Neutrality Studies

Originally published on Mar 12, 2025.The US negotiated with Ukraine a rather remarkable document which cynics might throw out as a blatant attempt of the US to freeze the Ukraine War at a moment when Russia is clearly winning. However, the document also establishes clear US dominance over its Ukrainian Proxy and gives the US a mandate to actually negotiate with Russia without the Ukrainians t the table or the Europeans for that matter. Here is my assessment of this diplomatic development.

Originally published on Mar 11, 2025.Ursula von der Leyen just announced a lovely-sounding policy under which the block would "ReArm" and make 100s of billions of Euro's available for member states to militarise to their teeth. With no plan on why this is necessary or how it should be achieved, numerical spending goals on militarisation is another absolut fully that will end in a complete meltdown if it is not stopped in time. But the chances for that are slim, as Europe constantly learns the wrong lessons from its own history.But that begs the question: Why is there always money for military spending and never for social well-being? How are the warmongers constantly disenfranchising their own populations for the benefit of the Euro-Atlantic Military Industrial Complex?To discuss this, I’m talking today to two fantastic colleagues who have both been on this channel before but not together yet. I’ve got with me Dr. Jan Oberg from Sweden and Professor David Gibbs from Arizona State University in the USA.While Jan Oberg has been working a life-time on peace research and is an outspoken critic of militarism, Dr. Gibbs, who’s a historian, is now working on a new project he calls “Guns, Butter, and the Politics of Permanent War”. I thought the two are probably great conversation partners so here we are to discuss this topic: How there always seems to be money for war, but not for social spending. A very topical issue considering that the EU just announced more funding for weapons, presumably by cutting back on social spending.

Originally published on Mar 10, 2025.Today I’m talking to David Gorodyansky. David is a Silicone Valley Tech-Entrepreneur who developed and mass-deployed one of the most important technologies of the internet age, I’m speaking of course about Virtual Private Networks. David founded a company called AnchorFree which developed HotSpot Shield, one of the most successful VPN services out there.This video is not sponsored by any VPN service, I just genuinely want to talk about the fulfilled and unfulfilled promises of the internet-age and I can’t think of someone more perfect for this than an entrepreneur who himself has been involved in building part of the online world as we know it.

Originally published on Mar 9, 2025.Today I’m talking to Pietro Shakarian and Lasha Kasradze. Both of my colleagues hail from the Southern Caucasus region, Pietro from Armenia and Lasha from Georgia.Both of them are living abroad, Pietro is a historian at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburgh, Russia, and Lasha is an international relations analyst working in the US as a liaison officer for Georgia‘s Sokhumi State University.The three of us discuss the Geostrategic situation for the caucasus on the new multipolarity that now even the USA seems to embrace.

Originally published on Mar 9, 2025.In a video two weeks ago, Brian Berletic from The New Atlas (‪@TheNewAtlas‬) made a very important argument about what some people hope is the end of US strive for global dominance and the Trump administration's new 'love' for settling into the multipolar world order: • The US-EU "Division of Labor" to Cont... In this discussion, I'll engage with Brian's arguments and add some considerations about the different levels on which foreign policy and 'grand strategy' are being formulated. I encourage you to watch Brian's original video first: • The US-EU "Division of Labor" to Cont...

Originally published on Mar 8, 2025.This was a public talk at Seijo University, in Tokyo, on what "Neutrality Studies" exactly is and why I am connecting this academic project with a social media platform through this YouTube Channel. For anyone who has been wondering about my work, here are some behind the scenes insights.

Originally published on Mar 7, 2025.Today I would like to share another brilliant talk of Ambassador Chas Freeman with you. This one was recorded as part of a Zoom event on February 20th, 2025 by Mr. Eddie O'Brien of the Thinking Center, an Irish civil society organization. The video is a Q&A type of roundtable with Ambassador Freeman and all of his insights are, as always, very much worth listening to. Among other positions, Ambassador Freeman served as US Assistant Secretary of Defense, as US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and he was Richard Nixon's principal interpreter during his 1972 visit to China, which led to the normalization of US-China relations.

Originally published on Mar 6, 2025.Why are the European's reacting like self-destructive little children when it comes to war with Russia and in talks about the "threat" emanating from China? Can we explain or even just describe conflicts—especially the conflicts in and about Ukraine—through the lens of International Law? No says my guest today, since IL is not only an inherently imperfect instrument but the conflict parties themselves have no understanding for what their fights are actually about. Today I’m very happy to talk to Dr. Anthony Carty. Dr. Carty is an Emeritus Professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology and he is currently teaching at the Law Faculty of Peking University, who awarded him as a Distinguished Foreign Lecturer. Anthony was a full professor at several western Universities, including the University of Derby, Westminster and Aberdeen. He is the author of many books on international law, including the magnificent work “The Philosophy of International Law” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/...)

Originally published on Mar 5, 2025.How come that, as Jimmy Dore says, "there are homeless people under every bridge in America, and they don't even fix the bridges"? How is it possible that in the nominally richest economy in the world there is so much poverty, drugs, and despair and why did that problem grow over the unipolar moment when the USA was the unquestioned sole superpower on this planet? Well, turns out, hegemony is not good for the hegemon. Clinging to global dominance comes with heavy costs, born by the most vulnerable of society—a process that already the USSR had to go through and now it's the USA that is learning the same lesson.Today I’m talking to Dr. Arthur Khachikian. Arthur holds a PhD in International Relations from Stanford University, where he wrote a dissertation on Great Power Politics and Intervention in the international system. He currently teaches at an Armenian University in Yerevan, the capital city. Today we want to discuss the very large picture of contemporary world politics.

Originally published on Mar 4, 2025.Today I‘m talking to Ambassador, Dr. Geoff Raby. Dr. Raby is an Australian economist who served as his country‘s Ambassador to China from 2007-2011. He currently runs a Beijing-based business advisory firm and he is a friend of Professor Hugh White, the brilliant Australian geopolitical analyst who was on this channel a few weeks ago. Dr. Raby published last November the book “Great Game on: The Contest for Central Asia and Global Supremacy.” Today we want to talk again about Asia Pacific, China, and Australia as part of the puzzle.Book Links:Great Game On: https://www.mup.com.au/books/great-ga...Other Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/...