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“Power requires control”

Political party scientist Hans Herbert von Arnim takes stock – and explains why Switzerland is doing better

by Robert Seidel

(2 January 2025)The quarterly votes are a matter of course for the Swiss, they are part of everyday life. They are not only important in terms of content but are also an extremely valuable corrective against political solo efforts, cronyism and megalomania.

The German constitutional expert Hans Herbert von Arnim has spent decades investigating the problems in the German party state – and this is also of interest to Swiss readers.

The charade with the EU continues

Swiss chief negotiator produces fake news – federal councillors allow themselves to be patronised

by Carl Baudenbacher*

(2 January 2025) In Switzerland, the year 2024 will go down in the history books. The federal councillors, the country’s directorate government consisting of seven members with equal rights, approved a framework agreement with the European Union without knowing its exact content.
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.