Order the autumn edition here

What has the peace movement achieved?

Av Aslak Storaker
To prevent or stop wars – what can peace movements do?
Forfatter: Christine Schweitzer og Jørgen Johansen
Forlag: Irene Publishing, 2016
New book looks at what the peace movement can learn from the experiences of past peace struggles.

(THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

On Monday 17 October, Ny Tid was present at the launch of the book To Prevent Or Stop Wars – What Can Peace Movements Do? by Christine Schweitzer and Jørgen Johansen. The two authors talked about their work analyzing what the peace movement has actually achieved in their efforts to prevent or stop war, by analyzing seven different conflicts from Norway's detachment from Sweden in 1905 to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. We were told that surprisingly little research has been done on this topic before, and that conducting counterfactual history research (analyzing what could having happened if certain decisions or events had happened otherwise) is a rather complicated exercise. Johansen and Schweitzer nevertheless believe that it is part of today's peace movement can learn from what has succeeded and failed in previous peace struggles.

The meaning of experience. Johansen emphasized the importance of learning from history so as not to repeat previous mistakes. "All generals know the history of war, and. . .

Dear reader.
To continue reading, create a new free reader account with your email,
or logg inn if you have done it before. (click on forgotten password if you have not received it by email already).
Select if necessary Subscription (69kr)

Aslak Storaker
Storaker is a regular writer in Ny Tid, and a member of Rødt's international committee.

Give an answer

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn about how your comment data is processed.

MODERN TIMES's latest book reviews:

Siste artikler

ASIA: "We are the ones who are far away, while they are in the center"

TECHNOLOGY: According to Kevin Kelly, technology writer, photographer and publicist, the best thing you can do sometimes is slow down technology.

Two girls with clasped hands stare expressionlessly at the ground

AFGHANISTAN: Sangin – during twenty years of war, this area has been the bloodiest battlefield. It is reminiscent of Roman ruins. In 2001, one in three Afghans was starving – now one in two is starving.

Dialogue between sculpture and photography

DISPLAY: Peter Lindbergh's photographs of Alberto Giacometti's small, secret sculptures – put together in an exhibition: Showing intimacy is a challenge. You come as a visitor, an intruder…

The danger of modified nature

ECOLOGY:With technological measures in all directions, researchers are faced with sky-high challenges. One of them is human ignorance linked to indifference.

To modernize an entire continent

PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE: The tendency of Latin American writers to focus on a better future is part of the region's renewed self-awareness – and modernization with free abortion and new constitutions.

The effort in ORIENTERING contributed to a turning point in the Norwegian labor movement

Sigurd Evensmo <7b> Journalist in the Arbeiderpressen from 1930 to 1949 in recent years as cultural editor of Arbeiderbladet.

A gigantic loss project

THE DISCLOSURES: For 20 years, US authorities lied about the war in Afghanistan.

Hitler's favorite director Leni Riefenstahl

FALSE OF HISTORY? Nina Gladitz challenges the notion that Leni Riefenstahl was an ingenious artist with poor political views. Her documentary about the filmmaker has been hidden in the German WDR archive since 1982. The reactions to Gladitz's book also show how difficult it is to seek truth and give the weakest in society a voice.

Challenging climate sobriety

ECOLOGY: We need such voices as Holly Jean Buck, who criticizes wishful thinking – precisely to help bring forward a hopeful, serious and long-lasting climate fight, beyond all easy optimism.

The comprehensive self-insulation

COVID19: SARS in 2003, bird flu in 2005, MERS in 2012, Ebola in 2014, combined with the financial crisis, massive refugee flows, and revolutions in the Middle East and Greta Thunberg's shrill doomsday voice, had largely immunized the population against something as abstract as Covid19.

We call it precariat

WORK: Precarious working life is perhaps alluring with its freedom and flexibility. But with the precarious also comes the uncontrollable, the unpredictability and the lack of rights. Precarious work has become widespread in a subject such as journalism. Nevertheless, I am still tempted by the flexible tasks, by the sense of variability, freedom almost.

An ever-creeping feeling of loneliness

INSULATION: Acute loneliness affects both winners and losers. Daniel Schreiber visits a wealth of hermit literature – such as Thoreau's Walden and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. But what does social withdrawal mean today – whether it is the occupational or pandemic condition?
- Advertisement -spot_img

You may also likeRelated
Recommended

A militaristic elite

UKRAINE: What are the consequences of US and NATO expansion eastwards in Europe?

What is security today?

Debate: If we want peace, we must prepare for peace, not war. In the preliminary party programs, no party in the Storting is in favor of disarmament.

What shaped him as a human being

MEMORY: Was the most interesting thing in Thorbjørn Jagland's book overlooked by the critics?

Silently disciplining research

PRIO: Many who question the legitimacy of the US wars seem to be pressured by research and media institutions. An example here is the Institute for Peace Research (PRIO), which has had researchers who have historically been critical of any war of aggression – who have hardly belonged to the close friends of nuclear weapons.

Full 100-page MODERN TIMES including the appendix Orientering and Modern Times Review comes out quarterly (March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1) with international book reviews, essays and comments – in addition to the physical newspaper and PDF, the articles are eventually published online here (see also the newsletter).

© MODERN TIMES & Orientering AS Dronningensgt. 16, 0152 Oslo Chief editor: Truls Lie

Newsletters