Jan Oberg

What’s offensive and defensive in Syria

Transnational Foundation - 2017-06-09 - Original post - Cached copy

There should be a lower level to the statements by a US Secretary of Defence.
There should be a debunking of the unethical behaviour that repeatedly state that there is only a political solution to Syria and continue to use only violence.
There should be a discussion about international law here.
There should be a discussion of what is morally defensible in this case, even assuming for the sake of argument that President al-Assad is the worst guy on earth.

TFF PressInfo 417: The future of EU-US relations – The Debate

Transnational Foundation - 2017-05-30 - Original post - Cached copy


The Debate with Jim Walsh, MIT and Jan Oberg, TFF
Lund, Sweden – May 30, 2017
Last night “The Debate” on PressTV was devoted to the future of European-US relations in the wake of the NATO Summit, President Trump’s words and omissions and the – historic – words, in particular, of Chancellor Angela Merkel immediately after.

NATO is outdated and should be dissolved – 8 arguments

Transnational Foundation - 2017-05-25 - Original post - Cached copy

This is TFF Live on Facebook on the occasion of NATO’s Summit in Brussels on May 25, 2017.
We use TFF Live on Facebook because it is handy, personal and interactive and because such live broadcasts have a larger organic spread that texts, images, links and even YouTube videos. And we want to make use of the technological developments as they help TFF reach out to ever more.

Macron meets Merkel – Why all the hype?

Transnational Foundation - 2017-05-16 - Original post - Cached copy

Comment by Jan Oberg

Contrary to many media reports, I take a more cautious approach – until we see some concrete results in the wake of this meeting.
In addition, the two meet at a very problematic time for the EU – and it seems that there were a series of foreign policy issues that they did not even touch.
For the EU to re-invent itself, something much grander, more visionary than President Macron’s economic piecemeal approach will be needed.
So until further I choose to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet – “Words. Words. Words.”

Saudi Arabia’s ongoing militarization – we need everything but that in the Middle East

Transnational Foundation - 2017-05-15 - Original post - Cached copy

By Jan Oberg

New US arms export deal with Saudi Arabia, worth US$ 100-300 billion – and Saudi Arabia is already the 3rd or 4th largest military spender on Earth. Alone it is 5 times larger than Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Coouncil 10 times bigger.
Is this for a future smashing up of Iran and Syria? With Western aid? And what does NATO do in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the latter coordinated by Denmark’s ambassador there, Ms. Merete Juhl?

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