June 2004

LONDON – The main thing we’ve learnt so far about the Bush Administration’s self proclaimed ambitions to curb nuclear proliferation is its all too obvious ability to influence how the press treats the issue. If it wanted to whip up hysteria on Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” the press was a willing, if now rueful, victim. If it wants to blow hot about North Korea’s ambitions to have a nuclear-armed rocket that can strike Alaska it can do that too. It can also do cold. Watch it right now as it moves, after three years of outright hostility to North Korea, to start using the soft touch in time to meet the imperatives of the electoral calendar when it wants to be crisis free. Too much of the media (European too) follows its given cues as meekly as a well trained circus dog. The latest round of talks last weekend...

The Dalai Lama, the chief architect of Tibetan nonviolent politics, is a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi. His endorsement of the Universal Declaration of Nonviolence which states that “all forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as a means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons” made him radical among other religious and political leaders (McCarthy 1991). He strongly believed that nonviolent resistance is for the strong willed and the principled who refuse to rely on the illogic of stopping the enemy’s bad violence with one’s good violence (McCarthy 1991). He said that it is shortsighted to believe that a lasting solution can be found through the use of force. He always expressed his firm conviction in following a nonviolent path. According to him, force and confrontation can only bring temporary gains (DIIR 1995). Therefore the Dalai Lama encouraged nonviolent resistance inside Tibet. Though he acknowledged...

eller Från de små stegens tyranni till en verklig vision om fred Den 28 maj publicerades den första opinionsundersökningen om Europavalet i samtliga tjugofem medlemsländer. Lite drygt 12.000 personer hade fått gradera sannolikheten för att man skulle gå och rösta. 10 betydde att man säkert skulle rösta och 1 att man säkert inte skulle rösta. I Sverige var det bara 31% som angav 10. Det var den lägsta siffran bland de femton gamla medlemsländerna. Genomsnittet för alla 25 stater var 45%. Bara 22% bland svenskarna visste att valdagen är den 13 juni. Genomsnittet för samtliga var 37%. Det finns naturligtvis ingen enkel förklaring till det låga intresset men en av orsakerna är säkert att många uppfattar det som att vi aldrig får rösta om det som är den centrala frågan. När vi folkomröstade om själva medlemskapet skulle vi inte rösta om EMU. I riksdagsvalet år 2002 skulle varken tala om...

Ska EU:s fortsatta utveckling bygga på demokrati eller demagogi? Frågan kanske förvånar men är nog nödvändig att ställa eftersom EU:s stora svaghetjust är det demokratiska “underskottet”. Allt fler känner sig allt mindre engagerade och representerade. Projektets politiska legitimitet försvagas. Konsekvensen blir nya konflikter. En växande klyfta mellan folk och folkvalda ökar utrymmet för extrema och antidemokratiska krafter. Den 28 maj (04) publicerades den första opinionsundersökningen inför valet till europaparlamentet, kallad EU25. 12.184 personer telefonintervjuades under perioden 5 – 16 maj. I Sverige var det bara 31% som angav att man säkert skulle gå rösta. Det var den lägsta siffran bland de femton gamla medlemsländerna. Genomsnittet i EU25 var 45%. Bara 22% av svenskarna kunde enligt undersökningen ange valdagen den 13 juni. Genomsnittet i EU25 var 37%. Hur kommer då sig detta? Många tycker sig ha små möjligheter att verkligen påverka. Det verkar nästan som om den mest centrala frågan hela...

Af Anne Applebaum 30 juni, 2004 Man behøver hverken særlig sikkerhedsgodkendelse eller fortrolig information for at begribe størrelsesordenen af, hvad der er hændt i USAs hemmelige fængsler. Enhver, som vil forbinde de enkelte punkter til en sammenhængende figur, kan gøre det. For at se hvad jeg mene,r skal du bare gennemgå nogle få sager, som man nemt kan finde på internet. Sag 1: “Tortur papiret”, skrevet i august 2002 af justitsministeriets kontor for juridisk rådgivning efter anmodning fra CIA og siden Det hvide Hus. Papiret argumenterer for, “at det kan retfærdiggøres” at tortere Al Qaeda mistænkte. Papiret, som blev bragt på Washington Post’s hjemmeside den første uge i juni, indeholder også spekulationer om, at international ret, som kategorisk forbyder tortur “, kan stride mod forfatningen”. Sag 2: “Rumsfeld dokumentet”. Dette dokument, gravet frem af Wall Street Journal blev skrevet af en arbejdsgruppe i Pentagon i marts 2003. Det fastslog ikke...

I dag för nittio år sedan föll skotten i Sarajevo. Skotten var gnistan som tände första världskriget, brukar det heta. Sanningen var nog inte så enkel. Den ännu inte 18 fyllda mördaren bosnienserben Gavrilo Princip ville befria sitt folk från Österrike-Ungerns vanstyre och kolonialvälde. Men de verkliga skurkarna var krigsivriga grupper i främst Wien och Berlin som använde mordet på ärkehertig Franz Ferdinand som en förevändning. I sin klassiska tusensidiga jugoslavienskildring “Black Lamb and grey Falcon” skriver Rebecca West: “Princip hade kommit över sin revolver i Belgrad, och trots att han inte hade fått den av regeringen utan av en privatperson använde Österrike-Ungern detta faktum som en förevändning för att förklara krig mot Serbien”. I Titos Jugoslavien var Princip en hjälte. Bron där mordet utfördes döptes till Princip Most. Platsen där Princip stod när han sköt markerades med hans fotsteg i en platta. “Att komma till Sarajevo utan att kunna...

LONDON – It’s long been said that one needs a long spoon to sup with the devil, a saying that in the twentieth century was used often in the context of an alliance between democratic political parties and communists. For decades the Italians debated what they called a ” historic compromise” and came very close to it at times, but it was always undone by the pressures from Washington and the Vatican. When Francois Mitterand first came to power in France it was in alliance with the communists but he convinced Washington that giving them cabinet positions was the best way of defanging them and indeed the communists rapidly lost electoral strength from that moment on. Perhaps this is why after much internal debate the Indian communists, having scored unexpectedly well in India’s recent elections, decided to support the government but not be part of it. They were nervous about losing...

This is the text of lecture Falk held on April 9-10 at the City College of Santa Barbara, “Tribes, Sects, Cultures, & Sovereign States: Group/Minority Rights or Individual Rights, of Both?”) I welcome this opportunity to participate in a conference devoted to what has become one of the two most tormented arenas of political violence in the world today. The two arenas are significantly interrelated. Our focus during these two days on the dynamics of various forms of fragmentation internal to the sovereign state, can be understood as a fundamental challenge to the normative program of establishing an effective human rights regime applicable to all persons. The resulting tension is generating multiple crises of identity, authority, and loyalty that can often not be resolved peacefully. Of course, the second arena of challenge is associated with issues posed by 9/11 and the American recourse to a “Great Terror War” as an...

Originally written in April 2004 After the bloodiest week in the American occupation of Iraq, the same tired slogans about “seeing it through” and “staying the course” are about all that our leaders seem able to say. Such a paucity of moral and political imagination does not serve well the citizens of this country or of the world, and seems a recipe for a surefire descent further into the political inferno that Iraq is daily becoming. It is fine to wonder aloud whether 9/11 could have prevented by due diligence at the White House, but it is no excuse for not focusing on the least disastrous endgame for Iraq. Let us recall, as the Pentagon Papers demonstrated, that it took American leaders a decade of bloodshed to acknowledge in public the failure that they privately had come to recognize the Vietnam War to have been. It may be up to...

Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University;Visiting Professor, UCSB, 2002-2004 and Chair, Board, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.Falk is the author, of The Great Terror War (2003) and Declining World Order (2004).See other books by Richard Falk in “The 100 Best Books” The depravities displayed to the world at Abu Ghraib prison pose an historic challenge to John Kerry: He needs to offer America something more politically attractive than ‘a pale Republican’ seeking entry to the White House. Subtly positioning his candidacy but a micro-meter to the left of George W. Bush is not what America urgently needs (or wants) now. This is the most important presidential election of my lifetime: Unless we rid the country and the world of the Bush leadership, our future prospects are grim, and could include a slide toward global fascism abroad and the risk of a police state at home. The precariousness of the situation...

Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University; Visiting Professor, UCSB, 2002-2004 and Chair, Board, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Falk is the author, of The Great Terror War (2003) and Declining World Order (2004). See other books by Richard Falk in “The 100 Best Books” The depravities displayed to the world at Abu Ghraib prison pose an historic challenge to John Kerry: He needs to offer America something more politically attractive than ‘a pale Republican’ seeking entry to the White House. Subtly positioning his candidacy but a micro-meter to the left of George W. Bush is not what America urgently needs (or wants) now. This is the most important presidential election of my lifetime: Unless we rid the country and the world of the Bush leadership, our future prospects are grim, and could include a slide toward global fascism abroad and the risk of a police state at...

TFF associeret, Albert G Milbank professor emeritus i International Ret,, Princeton University; Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002 – 2004; formand for Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Falk har udgivet: “The great terror war”, 2003 og “Declining world order”, 2004. Se andre bøger af Richard Falk i “The 100 best books”. Den fordærvelse som udstilledes for verden i Abu Ghraib-fængslet stiller John Kerry overfor en historisk udfordring: Han må tilbyde Amerika noget som er mere politisk attraktivt end en “bleget republikaner” der søger adgang til Det hvide Hus. Det Amerika har et påtrængende behov for (eller ønsker) nu er ikke at han stiller sin kandidatur knapt en mikrometer til venstre for George W. Bush. Dette er den vigtigste præsidentvalgkamp i min levetid: Hvis vi ikke befrier landet og verden for Bush-ledelsen, er vore fremtidige muligheder uhyggelige og kan omfatte en glidning ned i global fascisme i udlandet og risikoen for...