Opinions

[divide][clear] By Johan Galtung. ALFAZ, Spain, Aug 13 2013 (IPS) – THESIS ONE: The leaks are not about “whistle-blowing”, but about a nonviolent, civil disobedient fight against huge social evils. Whistle-blowing presupposes that somebody can be warned, in fact wants…

Egypt: Another Middle Eastern country descending into chaos, talks of a possible civil war, violent protests, violent repression and another notch in the butt of the Clash of Civilisations gun. A democratically elected government has been deposed by an army…

“Fracking  or hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of rock by a pressurised liquid in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure to create small fractures to extract  such as gas…

As the Obama family heads to their annual summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, perhaps the president should take along a copy of “Catch-22” for some beach reading. Joseph Heller’s classic, satirical antiwar novel, published in 1961 and based on his…

I and Oliver Stone both spoke at Hiroshima on the anniversary of the first nuclear bombing in human history and we are slated to speak in two days at Nagasaki on the anniversary of the second nuclear attack. My speech…

On October 17, 1931, Alphonse Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Not because he was head of the Chicago underworld, Mafia capo who ran prostitution, illegal gambling and smuggling of alcohol. Not for the death of his competitors,…

“What a dangerous edifice War is, how easily it may fall to pieces and bury us in its ruins,” wrote Carl von Clausewitz, the 19th-century Prussian general and military theorist, in his seminal text “On War,” close to 200 years…

At the heart of all politics lies cold, hard opportunism. New circumstances, changed alliances and unexpected events will always conspire to alter one’s calculations to benefit a core agenda. In the Middle East today, those calculations are being adjusted with…

The UK National Health Service (NHS), one of the most efficient and value-for-money healthcare organisations in the world is no more. We may still talk about it as if it were around but the final blow to its existence, appropriately…

By Ryan Crocker* The awful conflict in Syria grinds on, with more than 100,000 dead and no end in sight. The calls to “do something” – anything – become louder: arm the rebels, enforce a no-fly zone, send in the…