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Maj Britt Theorin, former Ambassador Lecture given at the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs  15/11 2010 To understand why there is such a strong critique in Sweden of the war in Afghanistan, one must look some decades – yes even some centuries back. Sweden has been out of war for 200 years now. Before 1809 and centuries back Sweden was a conqueror in Europe; fighting Russian, Polish, German, Danish and other people. When the Russian 1809 suddenly defeated Sweden the time of war was over. Sweden started to search for other solutions than war. In World War II Sweden declared itself neutral and non-aligned. When the attempt to create a Nordic Defense Alliance brook down after that war and Norway and Denmark joined NATO, Sweden remained neutral and non-aligned.But neutrality and non-alignment did not mean passivity. On the contrary Sweden was very active in the United Nations. The security...

The Idea Imagine living in a healthy environment, in peace and justice, with social conditions, work and production developing creatively, arts blooming, people realizing their potencials. 99% of humankind would prefer that, right? So how can we optimize our efforts to get there?One strange thing is that although every good physician knows that treatment of the patient must complete diagnosis and prognosis in order to get well again, the „physicians“ of the world seem to mostly lack the treatment part.Where do we find constructive thinking, where do we see the stories of success, where do we find the images of a better world, the ideas of what might be possible? Media as well as research and public debate seem to be in love with criticism of the status quo and warnings of the breakdown of the world – and yes, both is clearly neccessary. We definitely need the diagnosis for...

28th of July 2010 Jørgen Johansen First published February 7th, 2005 In the literature the most used term for such conflicts is «war». War has been defined in various ways but most of the definitions have in common the description of war as an armed conflict with a certain number of deaths. Disagreements are more around the number and how to count the deaths than the much more interesting and important part of the definitions, namely the almost universal view that war is a form of conflict. I will argue below that war is NOT a conflict and that this misinterpretation has had serious consequences for the field. Most research on large-scale conflicts is focused on armed ones. Wars have been studied from a large number of perspectives since the first works in this field were published. This tradition, from pioneers such as Richardson and Wright, has dominated the majority...

LONDON – A census released in Beijing reported that there is now an extraordinary imbalance in the birth-rate – 117 boys are being born for every 100 girls. In southern Hainan province the gap widens to an astonishing 135/100 ratio. In China today about 97% of all unmarried persons aged between 28 and 49 are male. China is probably the world leader in using cheap scans to enable parents to know the sex of their child in the womb and, despite breaking the law, to find a doctor who will abort a foetus for no more reason than it happens to be female. However, this practice is also widely practised in many other Asian countries. India is not far behind. Adding the two countries together there are perhaps between 60 and 70 million missing females in Asia. The historical record suggests that societies that breed surplus males end up with more crime and...

The most important thing to understand about nuclear weapons is this: these weapons do not and cannot provide physical protection to their possessors.  Please let this thought sink in.  The second most important thing to understand about these weapons is that they are weapons of genocide writ large or, as the philosopher John Somerville has labeled them, weapons of omnicide, capable of the destruction of all.(1)   These weapons put at risk the future of humankind and most life on earth.  Please also let this thought sink in. The third most important thing to understand about nuclear weapons is that they are in the hands of human beings with all their frailties and fallibilities, and, as such, these weapons are disasters waiting to occur.  Please let this thought sink in as well. How the new U.S. president understands the functions, limits and dangers of nuclear weapons will guide his approach to U.S. nuclear policy,...

6. oktober 2008 Av och om den norske jurist Fredrik Heffermehlog hans sensationelle bog About Fredrik Heffermehl’s sensational analysis ofthe misuse of the most prestigeous peace prize ever Lige inden dette års fredspris offentliggøres publicerer den norske jurist, Fredrik Heffermehl, en sensationel analyse af forholdet mellem Nobels testamente og de valg den norske Nobelkommité faktik har gjort. Der er ringe sammenhæng, mener han, og påpeger at fredens forkæmpere for længe siden er blevet berøvet den mest prestigefyldte pris på området. The intention behind Nobel´s Peace Prize has sunk into oblivion, the Norwegian parliamentarians he entrusted with the award of the prize have taken it over and made it their peace prize. Since the end of WWII in 1946 well over half of the peace prizes have failed to respect elementary principles on the interpretation of wills. This is asserted by Fredrik S. Heffermehl, a Norwegian lawyer, in a new book, Nobel´s...

to refer the conflict in the Sudan to the ICC, arguing that it was only the threat of a war crimes court that brought the protagonists of the Yugoslavia wars to the negotiating table and that the same stick is necessary over Sudan. The announced prosecution by the ICC of the Sudanese leader, Omar al-Bashir, has coincided with a major shift in American elite opinion about the usefulness of the ICC. Democrat foreign policy experts are talking as if the U.S. were already a signed up, ratified, member. But more interesting is the stance of the Bush Administration. In the first days of his presidency George W. Bush ‘unsigned’ the U.S. membership. Yet now it is pushing hard in the Security Council for the ICC to act faster over the Sudan prosecution. The turn round suggests it may not be too long before the U.S. formally endorses the Court. This...

LONDON – Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Chechnya, the Bakassi Peninsular. All of them disputed territories but only one, the last named, a sizable oil-rich wedge of land lying between Nigeria and Cameroon, has been taken to the International Court of Justice (World Court) for adjudication. Why not the others? There is no good reason, apart from, in the latest situation, hubris on the Russian side and an inflated sense of self-importance on the Georgian side, partly because America has encouraged this. Six years ago Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, confronted with growing tensions with neighboring Cameroon over the Bakassi peninsular, long ruled by Nigeria, decided to resist the advice of his minister of defense, who pushed for a military solution, and to turn the dispute over to the World Court. Newspapers ridiculed Obasanjo, public opinion was nationalistic, but he held his course and did so even when the court ruled in Cameroon«s favor....

June 12, 2008 Jake Lynch “It’s clear a long-term success in Afghanistan will require significantly more troops and we welcome those additional troops, no matter what the source”. So said Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon when seven people were killed, earlier this year, in a bomb attack on the luxury hotel in Kabul which housed the Australian embassy. Strengthening the Nato-led “International Security Assistance Force” would be an “essential ingredient”, the Minister went on, in defeating terrorism in Afghanistan. What to make of this proposed remedy? Well, it depends on how we diagnose the problem. And Fitzgibbon was pitching his statement into a media narrative for the Afghanistan story which constantly reiterates a simple proposition – ‘these evil men are out to get us’. Go back to the reports in the Australian press from the day of the attack, in mid-January, and search them for the six vital pieces of...

24. april, 2008 Fatuma Ali Jeg har boet og arbejdet i Grønland i 8 år fra 1997 og til 2005. I de 8 år har jeg været almindelig overlæge i 3 år og administrerende overlæge resten af tiden. Fra 2005 og indtil 2006 har jeg arbejdet for det grønlandske sundhedsvæsen men boet i DK. Ifølge min kontrakt skulle jeg fortsat koordinere den psykiatriske indsats på kysten, være fysisk til stede i Grønland i 1 måned i hvert kvartal og ellers være til rådighed for netkonsultationer hele året. Netkonsultationerne handlede udelukkende om kendte og diagnosticerede patienter, hvor der var behov for at optimere den medikamentelle behandling eller supervisere den psykiatriske sygeplejerske. Jeg tror, at mit største bidrag til den grønlandske psykiatri  har været opbygningen af distriktspsykiatrien i det meste af  landet. Med opbakning fra det politiske system og mine overordnede var det lykkedes at etablere psykiatrisk behandling i patienternes nærmiljø således...

Niels Harrit, Associate professor, PhD, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen When viewed in the rear-view mirror of history, the attack on USA on September 11th, 2001 (9/11) might very well prove to be the single most important political event since World War II. It sparked the so-called “war on terror”, which has left a trail of casualties and refugees, with numbers running into the millions. Military expenses and security budgets have soared. As have the number of terrorists. Civil rights have been curtailed for everybody. Fear is prevalent. Our children and grandchildren are left with a less secure world – and a mountain of debt. In spite of this profound impact, the physical and technical realities of 9/11 have never been satisfactorily explained by the US Government. Before considering this claim and its consequences, it is worthwhile reminding ourselves of the “scientific method”, which has served our western societies...

and the international law.’ Strangely, EU’s President has to defend his Union against critics who maintain that its mission called LEX – meaning law! – is not established according to international law. Unfortunately for Barosso, they are right and have read and understood Resolution 1244 of 1999 (after NATO’s bombing) in which the members were: – “Reaffirming the commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other States of the region, as set out in the Helsinki Final Act and annex 2,” and – “Reaffirming the call in previous resolutions for substantial autonomy and meaningful self-administration for Kosovo.”  Indeed, what is there to discuss? If 1244 were respected by Western law-breaking governments, EULEX could only have been established in agreement with Serbia/Belgrade as were all other international missions in Kosovo since 1999 – and by the local authorities and...