Johan Galtung: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 23:00, 2 November 2007

Johan Galtung (born October 24, 1930, in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian professor, founder and co-director of TRANSCEND - A Peace and Development Network for Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means. He is seen as the pioneer of peace and conflict research and founded the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in Oslo. He is also one of the authors of an influential account of news values, the factors which determine coverage given to a given topic in the news media.

Galtung also originated the concept of Peace Journalism, increasingly influential in communications and media studies.

Academic career

Galtung, after founding the institute, became head of research until 1966 and eventually Director in 1970. In 1964 he founded the Journal of Peace Research. From 1969 to 1977 he was the first professor of peace and conflict research in Scandinavia, employed at the University of Oslo. He has also held numerous positions at international universities, including Santiago in Chile, United Nations University in Geneva, and at Columbia, Princeton and the University of Hawaii in USA. He has also been entitled an emeritus at several other academic institutions.

Galtung in public and his works

Galtung several positions of trust in international research councils and has been an advisor to several international organisations. Since 2004 he is member of the Advisory Council of the Committee for a Democratic UN.

He has also written large numbers of empirical and theoretical articles, especially treating with issues of peace and conflict research. His works are engraved with his special ability of expression and his strong will of innovation and interdisciplinarity.

Galtung is frequently referenced in regard to concepts he introduced, or at least is commonly associated with:

Structural violence - widely defined as the systematic ways in which a given regime prevents individuals from achieving their full potential. Institutionalized racism and sexism are examples of this.
Negative vs. Positive Peace - introduced the concept that peace may be more than just the absence of overt violent conflict (negative peace), and include a range of relationships up to a state where nations (or any groupings in conflict) might have collaborative and supportive relationships (positive peace).

He has also distinguished himself in public debates, among others problems concerning the developing countries, matters of defence and in the Norwegian EU-debate. In 1987 he was given the Right Livelihood Award. He developed the Transcend Method.

In over 40 conflicts all over the world he participated as mediator, such as in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Caucasian area, and Ecuador. He has also advised Hawaiian sovereignty groups seeking to end what they see as a foreign occupation by the United States.

Predictions

During the 1970s, he predicted the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1990 with a precision of less than a year.^[1] Since the fall of the Soviet union, he has made several predictions of when the USA is to no longer be a functioning superpower - a practice that has created some controversy. After the beginning of the Iraq War, he revised his prediction of the "downfall of the USA", seeing it as more imminent.^[2] He claims the US will go through a phase as a fascist dictatorship on its path down, and that the Patriot Act is a symptom of this. He claims the election of George W. Bush cost the US five years - although he also says this estimate is a bit arbitrarily set.

Criticism

Bruce Bawer, writing in City Journal, has noted that Galtung has occasionally taken stands critical of western liberal democracy. In 1973 he claimed that “our time’s grotesque reality” was the West’s “structural fascism,” describing the U.S. and Western Europe as “rich, Western, Christian countries” that wage war to secure materials and markets: “Such an economic system is called capitalism, and when it’s spread in this way to other countries it’s called imperialism.” He has labeled the U.S.A. as a “killer country,” accused it of “neo-fascist state terrorism” and predicted that it will soon vanish “into the graveyard of empires.” More recently, he has compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany for bombing Kosovo and invading Afghanistan and Iraq.^[3]

Bruce Bawer has noted that some of Galtung's statements suggest sympathy with totalitarian communist regimes. For example, he urged Hungarians not to resist the Red Army's crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He praised Castro's Cuba in 1972 for “break[ing] free of imperialism’s iron grip.” In 1974 he criticized the West's support for Soviet dissidents, decrying the attention given to “persecuted elite personages” such as Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov. He admitted that the Chinese Communist Party was “repressive in a certain liberal sense,” but believed Mao’s China to be “endlessly liberating when seen from many other perspectives that liberal theory has never understood.” Indeed he stated that “the whole theory about what an ‘open society’ is must be rewritten, probably also the theory of ‘democracy’—and it will take a long time before the West will be willing to view China as a master teacher in such subjects.” ^[3]

Bruce Bawer also notes that some of Galtung's predictions have failed to come true. In 1953 he predicted that the Soviet Union's economy would soon overtake the West.^[3]

Publications

Among some of his publications are:

Gandhi's political ethics (1955) (with philosopher Arne Næss)
Theory and Methods of Social Research (1967)
Members of Two Worlds (1971)
Peace, violence and imperialism (1974)
Peace Research – Education – Action (1975)
A Shaping Nightmare (1983)
Europe in the Making (1989)
Global Glasnost: Toward a New World Information and Communication Order? (1992) (With R. C. Vincent)
Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization (1996)
Johan without land (2000) (Autobiography)

The full list can be seen here: http://www.transcend.org/t_database/articles.php

References

^ "Bushs akilleshäl är ekonomin" Dagens Nyheter 2003-01-15. "1980 höll han ett numera berömt föredrag om Sovjetunionens kommande kollaps. De flesta skrattade åt honom, amerikanska forskare högre än deras ryska kolleger. Galtung gav Sovjetimperiet tio år till, inte mer."
^ Amerikas imperium går under innen 2020 Adressa September 23, 2004.
^ ^a ^b ^c The Peace Racket City Journal Summer 2007.

External links

[DN-1] "Bushs akilleshäl är ekonomin" Dagens Nyheter 2003-01-15. "1980 höll han ett numera berömt föredrag om Sovjetunionens kommande kollaps. De flesta skrattade åt honom, amerikanska forskare högre än deras ryska kolleger. Galtung gav Sovjetimperiet tio år till, inte mer."

[2] Amerikas imperium går under innen 2020 Adressa September 23, 2004.

[CJ-3] The Peace Racket City Journal Summer 2007.

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 During the [[1970s]], he predicted the downfall of the [[Soviet Union]] in [[1990]] with a precision of less than a year.<ref name="DN">[http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1058&a=97294&previousRenderType=2 "Bushs akilleshäl är ekonomin"] ''Dagens Nyheter'' 2003-01-15. "1980 höll han ett numera berömt föredrag om Sovjetunionens kommande kollaps. De flesta skrattade åt honom, amerikanska forskare högre än deras ryska kolleger. Galtung gav Sovjetimperiet tio år till, inte mer."</ref> Since the fall of the Soviet union, he has made several predictions of when the USA is to no longer be a functioning superpower - a practice that has created some controversy. After the beginning of the Iraq War, he revised his prediction of the "downfall of the USA", seeing it as more imminent.<ref>[http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/utenriks/article7953.ece Amerikas imperium går under innen 2020] ''Adressa'' September 23, 2004.</ref> He claims the US will go through a phase as a fascist dictatorship on its path down, and that the [[USA PATRIOT Act|Patriot Act]] is a symptom of this.  He claims the election of [[George W. Bush]] cost the US five years - although he also says this estimate is a bit arbitrarily set.
+==Criticism==
+[[Bruce Bawer]], writing in [[City Journal (New York)|City Journal]], has noted that Galtung has occasionally taken stands critical of western [[liberal democracy]]. In 1973 he claimed that “our time’s grotesque reality” was the West’s “structural [[fascism]],”  describing the U.S. and Western Europe as “rich, Western, [[Christian]] countries” that wage war to secure materials and markets: “Such an economic system is called [[capitalism]], and when it’s spread in this way to other countries it’s called imperialism.” He has labeled the U.S.A. as a “killer country,” accused it of “neo-fascist state terrorism” and predicted that it will soon vanish “into the graveyard of empires.” More recently, he has compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany for bombing [[Kosovo]] and invading [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iraq]].<ref name="CJ">[http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_3_peace_racket.html The Peace Racket] ''City Journal'' Summer 2007.</ref>
+[[Bruce Bawer]] has noted that some of Galtung's statements suggest sympathy with totalitarian communist regimes. For example, he urged Hungarians not to resist the [[Red Army]]'s crushing of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]. He praised [[Fidel Castro|Castro]]'s [[Cuba]] in 1972 for “break[ing] free of imperialism’s iron grip.”  In 1974 he criticized the West's support for Soviet dissidents, decrying the attention given to “persecuted elite personages” such as [[Solzhenitsyn]] and [[Sakharov]]. He admitted that the [[Chinese Communist Party]] was  “repressive in a certain liberal sense,” but believed [[Mao]]’s China to be “endlessly liberating when seen from many other perspectives that liberal theory has never understood.”  Indeed he stated that “the whole theory about what an ‘open society’ is must be rewritten, probably also the theory of ‘democracy’—and it will take a long time before the West will be willing to view China as a master teacher in such subjects.” <ref name="CJ" />
+[[Bruce Bawer]] also notes that some of Galtung's predictions have failed to come true. In 1953 he predicted that the [[Soviet Union]]'s economy would soon overtake the West.<ref name="CJ" />
 ==Publications ==