Blog
Here we provide a platform for the exchange of information, ideas and analysis on the existential threats that hang over humanity and the planet at this time. The aim is to go beyond the symptoms of our predicament as we try and make sense of the powerful currents that have brought us to the present impasse. Importantly, we explore options for creative policy advocacy and imaginative social action.
Celebrating an Extraordinary American Life: Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg’s death like his life occurred with flair and purpose. Dan (a cherished friend for more than 65 years) had taken the unusual step of sharing with the world the deeply personal news that he had only a few months to live, and even less to be active, as he was diagnosed as suffering from inoperable pancreatic cancer.
Preparing for War with China while the Planet is Already on Fire
Not a day passes without a China-related news item, typically an ominous one. This focus on Chinese matters is perhaps understandable, given China’s sheer size with a population larger than the North American and European populations combined, but it often veers into alarmist and largely fabricated frenzy about an imagined Chinese threat.
The war in Ukraine was provoked— and why that matters to achieve peace
By recognising that the question of NATO enlargement is at the centre of this war, we understand why U.S. weaponry will not end this war. Only diplomatic efforts can do that. George Orwell wrote in 1984 that “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Governments work relentlessly to distort public perceptions of the past.
Reviving the Spirit of Bandung as a New Moral Force
“Moral” and “force” do not sit quite well together in my mind. However, motivating men and women, children, youth, and adults of diverse conditions for a sound imperative may result in a world force for the good. That said, in any domain, including the moral one, force has -- ethically -- to be held under permanent scrutiny.
War Prevention Depends on Respecting Invisible Geopolitical Faultlines
If we look back on the major wars of the prior century and forward to the growing menace of a war fought with nuclear weaponry, there is one prominent gap in analysis and understanding. This gap is to my knowledge rarely acknowledged, or even discussed, by political leaders or addressed in the supposedly independent main media platforms in the West.
Australia Adrift and a Foreign Minister All at Sea
On Monday, Penny Wong delivered her much awaited address to the National Press Club. What a disappointment! So many words, and so little substance. One could dismiss the episode as just another case of a minister who’s not up to the task. Unfortunately, the speech points to a deeper ailment – a government oblivious to the dangers ahead, and incapable of steering the ship to safer waters.
On Regaining our Lost Humanity
Never has there been a moment when the future of humanity has been on such a knife edge of destruction in the face of imminent nuclear and ecological threats. Scientists’ warnings on fossil fuels’ existential danger are 40 years old and are eloquently and repeatedly echoed today by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Scientists’ similar longstanding warnings of nuclear disaster are more urgent than ever as fighting continues around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Reconciling Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Significance of the China Effort
It would be wrong to view the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran as something that happened suddenly. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, ties between the two important Muslim neighbours have been strained. For the Saudi elite the Revolution was not only anti-monarchical but also a boost to the Shia sect within Islam. For the Iranian revolutionaries, Saudi opposition was motivated largely by its intimate relationship to American and other Western elites and their interests.
Xi Jinping in Moscow: A Historic Partnership in the Making
Since 2010, Xi Jinping has met Vladimir Putin on 40 separate occasions, but this last visit may prove to be their most significant meeting yet. The stakes for both have never been higher. Conscious of the rising risks of confrontation with the United States, Russia and China are intent on nurturing their comprehensive partnership. Each sees it as crucial to strengthening its security and economy and to advancing the idea of a multipolar world.
World BEYOND War: What the United Nations Should Be
I want to begin with three lessons from 20 years ago. First, on the question of launching a war on Iraq, the United Nations got it right. It said no to the war. It did so because people around the world got it right and applied pressure to governments. Whistleblowers exposed U.S. spying and threats and bribes. Representatives represented. They voted no.
Empowering People at a Time of Global Emergency
The unfolding Ukraine War that began in February of last year produced an increased global awareness that the political forces dominating the history of our times are dangerously out of touch. They are not in tune with a set of circumstances threatening the future wellbeing of humanity and the natural habitat of planet earth upon which the survival of the human species depends.
A New Iron Curtain Is Descending across the World: Are We Equal to the Challenge?
On 5 March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Churchill uttered the famous words “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” Those words ushered in the Cold War and framed the geopolitical landscape for the fifty years that followed. Today we stand in the midst of an even greater crisis that is global and multifaceted.
2023: A Make-or-break Year for the Global Order
Many of the accounts we hear of the current Russia-NATO conflict are deeply flawed. and risk degenerating into pure farce – a crude melodrama, in which an upright, democratic Ukrainian government headed by hero Zelensky is pitted against a corrupt and brutal autocracy led by the deluded ogre, Putin. What is really in question, is the unsustainable global security framework.
Coming Together in Pursuit of Peace
How did this initiative come about? Why did the three of us get together to launch a call to our fellow human beings to join hands with us to save humanity’s and the planet’s future? The three of us - Professor Richard Falk, Professor Joseph Camilleri and I - have been close friends for more than 30 years.
Humanity Against War, and for Justice
Good morning from London. It is an honour to join you all on this webinar and to stand with this panel of distinguished and inspiring people. My contribution is in memory of the great Peace campaigner Bruce Kent. Earlier this year after the war on Ukraine began we spoke together in Trafalgar Square in London for peace and opening of talks, as the entire UK political class backed the war enthusiastically.
Three Perspectives on the Human Future
My response to the three excellent and thought-provoking presentations by three wonderful friends Richard Falk, Joseph Camilleri and Chandra Muzaffar could be encapsulated in a single number: 312. But where does this number come from?