Focus on Basic Education Policy Implementation
“… the facts of global poverty in the year 2000 are an indictment of the global political, economic and social order. More than four households out of ten in the whole of South Asia remain in absolute poverty…The overall picture suggests that absolute poverty is likely to have risen to 1.5 billion people – one quarter of the world’s population – by the end of 1999.”
