HOW TO OVERCOME THE KEY OBSTACLES TO NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

There are three major issues concerning nuclear weapons, all very difficult: disarmament-nonproliferation, military use, and theological significance. But there is a universal remedy: solve the underlying conflicts. Achieving disarmament through peace is much easier than achieving peace through disarmament.

A FUTURE WORLD OF REGIONS

The US Empire is declining and leaving a power vacuum. China will not fill the gap, nor the European Union (EU) with its recent experience of how colonialism ended. The state system is also fading, with regions gaining in importance.

HAS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE BECOME A WAR PRIZE?

In George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother issues the infamous slogan, "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength." Is that where we have now arrived?

CAUCASUS: THE POWDER KEG

The Caucasus is today a major theatre of the Cold War II, which involves the long-term encirclement of Russia-India-China in order to control Eurasia through the eastward expansion of NATO and the westward expansion of AMPO, the US-Japan security system, writes Johan Galtung, a Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a peace and development network, and author of \"50 Years: 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,\" TRANSCEND University Press, 2008. In this article, Galtung writes that the US is pressing for Georgian membership in NATO, thereby coming even closer to the Russian heartland. This idea was rejected at the latest NATO meeting this spring, but not in principle. The Red Army functioned as the lid on the cauldron of the Soviet Union, and when it was removed, it boiled over. Georgia is the same. With the lid gone, Abkhasia and South Ossetia (and the Muslim Ajar) seceded. The most viable option may be a Caucasian Community, comprised of the four entities. Peace in the Caucasus implies disinviting the big powers and engaging in integrative Caucasian policies. The present policies lead away from peace. A Georgian government trying to gain popular support by reclaiming \"lost\" territories, hoping for some kind of US support, has already aggravated the situation - possibly leading to a major confrontation. Some statesmanship, please.

HOUSING, FOOD, OIL – WHAT NEXT?

At the bottom of the world economy people die from hunger and preventable curable diseases while at the top, where enormous quantities of wealth are transported upwards, particularly into US hands, speculation is the twin of starvation, both offspring of the same morbid, and probably moribund, system, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, Galtung writes that in the history of speculation, Black Tulip fever in Amsterdam four centuries ago and gold-gold-gold topped the chart. But these were innocent compared to the speculation found now in housing, food, and oil, which are for buying-selling only, not for end consumption. Moreover, and much worse, housing, food, and oil are basic needs. Basic needs are ideal for speculation because demand to a large extent is inelastic, independent of price. Unbelievably brutal, capitalism not only exploits workers but also kills the consumers, in the name of the market. Next in line as speculation targets are health and medical services, and not only the pharmaceuticals. Watch out, the logic is clear. What is the solution? Remove basic needs from the commodity market, and criminalise speculation in them.

COLD WAR I AND II – SOLUTIONS ANYONE?

Cold War I came and went, and then, in the mid-1990s, Cold War II began, building on the ruins of Cold War I and now gathering strength, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies, founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this analysis, Galtung writes that the Cold War ended because of the non-aligned Helsinki process (1972-75) initiated by Finnish President Kekkonen and because people\'s movements turned against the governments. The Final Act of Helsinki 1975 confirmed borders in Eastern Europe, initiated a mixed economy through investment in the East, and a turn toward human rights in the Soviet Union - all useful. And so the Cold War withered away, devoid of real issues, with no winners and no losers. Solutions today? A Helsinki-style conference. Declare an end - no winner, no loser. The US empire collapses like the Soviet did, and then blossoms. A mixed economy is already there, social if not democratic. Democracy and human rights with self-determination are on the world agenda, in the West too with its numerous Tibets. What we need are non-aligned countries. And massive people\'s movements. Are they coming?

THE DEMOCRATIC ILLUSION

Democracy is about people choosing leaders who are accountable to the people. So, what kind of leaders do we choose? In the Western democracies, they are not too impressive, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. Each country has a \"deep culture and deep structure\" that guides it, sedimented in the collective mind and history. The USA, doomed to lead the Good against the Evil, stopped the time machine at the end of World War II with US hegemony at a peak, intent on eliminating all challengers of the status quo. Take China, a subtle deep culture of good in evil and evil in good, but which stopped the time machine millennia ago with China as the Middle Kingdom surrounded by Barbarians. Add Russia\'s deep culture of the sleeping giant with periodic bursts of energy, or India\'s, the cradle and crossroad of civilisations, and we have four pathologies more dangerous than any individual president. Better a crazy head of state of a country that finds its equitable place in the world as one among others than the normal leader of a crazy nation.

THE MISSILE SHIELD AND COLD WAR II

Cold War II started when US President Clinton expanded NATO eastward, up to the border of the old Soviet Union and extended the US-Japan mutual security treaty westward to include Taiwan and South Korea, a clear breach of the Japanese constitution\'s ban on waging war, writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, Galtung writes that the US has 700 bases in 130 countries. The result is the encirclement of the half of humanity, which in response organised the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which has six members (China, Russia, and four Central Asian Muslim republics) and three observers (India, Pakistan and Iran). It looks ominous and ominous it is. Enter a third force: Islam, which was also confronted by the US using 9/11 as rationale. There are no Muslim countries in NATO-AMPO but six in SCO, of which the USA has a problem with Iran. Why? The 1953 CIA-MI6 coup that ousted a legally-elected prime minister and ushered in 25 years of dictatorship. There is a simple way out: apologise for 1953. The cost: the admission that we - USA-UK - can make mistakes. The benefit: an end of Iran-USA problem. Instead, the US made NATO members accept a \"defence\" against \"only\" nuclear-tipped Iranian missiles, to be stationed in the Czech Republic and Poland. Wouldn\'t solving the conflict be better?

ECONOMIC CRISIS – CAPITALISM AS USUAL

Every day we hear what sounds like old news about the economic crisis, and as usual the crisis is for the rich and involves the \"economy\" as an impersonal system; there is no mention of the misery that exists at the bottom of that \"system\", writes Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies, is Founder of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. In this article, the author writes that underlying most of the current financial crisis is speculation, another expression of a sick economy that drives wealth upward so that people founder at the bottom but swim in liquidity at the top. When the real economy is sluggish, the wealthy turn to sectors that are growing quickly, flooding them with money and creating bubbles - the housing market today, just as it was the dot-com world a few years ago. People have poured money into housing partly to live, partly to speculate, only to see the bubble burst and lose money and their houses. The banks, in contrast, which have in cases acted criminally, are rewarded with bail-outs. The people, most of whom are honest, are punished for the misdeeds of the banks. This is abominable. Where is the outrage? Where are Obama and Clinton? But the name of the system is capital-ism, not human-ism. Capitalists benefits, not humans. Time to change that system.

PARTNERSHIP, NOT DOMINANCE: VOICE OF ANOTHER AMERICA

It is time that US foreign policy be based on the principles upon which the US claims it was founded: democracy, equality, fairness, and the rule of law, not the rule of men, write Johan Galtung, professor of peace studies and founder and co- director of TRANSCEND: A Network for Peace and Development (www.transcend.org), and Marilyn Langlois, chair of TRANSCEND-USA. In this article, the authors write that the basic principle should be equality, We should ask ourselves whether we would want other countries to do to us what we do to them. This would rule out military occupation, unequal trade-- exchanging processed goods for raw materials-- and any form of dominance, threats, or bullying. It would include all measures that protect the four basic human needs for survival, economic well-being, freedom, and identity US policy goals for Iraq should include: acknowledging that the US role in the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, resulting in suffering and destruction; abiding by the expressed wishes of the Iraqi people to remove the US military presence; asking Iraqis at all levels of society what they want the US to do to support their own efforts to rebuild their country; engaging in equitable trade and support constructive dialogue and cooperation among Iraq and its neighbours

FROM ICELAND: TEN PROPOSALS FOR PEACE

On June 26, Iceland will hold presidential elections, with candidate Thor Magnusson running on a peace platform. If he wins, he could do a lot -- for Iceland and for the world, write Johan Galtung, professor of Peace Studies and Director of TRANSCEND: A Peace and Development Network, and Dietrich Fischer, Academic Director of the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Stadtschlaining, Austria and Co-Director of TRANSCEND. In this column, authors present ten proposals for what the president of a small country could do for peace. Today, a peace president could invite all of the governments in the Middle East to a modern \'\'Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation\'\' to explore the creation of a six-state Middle East Community, comprised of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and a fully-recognised Palestine, modelled after the European Community. Why not build on successes rather than heading for new failures with the misguided US \'\'road map\'\'? A peace president could be the first to introduce peace education in all schools with a focus on non-violent alternatives. A study of TV violence shows that damage is done less by the viewing of violent acts than by the absence of non-violent alternatives and attention to the grief and trauma of the bereaved. Iceland can also provide a model for developing countries. To its traditional economy based on agriculture and fishing it has added electronics and pharmaceuticals, bypassing heavy industry.

THE KOREAN PENINSULA: A TRANSCEND PERSPECTIVE

(By Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer) German poet Goethe once said: \'\'People behave the way you treat them.\'\' To a large extent, this applies also in international relations, write Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and Director of TRANSCEND, a peace and development network, and Dietrich Fischer, Professor at Pace University and Co-director of TRANSCEND. In this article for IPS, the authors write that Bush\'s inclusion of North Korea with Iraq and Iran in the \'\'axis of evil\'\' made North Korea more belligerent, as even the US government now seems to recognise. The hawk/dove balance in North Korea can be tilted by the hawk/dove balance exerted by the US, South Korea, Japan and China, and to some extent by Russia. Fischer and Galtung recommend five steps to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula: Continuation of Sunshine Policy; Regime change in North Korea, like in China, heading for more democracy and human rights; a One nation/two states Confederation on the Korean Peninsula; a Conference for Security and Cooperation in Northeast Asia; foreign troop withdrawl from the Korean Peninsula. What helped end the cold war in Europe was a gradual mutual opening to the flow of ideas, goods and people. The same policy can work in Korea.