fred

AWARD: David Swanson received 'The Real Nobel Peace Prize' this year. This has its background in Nobel's ambition to build down, yes, remove, the military, the weapons and consequently their manufacturers.

FRED: Three hundred years after Immanuel Kant was born, the Prussian philosopher's arguments for a rational, clear-sighted pacifism are more relevant than ever. Europe has recently become a place where the opposition between good and evil is routinely invoked to justify irresponsible brutality, and where the drums of war sound ever louder. Kant is known as the author of one of the most famous anti-war essays in the history of philosophy: The Eternal Peace. Kant's cosmopolitanism is based on man's original, common possession of the earth and implies a recognition of a 'right' to visit all places without being treated with hostility.

PEACE WORK: War is contempt for life came at a time when peace thinking and oppositional thoughts are in worse shape than they have been for a long time.

FRED: Linn Stalsberg identifies in his new book that accepting war as a human normal state is one of the great danger signals today. We have become accustomed to the idea that war is a necessity, and that war can be morally required on top of that. At the same time, religion is often used cynically as a tool to promote a warlike development – ​​this extends from Pope Urban to Putin and Netanyahu to Hamas.

PEACE WORK: There is something vaguely medieval in the narrative of the media, politicians and gun fetishists today. That is why it is refreshing to read the chapter "NATO – out of date" in the book Fredskultur. Or how about Costa Rica: "We have no enemies and we don't need an army!"

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: We talk to the former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have become Prime Minister of Great Britain, about current issues – such as military rearmament, Ukraine, Israel, climate justice and work, security, democracy, citizens' councils, and not least a hope for the future.

FRED: 300 activists, politicians and experts from 32 countries gathered this summer in Vienna to discuss the need and methods to restore peace in Ukraine. The Italian peace movement was a model here: in addition to huge demonstrations against militarization in Ukraine, they have carried out five major peace caravans to the country with a total of over 80 vehicles filled with medical equipment, generators, water purification equipment and other essential items.

FOR: The left-wing parties have put aside international work, the press is a microphone stand for NATO, the peace movement has become toothless – and Norwegians are a nation of cold warriors. Therefore a new party is needed!

JOURNALISM: In August, top American journalist Chris Hegdes visited Oslo to discuss Julian Assange's case. Assange has not only risked his career as a brilliant computer expert, but his entire life for the right to let the truth come out.

COMPETITION: The weapons are sanctions, subsidies, dumping, hostile takeovers and theft of industrial secrets. The goal is simple: to weaken a country's economy so that it cannot offer political, economic or military resistance.

UKRAINE: There are many indications that the war in Ukraine has been provoked and desired by the USA and NATO. The mass media have turned into effective ideological institutions that perform a system-supporting propaganda function.

WAR: Christopher Blattman's long-term project has been to explore the reasons why conflict between groups and nations erupts into war.

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATIONS: From someone who should know the intricacies of foreign policy and geopolitics: Thorbjørn Jagland on military rearmament and enemy images – when it comes to the USA, Russia, China, Turkey and Libya.

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.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION: Johan Galtung turns 90 on UN Day 24 October.

NOBEL PEACE SUMMIT: Are there any joke to such meetings, or are they just for a narrow circle?