November 2025

t is hardly of any importance to the world, but it is to me as a peace scholar, TFF co-founder and director: On September 1, 2025, it was 50 years since I got my first article published in what was the flagship of peace and conflict research, The Journal of Peace Research, JPR, published out PRIO, Peace Research Institute Oslo – both founded by one of my mentors, Johan Galtung (1930-2024). See it here and here. I was 24 at the time, and it meant everything to me to achieve the honour and recognition of being published in that distinguished journal. While I had begun to follow peace studies at Lund University, courses directed by my other mentor, Håkan Wiberg (1942-2010), in 1972 – I had not dared call myself a peace scholar. I was working towards my PhD in sociology, and sociology was still my primary focus. In 1974, Wiberg suggested I take some courses at the IUC...

Peace will not result from any “peace” plan circulated to date. Neither will it emerge from warfare – as the elites of NATO, EU, Russia, and Ukraine seem to finally recognise after avoidable, unspeakable losses of people, trust and physical, socio-economic destruction. And horse-trading based on military ‘security’ guarantees reveals only peace and conflict illiteracy. TFF is critical of the widespread and severe misuse of the word peace – as if it did not require any knowledge. But we do not engage in geopolitical-military commentarism or dismissive criticism of present-day Realpolitik and its militarist mindset. Indeed, we do not believe that mainstream political and media elites are aware that they know woefully little about peace and peace-making or see it as a professional field. Thus, we do not expect they would acquaint themselves with a portfolio like this. TFF concentrates on constructive, visionary thinking grounded in the science and art of peace and in our 40 years...

Peace will not result from any “peace” plan circulated to date. Neither will it emerge from warfare – as the elites of NATO, EU, Russia, and Ukraine seem to finally recognise after avoidable, unspeakable losses of people, trust and physical, socio-economic destruction. And horse-trading based on military ‘security’ guarantees reveals only peace and conflict illiteracy. TFF is critical of the widespread and severe misuse of the word peace – as if it did not require any knowledge. But we do not engage in geopolitical-military commentarism or dismissive criticism of present-day Realpolitik and its militarist mindset. Indeed, we do not believe that mainstream political and media elites are aware that they know woefully little about peace and peace-making or see it as a professional field. Thus, we do not expect they would acquaint themselves with a portfolio like this. TFF concentrates on constructive, visionary thinking grounded in the science and art of peace and in our 40 years...

TFF’s comprehensive proposal for dialogue about true peace in Ukraine is due in a day or two Jan Oberg November 20, 2025 What is being whispered through diplomatic corridors today is not peace, but quackery. The alleged 28‑point plan drafted in Washington and Moscow is mentioned as a solution to the Ukraine war. It is being negotiated by US businessman, real estate developer and Trump ally, Steve Witkoff, and by Kirill Dmitriev, who is CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a close ally of Putin, according to India’s Economic Times. For presumably good reasons, their education, qualifications and experience in international conflict analysis and peace-making remain untold. They look like surgeons who have never opened a medical textbook. It is nothing more than a mirage: a framework of concessions imposed on Ukraine’s citizens, negotiated without Kyiv, and excluding Europe. Like Gaza, it promises “peace” while institutionalising injustice. If half of what is available about...

The fact that the outlandish and quackish Trump “peace” plan for the genocided Gaza was passed by the UN Security Council defines the end of every understanding of true peace. Jan Oberg November 18, 2025 The UN Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution on November 17, 2025, endorsing Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. It authorised an International Stabilisation Force (ISF), backed a transitional governing body called the “Board of Peace”, and declared that conditions may now exist for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and eventual statehood. The vote passed 13–0, with Russia and China abstaining. This is UN SC Resolution 2803. This goes against everything the UN stands for. Of course, China and Russia wisely abstained. They want no involvement and co-responsibility with this fake peace plan and are smart enough to see that it will never lead to true peace. I ask myself – did the Trump Regime give the UN its death knell yesterday? It...

The World Is a Sphere, But It Needs Zones of Peace Biljana Vankovska Professor emerita, TFF Board member November 13, 2025 As members of a global intellectual public, concerned not merely with knowledge but with humanity’s survival, we hunger for debates that are as rigorous as transformative, i.e. debates capable of imagining a fundamentally different world order. The latest exchange between two most distinguished US professors, Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer, has proven highly attractive and necessary. Yet, in my opinion, it does not transcend existing paradigms (despite the introduction of the concept of “spheres of security”) and offers no solutions for the structural and deep-rooted problems. As promised, albeit with some delay, here I am, stepping into the arena of intellectual giants in international relations and political economy. My intention is not to challenge their brilliance or integrity but to advocate for a pluralization of voices and perspectives. The small states and postcolonial...