(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
There is no shortage of national and international voices about it Russia and developments in the war against Ukraine, or the role of the NATO countries in the conflict. The Norwegian media seem to have a special ability not to want to include the valuable ones. But they are there for those who will listen to them. American William Burns shows that the knowledge of and fear of what is happening and happened in Ukraine was right up there in the US leadership. The late journalist John Pilger saw the start of the war clearly: "If Putin can be provoked into coming to their [Donbass'] aid, his pre-ordained 'pariah' role will justify a NATO-run guerilla war that is likely to spill into Russia itself.” (See "Ukraine the US is dragging us into war with Russia".)
And the mantra that the Norwegian media repeats to itself as a reassuring evening prayer – "Putin's surprising, unprovoked, brutal, full-scale attack war started on February 24, 2022" – from the Class Struggle to Minerva has been unaffected by the presented facts, roots and trends. And it's fascinating.
Glenn Diessen
One of the valuable voices mentioned is Professor Glenn Diesen, who in the last two years has become an established internationally recognized author, podcast host and commentator with several hundred thousand listeners/readers weekly. He teaches and does research at the University of Southeast Norway (USN).
However, Diesen experiences that his employer is frequently bombarded with demands that he must be dismissed. He is so called Putin's errand, he is a traitor, he must be stopped. This reviewer himself experienced, after a reference I made to Diesen, a laughing exclamation from a friend who asked if I really used Diesen as a truth witness. "He publishes in RT!?" [Russia Today. Editor's note] Fortunately, Diesen's employer knows better.
It is not "what he writes" that upsets or is intended to upset. The decisive factor is "those he talks to", or "those he can connect with".
This is just one expression that Ukraine war in truth has become 'hybrid', where countless approaches and methods engage and are engaged in the 'warfare' of the many actors in the arena of war and the surroundings outside. Facts are less important. Few people pretend to have read, in this case Diesen's texts, to be able to say anything about him. It is not "what he writes" that upsets or is intended to upset. The decisive factor is "those he talks to" or "those he can connect with".
To my question about what he thinks about people in leading positions in society sending dozens of letters to have him removed, Diesen answers measuredly: "Isn't that how we in academia should proceed when we disagree?"
Within my horizon, Diesen is part of a celebrated selection with Russia and Ukraine experts such as Jacques Baud, Scott Ritter, Jeffrey Sachs, Alexander Mercouris and James Matlocker. What characterizes them is that – in contrast to what I call 'mainstream media' (MSM), or the dominant media – they base themselves on competent, verifiable professional research and independent sources.
Aftenposten, Klassekampen and NRK
The Norwegian the mainstream media – as Aftenposten, Klassekampen and NRK – however, often say that their information is quality assured by Open Source Intelligence groups ( OSINT ), which are often amateur groups, young people and technical 'nerds' who skim social media, Facebook, videos, satellite images and public information channels and messages and assemble them into hypotheses and comments on current issues. Or they bet on commentators with official military connections, where people with clear limitations and questionable competence get to control the country's information universe. If you add chilled and scared researchers and commentators, you have the recipe for the Norwegian info menu about the Ukraine war for Ola and Kari Nordmann for the last two years. This is not health food.
One might wonder what public intelligence organizations with billions in sophisticated surveillance equipment have to gain from this OSINT sources. The answer is probably to be found in the fact that the intelligence organizations' mission towards the public has clear propaganda goals, they are to seduce ("introduce") the population according to a plan that supports given policy: "we lied, cheated and stole" could former CIA chief and foreign minister Mike Pompeo laughingly telling his YouTube audience. Then it's nice to have some 'independent' and 'reliable' to rely on, even if these 'independent' are over the chimney financed by public funds and challenge the power accordingly. When newspapers such as Aftenposten, for example, constantly refer to the fact that "the information has been confirmed" by OSINT groups, most people do not know at all how unreassuring it really is to rely on such unqualified claims.
NRK fell flat
It is within this framework that researcher and author Glenn Diesen enters the picture. He rises above the average Norwegian writer and researcher. He is eminent. Therefore, he must be stopped with extra-factual ammunition. He became e.g. introduced as a professor in NRK's weekend morning early in the Ukraine war. But when the state channel failed to tell that he had published articles on the channel RT, "let NRK lie flat", Dagbladet could say on 6 June 2022: "Author John Færseth" could indeed reveal that "Diesen has been a long-term and regular contributor to the propaganda channel RT , and must be considered a representative of Russia and Russian authorities.” Consequently, Diesen had to be crushed.
This is how Norway's largest information channels meet a serious, internationally recognized researcher. And the vicarious witnesses of truth are an accuser who Færseth, who can only dream of ever writing something that will be peer-reviewed beyond their circle of friends on the far right.
Diesen knows that one must build with known building blocks, i.e. on approved Western sources, actors, politicians and writers.
In this toxic quagmire, an internationally recognized authority on Russia with eight books on conscience tries to survive and even work. With seven major book titles from renowned publishers such as Routledge, within Russian-related current politics, he challenges everyone who can crawl and walk within Norwegian research. But he remains professionally uncommented in the country. Because the opinions are not the 'right' ones.
From reading the book
What is Diesen concerned with? The Ukrainian War and the Eurasian Wold Order? First and foremost, that it is time for the West to look at its relationship with Russia and 'the others' – at least an attempt to observe the situation from their side. That in itself is not revolutionary. John F. Kennedy addressed this in his June 10, 1963 speech, a few years after the McCarthy scandal, but only months before he was assassinated. Like Kennedy, he challenges us not only to adopt this perspective, but to realize that it is essentially us who have something to gain from this.
I could mention many, but here are three images I am left with after reading the book:
- The source use. Diesen knows that one must build with known building blocks, i.e. on approved Western sources, actors, politicians and writers. But he has language skills that also give him the opportunity to go to Russian sourcer where it is important. What did Putin, Gorbachev, Medvedev, Yeltsin or Dostoevsky actually say? And besides, Western leaders, both what Merkel, Holland, Johnson said and promised, are important in these times where memory is conveniently eclectic and porous.
- The Civil War. That Ukraine underwent a borgerkrig with NATO driving from 2014 to 2022. First step: a NATO-led coup in 2014; second step is a Russian annexation of Crimea as a centuries-long manifestation of the need to participate in the global maritime race, then a brutal war of aggression for eight years from Kyiv directed at Eastern Ukraine where the goal was to ethnically cleanse all Russians and everything Russian, a purgatory that was announced from the rostrum of the country's national assembly.
- The world order. Which one world order are we heading towards? It gives the Ukrainian war perspectives beyond Ukraine: as the borderland between East and West, and not only in Europe, but in the world. Not only NATO/USA against Russia, but against China and BRICS. Diesen brushes the dust off the knowledge of the old Westphalian order, where the individual country brings its peculiarities and specialties into an international community that not only respects what is different, but sees the importance of diversity. Not peace by subordination to a hegemon, but by basic cooperation with respect for 'the other' and 'the other'. Where the idea of 'comparative advantage' is used as an opportunity and not as an oppressive instrument. While unipolarity solidifies in introverted repetitive stagnation, multipolarity inspires innovation, colorfulness and non-confrontational competition. For China is no longer just an industrial producer for America's innovations and value creation. No, the country is launching its new digital chips and 5G technology. But China must apparently be stopped – if necessary by threats of violence. This is how the US has succeeded in the past. Against this, Gorbachev's dream where Russia is respected and invited in for the sake of its uniqueness, the US has opposite ambitions that peace is created by the individual being subordinated to the hegemon – yes – the US. It is this USA defines as 'democracy' creating 'peace' according to their 'rules-based order', which they are so eager to promote with their 800 bases around the world. A graveyard democracy, an illusion of peace. In other words, we are talking about unipolar dominance versus multipolar art of balance.
Details and perspectives
But the book is rich in details, history and perspectives. You will be able to read it like an exciting novel, or consider it a symphony of counterpoint and harmonies. Current challenges ("How are things going on today's battlefield in Ukraine") are set against Russia's successful turn east and Germany's collapse in the wake of the loss of cheap Russian gas and industry – which is a result of the US's desire to also weaken Germany as a competitor.
The digital and physical The Silk Road are drawn. The individual pieces find their place in Diesen's particularly well-formulated language. Today's confusing political puzzle with a threatening nuclear mushroom in the background forms an understandable picture. Moreover, the threat does not necessarily come from China, Russia or Eurasia.
