4. marts 2019 Hvis man skal bruge kun én målestok på et lands militære styrke, så er militærudgifterne (”forsvarsudgifterne”) den bedste. De siger jo hvor meget regeringer er parate til at afsætte og hvordan de prioriterer. Militærudgifterne (Milex) er nogenlunde lette at sammenligne og institutter som SIPRI i Stockholm og IISS i London lave indekser hvor de er omregnet til […]
And why I am switching balances from the most noble and important – but momentarily meaningless – job to something more rewarding… February 1, 2019 Just yesterday, I posted this extremely important and modest appeal – the Basel Appeal – on our foundation’s homepage, The Transnational, here. It was disseminated to social media, among others, my FB profile, TFF’s and […]
Og igen på terroristernes side Ved sin nøje tilrettelagte Syrien-demonstration på Rådhuspladsen den 25. februar 2018 støtter Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke igen: • systematisk brud på folkeretten – herunder splittelsen af en stat med voldelige midler – international våbenhandel og vestlig interventionism og regeringsforandring; • terroristgrupper som med udenlandsk militær og politisk støtte i årevis har bidraget til usigelig ødelæggelse […]
Jan Oberg Comment A US war game/scenario being reported by The Intercept is pretty revealing for the lack of even the slightest re-thinking of what the Global War On Terror (GWOT) is really all about. The US military’s game is about violence-for-violence, tit-for-tat. The main result from this – anti-intellectual – attitude and policy is that there are about 80 […]
Does the U.S. have anything constructive and benign to offer the world anymore? In this comment on PressTV I list a series of arguments against these new sanctions which were passed by the US Senate two days later.
I read dozens of articles every day about various conflict zones, commentaries, war reports and – the few times it happens – possibilities of peace. I read about Syria in particular as I have since I visited Damascus and Aleppo in December 2016. It’s important that one does not, over time, develop the disease called “psychic numbing” – an excellent […]
This is TFF Live on Facebook – the live broadcast I do now and then because live broadcasts have a much larger dissemination than articles, images, texts and Youtube videos. You may find more here. I argue why I believe NATO belongs to the past and should have been dissolved when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact dissolved in […]
Here I am with my friends Donald, Bibi, Sara and Melania… And speak a little about the stupidity of scapegoating Iran for everything, of giving Saudi Arabia even more weapons – and being bribed by it – of creating the preconditions for more warfare and about the fact that NATO is setting up shop in Kuwait and there are plans to have a Gulf NATO – something you can read much more about in my analysis Trump in Riyadh – A Gulf NATO to gang up against Iran and Syria. It’s a TFF PressInfo and you can subscribe to them too so they wing into your mailbox – very irregularly and not too often… write to PI@transnational.org – and they are free of course and many of the best things in life.
By Jan Oberg Proud to join “Middle East With Naskah Zada” at her program in New York and talking about the reasons that peace has become so ‘unpopular’. Touching also upon international law, the new Cold War and the increasing U.S. involvement in Syria.
“The Debate” of April 16, 2017 on Iran’s PressTV between Richard Millett and myself is important to me. I think it will be for you too in the sense of clarifying two approaches and positions on Syria. Its focus is on the difference in media coverage of the terrible events in Khan Seykhoun and al-Rashideen but there is much more […]
Here my 6th photo series from Aleppo – hashtag #keepfocusonaleppo. Lund, Sweden – March 24, 2017 Can the almost total destruction of Eastern Aleppo be used constructively? Only if we are willing to ask and dialogue about this: • Why does the world go on investing US$ 2000 billion annually in warfare and US$ 30 in all the UN does […]
Videoinspelning av Jan Öbergs föredrag i Stockholm februari 2017 Inspelningen är uppdelad i två delar: Del 1: Vittnesrapport från Aleppo 60 min. Del 2: Debatt och vägar till fred i Syrien 45 min. Bakgrund 10-14:e december 2016 vistades Jan Öberg i Aleppo. Med sin unika erfarenhet från staden ifrågasätter han den gängse massmediarapporteringen, argumenterar för ett nytt sätt att se […]
En “meta”-kommentar i Arbejderen til den dødfødte måde man diskuterer konflikter på, især Syrien. Diskursen kommer aldrig frem til at sige noget væsentligt om fred – og den gavner ingen i Syrien, mindst af alt de uskyldige, der lider frygteligt i disse år. Man kan faktisk snakke om tingene på en anden måde. Se hér! (Kommentar i Arbejderen, 28. februar 2017).
TFF PressInfo # 405 Lund, Sweden – February 24, 2017 Failed conflict analysis To analyse a conflict is as necessary as the diagnosis for the doctor: You either get to a solution/treatment or you don’t. If the diagnosis is deficient, you don’t. You instead risk killing the patient. And it’s deficient of you stare only at “evil” cells and […]
A 30 min debate about NATO, Ukraine, Crimea, Yugoslavia, Syria the eternal enemy images and the – obsolete – philosophy on which NATO builds. Time for something new, I argue in the debate with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defence under Reagon, Mr. Lawrence J. Korb who at the time was in command of 70% of Pentagon’s budget. Here in TFF PressInfo # 403 is a little longer text about this debate and there is also a little about my experience and policy vis-a-vis the media.
Have just published the second of a series of photo stories from Syria – “Humans in liberated Aleppo”. You can subscribe to this page for photo stories which ensures that you’ll get an email as soon as they are posted on my Exposure page. I’d be most grateful if you’d share this link too. And here is a little background […]
It’s destructive for all! It’s difficult to see this as rational policy-making. It’s more of an indication of the grumpy super-power feeling that it’s losing influence and credibility. In addition, if this goes through it will only strengthen the hardliners in Iran and weaken the reformist circles.
Here a few comments on Erdogan’s recent attack on the West for supplying arms to the Kurds. Funny that Turkey’s president should accuse someone else for weaponizing a conflict. At the same time as Turkey does it and is also involved in two wars outside itself – Iraq and Syria – and one inside against the Kurds. In this short interview I seek to raise the imagination: Since the weaponization of conflicts is a cancer on the world, imagine that a God-like magnetic force that could suck up each and every weapon in the Middle East, what would happen? They would be forces to sit down and talk! And one more point I did not get around to say: The world’s cancerous arms industry and criminal arms traders – governmental as well as private – would go out of business and many end up behind bars. In short, a much better world.
I’ve felt deeply touched by Johan Grimonprez’ brilliant and frightening documentary “Shadow World” which is based on Andrew Feinstein’s book with the same name. I want to share it with my readers and here is all about the book and the movie. It was shown in November 2016 by Swedish Television with Swedish text but is due to be taken down a couple […]
Last night I had the opportunity to discuss nuclear weapons with an experienced, high-ranking security analyst who has been both a military, a scholar, an assistant secretary of defence, presidential adviser, a corporate man and now a think tank member, Lawrence J. Korb. We were discussing the issues touched upon in this and this article. I would assume that the debate – facilitated by Iran’s PressTV in an excellent manner – is illustrative of the degree to which the world can be seen from different perspectives and how different we can perceive words such as law, legality, ethics, security, deterrence and peace. I assume also that the debate illustrates the difference between a systems-embedded interpretation of the world and an independent or free perception, including what can and must be changed and what doesn’t have to change to make the world a better place. Enjoy!
