December 2019

Each and every problem humanity faces is rooted in violence. Why do so many continue believing in violence, the most counter-productive, unintelligent and expensive means of all? Violence invariably makes a problem between conflicting parties deeper and broader and every solution more difficult. It makes the original problem ten times bigger. All problems in this world are tied to one thing: Violence – the tacit or open acceptance of the use of violence in all its many forms. Think of wars, hatred, human rights violations, torture, poverty, injustice, prejudice, media profits (fake-omission-deception), arms trade, racism, regime-change, imperialism, nuclear weapons, environmental destruction, corruption – and hateful comments on social media… Will anybody, from social democrats and left out, listen better in 2020 as they once did? I mean, if we imagine it is still meaningful to talk about Left and Right. Will others? Or shall we leave them out of civilized...

. On December 12, 2012, on the day, 4 years earlier, Western countries and allies – perversely calling themselves ‘Friends of Syria’ – carried through a regime change by statement and set up a Syrian National Council of people never elected by anyone in Syria and told the world that it was, from now on, the only ‘legitimate representative of the Syrian people!’ During the 4 years, Western, Saudi, Turkish and the Gulf States supported innumerable illegal, destructive and mainly foreign terrorist groups with the goal to undermine the legitimate Syrian government and destabilise the country – as had been recommended by US ambassador William Roebuck (1) in Damascus as far back as in 2006 (WikiLeaks documentation here). December 12, 2016, marked a fundamental turning point. Aleppo did not “fall to the dictator/butcher/mass murderer” aka President Bashar al-Assad – no, it was liberated and the occupation by terrorist groups such...

Keynote Speech, International Peace Research Association (IPRA) – 7 Jan 2006 On professionalization in general Generally, the sociology of professions identifies three characteristics of a profession: The purpose of peace research is to produce intersubjectively communicable and verifiable KNOWLEDGE according to the general rules of research. Thus, research is incompatible with secrecy, as research has to take place in public space. And one purpose of peace studies is the communication of the findings of peace research, in line with general rules for education, another public space activity. The free access of the rest of society to what happens is of the essence. As peace workers are not planning to hurt or harm, in other words to exercise violence, s/he has nothing to conceal. In the following a person exercising the peace profession will be referred to as “peace worker”, like “social worker”, or “peace professional” like “health professional”. Others may...

Illustration by Mr Fish, from truthdig By Chris Hedges December 19, 2019 Immanuel Kant coined the term “radical evil.” It was the privileging of one’s own interest over that of others, effectively reducing those around you to objects to be manipulated and used for your own ends. But Hannah Arendt, who also used the term “radical evil,” saw that it was worse than merely treating others as objects. Radical evil, she wrote, rendered vast numbers of people superfluous. They possessed no value at all. They were, once they could not be utilized by the powerful, discarded as human refuse. This article was originally published by truthdig on October 14, 2019 We live in an age of radical evil. The architects of this evil are despoiling the earth and driving the human species toward extinction. They are stripping us of our most basic civil liberties and freedoms. They are orchestrating the...

More documents leaked confirming 2 OPCW whistleblowers’ accounts of Douma Report By Natylie Baldwin December 19, 2019 This past weekend saw two more major blows to the years-long establishment narrative of the Syrian war in general and the chemical weapons attacks allegations against the Assad government in particular. This article was originally published at Natylie Baldwin’s blog on December 16, 2019 First, Tareq Haddad, an accomplished British journalist who began working for Newsweek earlier this year, resigned last week, telling his Twitter followers that he had done so as the result of his editors attempting to block him from accurate reporting on the Syria war and the OPCW whistleblowers. He also said that in the coming days he would be sharing a write-up on what had happened, despite threats of legal action by Newsweek: Yesterday I resigned from Newsweek after my attempts to publish newsworthy revelations about the leaked OPCW...

Israeli politics gets messier and messier. Now there is to be yet another election, hard on the heels of the last one which, in turn, was hard on the heels of the one before. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have two major aims in life. The first is to remain prime minister for as long as he feels like it. (He is already Israel’s longest-serving premier.) The second is to escape prison. He has been charged with bribery and graft. Only if he is holding his high office can he escape prosecution. After the recent election, with his Likud Party not doing well, he discussed the possibility of a coalition with his rival, also a conservative. But a deal was elusive and so it is back to the polls. Many Israelis have talked about the end of Israeli democracy. Avraham Berg, the former speaker of the Knesset (parliament), has...

Here is a good backgrounder with her speech and an interview at COP 25 in Madrid: Greta Thunberg Slams COP25, Says Response to Climate Crisis Is “Clever Accounting and Creative PR” What she says in her intro is really important, important as a criticism of the world’s media: If she does not say something personal and emotional, few will listen. This fact-oriented speech has received much less media attention – proving her important point: When you speak facts, rely on research and appear “dull”, the media cannot get their satisfaction in terms of drama, individual story/identity, smashing superficial headlines and sensationalism. While one can certainly point out that she says less-thought-through things about democracy and the Free World towards the end of this speech, she is growing better and better – and she obviously knows more than anyone in decision-making positions. And in the mainstream media. Now, what does that...

By David Cortright December 11, 2019 Last month I was invited by the Indian Permanent Mission to the United Nations to give a presentation on the International Day of Nonviolence, which was also the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth. Below is the full text of my remarks, which were delivered at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Originally posted on Davidcortright.net on November 9, 2019 here In the remarks, I identified three aspects of Gandhian thought and action that are directly relevant to the challenge of protecting the environment and preventing climate disruption. At the end of my presentation, I added a brief comment on the situation in Kashmir, which seemed necessary to include in an event organized by the Indian government. “Gandhi’s message is highly relevant to today’s global climate crisis. I emphasize here three of his most important themes: simplicity, equity and nonviolence. Simplicity Gandhi became the “greatest...

The Europeans have not done well in countering President Donald Trump’s onslaught on Iran. When Trump unilaterally decided that the US should withdraw from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, which committed Iran to winding down its nuclear research in return for the West, Russia and China (the latter two were also part of the deal) lifting sanctions which were crippling the Iranian economy, the Europeans huffed and puffed and then did little. The UN membership considered the 2015 deal to be very fair. The Security Council gave it unanimous support. Indeed, the US is now in breech of international law by opting out. But if the Europeans had had the guts when President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal they would have pushed for debate on this issue at the Security Council and got the US condemned, even punished. Unfortunately, Trump had the Europeans’ guts for braces. After shouting loudly...

“/> This is the digitalized version of a TFF Statement published by TFF’s Board almost 31 years ago. Could that be of any interest today?First, it reflects the situation and the issues discussed at the time as well as the hopes for a better future – now sadly lost.Secondly, it is one example of how peace researchers were thinking and made constructive political recommendations, available for anyone to take inspiration from – which virtually no one in power did.So, it’s a piece of international political as well as intellectual history.Third, it is an indicator of what the West could – and should – have done to have been in a much better situation than it is today. Admittedly, this is a contra-factual argument, but it can be defended on intellectual grounds although not empirically proven.Fourth, the authors pointed out a series of longterm priorities which match still today’s agenda and,...

Imagine that you tell a friend something and you say it’s a fact and you know the sources are reliable – but then, a few weeks later, you learn that there was more to it, perhaps even that what you were in good faith believing was unfortunately factually wrong. Would you not call that friend and say – “hey, I’ve just learned that what I told you wasn’t really true; rather, it turned out to be a story, more or less constructed for a purpose, and the facts are much more complex?” Well, you are surely a decent person so you would. But what about our mainstream media? Do you remember to have seen a front-page item stating something to the effect that “we are sorry to inform you that the news story this media published some weeks back, turned out to be a planted propaganda story. We have now...

Here is the background – Germany’s, France’s and the UK’s letter to the UN Security Council accusing Iran of violating the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran’s PressTV asked me to comment on this issue in the larger framework of global nuclear policies.