Features

2009

Medvedev's proposals for a new European security system
How much attention did these excellent ideas of October last year get in Western press?

Tom Hayden, The Nation, May 26, 2009
The silence of MoveOn
The most powerful grassroots organization of the peace movement, MoveOn, remains silent as the American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan simmer or escalate.

John Pilger, May 18, 2009
Distant voices, desparate lives
About Sri Lanka and the international response to the slaughter.

Al Burke, May 14, 2009
Open Letter to the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI):
The Institute and USA/NATO
An analysis of the consistent pro-NATO/US bias of the institute that prevents it from being independent and fulfil its obligations to the public. The response by director Tomas Ries is an intellectually poor denial of the obvious.

Centre d'Estudis per la Pau JM. Delàs
Barcelona, May 13, 2009
Alliance of Barbarities. Afghanistan 2001-2008. 10 Reasons to question (and rethink) foreign involvement.
If you are looking for one report that offers all the documented facts, this is it!

Jonathan Schell on The Real News Network, May 10, 2009
Obama's world without nuclear weapons
Schell: It is yet unclear whether Obama's commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons is real
Part 2: Obama must take concrete steps

Stephen Zunes, PFIP, April 6, 2009
The war on Yugoslavia 10 years later

Stephen Zunes, PFIP, March 25, 2009
The U.S. budget's foreign policy handcuffs
Hopes that a Democratic administration might lead to a more ethical, rational, and progressive foreign policy are challenged - read all the provisions on the Middle East!

Mordechai Vanunu, March 18, 2009
No thanks to be nomnated for Nobel's Peace Prize
'I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Shimon Peres'

Berghof Stiftung
Handbook for Conflict Transformation
Particularly # 7: Peacebuilding at a Crossroads, built arund Simon Fisher's and Lada Zimina's pathbreaking 2008 article.

GlobalResearch.ca - January 1, 2009
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia
Open Letter to Barack Hussein Obama

2008

Frederik Dessau, Politiken, 31.12.2008
Fare, fare krigsmand
Hvorfor kalde det krig, når der kun er tale om fredelige aktioner, som bliver gennemført med vold og magt?

World Public Opinion.org, December 12, 2008
Publics around the word favour international agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons

Philip S. Golub, Le Monde Diplomatique, November 2008
The centre won’t hold any more
The West dominated world trade and power for two centuries, disrupting the pre-1800 more balanced international distribution of wealth and power. Now, the global balance is shifting to the East, and to primary producers of commodities worldwide.

Global Issues
Today, over 26,500 children died around the world
One of the best collections of knowledge and insights on the global economic crisis

Peace and Collaborative Development Network, November 24, 2008
New Joint Experts' Statement on Iran
Suggestions for US policy/relations and for the President Elect.
Excellent, comprehensive and clearly do-able. Circulate it, please!

Foreign Policy in Focus, FPIF, November 7, 2009
Obama's top three foreign policy priorities
A series of short statements by senior analysts

Chalmers Johnson, The Real News, October 6, 2008
Three conversations about the Military-Industrial Complex:
The famous historian with the Blowback trilogy speaks about The encirclement of Russia - The Last Days of the US Republic - Massive US budget just passed.

WorldPublicOpinon.org, September 11, 2008
International doubts about 9/11 perpetrators

Mother Jones - Interactive map
U.S. Military presence Worldwide

EU Observer, August 30, 2008
The EU faces Georgian and Russian propaganda on who started the war

Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch, August 18, 2008
'America's outrageous war economy!'
Pentagon can't find $2.3 trillion, wasting trillions on 'national defense'

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, August 14, 2008
U.S. role in Georgia

Michael Klare, FPIP, August 13, 2008
Russia and Georgia: All about oil

Global Research, August 11, 2008
Georgian Peace Committee denounces Georgia's aggression

Simon Fisher & Lada Zimina
Open Letter to Peace-Builders:
Are we wasting our time?
A vitall important discussion has been started here by two extremely experienced and thoughtful personalities in our community!
A MUST READ !

Mikhail Gorbachev, Pravda, May 8, 2008
'Every American president must wage war'
“After the Cold War the USA promised that NATO would not go beyond Germany, but for the time being a half of countries of Central and Eastern Europe has joined the alliance. So much for their promises. That proves that we can not trust them,” the former Soviet leader said.

Fatuma Ali, 24. april 2008
Traumer i relation til Grønland

Niels Harrit, March 16, 2008
9/11 - A roadblock or shortcut to peace and democracy?

Global Issues, March 4, 2008
World military expenditures

Elizabeth Heathcote, The Independent, March 2, 2008
Maverick academic Philip Zimbardo says we are all able to do evil. Is he right?

UNIFEM - February 13, 2008
Say NO to Violence Against Women
Sign on and by that you have donated 1 US dollar to the struggle against the most widespread type of violence...

Chalmers Johnson, Le Monde Diplomatique, February 4, 2008
Why the US has really gone broke

Stephen Zunes, FPIF, February 4, 2008
Behind Obama and Clinton
Given the power the United States has in the world, even minimal differences in policies can have a major difference in the lives of millions of people.

The Middle Powers Initiative, January 2008
Visible Intent. NATO's Responsibility to Nuclear Disarmament

Ian Traynor, The Guardian, January 22, 2008
Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, NATO told
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Scientists for Global Responsibility, SGR
Expanding military influence over science and technology is marginalising social and environmental programmes, says science group
For instance, 2004, governments in industrialised countries spent a total of $85 billion on military R&D, but only $50 billion on R&D for health and environmental protection, and less than $1 billion on R&D for renewable energy technologies essential for tackling climate change.

PIPA, Program on International Policy Attitudes, January 9, 2008
American and Russian publics strongly support steps to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons
Large majorities of Americans and Russians favor taking nuclear weapons off high alert, sharply cutting the numbers of nuclear weapons, banning the production of weapons-grade nuclear material, and—once advanced methods of international verification are established—undertaking the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

2007

David Ray Griffin, November 1, 2007
The American Empire and 9/11
A "must-read" on the enigma of that day blown up to be historic for the wrong reasons...

Journal of 9/11 Studies, November 1, 2007
50 letters and 40 articles
The Journal of 9/11 Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access, electronic-only journal covering the whole of research related to 9/11/2001. All content is freely available online.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice - November 1, 2007
Welcome!
This is the new home for a restructured scholars group that welcomes scholars and all perso s interested in exposing the truths of the 9/11/ 1 attack. Care is being taken to present the stronges , most credible research available.

Envar Masud & CNN Video, Wisdom Fund, Oct 31-Nov 1, 2007
What really happened at Pentagon on 9/11?

And then there is the 911 Truth.org too.

Eunice Wong, TruthOut - November 1, 2007
The great forgetting
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, located on the Mall in Washington, D.C., is a monument to historical amnesia. The blond limestone building, surrounded by indigenous crops of corn, tobacco and squash, invites visitors on a guilt-free, theme park tour of Native American history, where acknowledgment of the American genocide is in extremely bad taste.

Leonard Doyle, The Independent, October 31, 2007
Weapons industry dumps republicans, backs Hillary
The U.S. arms industry has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party and is putting their money on Hillary Clinton.

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, October, 2007
What views does each US Presidential candidate have about nuclear weapons?
A systematic collection of statements by them over time

Laura Smith, The Guardian, October 25, 2007
I spend my days preparing for life, not for death
The former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent 25 years on death row in the United States - despite strong evidence that he is innocent. In his first British interview, he talks to Laura Smith about life in solitary, how he has remained politically active, and why the Panthers are still relevant today.

James Kanter, IHT, October 25, 2007
UN issues 'final wake-up call' on population and environment
The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage on the environment that could pass points of no return...

Alex Sehmer, Aljazeera, October 12, 2007
Questioning Al Gore's 'peace' prize

M K Bhadrakumar, AsiaTimes, October 6, 2007
India holds key in NATO's world view
What is really happening between the US, NATO, India, Russia, China, Australia and Japan?
A fascinating strategic overview of what seems to be emerging: NATO Asia. No wonder it has been out of the limelight and inofficial for so long - including the missile shield.

Robert Marquand, Christian Science Monitor, Oct 4, 2007
Russia flexes new muscle in Europe
Its resurgence means confronting the US and the EU on key issues, including Kosovo's independence.

Chris Hedges, TruthDig, Oct. 1, 2007
Israel's toy soldiers
If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist “madrassa,” or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace. The Marva program, part summer camp part indoctrination, was launched in Israel in 1981.

Project on Defense Alternatives, PDA, September 2007
Neoliberal and neoconservative security policy
A very useful, comprehensive link collection of the writings of its main advocates...

Zeki Ergas, Media for Freedom, September 17, 2007
The American conundrum
Why is America part of the problem, and not of the solution?What can be done about it?I try to answer the first question in the three sections below: The American Idea, The Two American Stories, and The Three Global Scenarios.

Roy J. Eidelson, Eidelson Consulting
The Drums of War
Education on how the psychology of war works - very pedagogic. How do they get away with persuading us?

Daniel Ellsberg, ConsortiumNews.com, September 26, 2007
"A coup has occurred"
I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister - Voltairenet
Containing Russia: Back to the Future?
In this article, drafted specially for Foreign Affairs magazine but later rejected by its editorial board, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov calls on United Staters to renounce the Cold War renewal and suggests finding new regulation mechanisms within a USA-Russia-EU tripolar world. Here is the full, uncensored paper. ?

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, GlobalResearch.ca, September 23, 2007
The Sino-Russian Alliance: Challenging America's ambitions in Eurasia
On July 24, 2001, less than two months before September 11, 2001, China and Russia signed the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation. The latter is a softly worded mutual defence pact against the U.S., NATO, and the U.S. sponsored Asian military network which was surrounding China.

Joby Warrick & Walter Pincus, Washington Post, September 23, 2007
Missteps in the bunker
On Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They hauled them to a waiting B-52 bomber. The officer did not notice that the six on the left contained nuclear warheads, each with the destructive power of up to 10 Hiroshima bombs...then it flew across the US. It's the type of thing that "could never happen..."

Raul Zibechi, CIP, September 20, 2007
The inevitable decline of the American Empire
Fascinating interview with Immanuel Wallerstein.

Donald Greenlees, IHT, September 19, 2007
China and India leading Asian missile buildup
The growth in the sophistication and number of strategic missiles across the region in recent years, the analysts said, is underscoring the impotence of global missile nonproliferation initiatives and heightening the risk of missile and nuclear force competition between major powers.

Thomas E. Woods Jr., LewRockwell.com, September 12, 2007
What the warfare state really costs
Trillions of dollars for the Iraq war...The public is inclined to think of the costs of the military establishment in terms of the annual defense budget. The true costs, however, are much greater, although usually hidden.

World Federalist Movement
Reform the UN.org

Paul Craig Robert, ICH, September 10, 2007
American economy: R.I.P.
The US economy continues its slow death before our eyes, but economists, policymakers, and most of the public are blind to the tottering fabled land of opportunity. Hubris prevents realization that Americans are losing their economic future along with their civil liberties and are on the verge of enserfment.

Robert Fisk, The Independent, Aug. 25, 2007
Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

Christian Science Monitor, July 19, 2007
In Africa, an island of democracy asks: Where is U.S. help?
Somaliland, a breakaway republic of Somalia, considers itself a model for the region.

Vladimir Frolov, Global Research, July 17, 2007
The coming conflict in the Arctic
Russia and the U.S. to square off over Arctic eneergy reserves

Michael Shank, FPIF, July 2, 2007
Meeks on Global Peace Index
Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is a member of the House financial and foreign affairs committees. Recently he published an op-ed in The Hill on the low U.S. ranking in the Global Peace Index. FPIF contributor Michael Shank interviews him on the reasons for America's poor showing.

John Pilger, VideoGoogle.com
Freedom Next Time
Pilger talks about his book with that title.

The Fund for Peace, June 29, 2007
The Failed States Index scores
We encourage others to utilize the Failed States Index to develop ideas for promoting greater stability worldwide. We hope the Index will spur conversations, encourage debate, and most of all help guide strategies for sustainable security. The twelve indicators.

Meg Bortin, IHT, June 28, 2007
Global poll shows wide distrust of the United States
Distrust of the United States has intensified across the world, but overall views of America remain very or somewhat favorable among majorities in 25 of 47 countries surveyed in a major international opinion poll, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.

Ian Williams, FPIF, June 27. 2007
Ban ki Whom?
It’s not impossible that faced with the continued arrogance of Washington and Israel, Ban Ki Moon will soon realize that there are limits to cooperation if he, his office, and the UN are to maintain any integrity. If he sticks to UN decisions, then he will soon discover that the race in Washington is not always to the nice. It will be his call.

National Security Archive, June 26, 2007
The CIA family jewels
The full "family jewels" report (702 pages) , released today by the Central Intelligence Agency and detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds, is now available on the Archive's Web site. Here is how the New York Times reports it. And here the Washington Post.

Reuters, June 22, 2007
CIA to release details on decades of secrets - next week
The so-called "Family Jewels" document overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s

Michael J. Jordan, Christian Science Monitor, June 22, 2007
Nuclear watchdog, IAEA, short of cash
It complains that US and other nations are not contributing as promised.

Aleksa Djilas, June 22, 2007
On novelty and oblivion: What we can learn from dissidents under Communism
Dissidents as truth-tellers and their fundamental role in bringing the Soviet Union down. And what should be the role of the West today?

Lars Ingelstam, Aftonbladet, 21:e juni 2007
"Kämpa för att få bort BOMBEN"
"Sverige måste återta sin aktiva roll i nedrustningsarbetet". Ingelstam uppställer ett sex-punkts-program för en politik på området - vilket Sverige inte längre tycks ha.

Mike Whitney, ICH, June 21, 2007
Putin's war-whoop: The impending clash with Russia
"What is a uni-polar world"?

Steve Fake and Kevin Funk, FPIF, June 20, 2007
Saving Dafur or salvation delusion?
It is within a framework of contradictory posturing and less than humanitarian U.S. geopolitical motives that the activist movement addressing Darfur operates. Spearheaded by the “Save Darfur Coalition,” a collection of high-profile human rights and civil society groups, much activism has been dedicated to prodding Washington into action, generally through supporting the deployment of UN “peacekeeping forces”; some commentators have called directly for “humanitarian intervention” in Darfur. Yet given the strategic and hegemonic interests at stake for the United States in Sudan, salient questions arise about how activists can circumvent Washington’s machinations and pursue a truly humanitarian agenda.

FPIF, June 19, 2007
Just security: Executive summary
Current U.S. foreign policy is unjust and breeds insecurity for all. In seeking an alternative, we should not revive the failed policies of the past. Instead, we should chart a new relationship between the United States and the world. With its emphasis on fighting wars, the Bush administration has insisted on focusing just on security. We must focus instead on a just security, because there can be no real security without justice. Results in a new program for US foreign policy.

Arundhati Roy, ICH, June 15, 2007
Public power in the Age of Empire
You could say that terrorism is the privatisation of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war. They are people who don't believe that the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Human society is journeying to a terrible place. Of course, there is an alternative to terrorism. It's called justice. From 2004, re-published and still as insightful and fresh as then)

Tom Shanker, IHT, June 14, 2007
Gates wins NATO backing on U.S. missile shield
The significant step forward for the American effort came in somewhat coded language typical of the Atlantic alliance.

Democracy Now, June 5 - 13, 2007
Interview with John Perkins
John Perkins told the story of his work as a highly paid consultant hired to strong-arm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S. government and corporations -- what he calls the “corporatocracy.” John Perkins has just come out with a new book. Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption"

Reuters, June 11, 2007
Global military spending hits 1,2 trillion dollars!
SIPRI's annual figures and analyses launched.
Then look at the next item...

GlobalIssues, June 11, 2007
7–30,000 children die every day
That is equivalent to: 1 child dying every 3 seconds, 20 children dying every minute. A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every week, n Iraq-scale death toll every 15–35 days, 10–11 million children dying every year. Over 50 million children dying between 2000 and 2005
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.

Stephen Kinzer, ICH, June 2007
Overthrow, America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
The recent of Saddam Hussein may have turned "regime change" into a contemporary buzzword, but it's been a tactic of American foreign policy for more than 110 years. Beginning with the ouster of Hawaii's monarchy in 1893, Kinzer runs through the foreign governments the U.S. has had a hand in toppling

GlobalIssues, June 11, 2007
The G8 Summit of 2007
They spent US$ 135 mill...but did they live up to minimum expectations, asks GlobalIssues' eminent editor, Anup Shah - as usual an incredibel amount of useful links.

GlobalIssues, June 11, 2007
Articles on the "War on Terror"
Yet another fine selection of artiles about one of the most tragic aspects of our modern global lives...

Patrick Lang, The Christian Science Monitor, June 11, 2007
Show Russia more respect
Iran won't be a threat to Europe for a long time, so there's no need for antimissile defense on Russia's doorstep.

Nicole Olsen, OneWorld US, June 10. 2007
First-ever 'Peacefulness' ranking launched; US scores low
The first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness and identify the drivers that create and sustain peace was released here last week. Norway took the crown for most peaceful nation.

Vision of Humnanity, June 10, 2007
The Global Peace Index - and its homepage.

ICH, June 9, 2007
Russian President Putin’s Interview with G8 Newspaper Journalists
"One of the major difficulties today is that certain members of the international community are absolutely convinced that their opinion is the correct one. And of course this is hardly conducive to creating the trusting atmosphere that I believe is crucial for finding more than simply mutually acceptable solutions, for finding optimal solutions."

Stephen Lendman, GlobalResearc.ca, June 6, 2007
Global resource wars - can we survive them?

Chalmers Johnson, ICH, May 17, 2007
Evil Empire. Is imperial liquidation possible for America?
Today it is the U.S. that is widely perceived as an evil empire and world forces are gathering to stop us. The Bush administration insists that if we leave Iraq our enemies will "win" or"follow us home." I believe that, if we leave Iraq and our other imperial enclaves, we can regain the moral high ground. I also believe that unless we follow this path, we will lose our democracy and then it will not matter much what else we lose. In the immortal words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Forlaget Vandkunsten, 7. maj 2007
Johannes Breve
Mod, nysgerrighed og vilje til at gøre en indsats der hvor det synes allermest nødvendigt har bragt Johanne Djurhuus til Mellemøsten i flere omgange.
"Det er en på alle måder spændende og letlæst bog om livet i konfliktzoner, som jeg anbefaler på det varmeste. Johanne er en formidabel iagttager af mennesker og de mer eller mindre produktive organisationer, de skaber", siger Jan Øberg, TFF.

William D. Hartung, TomPaine, May 2, 2007
Again with the missile defence?
As Sen. Jess Trussme (a mythical political leader played by comedian Ira Shorr) is wont to say, the beauty of missile defense is that it is "a weapon that doesn't work for a threat that doesn't exist." This is doubly true for the Bush administration's plan to put missile interceptors in Poland and anti-missile radars in the Czech Republic.

Adam W. Parsons, Share the World's Resources, April 24, 2007
The end of economic growth
The only certainty is that a paradigm shift in thinking is required if our obsession with outmoded orthodox economics is ever to be overcome, if our “failure to make what is important measurable rather than making what is measurable important” is ever to be understood, and if the truly panacean solution of the principle of sharing is ever to govern economic affairs.  The only question then remaining is how far we continue on a path towards disaster before the wake up call is heard.
We strongly recommend STWR's homepage.

Majid Tehranian's book, April 10, 2007
Rethinking Civilization: Resolving Conflict in the Human Family
This new book explores the uneven pace of development of human societies, particularly in the last two centuries, and argues that this is leading to a global civil war. Taking a long-term historical perspective, and developing a model that explains how empires, resistance, and civilizations have evolved alongside major technological breakthroughs in history, Tehranian offers a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary analysis of the phenomenon.

Ann Jordan' book, April 3, 2007
Hidden Voices. Working Creatively with Conflict
A Collection of Personal Stories
- of powerful individual human endeavours. It's contains oral stories of the everyday peace people who are completely ignored by our media - sometimes working in war-zones. They are the carriers of the emerging culture of peace. Ann Jordan is a freelance writer, educator and trainer based in the UK. We recommend this sympathetic book which brings hope to its readers.

Prospect Magazine, March 2007
The Big Question
We asked 100 writers and thinkers to answer the following question: Left and right defined the 20th century. What's next? The pessimism of their responses is striking: almost nobody expects the world to get better in the coming decades, and many think it will get worse.
The Danish daily Information has the story here.

Paul Craig Roberts, ICH, March 1, 2007
Americans have lost their country
We are witnessing the triumph of a dozen evil men over American democracy and a free press.

David Ray Griffin, ICH, February 27, 2007
Neocon imperialism, 9/11, and the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq
A well-researched article on US imperialism with a perspective and a theoretical underpinning by the author of "A New Pearl Harbour". Griffin simply puts it all together..with solid documentation, says Jan Oberg.

Lennart Palm, Svenska Dagbladet, 23 februari 2007
Censurera inte historisk forskning!
Kontentan av ett förslag till EU-lagstiftning blir att den historiska sanningen hädanefter ska slås fast av politiker och domstolar. Regeringen bör med kraft bekämpa detta censurförslag, skriver Lennart Palm, professor i historia vid Göteborgs universitet.

Sverker Åström, Aftonbladet, 21 feberuari 2007
Inget at vara stolt över
Åström lyssnar på Bildt – och tappar hoppet om svensk utrikespolitik.

F. William Engdahl, GlobalResearch, February 20, 2007
Putin and the Geopolitics of the New Cold War: Or, what happens when Cowboys don’t shoot straight like they used to…

Chalmers Johnson, AlterNet, February 19, 2007
737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.
Excerpted from Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books).

Steven Lee Myers, IHT, February 16, 2007
Russian-U.S. ties hit new low

Evgueni Primakov, VoltaireNet, February 12, 2007
The second stage of the Russian recovery has started
An interesting account by the former KGBcheif and foreign minister if Russia's remarkable trends toward recovery.

Bruce Stokes, IHT, February 9, 2007
More skirmishes do not run a war
In theory, the United States could run a trade deficit with China and compensate by running surpluses with other countries. But, in reality, America ran a $900 billion deficit with the world in 2006, equivalent to 7 percent of its economy and a quarter of that was with China alone. No major economy has run a deficit of this magnitude for so long without a currency crisis.

Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, February 6, 2007
The US and Israel - The Real Failed States

Physicists' letter to US Congress, February 6, 2007
No nucler strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states
"We write to urge you to pass binding legislation to restrict the authority of the President to order nuclear strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states," write Nobel Laureates and others.

Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch, February 1, 2007
The Nemesis is at our door
History tells us that one of the most unstable political combinations is a country -- like the United States today -- that tries to be a domestic democracy and a foreign imperialist. So my own hope is that -- if the American people do not find a way to choose democracy over empire -- at least our imperial venture will end not with a nuclear bang but a financial whimper.

Chalmers Johnson, ICH & Harper's, February 1, 2007
The National Intelligence Estimate on the United States
On Military Keynesianism, The Unitary Presidency, Failed Checks on Executive Ambition, Bankruptcy and Collapse.The CIA is prohibited from writing an NIE on the United States, and so I have here attempted to do so myself, using the standard format for such estimates. I have some personal knowledge of NIEs because from 1967 to 1973 I served as an outside consultant to the CIA’s Office of National Estimates.

Howard Zinn, The Progressive, February 1, 2007
Impeachment by the People
Impeachment hearings all over the country could excite and energize the peace movement. They would make headlines, and could push reluctant members of Congress in both parties to do what the Constitution provides for and what the present circumstances demand: the impeachment and removal from office of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Eric Margolis, Hiiraan Online, February 1, 2007
Bush's fourth war against the Muslims
Margolis, again, looks through the propaganda - the invasion and bombing of Somalia was not about Islamist threatening...

Adam Brookes, BBC, January 27, 2007
US plans to 'fight the net' revealed
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

Des Browne, U.K. defence secretary, Guardian,
January 25, 2007
UK must retain nuclear deterrent, says Browne
"An argument devoid of thinking. Do the nuclearists have to be that intellectually lazy? I would not let a student paper of this quality level pass an exam", says Jan Oberg, TFF.

Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor
January 19, 2007
Whither all the war protesters?
As the Iraq war heads toward 'surge,' the antiwar movement, now mostly online, nears a crucial moment. Nearly four years into US combat in Iraq, the antiwar movement has yet to generate the kind of mass protest seen during the Vietnam War.

Michael Gorbachev, The Guardian & CommonDreams,
January 18, 2006
History is Not Preordained: A New Cold War Can Be Averted
US military arrogance has led to a global crisis. But there is still time to change course and build a democratic world order

Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, January 16, 2007
Where is the outrage?
A real antiwar movement would end our Iraq disaster. But the middle class doesn't care enough to protest, so the kids who go to community college will keep dying. What does poetry have to do with politics? Nothing -- and everything.

Susan M. Block, January 15, 2007
Resist Thanato! Celebrate Eros!
Thus spake the great God Thanatos through His servant, the Decider, the American Boy-King George II, as he gazed, cross-eyed and quivering, into the camera and right through his appalled audience.

Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch,
January 14, 2007
Is Energo-fascism in your future?
The Global Energy Race and Its Consequences (Part 1)
Petro-power and the nuclear renaissance
Two Faces of an Emerging Energo-fascism (Part II)Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch,
January 14, 2007
Is Energo-fascism in your future?
The Global Energy Race and Its Consequences (Part 1)
Petro-power and the nuclear renaissance
Two Faces of an Emerging Energo-fascism (Part II)

Le Monde Diplomatique, January 2007
India's boundless ambitions
The United States will attend the Aero India defence show next month, hoping to profit from India’s hunger for military equipment; it wants to make India a counterweight to China. The relationship between China, India and the US is ill-defined; in a region that bristles with weapons, India also will have to contend with Japan and Russia.

Jonathan Schmidt and Howard Davies, IHT, January 17, 2007
The shifting power equation of globalization
The distribution of the globalization dividend may turn out to be the biggest item on the economic agenda of the Western democracies in the next few years. There will be pressure for protection and for punitive taxation. There is a perception that the response of the globalizers has so far not been sensitive enough to the concerns of those who are losing out from low-wage competition.

Anna Arutunyan, FPIF, January 11, 2007
Is Russia really that authoritarian?

Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, HIIK
Conflict Barometer 2006
Crisis, Wars, Coup d'Etat, Negotiations, Mediations, Peace Settlements. 15th Annual Conflict Analysis

2006

Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com & truthout, December 31, 2006
America's holy warriors
The former New York Times Mideast Bureau chief warns that the radical Christian right is coming dangerously close to its goal of co-opting the country's military and law enforcement.

Ira Chernus, ICH, December 9, 2006
The Day That Changed Everything Wasn't 9/11
...but November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and left the U.S. at sea, drifting without an enemy in a strange new world.

HM Treasury, October 30, 2006
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

Philip S. Golub, Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2006
The will to undemocratic power
Even before the events of 11 September 2001, the heads of state in the United States and Britain concentrated and consolidated executive power and tried to constrain judicial autonomy. Democracy in the West may now be more formal than real.

Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation, July 17, 2006
The new American Cold War
"Twenty years ago, when the world faced exceedingly grave cold war perils, Gorbachev unexpectedly emerged from the orthodox and repressive Soviet political class to offer a heretical way out. Is there an American leader today ready to retrieve that missed opportunity?" If you thought the Cold War was history or that it could not return in a new shape, you'd better read this. Read also this author's The Soviet Union, R.I.P.?

UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs, June 23, 2006
The 2005 Report on the World Social Situation

SIPRI, Stockholm - June 23, 2006
World military expenditures at 1118.000.000.000 dollars !
This corresponds to 2.5 per cent of world GDP or an average spending of $173 per capita. World military expenditure in 2005 presents a real terms increase of 3.4 per cent since 2004, and of 34 per cent over the 10-year period 1996-2005. The US is responsible for about 80 per cent of the increase in 2005 and for 48 per cent of the world total.

Oxford Research Group, TFF Partner, June 21, 2006
Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century
"The post 9/11 mainstream security discourse has run on three myths: that terrorism has no causes worth discussing, that terrorism is only non-governmental and that the "war on terror" should be given priority over all other global challenges. With a wealth of facts and solid arguments, the report debunks these myths and tells how urgent it is that governments and civil society re-think and widen security concepts as well as policies. Indeed, the world needs a new paradigm to be sustainable. May this report be spread and read in decision-making circles!" - says Jan Oberg.

Hans Blix, International Herald Tribune, June 8, 2006
Don't forget those other 27.000 nukes
During the Cold War, it proved possible to reach many significant agreements on disarmament. Why does it seem so impossible now, when the great powers no longer feel threatened by one another?

Ann Scott Tayson, Washington Post, April 23, 2006
New Plans Foresee Fighting Terrorism Beyond War Zones
Pentagon to Rely on Special Operations
"The content of this article ought to raise more global debate and fear than any statement, policy or "defiance" coming out of Iran. With its own world-defying repeated threats to use nuclear weapons and with its own counterproductive "war on terrorism" - that only produces more of the same thing - the Bush administration is the singularly largest threat to human security. Anyone pro-American like I should be able to see that. The mainstream press in Europe should be grateful to the best media in the United States for still providing the essential documents and truly investigative reports. But it doesn't even seem to know how to use them and present them in their own media" - says TFF director Jan Oberg.

@ Jan Oberg 2001

Archive 2000-2005

Features 2005

Features 2004

Features 2003

Features 2002

Features 2000 - 2001

Features 1999

The Transnational
Wire 1999-2000

Some recommended links to analyses and comments on world affairs

OneWorld

Open Democracy

truthout

Better World Links

Agence Global

New Internationalist

Aljazeera

Global Issues

The Nation

IPS, Inter Press Service

Information Clearing House

Monthly Review

zFacts.com

AlterNet

FPIF
Foreign Policy in Focus

Reuters AlertNet

counterpunch

John Pilger

TomDispatch.com

truthdig

Asia Times

Tikkun

Current Concerns

The Real News

TRANSCEND Media Service

 

What you must know about U.S. nuclear policies

FAS, 2002
Nuclear Posture Review

zFacts.com
Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations

Walter Pincus, Washington Post, September 11, 2005
Pentagon revises nuclear strike plan strategy includes preemptive use against banned weapons.

A poem for TFF
- for our times

Democracy is the right
To say "no"
Not just sometimes,
But always.

Dictators always make us bow to "yes".
Why have the worlds' leaders
Stolen my right to say "no"?

What will it take for me to regain
The power and authority
To claim back my unalienable right
To this tiny, omnipotent,
Two-lettered word-
"NO!"?

Betty Blair

July 4, 2003

Albert Camus  

"Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear amid the uproar of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, a gentle stirring of life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. As a result, there shines forth fleetingly the ever-threatened truth that each and every man, on the foundation of his own sufferings and joys, builds for all."

"The Artist and His Time"