Dear CCI Friends,
The NATO war in Ukraine is not in the future according to Glenn Diesen; it has been with us for years. Please read and give us your thoughts.
” Acknowledging NATO’s involvement in this war is necessary to begin negotiations……..”
NATO’s War in Ukraine – Glenn Diesen’s Substack
The Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
Kit Klarenberg’s article on Ukraine’s ‘memory laws’ is hard to believe. If any of our CCI followers in Ukraine can throw any more light on the subject he explores below, please get in touch.
“Ukraine’s Ultranationalist War on History”
“….the weaponization of law in the service of memory politics…”
https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/ukraines-ultranationalist-war-on
At the same time, please consider the following from Professor Glenn Diesen, originally published in Norway in 2023. It is an elegant recitation of the facts and events leading up to the Russian march into Ukraine in 2022 – a freshener, should anyone need one, for our memories today. However, there is one detail in Diesen’s analysis that is no longer accurate. He describes the scene in 2023 between Ukraine, Russia and the ‘West’ as a revival of the Cold War. We see nothing ‘cold’ in the scenario we find ourselves in today.
“NATO’s War in Ukraine”
“In 1994, even President Clinton warned that NATO expansion could destabilize Europe, as drawing a new line between East and West could create a self-fulfilling prophecy of future confrontation. When Clinton changed his mind, his Secretary of Defense, William Perry, considered resigning in protest. Perry claims that those pushing for NATO expansion acknowledged that it would destroy peace with Russia, but did not believe it mattered because Russia was weak, and their attitude was essentially: “Who cares what they think?”
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/natos-war-in-ukraine
A special Thank You! to all of our CCI friends for being with us in these dark times.
The Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
European leaders want a war with Russia. Why? Is it due to fear or greed? Everyone knows there’s good money to be made and territory to be gained in war – maybe.
But if it is solely due to fear of Russia, then one must wonder why they do not also fear what war will do to their countries and why negotiation with a perceived adversary is not even considered.
Please consider Leon Vermeulen’s question in light of Europe’s push for war: who is preparing for peace?
“Europe Is Intellectually Paralyzed”
“During some of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War, Washington and Moscow simultaneously built military forces and talked to one another.
None of this required friendship. It required something much more important:
an understanding that adversaries sharing a continent must manage their hostility if they wish to survive it.”
https://leonvermeulen.substack.com/p/europe-is-preparing-for-war-who-is
Sincerely,
The Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
The ‘news’ is overwhelmingly dark; diplomacy is dead, we are told, and the madness in Ukraine must roll on to a bloody conclusion.
Insisting that there are pathways out of the battlefront morass that do not require unconditional surrender, total annihilation or maximum humiliation is the work of diplomats and, if their guidance is heeded, diplomacy is not dead. Two legitimate experts on the subject – George Beebe, former director of the CIA’s Russian analysis, now director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute, and Nicolai N. Petro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, senior Washington Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy – have both given clear guidance on the matter in the interviews below. Please consider their proposals and give us your thoughts.
War, how to make it and how to get out of it, is one thing but what comes next? How do we make peace?
Our friend, Alexander Korobko from Donetsk, is a filmmaker who is working on a series called “The Art of Peace” – a subject not just dear to our hearts at CCI but the sum total reason for our existence. Please see his beautiful tribute to Igor Alexandrovich Naivalt, a true peace worker.
With volumes of words and billions of dollars and millions of lives devoted to the art of war, is it not time for all of us to lean into the creative process for peace?
Glenn Diesen interviews George Beebe
“European Security Cannot Be NATO Centric”
George Beebe: The Peace Plan with Russia the West Ignores
Ian Proud interview with Prof. Nicolai Petro
“Ultimately, Putin Will Be Proven Right”
Prof. Nicolai Petro: Zelensky Must Go Before Real Peace Talks Can Begin
Alexander Korobko, Episode 2, “The Art of Peace”
“Creation is Always Stronger Than Destruction”
Sincerely,
The Directors
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear CCI Friends,
We are awash in analysis, opinion and, especially, steaming mounds of propaganda on the tragedy in Ukraine and the shrillness of the content grows daily. From commentators with the view that the Russians are winning hands down and will settle for nothing less than ‘unconditional surrender’ to mass media reports on the Ukrainians having ‘turned the tide’ and launched themselves on the road to total victory, one may pick a preferred outcome and find comforting support for it.
John Meirsheimer and Glenn Diesen recently engaged in a sober discussion of the absence of reasoned thought on the conflict among NATO members, European leaders and the West in general. We highly recommend their analysis and look forward to your thoughts on the matter.
Will Discussions Such As This Be Banned?
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/john-mearsheimer-ukraine-is-landlocked
The Center for Citizen Initiatives
