Peace, Love and Intervention – Green European Journal

The 10th edition of the Green European Journal seeks to identify what makes the Green approach to foreign affairs distinctive, and asks whether ideals of peaceful resolution can stand up against the reality of a world ridden with complexity and conflict.

How do you deal with a violent reality when most of your political practice is rooted in the non-violent opposition to the system; when your message of peace, tolerance, interdependence, and responsibility, both individual and collective, constantly puts you at odds with the general perception of the public? These are some the dilemmas that the new edition of the Green European Journal ‘Peace, Love and Intervention’ seeks to confront.

Articles in this edition

01.03.2015

Peace, Love and Intervention – Green Views on Foreign Policy

By Editorial Board

Over the past decade, an ongoing reshuffle in the balance of global power has seen China change scale from regional to world actor, Russia reassert its ambition to be treated like a major player, and calls emerging for Europe to play a more active role in world politics.

01.03.2015

“I Never Thought It Would Be Easy” – EU Foreign Policy and Ukraine

By Rebecca Harms

In the most recent conflict with Russia, the EU has tried to find a solution that avoids war. The EU considers military action only as the last resort – and that should not change in the future, even if we accept that the world won’t become an entirely peaceful place from one day to next. An interview with Rebecca Harms.

DE EN

01.03.2015

From Dayton to Jerusalem – Federalism Is the Green Way to Build Peace

By Yoav Shemer-Kunz

While the traditional European way of peace-making was based on separating peoples, the Green European way of peace-building should be based on power-sharing and trust-building.

01.03.2015

“There Is Still a Long Way to Go” – Civil Society Involvement in Foreign Policy

By Isabelle Durant

An interview with Isabelle Durant. Great upheavals have occurred and are still occurring in the Middle East: the successive revolutions and counter-revolutions of the Arab spring, the lightning emergence of ISIS, the agonies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the stagnating civil war in Syria. How do the Greens analyse the situation?

EN FR

01.03.2015

Wars Will Never End Wars – Thoughts on the Kurds’ Fight Against ISIS

By Özgecan Kara

The Kurds have conducted a remarkable democratic experiment in the north of Syria: Their “Canton-based Democratic Autonomy” is a pursuit of freedom, justice, dignity and democracy led by principles of equality and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, protecting this area with weapons and the blood of martyrs shouldn’t be applauded.

01.03.2015

Revising Green Values – For A More Effective Foreign Policy

By Tamás Meszerics

Medication and water bottles have numerous advantages in a crisis situation, but it’s quite sure that they cannot be used to stop ISIS. The greatest dilemmas of European Greens are rooted in a conflict of values, as well as in the difficulty of reconciling theory and practice. To overcome them, Greens need to work on a political solution.

EN HU PL

01.03.2015

Why Does the EU Stay Silent on Nuclear Disarmament?

By Tarja Cronberg

How can we explain the stalling of talks and postponement of real action towards nuclear disarmament, and what are the obstacles holding back the EU from being a leader by example?

EN FI

01.03.2015

A “Plan B” for European Security: Mitigating Climate Change Through Military Procurement

By Francisco Seijo

Climate change represents a unique opportunity for Europe’s green parties to “lead the way” by developing a sound strategy for “greening” Europe’s foreign and security policy – and in the process revamping this stagnant dimension of European integration.

01.03.2015

Meeting Our Global Responsibility – The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

By Frithjof Schmidt

Global inequality has risen alarmingly in recent years. Together with the global climate crisis, this poses a serious threat to our entire society.

01.03.2015

The EU and South East Asia – Why Europe Needs to Become an Active Player

By Reinhard Bütikofer

Beset by the crises occurring internally and in its immediate neighbourhood, the EU has neglected its relations with South East Asia. This is a major shortcoming, since that region is becoming the epicentre of global relations and will play an increasingly important role for international security.

01.03.2015

Cooperation to Remove the Barbed Wire: Europe and the Maghreb

By Rafael del Peral

Many inhabitants of the Maghreb have no other choice than to leave their homes, and start a new life abroad.

EN ES PL

01.03.2015

Greening Our Foreign Policy – of Visions, Principles and Contradictions

By Charlotte Beck

While the spectrum of ideas defining a Green foreign policy remains wide, several overarching tenets have emerged over the past decades.

01.03.2015

A Green New World – French, British and German Perspectives

By Noël Mamère, Omid Nouripour, Tony Clarke

Although Greens tend to agree on most issues, they don’t always think alike. Politicians from France, the UK and Germany discuss their stances and those of their national parties on the military industry, drones, Afghanistan, the legacy of Joschka Fischer, among other thorny issues…

EN PL

01.03.2015

Between Pacifism and Human Rights – the Alliance ‘90/The Greens and the Balkan Conflict

By Johanna Schneegass

After the end of the Cold War and the renaissance of nationalism and of the concomitant abuses of human rights of the worst kind, the pacifism that had been one of the German Greens’ founding principles came into increasing conflict with its active defence of human rights.

DE EN

01.03.2015

Dutch Green Party and R2P: Soul-Searching Over Military Intervention

By Tamara van Ree

The use of military force is a sensitive issue for the Dutch Greens.

01.03.2015

Pacifism, Non-Violence and International Law – Green Parties and the Use of Force

By Jonathan Piron

Traditional theoretical approaches to conflicts are inoperative.

EN FR

01.03.2015

A True Green Foreign Policy: From Advocacy to Human Empowerment

By Alfredo Sfeir-Younis

Today, we witness an anachronistic pattern of foreign policy: incoherent, homocentric, far removed from the reality of people, and dominated by economic and political interests (the neoliberal system).