Neutrality Studies. Weekly Recap.
July 1-12
Hola! Here goes the first weekly newsletter (at least I’m hoping it will be weakly) about what happened on the Neutrality Studies YouTube channel—a review of the videos I uploaded and some background info to the talks.
Hip Warmongering
I started into July by talking to Dr. Chris Mott, my go-to expert when it comes to pseudo-progressive—or let’s call it “DumbLib”—warmonger white-washing. You know, like when the MIC tries to look cool and hip and fashionable by abusing gay culture or talking about killing people in a green and sustainable way—protecting the environment while killing all those innocents—or when they go after impressionable high school kids to recruit them into the fangs of the military, by trying to look all-gender-inclusive and what not. Chris gave a wonderful overview of the latest sick progressive spin the MIC is trying to sell to the general public.
Social Media Alliance: The Beginning
Next up was a very exciting panel with no less than 9 (!!) colleagues from social media. The story behind this one is that
reached out to me 3 weeks ago with the idea of creating something like a social media alliance against the warmongering BS from NATO and the extended US empire. He’s got good connections to various people on YT, Twitter/X, Substack, and other platforms which, if united in a network, might be able to do more together than alone. At some point, we just gotta say collectively that “we are not fine with this.” This is the humble beginning of that idea.We are not planning to create a formal organisation, just a network of like-minded people to connect (although Warwick already created a proper homepage for us: MultiPolarPeace.com), cross-pollinate, and support each other with our content and the analysis. Maybe something bigger will grow out of this in due time, but for now all we want is to enlarge our network to publicly speak out against the STUPIDITY that the wise men and women in Brussels and Washington are choosing for us, to make sure we get a one-way ticket to nuclear holocaust.
In the future, we are gonna have more colleagues joining the discussion, most importantly
and Danny Haiphong, who also wanted to come online but couldn’t make it due to our scheduling (it was the 4th of July).Orban’s Trip to Moscow
Then came a little analysis piece by myself for which I rushed home from the gym (I hate going to the gym, but I go there with my bf—for love, not for the joy of sweating in a damp room). As I was on that annoying and boring treadmill, I listened to Alex Christophorou’s daily news update (highly recommended) and saw that there was a rumor; Hungary’s Victor Orban might be headed to Moscow. I got a bit excited and googled if this had actually happened and, omg, it did! So I packed up my stuff, told bf that he should have lunch without me (but that I’d be back asap for mandatory shopping), and then did an episode on how I think we should interpret this and why I thought it was absolutely genius of Orban to do this in the first week of his EU Council presidency!
Victor Orban is now the only world leader who, thanks to his multi-vectorial foreign policy, has access to all conflict parties—direct, proxy or neutral states—including Zelensky, Putin, Xi, and the NATO folks. Also, Hungary has been part of all previous discussions, even that sham-peace conference in Switzerland last month. So, thanks to dancing on all weddings, Orban is able to access and reason with all global players and he seems to be wanting to put his entire political career on the line for this. He’s one of Europe’s few remaining independent political minds, and not a herd animal. Also, what I’ve learned from a past interview with his chief political advisor, Balazs Orban (not related), it is pretty clear that Hungary’s leadership takes the threat emanating toward Europe from this war in the east very, very serious and is not willing to risk it all just for the NATO and EU photo-ops. Thank you, Hungary!
Finland’s National Suicide Preparations
Then came a really great talk I had with
, a Finnish colleague at U Helsinki, about his country’s stunning (unwise, but nevertheless stunning) transformation from a neutral country for over 70 years, into a NATO member with 15 (!!) US bases on which the US military from now on will reign supreme. The Finnish parliament has just ratified the “Agreement on Defense and Cooperation”, which is truly shocking to anyone with a little bit of sense for realism left in their bones.Not only will this move lead to a militarisation of Finland by way of stationing US troops and assets at one of Russia’s longest borders, it will put Finland on the top of Russia’s target list in case of a war with NATO. This is the hight of irresponsibility and decreases European and Finnish security. I fail to see how national leaders can say yes to such a deal. The agreement really reads more like a colonial subjugation accord rather than a state treaty between equals. The US military will be free to do (almost) anything it wants, without consulting with Finnish authorities, it won’t even have to pay taxes (not even VAT), and the contract makes sure that there is NO dispute resolution mechanism. So if Finnland and the US ever have a disagreement on how to interpret the treaty, there is no third party that can be empowered to resolve a dispute. The “Dispute Resolution” part of the treaty explicitly precludes this option. No arbitration procedure possible, no going to the International Court of Justice to adjudicate a dispute. Wow. Well done Finnland. And the treaty is valid for a minimum of 10 years, after which it will renew automatically every year.
What a dumb thing to sign and ratify. But, well, Tuomas Malinen puts this into perspective and helps explain the irrationality of it.
Germany’s Lowest Point in Post War History
Next, I had a talk with a former German General and military advisor to Angela Merkel (Germany’s long-term chancellor before the current douchebag took over). We talked in German but thanks to a little translation project with a German friend, you can listen to General Erich Vad in English. What he had to say about Germany’s military preparation, the sad state of its political leadership, and the uselessness of the Ukraine war was highly interesting. I don’t agree with him on how to remedy the situation—he wants more indigenous military preparations in Germany and Europe, and he still thinks NATO should continue as an institution—but I do agree with his analysis of the problematic state of affairs and that this absolute subjugation of German/EU interest under the interests of the US makes zero sense for the European continent.
The NATO Summit Outcome Document
On Thursday, I added another one of my analysis to the channel in which I looked at the NYT report about the NATO Summit that was taking place in Washington and the final document the alliance put out that day. I’m going through a few passages that I think are particularly revealing, especially the one in which NATO is now blaming China for “fuelling” the Ukraine war, how they are trying to pretend that this was a new and unexpected development—when, in fact, this narrative is at least 1.5 years old—and what NATO is threatening next in its escalation with Russia and China.
It’s a pretty disgraceful heap of warmongering that this statement represents, but over all, the alliance seems not to do very well. Hungary has already shown that it is taking independent decisions and won’t go along with all the NATO headquarter BS, alienating China will certainly not help making more than a handful of friends who are already in the western camp (Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand), and the threat of more sanctions will only lead to an increase in the speed at which the Global South will work on a new trading infrastructure—which will further weaken the Collective West’s structural dominance over the system.
NATO Sins as Seen From Switzerland
And then, last but not least, I uploaded a talk (in English translation) with Mr. Ralph Bosshard, an outspoken Swiss military expert who served many years in his country’s army but also learned from the Russian military. For over a year he attended Russia’s general staff training courses—back in the days when this was still possible and the Swiss still cooperated with the Russians. He then worked for the OSCE in Ukraine and Russia, and saw much of the conflict in the Donbas with his own eyes. Mr. Bosshard gives an interesting account of how NATO pressured Switzerland several times to give the illusion of International respectability to its missions (after all, the Swiss are still officially neutral, hence their cooperation in NATO-led operations has some propaganda value to them), and he talks about the “Salami tactic” of bringing Switzerland into the alliance little by little—slice by slice.
Cheers,
Pascal
Welcome aboard, Pascal.
Hi Pascal!! So happy to see you here on Substack!