The Western Empire Is Going Down!
TRANSCEND VIDEOS, 13 Apr 2026
Boris Malagurski interviews Jan Oberg - TRANSCEND Media Service
24 Mar 2026
Tonight’s guest is someone who has spent decades studying war, peace, and the dangerous space in between. Jan Øberg is a peace researcher, author, and co-founder of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research in Sweden — an independent think tank dedicated to conflict analysis, diplomacy, and alternatives to militarized foreign policy. At a moment when global tensions are escalating — from the dangerous confrontation involving the United States, Israel, and Iran to rising military spending across Europe and the Middle East — voices calling for diplomacy are becoming increasingly rare. Øberg has long argued that the international system has moved away from preventing conflicts and instead focuses on managing them once they explode. Tonight we’ll look at what’s driving the current wave of geopolitical confrontation, the erosion of international law, and the growing role of military alliances in shaping global politics. But we’ll also bring the conversation closer to home — to the Balkans — where the legacy of intervention and international oversight still shapes politics today, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the authority of the High Representative continues to raise questions about sovereignty, democracy, and long-term stability. In a world that seems to be drifting further from diplomacy and closer to confrontation, we’ll ask whether peace thinking still has a place in international politics — or whether the world has already entered a new era of permanent geopolitical rivalry.
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Tags: Conflict, Conflict Mediation, Europe, Iran, Israel, Middle East, USA
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 13 Apr 2026.
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3 Responses to “The Western Empire Is Going Down!”
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Thank you so much, I loved this conversation! Boris, I have long been a big fan of your powerful documentaries. Jan, I’m familiar mostly with your written work with TFF, and hearing you speak with such clarity, creativity and undying optimism reminds me very much of a mentor we both share, Johan Galtung, may he rest in peace. Here’s to envisioning the world we want to live in and making it happen. People can do it!
Thank you so much, dear Marilyn – not only for thinking so but also writing it. That’s what peace and positive energy is about – and there is more than enough of criticism, negative comments and that sort of thing all over the Internet – fortunately, not here on TMS.
Your reference to Johan is spot-on. He was one of my two mentors – the other was Hakan Wiberg – and his restless creativity – somewhat like a good artist like, say, Robert Rauschenberg – has always followed me. When I look at today’s debat, most peace research institutes no longer do peace research and lots of debates are about anti.militarism, anti-war etc – all necessary but missing the necessary component: What are we going to do aboout it. And when people give up thinking of the future, devise possible solutions and forget positive peace THEN they are exactly where people in power, including the MIMAC elites – want them to be. TFF and I refuse that Diagnosis and negative Prognosis without a word aboout Treatment. In this spirit, we have just started TFF Peace Pulse:
https://thetransnational.substack.com/p/the-first-of-the-new-tff-peace-pulse
All my best and thanks again!
JAN
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