News stories by Johan Galtung, page 4

Germany, with decreasing unit labour costs, high employment, quality export products, and a single euro currency, had an eurozone trade surplus growing from 64 to 140 billion euros in the period 2002-2009. They financed the trade deficits of Greece-Italy-Portugal-Spain-Ireland (GIPSI) with credits from German banks, which amounted to 522 billion euros by 2009. They do not invest in GIPSI, but offer high interest credits to be paid back, thereby putting the GIPSIs in debt bondage, writes Johan Galtung, rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of the forthcoming book "Peace Economics: From a Killing to a Living Economy"

On 16 January, French minister of interior ordered the arrest of Swiss-based Dr. Mourad Dhina, a physicist at CERN and the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute and executive director of Alkarama ("dignity"), a Swiss foundation working on human rights in the Arab world. Though he is a totally nonviolent campaigner for human rights and democracy, Dhina was arrested at the request of the Algerian authorities, who are seeking his extradition for prosecution on charges that he belonged to an armed terrorist group in Switzerland in the 1990s, writes Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and co-author with Paul Scott of "Democracy - Peace - Development".

The self-appointed "World Economic Forum" will meet again in Davos, Switzerland, 25-29 January 2012. We can expect a new load of gratuitous advice to emanate from the meeting, the invited participants of which were utterly unable to comprehend the September 2008 manifestation of the world economic crisis when they met three years ago. So, what are they going to talk about now? asks Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "The Fall of the US Empire-And Then What?"

According to NATO, the final chapter of Gaddafi's Libya is being written now. The scenario is very similar to the final chapter for Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the 'War on Terror': eliminate The Bad Guys, writes Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of 'The Fall of the US Empire--And Then What?'.

Before Islam, Arabia lived for centuries under "asabiya", variously defined as Arabism, tribalism, or clanism, which led to many long wars. Prophet Muhammad challenged this order and introduced a community of values, the Umma, based on the tenet that "there is no difference between an Arab and a non-Arab, or between a white and a black, except in degree of piety". But only 30 years after Mohammed's death, the values he had taught were violated, and asabiya prevailed again. This was the beginning of a long decline of Muslim society, write Abbas Aroua, adjunct professor at the Lausanne Faculty of Medicine and director of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies at the Cordoba Foundation in Geneva, and Johan Galtung, founder of TRANSCEND, a Peace, Development and Environment Network, and author of "50 Years - 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives".

Anders Breivik was driven by a calling to save Christianity -Catholic essentially- from a European civil war with Islam. He believed that Islam's entry into Europe was facilitated by multi-culturalism, which was promoted by social democrats, like the youth in the camp on Utoya Island. Dialogue with an implacable, fanatic enemy was impossible. Violence against government facilities and the killing of young supporters, however deplorable, was necessary. Norway, and Europe, needed a wake-up call to return to their origins, writes Johan Galtung, founder of Transcend, a peace-development- environment network.

22 July 2011 will be engraved in Norwegian history like 9 April 1940, the German invasion. Words pale before this enormity. The center of Oslo, where the ministries are located, resembles a war-zone more than during the Second World War, when it was hit by some bombs from the resistance and from England. Even worse was the massacre at the Labor Party youth camp on Ut"ya Island near Oslo with 68 killed and many seriously wounded, writes Johan Galtung, born in Norway, Founder of TRANSCEND, a Peace, Development and Environment Network

Two of the greatest evils of the 20th century -colonialism and the Cold War- were both overcome with nonviolence: Gandhi's nonviolent campaign against British colonialism and the nonviolent demonstrations, especially in Gdansk and Leipzig, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, writes Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "A Theory of Conflict".

The majority view in the world seems to be that the US Empire is dark and the US Republic bright. But there are also brighter sides to the empire and darker sides to the republic. One measure of maturity is how many such levels of analysis one can master, writes Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "The Fall of the US Empire -And Then What?".

There is no evidence that Osama bin Laden planned the attacks of September 11, 2001, just as there was no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the pretext used for the 2003 US attack on Iraq. Osama applauded 9/11, but that falls under freedom of speech, writes Johan Galtung, Rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "The Fall of the US Empire--And Then What?".