Articles by Johan Galtung
We found 998 results.
A New Year’s Wish: Go Beyond!
Johan Galtung,
31 Dec 2012
Yes, go beyond, transcend!–that is our message, New Year or not. Take the US school shootings. The National Rifle Association’s vice president on TV: “The only person who can stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun”. That statement struck many cords. This is US foreign policy. The only way to stop a bad country with arms is a good country with arms; the only way to stop evil terrorism from below is good state terrorism from above. Balance of power, countless bases, search and destroy.
→ read full article(Italiano) Violenza Strutturale, Pace e Disabilità
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2012
Lo “sviluppo” dai villaggi tradizionali agli stati moderni comporta costruire gerarchie attorno all’ onnipotente logica dello Stato, all’onnipresente logica del Capitale e all’onnisciente logica della Scienza. Tutti successori di Dio, che monopolizzano le sfide. Non per nulla molti migrano nei villaggi.
→ read full article(Italiano) Contro una Terza Guerra Mondiale: Costruttivamente!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2012
Da Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany – La probabilità di una devastante Terza Guerra Mondiale non è zero, ma molto lontana dal 100%. Esploriamo perché.
→ read full articleStructural Violence, Peace–And the Handicapped
Johan Galtung, 24 Dec 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2012
“Development” from traditional villages to modern states means building hierarchies around omnipotent State logic, omnipresent Capital logic and omniscient Science logic. God’s successors all, monopolizing challenges. Not strange that many migrate to villages. First conclusion: Handicapped of all kinds unite! You have only your “normals” to lose. Second: relate to “normal” people on as equal terms as possible. Third: take on the challenge to construct a more inclusive society where your way of being different is an enrichment, a plus.
→ read full articleAgainst a Third World War-Constructively!
Johan Galtung,
17 Dec 2012
From Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany – The probability of a devastating Third World War is not zero, but very far away from 100%. Let us explore why.
→ read full article(Italiano) Combattere l’Antisemitismo – Costruttivamente!
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2012
Definire pubblicamente “antisemiti” intellettuali come Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Richard Falk, Günter Grass, Judith Butler, Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, Richard Dawkins, Mairead McGuire, Noam Chomsky e altri è una falsa calunnia di persone per nulla antisemite, con prospettive importanti. Il discorso “corretto” non ci porta da alcuna parte: [1] Israele ha sempre ragione; [2] i critici d’Israele hanno sempre torto.
→ read full article(Italiano) ONU: Due Imperi in Crollo – E Poi Che Cosa?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2012
C’è la Storia nel voto ONU del 29 novembre 2012: 138 SÌ all’attribuzione di status di “stato osservatore non-membro ONU”, solo 9 NO, e 41 astensioni. Oltre la politica del Medio Oriente, il voto rispecchia i limiti dell’impero globale USA e di quello regionale d’Israele: 138 paesi ne sfidano la morsa e favoriscono il cambiamento, 41+9=50 no, per varie ragioni. Un voto cruciale su un tema cruciale è un test cruciale. Chi vuole che cosa?
→ read full articleFighting Anti-Semitism–Constructively!
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2012
To label public intellectuals like Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, Richard Falk, Günter Grass, Judith Butler, Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, Richard Dawkins, Mairead McGuire, Noam Chomsky and others “anti-Semitic” is false libel of persons in no way anti-Semitic, with important perspectives. The “correct” speech carries us nowhere: [1] Israel is always right; [2] Israel’s critics are always wrong.
→ read full article(Italiano) La Storia del Passato. E il Futuro?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Dec 2012
Che idea meravigliosa, la storia della pace! Qualcosa su cui quasi tutti vorrebbero imparare, l’arte della pace! Come per la storia della salute, del cibo e dell’amore, anziché la storia delle guerre, delle malattie e della fame, dei generali, dei re e degli imperi. Si tratta della storia di qualcosa che può ispirare le persone, fra cui anche gli/le statisti/e, a far meglio.
→ read full articleUN: Two Empires Crumbling – And Then What?
Johan Galtung, 3 Dec 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Dec 2012
There is History in the UN 29 November 2012 vote: 138 YES to giving Palestine the UN status as “nonmember observer state”, only 9 NO, and 41 abstentions. Beyond Middle East politics the vote also mirrors the limits to the US global, and the Israeli regional, empires: 138 defy their grip and favor change, 41+9=50 do not, for various reasons. A crucial vote on a crucial issue is a crucial test. Who wants what?
→ read full article(Italian) Coltivare la Pace, Prevenire la Violenza…
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Nov 2012
… era il titolo del simposio al Virginia Tech di Blacksburg, Virginia-USA, dal 17 al 19.11.2012. Come si coltiva la pace? con la cooperazione a beneficio reciproco e uguale; armonia mediante empatia; conciliazione dei traumi, ripulendo il passato e costruendo un futuro; risolvendo i conflitti mediante le 3 C. Fattibile, possibile; mediante studi per la pace, con teoria e pratica.
→ read full articleThe History of the Past – And the Future?
Johan Galtung,
26 Nov 2012
The Glorious Art of Peace by John Gittings, NYC: Oxford University Press, 2012 – What a wonderful idea, the history of peace! Something most people want to learn about, the art of peace! Like the history of health, food and love, as opposed to the history of wars, illness and hunger, of generals, kings and empires. This is the history of something that can inspire people, statesmen-women among them, to do better.
→ read full article(Italian) Un Cambiamento a Washington?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
Da Washington, DC – 6 novembre 2012, notte dell’elezione. La democrazia USA è un sistema bipartitico che sta diventando uno stato monopartitico? Se è così, gli altri paesi stiano attenti! Non imitino. La democrazia è di più che solo elezioni. È anche trasparenza e dialogo. Per un reale cambiamento.
→ read full articleCultivating Peace, Preventing Violence…
Johan Galtung, 19 Nov 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Nov 2012
… was the title of the Symposium at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia-USA 17-19 Nov 2012. How do we cultivate peace? • through cooperation for mutual and equal benefit; • harmony through empathy; • traumas conciliation, clearing the past and building a future; • by solving conflicts through the 3 Cs. Feasible, possible; through peace studies, theory and practice.
→ read full article(Italian) La Crisi Finanziaria Europea: Germania/GIPSI
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2012
Una crisi così massiccia – con il sistema sanitario in Grecia al collasso e il 50% della gioventù spagnola disoccupata – richiede grandi cause.
→ read full article(Italian) Studi per la Pace Con Mezzi Pacifici
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Nov 2012
Gli studi per la pace sono importanti, tanto quanto quelli sulla salute. Nasciamo inclini a rifiutare la sofferenza, sia essa dovuta a violenza o a malattia, e a cercare il benessere, lo si chiami pace, o salute. Ma non nasciamo con la conoscenza e la competenza, la teoria e la pratica.
→ read full articleA Change in Washington?
Johan Galtung,
8 Nov 2012
Is the US democracy a two-party system becoming a one-party state? If so, other countries beware! Do not imitate. Democracy is more than just elections. It is also transparency and dialogue. For real change.
→ read full articlePeace Studies by Peaceful Means
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Nov 2012
Peace studies matter; same as health studies. We are born with the inclination to reject suffering, be it from violence or disease, and to seek wellbeing, call it peace, call it health. But we are not born with the knowledge and skills, theory and practice
→ read full article(Italian) Premio per la Pace: Nobel o Ignobel?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Oct 2012
Entrambi, naturalmente. Ben meritato per il passato e per le relazioni interne, nella tradizione dell’Occidente che premia l’Occidente. Ma i critici hanno ragione per quanto riguarda le relazioni esterne e il presente come la stretta debitoria dei cosiddetti Stati GIPSI –Grecia, Italia, Portogallo, Spagna, Irlanda- Periferia UE- verso la Germania.
→ read full articleThe European Finance Crisis: Germany/GIPSI
Johan Galtung,
29 Oct 2012
A crisis so massive–with the health network in Greece collapsing and 50 percent of Spanish youth unemployed–begs for big causes.
→ read full article(Italian) Guerre Balcaniche a 100: Quattro Strade Per Un Buon Vicinato
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Discorso programmatico, Istanbul, Università di Hacettepe, 4 ottobre 2012 – Gli imperi vanno e vengono. L’Impero musulmano Ottomano fu fra i migliori mentre quello cattolico iberico e quello protestante europeo furono fra i peggiori.
→ read full article(Italian) Turchia-Cipro-Kurdi-Armenia-SIRIA*
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Oct 2012
Questo non vuol dire affatto che la Turchia sia scevra di problemi; nessun paese lo è. Il punto focale qui è su quattro problemi che coinvolgono altre nazioni: i greci, i kurdi, gli armeni e le molte nazioni presenti in Siria. Una politica come al solito in paesi omogenei, senza soluzioni contemplanti le nazionalità, equivale a corteggiare il disastro. Va su una minoranza, conquista nicchie economiche-culturali e le maggioranze la metteranno a tacere con mezzi politico-militari; come gli armeni in Turchia, gli ebrei in Germania, i cinesi nel SudEst asiatico; Tutsi-Hutu.
→ read full articleThe Peace Prize: Nobel or Ignoble?
Johan Galtung, 18 Oct 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Oct 2012
Both, of course. Well deserved for EU’s past and for relations within, in the tradition of West rewarding West. But critics are right about relations without and the present; like debt bondage of GIPSI–Greece-Italy-Portugal-Spain-Ireland/EU periphery–to Germany.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Paz, Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento num Mundo Multi-Polar em Evolução
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
Palestra proferida no Conselho do Forum Social dos Direitos Humanos em Nova Iorque – 1 de outubro de 2012. O foco está no desenvolvimento centrado nas pessoas – em vez de no crescimento económico centrado no sistema.
→ read full article(Italian) Sociocidio, Israele e Palestina
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
Testimonianza per il Tribunale Russell sulla Palestine – NewYork City, 7 ottobre 2012 – Sociocidio è un nuovo concetto che non ha trovato posto nel diritto internazionale positivo. Come Genocidio e Ecocidio, il Sociocidio, l’eliminazione della capacità di una società di sopravvivere e riprodursi, dovrebbe ugualmente diventare un delitto preminente contro l’umanità. La Palestina è dunque vittima di sociocidio da parte di Israele? Decisamente!
→ read full articleBalkan Wars at 100: Four Roads to Good Neighborhood*
Johan Galtung,
15 Oct 2012
Keynote Speech, Istanbul, Hacettepe University, 4 Oct 2012 – How about a federal Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia?–all within an overarching Balkan Community, doing well on all four peace tasks, building symbiosis among its beautifully diverse parts? As model for Europe and the world? Balkans of all kinds, unite! You have only your self-pity to lose.
→ read full articleThe Muslim Diaspora in Europe and the USA
Johan Galtung et al* - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Oct 2012
By far the tallest diaspora in the world is Muslim: about 300 million, of them 177 M in India, 19 M in EU, 23 M in China, 16 M in Russia, and 2.6 M in the USA. This paper is about the Muslim social situation in two of the six poles: Europe and the USA.
→ read full articleTurkey – Cyprus – Kurds – Armenia – Syria*
Johan Galtung,
10 Oct 2012
Turkey is not problem-free; no country is. The focus here is on four problems involving other nations: the Greeks, the Kurds, the Armenians and the many nations in Syria. Politics as usual in homogeneous countries, with no solution for nationalities, is the same as courting disaster. A minority climbs up, conquers economic-cultural niches and the majorities will silence them politically-militarily; such as Armenians in Turkey, Jews in Germany, Chinese in Southeast Asia; Tutsis-Hutus.
→ read full articleSociocide, Palestine and Israel
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Oct 2012
Testimony for Russell Tribunal on Palestine – NYC, 7 Oct 2012 – Sociocide is a new concept that has not found its place in positive international law. Like Genocide and Ecocide, Sociocide, the killing of a society’s capacity to survive and to reproduce itself, should become equally and prominently a crime against humanity. A society is a self-reproducing social system. Is Palestine the victim of sociocide by Israel? Indeed!
→ read full articlePeace, Human Rights and Development in an Evolving World
Johan Galtung,
1 Oct 2012
Keynote Speech at the UN Human Rights Council SOCIAL FORUM – Oct 1, 2012. The focus is on people-centered development–as opposed to system-centered economic growth. And on globalization, a challenging process involving all states and regions, nations and civilizations, humans and nature–as opposed to a globalized market with only three free flows, of capital, goods and services, not labor; increasing the global economic gap.
→ read full articleFreedom of Expression = Freedom to Insult?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Oct 2012
There are two key human rights values in this confrontation:
freedom of expression–basic, but not the only value in the world;
freedom from insult and respect for the sacred–basic, but not alone.
Conflicts between two values generally have five outcomes:
A Day of Peace: For the Americas
Johan Galtung, 24 Sep 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Sep 2012
Straight to the key problem in the theory and practice of peace: Are we thinking of the negative peace of cease-fire and no violence (as distinct from nonviolence), or are we thinking of the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, empathy for emotional harmony, reconciliation of past traumas, and resolution capacity for an endless agenda of future conflicts? Are we thinking of using nonviolence? Or of persuading, or forcing, those with serious grievances to lay down their arms and reintegrate peacefully in civilian life?
→ read full articleSABONA: From Kindergarten to Geopolitics
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Sep 2012
Some global bullies invented a new play: the nuclear game. One child had the monopoly for some time, refusing to give it up to that big kindergarten called the UN. Then other children came, and more, and more. What to do? Give all the weapons to the UN for destruction and then celebrate their demise from earth.
→ read full article(Portuguese) O Mapa Hexagonal do Mundo Multipolar
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2012
Como é que enfrentamos, intelectualmente, o mundo de hoje?
→ read full articleUS National Defense Act and a Global Peace Agenda
Johan Galtung,
10 Sep 2012
The Democratic National Convention, DNC, floated into oblivion with no debate–Soviet style, hallelujah, amen–,with no mention of overt wars with 5-6 Muslim countries; of covert wars by drones and SEALs-US Navy’s Sea, Air and Land Teams with many others; and the war on terror. Like the Republican National Convention, RNC, squeezing out Ron Paul, who argued for no bases, no wars, no support to Israel. Nor was the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, visible.
→ read full articleAttacking Iran: A Disaster for the Region and the World
Johan Galtung,
3 Sep 2012
The Israeli attack seems imminent. Richard Silverstein circulates a leaked “shock and awe” strategy of Benjamin Netanyahu / Ehud Barak hard zionism to decapitate, paralyze Iran; and Alon Ben‑Meir, an expert on Middle East politics, says Israel is not bluffing. A Middle East nuclear free zone that would include Iran and Israel. 64 percent of Israelis are in favor; like in Iran, provided Israel participates. Negotiate an agreement of that type and there would be a sigh of relief all over!–and both countries would be embraced.
→ read full articleConspiracies: Theories and Hypotheses
Johan Galtung, 27 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Aug 2012
Conspiracies exist. They are a part of social reality, have always been, and will always be; as confirmed conspiracy theories, as unconfirmed conspiracy hypotheses, as suspicions, as allegations. The conspiracy-labeling carries all the characteristics of a conspiracy, using the cultural power of the media to steer the discourse away from important issues. Unacceptable.
→ read full articleHamsun, Ibsen, and Their Utopias
Johan Galtung,
20 Aug 2012
We are celebrating the two greatest Norwegian poets in this beautiful town they had in common. Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) had his farm here, and Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was apprentice in an apothecary. And you have given me the honor of concluding this festival with some words about their relevance for our world today.
→ read full article(Italian) La Mappa Esagonale del Mondo Multipolare
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Aug 2012
Qualche tempo fa la mappa geopolitica si basava sul conflitto diretto Est-Ovest, sulle due super-potenze USA/URSS e rispettive alleanze, con i neutrali-nonallineati trattati da categoria residuale. Il mondo era bipolare. L’implosione dell’URSS lo rese unipolare, con l’”unica super-potenza sopravvissuta”: 2-1 = 1. O così ci fu raccontato. Oggi abbiamo quattro stati molto grandi: i tre maggiori per popolazione, Cina-India-USA, e il maggiore per superficie, Russia. E la UE, regione con cinque stati di media grandezza: UK-Francia-Germania-Italia-Spagna. Ma c’è un altro polo sulla mappa geopolitica: l’Islam.
→ read full articleThe Hexagon Map of the Multipolar World
Johan Galtung, 13 Aug 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Aug 2012
Some time ago the geopolitical map was based on the direct East-West conflict, the two superpowers USA/USSR with alliances, and the neutral-nonaligned treated as a residual category. The world was Bipolar. The implosion of the USSR made it Unipolar, “the only surviving superpower”, 2-1 = 1. Or so we were told. Today we have four huge states: the three largest in population, China-India-USA, and the largest in area, Russia. And the EU, a region with five middle-range states: UK-France-Germany-Italy-Spain. But there is one more pole on the geopolitical map: Islam.
→ read full articleThe Nordic Countries in a World in Crisis
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Knowing that India and China can meet alone the world’s demand for industrial goods at higher quality/price ratios, and that the South is able to fulfill a world demand for resources and agricultural products, one Western approach was to switch from real to finance economy. Building on the old City of London-Wall Street traditions in private banking and using debt bondage as power, cheap credit and speculation has been another approach, but it backfired.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Willy Brandt Vinte Anos Depois
Johan Galtung, Forum Abel Varzim – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Aug 2012
Morreu há já vinte anos, o grande estadista alemão. A Alemanha, a Europa e o mundo têm amplos motivos de gratidão e muito a aprender com este mestre da política, em condições de grande tensão e polarização. O que era a sua “Ostpolitik” – uma nova fórmula de política para com o Leste? Ele tornou a Alemanha de Leste razoável, ao ser ele próprio razoável. Brandt tornou possível o Kohl de 1989.
→ read full articleThe Politics of the Economic Crisis
Johan Galtung, 30 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
The transfer of capital from investment in the real economy to speculation in the finance economy done digitally, in microseconds, is to a labor-free economy. Workers, the plague of industrial capitalists, quarrelsome, on strike, always demanding more, are out. The longer the buying and selling chains in the finance economy, the more commissions-and hence, “economic growth”-, the fewer jobs. A handful can do it; Lehman Brothers taking huge risks that are compensated by huge Goldman Sachs bonuses.
→ read full article(Italian) Non Molta Pace? Anche Colpa Dei Mediatori
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Jul 2012
Più difficile è sostenere una pace positiva: cooperazione per vantaggi reciproci e uguali e armonia, consonanza emotiva. Gli studi per la pace non sono soli in questa difficile situazione. Gli studi sulla sanità si concentrano molto più sull’assenza di malattia che sulla presenza di salute positiva, con solo vaghi sforzi per configurarla esplicitamente. Come la psicologia: profusa sui disordini mentali, ma tuttora carente sull’assetto psicologico positivo. Si possono individuare quattro spiegazioni, non giustificazioni.
→ read full articleNot Much Peace? Also the Mediators’ Fault
Johan Galtung, 23 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jul 2012
Most difficult is to argue positive peace: cooperation for mutual and equal benefit and harmony, emotional resonance. Peace studies are not alone in this predicament. Health studies focus much more on absence of disease than on presence of positive health, with only vague efforts to spell it out. Like psychology: long on mental disorders, but still short on positive psychology. There are, say, four explanations, not justifications, around.
→ read full article(Italian) Willy Brandt 20 Anni Dopo
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
È morto vent’anni fa, il grande statista tedesco. La Germania, l’Europa e il mondo hanno ampi motivi di riconoscenza e molto da imparare da questo maestro di politica in condizioni di gran tensione e polarizzazione. Che cos’era la sua formula di Ostpolitik – una nuova politica verso l’Est? Brandt rese più facile alla Germania dell’Est la resa a quella Ovest quando i tempi furono maturi, l’accettazione dell’articolo 23 della Germania Federale che concepiva l’Est come parte dell’Ovest.
→ read full articleBreivik: A Part of Norwegian Reality (Part III)
Johan Galtung, 16 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jul 2012
The court gave him a podium to broadcast his views, nationally and internationally. Of course he had his right to tell his version, the ‘what’ and ‘why’. But he had confessed and horrible details added little to the worst misdeed in Norwegian history. The open court process could have been limited to one week. And the incapability of both sides of the psychiatric divide to reflect what political conflict polarization does to people is not a court issue. And Norway has to come to grips with what happened.
→ read full article(Italian) Dalla Westphalia alla Weltinnenpolitik
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jul 2012
Il mondo come sistema di stati, il sistema Vestfalia del 24 ottobre 1684, sta giungendo al termine. Un holon pieno di contraddizioni. Per cui la guerra era un diritto (se dichiarata) e il perseguimento degli interessi della nazione dominante in ciascuno stato era la regola. Con le colonie gli europei conquistarono terre e persone; e come imperi comandarono attraverso le elite locali.
→ read full articleWilly Brandt Twenty Years Later
Johan Galtung,
9 Jul 2012
He died twenty years ago, the great German statesman. Germany, Europe and the world have much to be grateful about, and much to learn from this master of politics under great tension and polarization. What was his Ostpolitik–new politics toward the East–formula? Brandt made it easier for East Germany when time was ripe to capitulate to the West, to accept the West’s Article 23 that conceived of East as a part of West. He made the DDR-Deutsche Demokratische Republik reasonable by being reasonable himself. Brandt made Kohl 1989 possible.
→ read full articleFrom Westphalia to Weltinnenpolitik
Johan Galtung, 2 Jul 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2012
The world as a state-system, the Westphalia system of 24 October 1648, is coming to an end. A holon filled with contradictions. Thus, war was a right–if declared–and the pursuit of the interests of the dominant nation in each state the rule. European conquered others, as colonies, land and people; and as empires ruling through local elites. A major contradiction with many collapsing after WWII, the Soviet empire in 1990-1, and now there is only the declining US empire left.
→ read full articleItaly: A Portrait
Erika Degortes and Johan Galtung,
25 Jun 2012
For quite some time now reading Italian newspapers or listening to news and radio broadcasts turned into an insult not only to information itself but to all Italians. National television channels are literally monopolized by football and all kinds of weather apocalyptic scenarios. In Italy the system of censorship is very sophisticated: they just talk about anything else, the discourse goes astray.
→ read full articleBreivik: Living In the Historical Present (Part II)
Johan Galtung, 18 Jun 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
The police explores concrete logistic collaborators and-or ideological support; like Peter Mangs in Sweden, the “laser man” who killed what looked like immigrants, wrote a rightwing manifesto and an autobiography; or “Fjordman” with 111 mentions. Breivik was a member of a Norwegian rightwing anti-immigration party, Fremskrittspartiet–a legal stand in a democracy–but left. He also left the Free Masons, with the following Compendium comment:
→ read full article
Rational Conflict Resolution: What Stands in the Way? (Video of the Week)
Johan Galtung | World Peace Academy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jun 2012
Lecture by Prof. Johan Galtung at the World Peace Academy – Basel, Switzerland, 7 Jun 2012
→ read full articleThe Arab Spring and the Image of Islam
Johan Galtung, 11 Jun 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2012
Europe has a right to limit its immigration. But once there, as citizens, there is only one way: the rule of law, human rights and democracy. And democracy is more than elections: no discrimination, tolerance, transparency, dialogue of civilizations, based on respect and a minimum of knowledge, engaging in mutual learning.
→ read full articleBreivik: A Victim of Collective Psychosis (Part I)
Johan Galtung,
4 Jun 2012
Polarization-escalation is part of conflict dynamics; structuring the attitudinal and behavioral space within and around the victim in an “us vs them” dichotomy. This gives identity and meaning to “us”, and monolithic, evil, unity to “them”. Within the poles all relations are positive, between all are negative; essentializing both. Not only is “us” cohesive, everything mutually supportive, but so is “them”; not only are the poles irreconcilably contradictory, but so are all elements in “us” to all in “them”. Black-white is the world.
→ read full articleNeither Capitalism nor Socialism: Eclecticism
Johan Galtung,
28 May 2012
The following are notes for an epilogue to a forthcoming book, Peace Economics, about how to overcome the flagrant structural violence in the misery crisis, and the threat of direct violence, not only terrorism and state terrorism, but a major world war to get the West out of the system–like the Second World War lifted them out of the Great Depression.
→ read full articleDire la Guerre, Penser la Paix
Johan Galtung, 21 May 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2012
Important is not only to think peace, but to speak, write and contribute to making, building and keeping it. War is a social evil, causing untold suffering like slavery, colonialism, patriarchy, preventable-curable diseases; soon to join the others in the cemetery for social evils. And talk about “just war” is like talking about just slavery, just colonialism, just patriarchy, and disease as God’s or Nature’s cleansing humanity of those unfit for salvation-survival.
→ read full articleRational Conflict Resolution: What Stands In the Way? (*)
Johan Galtung,
14 May 2012
Six conflicts, four current, one past and one future are shaping our present reality. Conflict is a relation of incompatibility between parties; not an attribute of one party. It spells danger of violence and opportunity to create new realities. Humanity has vast positive and negative experiences. We should all join building on them, wherever they can be found.
→ read full articleThe Politics of Equality
Johan Galtung,
7 May 2012
The less inequality, the easier to sit down and talk it over, or accept a mediator. The less inequality, the easier to clear past traumas, to reconcile. The less inequality, the easier to solve conflicts by trading or compromise, or transcending the issues, finding something new. The less inequality, the easier some cooperation for mutual and equal benefit can come about. The less inequality, the easier for empathy to grow, making parties suffer the other’s suffering, and enjoy the other’s joy. These four–reconciliation, resolution, equity, harmony–are not conditions for peace. They ARE peace.
→ read full articleMemories Conscious and Subconscious
Johan Galtung, 30 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2012
Two kinds of memories serve politics: glories and traumas. The glories–victory, liberation, constitution–are celebrated as the birth of a nation. The traumas–defeat, invasion-occupation, decline and fall–are surrounded with the oath NEVER AGAIN! We are guided not only by future goals, but also by past memories. They set the discourse, the frame for what happens. Anybody attacking the USA on US territory invokes Pearl Harbor; 9/11 is then sedimented on top of that, tripling the response should there ever be one more. Better know the wounds imprinted on the collective soul
→ read full articleUSA-Pakistan-Afghanistan: A Global Perspective
Johan Galtung,
24 Apr 2012
Pakistan can probably only survive as a federation with very much autonomy for the parts, and as part of a Central Asian community with eight Muslim neighbors. The more open the border the more will the Durand wound heal, not by Pakistan or Afghanistan yielding territory to the other, or a new Pashtunistan, but more creatively. And that region will be more interested in good relations with China–already owner of enormous resources in Afghanistan–than with the USA.
→ read full articleContinuities in US History
Johan Galtung,
16 Apr 2012
We sense a theme: no recognition of collective actors with a cause. Conflict is seen as rebellion-insurgency-treason of individuals, perhaps with leaders (get them!). A theme inherited from the English: wherever they invaded and occupied, they were law and order and legitimacy; any resistance was insurgency. Up till today, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia. When resistance is equated with rebellion, insurgency and treason, then peacemaking becomes very difficult. There is nobody to sit down with to talk it over, to search for solutions; only rebellious individuals.
→ read full articleWhat Do You Want USA, Up or Down?
Johan Galtung, 9 Apr 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2012
One wonders what the US political leaders want. The incumbent lives in this world, playing an ultra-realist game: extra-judicial executions in maybe 70 countries, drone attacks; minimizing US losses, maximizing direct hits at what he sees as the problem, concrete identified individuals, not concrete unidentified conflicts. He has neither the moral nor the intellectual courage to do that.
→ read full articleThe Face of the Crisis – And Alternatives
Johan Galtung, 26 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2012
The trade in derivatives is now at $1 quadrillion a year (15 zeros), ten times the industrial economy of the whole 20th century. Many got rich, but the system collapsed. Maybe prison would have been more adequate for intellectual sloppiness? That equation is a part of the closed paradigm of economism. Does it offer a solution, not only for banks and bankers, but for the bottom 99.9%? The 0.1%/99.9% income ratio USA 2007 was 140; an unbelievable inequality, both cause and effect of the crisis.
→ read full articleSyria
Johan Galtung,
19 Mar 2012
The search could be for solutions, not for the solution. UN-supported facilitators, with knowledge of mediation, rather than with guns and binoculars. To do this, let the parties, outside and inside Syria, talk. Let them state their goals, the Syria they would like to see. What comes to mind is a Swiss solution. One Syria, federal, with local autonomy, even down to the village level, with Sunnis, Shias and Kurds having relations to their own across the borders. And non-aligned, which rules out foreign bases and flows of arms.
→ read full articlePeace Mathematics – Does It Exist?
Johan Galtung, 12 Mar 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Mar 2012
It does, even in print; pardon some publicity! You may start at the end with the table of contents, then, here, the book epilogue:
Enthusiast E and Skeptic S: Dialogue at a Higher Level:
S: I worried that you would put something belonging to all of us, peace, into a big machine with parameters and then the machine would produce outputs about what to do. Like economists do with something belonging to us, our own livelihood. I liked your distinction between equations and formulas, between mathematics and mathematese…
From Empire to Global Fascism
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Mar 2012
A disconnect between speech and action is Obama’s trade mark. A key to his global fascism: instead of acknowledging wrongs of US foreign policy, he hides his extra-judicial killings with drones and JSOC’s (Joint Special Operations Command) in, maybe, 120 countries. Covert, CIA, less overt, Pentagon; with little Congress control. JSOC has been operating an extra-legal “kill-capture” campaign that a former counterinsurgency adviser calls “an almost industrial scale counterterrorism killing machine”.
→ read full articleJapan’s Spiritual Crisis
Johan Galtung, 27 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2012
This author published with Ikuro Anzai, ‘Nippon wa Kikikan’, Is Japan in a Crisis? And the answer was yes, a spiritual crisis. Japan sold its soul to Washington, and is left in a spiritual vacuum; neither US nor Japan. Walking through the marvelous bullet train, Shinkansen, only sad, grey, tired faces; no laughter, no enhancing conversation seen or heard.
→ read full articleTen Questions for Coming Leaders China-USA
Johan Galtung,
21 Feb 2012
Well, Japan fears something, probably what Western aggressors fear too: Of course, we never did anything wrong, but one day they may come and treat us the way we treated them. China has as a principle not to confront the USA, and has attacked neither Japan nor the US; the latter are the ones that attacked China. Hence, a little et tu Brute, watch yourself, may be useful in identifying key world problems.
→ read full articleIsrael-USA vs Iran: Talk Peace!
Johan Galtung, 13 Feb 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Feb 2012
When Israelis were asked “what would be better: for both Israel and Iran to have the bomb, or for neither to have it, 65 percent of Israeli Jews said neither. And a remarkable 64 percent favored the idea of a nuclear-free zone, even when it was explained that this would mean Israel giving up its nuclear weapons.” (IHT, 16 Jan 2012). Vox populi vox Dei.
→ read full articleA Light in Algerian Darkness: Mourad Dhina 6 Feb 2007
Johan Galtung,
6 Feb 2012
On Sunday, 15 January 2012, French minister of foreign affairs, Alain Juppé, met Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence in Rangoon and decorated her with the insignia of Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. The day after, January 16th, the men of the French minister of interior, Claud Guéant, arrested in Paris the Algerian political figure and human rights defender Mourad Dhina. So similar conflicts, so similar resistants but very different French treatment.
→ read full articleArne Næss: The Next Hundred Years
Johan Galtung,
31 Jan 2012
Oslo, 27 January 2012 – Norway’s by no comparison greatest philosopher was born one hundred years ago today, and died close to the age of 97. A world philosopher, a human being with an incredible radiation. Nobody who came close remained the same. What was his basic theme? In one word: nonviolence, but in a broader and deeper sense than most approaching demanding idea.
→ read full articleThose Poor, Moody Standards
Johan Galtung, 23 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2012
What are the three credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch–95 percent of the rating “industry”–about? Not very transparent, yet “Standard & Poor’s: silent but deadly” (El País, 16 Jan 2012), stimulates some reflections.
→ read full articleDavos: The 1% World
Johan Galtung, 16 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Jan 2012
How are the 1%’ers going to handle the country that has attacked more other countries and peoples than any other, and mainly in defense of a special type of hyper-connection: hyper-capitalism? It still has a monopoly on the world reserve currency exercised by a club of private banks, among them the worst culprits in the finance economy coup, the Federal Reserve. How are they going to handle the US hold on the rating agencies? And the growing inequality, from comfortable seats at the top? Answer: the same way as feudal aristocracy in France in the 18th century; by not handling it.
→ read full article(Italian) Chi Era Gesù?
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
La chiesa non era strapiena come soleva esserlo per la messa di mezzanotte alla vigilia di Natale. Ma il rituale si svolse come era stato fatto per secoli, attorno alla “piccola bibbia” di Giovanni 3:16, “Perché Dio amava il mondo tanto da dare il suo unico Figlio cosicché ognuno che creda in lui non perirà ma avrà vita eterna”.
→ read full articleWhere Are We Heading?
Johan Galtung, 9 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Jan 2012
The clouds are dark. And we sense one on the horizon, black; a point so far. The name of the cloud: using a major war, even with Russia-China, to revive an economy in depression; destroying capital, rebuilding.
→ read full article2012: The Davids and the Goliaths
Johan Galtung, 2 Jan 2012 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
So, what is the message? Davids all over the world unite, you have only your goliaths to lose? Something like that, but with a major proviso: use david’s nonviolent slingshots. David knew what he wanted, so did Goliath: to slay each other. We have had enough of that. Smartness yes, but nonviolent, and of the positive variety, taking in, not only on, the adversary. Let the Icelands and Argentines teach them how to get their economies in order. Reduce the armor; save! Get down from nine feet to normal.
→ read full articleTen Social Justice Trends Changing the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2012
Global Trends:
[1] The Decline and Fall of the US Empire; [2] The Decline of the West; [3] The Decline of States and Rise of Regions; [4] The Rise of the Rest; [5] The Rise of China.
Social Trends:
[6] The Rise of Nations; [7] The Rise of Civil Society; [8] The Rise of Youth; [9] The Rise of Women; [10] The Rise of Inequality and Revolts.
Who Was Jesus?
Johan Galtung, 26 Dec 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2011
Jesus rejected the finance system in the Jerusalem temple, encouraged tax boycott, and had disciples-apostles from a caste known for violence. He enters with the disciples the enormous 262mx262m temple, carefully divided into sections also for non-Jews, only for Jews, also for women, only for men, only for priests and the Most Holy. He overthrew the tables of the money exchangers and seems to have propagated a very concrete political message about the Jewish people in a federally structured country, independent of Rome, with apostles as political leaders. When asked by Pontius “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “Yes, it is as you say” (Mark 15,2). INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeorum), Jesus from Nazareth, the King of Jews they wrote ironically, but that may have been exactly how he saw himself. This is politics.
→ read full articleRight Wing Extremism? Or Fascism?
Johan Galtung,
19 Dec 2011
That is what the “peace” of Westphalia was about in 1648: the right to kill, provided the war was declared. Like Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan, with a mandate from a democratic country and from NATO. There are disturbing reports from them, “combat is better than sex”, fascinated with that mandate to kill, comparisons with the Vikings. Making psychiatry a state servant turns it as useless as the security police.
→ read full articlePoor USA: What a Choice!
Johan Galtung, 12 Dec 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2011
The Occupy Movement is a sign of US sanity. Leaderless makes it less vulnerable, immensely consciousness-raising, not insisting on any one single analysis or remedy–for the time being. People so concerned that they sacrifice some personal comfort–gaining togetherness and a sense of meaning, a gift for a democracy. The Occupy Movement becomes a movement to revive a dying economy, creating thousands of small enterprises, banks for savings, not speculation. They start a parallel society.
→ read full articleThree Crises – Three Ideas
Johan Galtung,
5 Dec 2011
The formula is to raise the bottom, and that can only be done by their own work, it has never been in the interest of the top 1 percent. The root cause is rampant capitalism pumping liquidity upward, sinking the masses into poverty, even misery, and turning the upper 1 permil into speculators. The real economy does not work for lack of acquisitive power, and the finance economy works so well that the gap between money value and created value leads to one crash after the other. Speculation, as opposed to investment with commitment, should be treated as a crime, with names revealed. Moreover, the vast suffering should trigger action, not finance ratings.
→ read full articleThe Arab Revolt – What Next?
Johan Galtung,
28 Nov 2011
It changes character, like in quantum mechanics, just by watching. The French revolution did that in the late 1780s-early 1790s. However, spring is gone, revolt is in, but so far not revolution. There are layers of rulers and layers of opposition. Unveiling has started.
→ read full articleKashmir-Afghanistan-Central Asia
Johan Galtung,
21 Nov 2011
Your Excellencies: I am deeply honored and grateful for the Abdul Ghaffar Khan International Peace-Builder Award; named after the Frontier Gandhi, the Muslim Gandhi, Badshah Khan, a hero of the anti-colonial struggle from 1930. He saw nonviolence as “a weapon from the Prophet”, rooted in the Qur’an. I met him once–a giant in more than one sense–viewing with sharp eyes an inconsequential peace conference unfolding in New Delhi, in 1970. A model for us all, like Gandhi.
→ read full articleThe Bad in the Good and the Good in the Bad
Johan Galtung, 14 Nov 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Nov 2011
(Same as last week. -TMS editor) The world is ambiguous, with forces and counter-forces, for good and for bad. Contradiction is the rule, with bad in the good and good in the bad, etc. And there are verbal contradictions; there is the opinion, and the other opinion, as Al Jazeera says, valid and invalid, whether such verbal debates reflect non-verbal contradictions or not. Thus, this column and author reap counter-arguments, and any author should be grateful to opponents. What can I learn? Factual mistakes? Logical? How to be so clear as to avoid misunderstandings? Or state assumptions, like ambiguity?
→ read full articleThe Bad in the Good and the Good in the Bad
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Nov 2011
The world is ambiguous, with forces and counter-forces, for good and for bad. Contradiction is the rule, with bad in the good and good in the bad, etc. And there are verbal contradictions; there is the opinion, and the other opinion, as Al Jazeera says, valid and invalid, whether such verbal debates reflect non-verbal contradictions or not. Thus, this column and author reap counter-arguments, and any author should be grateful to opponents. What can I learn? Factual mistakes? Logical? How to be so clear as to avoid misunderstandings? Or state assumptions, like ambiguity?
→ read full articleMexico, te quiero!
Johan Galtung, 31 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Oct 2011
What a blessed geography; the major bi-oceanic country in Latin America! The winds are blowing from Asia: winds of hope, with a Japanese-Chinese model of how to overcome misery. The winds of the Arab Spring are blowing from the Middle East carrying whispers of an African Spring in a year or two. The winds are blowing from the South, from Latin American brothers and sisters, new winds, with the voices of the indigenous, of Mother Nature, of lifting the poor, of patient work for integration. The “Rest” is coming.
→ read full articleColombia Revisited: Ultra-Stability!
Johan Galtung, 24 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2011
Ultra-stability: institutionalized structural violence, and ritualized warfare; legitimized by multi-party democracy licensed to exploit and kill if only the parliament agrees. The narco-traffic finances poor and rich. The violence follows the flow of US arms and money, with a counter-flow of drugs, paying good commissions when the drugs change hands. End consumption mainly in the USA. Or destruction, being selling-buying drugs, like derivatives?
→ read full articleThe Economic Crisis: Seven Proposals
Johan Galtung, 17 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Lift the bottom up through stimuli, bail-out the worst hit, let incompetent institutions sink. What we are doing is the opposite: not only bailing out but stimulating, rewarding incompetence and greed, letting the bottom sink further. Massive revolts are the optimistic reading. Massive suffering is realistic, and already here. And the most pessimistic reading: the continuation of the same doomed politics.
→ read full articleThe World Moves South and East
Johan Galtung, 17 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Oct 2011
Please join me in a spiritual West-South-East move. We know the landscapes: the abrahamic religions (judaism-christianity-islam) in the Occident, the hindu conglomerate in the middle, and the buddhist space spanning the Orient, as buddhism alone or with daoism and confucianism in East Asia. What are some key messages?
→ read full articleAfghan and German Deep Cultures at War
Johan Galtung, 10 Oct 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Oct 2011
Let Afghans be Afghans. Hold the Swiss model high. Let muslims help muslims. Stop the nonsense about running the world from Central Asia; let central Asians find their own form. Germany has a message, and it is Article 23, unification; by Schengen borders. And Martin Luther’s preface to the first printed Qur’an, in Latin, Basel 1541.
→ read full articleAnd Then the Decline and Fall of China?
Johan Galtung,
3 Oct 2011
Talk given in Beijing at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, 27 Sep 2011 – Yet a rule is written in the stars: nothing human is forever. There is an organic curve: birth-rise-peak-decline-fall. China is human if at a higher level: the comparative advantage of China is not cheap labor or such economisms but the culture, drawing on the san fa, the three teachings of daoism-confucianism-buddhism. The Occident would have been much better off drawing on judaism-christianity-islam and secularism instead of wasting time fighting each other to death.
→ read full article(Italian) Libia Scontata
Johan Galtung – Il Manifesto,
3 Oct 2011
La rivolta scatenata dai ribelli di Bengasi contro Gheddafi è parte di un disegno neo-imperiale condotto in prima fila dalla Nato e dall’Europa per assumere il controllo delle risorse del Nordafrica.
→ read full article(Portuguese) Dez Teses Sobre Dez Anos Perdidos
Johan Galtung, 12 Set 11 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Tese 9: A República dos EUA, pela sua reação ao 11/9, acelerou muito seu processo de auto destruição. Os Patriot Acts I e II, a vigilância implacavel da população americana e outras, torturas e rendições extraordinárias, tudo isto destrói o espírito democrático de dentro para fora, além da destruição da economia por três guerras extremamente caras. (teses 2-4).
→ read full articleA (North) East Asian Community
Johan Galtung, 26 Sep 2011 - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Sep 2011
Northeast Asia Peace and Development Forum. Dalian, China, 24 Sep 11 – There is the negative peace of reconciliation after the traumas of the past and mediating ongoing conflicts; and the positive peace of cooperation for mutual and equal benefit, harmony, and integration-fusion. Across this diverse geographical-historical-cultural space there is an East Asian similarity: social-economic human rights first, civil-political later–the Chinese “opening up”. Any (N)EAC would search for cooperation with the USA on equal terms, including observer status; but by no stretch of imagination is it a (North)East Asian country. The times when the USA could also claim membership in Latin America, Europe and Asia are gone.
→ read full articleJapan, Article 9 and the Self-Defense Forces
Johan Galtung,
19 Sep 2011
How about a fourth possible use of Self-Defense Forces, as a nonviolent peace force? Without arms, of course, protecting civilians, accompanying them, based on solid training, exercises, courage? They might even be superior to nonmilitary often short on those three. Disaster relief, development, defensive defense, nonviolent peace force–all preferably reciprocal–could transform the military on the way to its abolition, like in the 30 states without armies. Add training in reconciliation, mediation and peace-building and Japan would have a formidable peace force.
→ read full article9/11: Ten Theses on Ten Lost Years
Johan Galtung,
12 Sep 2011
9/11 itself set the tone for the decade: violence as a tool of politics backfires. The media reported war-violence with no analysis, no proposals. The economic contradictions accumulated, as did military non-victories, increasing non-attention, and increasing lack of faith in the USA as “exceptional”. The magic was gone.
→ read full articleWe Have Been Here Before
Johan Galtung,
29 Aug 2011
At the time of writing what BBC and NATO call the Final Chapter is being written in the Libya-Gaddafi tragedy. Like the final chapter for Yugoslavia-Milosevic, for Afghanistan-Omar, for Iraq-Saddam, for War on Terror-bin Laden; get The Bad One. There will come more final chapters in this neo-crusade. Like in the 1090s crusade, orthodox christians were also target of their “mission”.
→ read full articleThe Decline of the West?
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Aug 2011
The basic G8-G20 mistake: obsessed with saving the banks through bailouts, they did not save people through stimulus. Learn from China: enter communities with the public-private-civil-technical sectors, jointly making mini-companies for basic needs–food and water, clothes and housing, clinics and schools–employing the most needy. A communist uplift from misery, and an increase in their buying power in the capitalist economy. Capi-communism. Rather decline than learning from China? Then, so be it.
→ read full article7/22: From Violence to Peace Culture (1)
Johan Galtung,
15 Aug 2011
Dear World Humanist Congress Participants, Fellow Humanists: We believe in the primacy of human life and we believe in rationality. Violence is contempt for life as our poet Nordahl Geieg puts it. You have chosen as the theme of this conference “Humanism and Peace”, and chosen me–rightly or wrongly considered by many the father of peace studies–to deliver this address “From Lack of Realism to Conflict Resolution”.
→ read full article