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Switzerland

NATO-turbos at the ETH Zurich

The “Center for Security Studies” is calling for Switzerland to become more involved in NATO. Concerns about neutrality? None whatsoever.

by Michael Straumann*

(2 January 2025) Every year, the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich [Federal Institute of Technology Zurich] publishes a bulletin dealing with Swiss security policy and the current challenges it faces. The security policy research centre was founded in 2002. Since 2004, it has maintained a “strategic partnership” with the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS). It is therefore a think tank that is very close to the Swiss government.

How the US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called it Peace

by Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA

(20 December 2024) American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu’s far-right Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, and with Iran on the brink of a nuclear arsenal.

Syria in ruins – and what the media are not telling us

von Karin Leukefeld*

(20 December 2024) (Globalbridge/cm) In a highly topical report, Middle East correspondent Karin Leukefeld – who does not write from the comfort of an office in Germany, but lives in the Middle East – makes it clear how the media, once again, describe the geopolitical situation in a one-sided way, suppressing important facts and blaming the wrong parties. Above all, the significant involvement of the US and the EU in the economic misery in Syria, with their sanctions, is simply not mentioned.

Back to Gorbachev or the “new thinking” and the “common European home”

by Leo Ensel*

(20 December 2024) Even if Donald Trump should stop the war in Ukraine, under the given conditions we can at best expect a new Cold War for the next few decades. There will only be real peace in Europe when all the actors involved return to a European security order based on the principles of the “Charter of Paris”. Above all, this requires a fundamental change in thinking. The maxims were formulated long ago, and it is time to rediscover them.

Unresolved problems in dealing with nuclear energy

Facts, experiences and conclusions from Emil Brütsch*

by Ursula Cross

(20 December 2024) In the future, an ever-increasing share of our growing energy needs is to be covered by electricity. But where is the required energy going to come from? Dark and windless skies, energy fluctuations, a lack of electricity storage options, unresolved grid problems and security of supply, environmental issues and, last but not least, speculative prices caused by the stock market also raise justified doubts about so-called green technologies. A comprehensive analysis of all options, beyond ideology, is needed as a basis for long-term planning. This article takes a closer look at the unresolved issues surrounding nuclear energy.

Can China rise peacefully?

Professor Glenn Diesen,* Norway

(13 December 2024) The spectacular rise of China will inevitably spark security competition with the US and create tensions between the two leading economies in the world. The peaceful rise of China is, however, not solely the responsibility of Beijing as the US must also manage the security competition by accommodating shifts in the international distribution of power. The US constructed an international system based on unipolarity/global dominance after the Cold War, and attempting to preserve this system when it no longer reflects realities on the ground will make it near impossible to manage the security competition.