Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde had an interview with TASS about the 2020 achievements.

”As neighbors, Sweden and Russia in 2020 were discussing cooperation in a range of political areas and not the least in ecology, climate, education and healthcare. In 2020, I met my [Russian] counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow and also spoke with him on the phone. Therefore, the pandemic has not disrupted our ties. During my visit to Moscow, I lauded opportunities to communicate with representatives of the Russian civil society,” the minister stressed, adding that she had ”inspiring conversations with Russian students who take interest in Sweden.”

”We had particularly productive cooperation of regional organizations on the issues of the Baltic and Barents Seas and the Arctic. We are hoping for more development of these areas of cooperation where we have common interests next year. Our goal is to expand interpersonal exchanges with Russia,” Linde pointed out. Läs intervjun

Germany is against Greece’s demands of imposing an arms embargo on Turkey due to tension in the Eastern Mediterranean, the German foreign minister said Tuesday.

Heiko Maas told the DPA news agency that he finds the arms embargo on Turkey ”strategically incorrect”.

It is not easy to do this to a NATO member, he said, adding that Turkey easily purchased missiles from Russia when it could not get them from the US.

Sharing his hopes that the dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean could be solved through diplomatic channels, Maas said: ”Of course, we continue to believe that there is a solution to the conflict and that we do not have to permanently remove a NATO partner from the arms cooperation.”

Greece called for an EU arms embargo on Turkey due to recent tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean ahead of the EU leaders summit on Dec. 10-11. But a majority of the European leaders opposed the idea of an arms embargo or economic sanctions, opting instead for a softer line.

Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, and stressed that these excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots. Läs artikel

On December 10, the head of the General Staff of the Armies, General François Lecointre, made an official visit to the French forces of Operation Barkhane. During this visit General Lecointre met with the French newspaper Le Monde. The content of this interview has generated debate, since, on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the French operations Serval and Barkhane, the chief of general staff has affirmed his desire to limit the level of commitment of the French armed forces in the Sahel. […]

Although General Lecointre is in favour of limiting the commitment, he is aware that the decision depends on the Executive Power, and that, by no means would it be a matter of leaving the field, but rather of a sustainable and intelligent evolution, so as not to be replaced by the Russians or the Chinese, as has happened in other African scenarios, for example, in the case of the Central African Republic with Russia. For all these reasons, taking into account that the local Armed Forces are not yet ready, France is perfectly aware that one cannot and should not leave yet, but the words of General Lecointre show France’s intention to seek a transition strategy in order to be able to start a withdrawal of French troops as from the tenth anniversary.  […]

In the absence of any improvement in the fight against terrorism, the Malian government is seriously considering negotiating with two of the leaders of jihadism in Mali belonging to the JNIM group, linked to Al-Qaeda. France has already expressed on several occasions that it considers it a mistake to negotiate with jihadists, whatever group they may be.  Läs artikel

Borgerliga och konservativa rättstänkare talar ofta om individuella rättigheter som heliga. Äganderätten, till exempel, är i det borgerliga rättsliga tänkandet närmast religiös. Piketty visar i boken ”Capital and Ideology” (2019) de historiska rötterna bakom det heliga äganderättsbegreppet, rötter i överhetens filosofiska argument för att berättiga det ojämlika samhället.

Långt före feodaltiden har filosofer och religiösa ledare försökt berättiga ojämlikheten med rättighetsargument. Mörka konservativa krafter kan också åberopa rättigheter för att föra fram obehagliga uppfattningar – minns pingstpastor Åke Green som 2003 i en predikan framförde att ”sexuella abnormiteter är en cancersvulst på hela samhällskroppen”. Han ansågs skyddad av rätten till religion och gick fri från straff.

Demokratiska socialister bör således med rätta se med misstänksamhet på argument som enbart grundas på den påstådda förekomsten av ”rättigheter”. Redan tidigt i den svenska arbetarrörelsens historia fanns stor medvetenhet om faran med rättighetsresonemanget. […]

Det dåtidens rättsvetare kraftigt opponerade sig emot var tanken om naturrätt – eviga rättigheter givna av gud eller annan odefinierad högre makt. I stället är det lagarna som människan i rationella och demokratiska former, i strävan efter samhällsnyttan, ställt upp som ska följas. Det är en mycket viktig demokratisk princip – det är inte domare, filosofer eller kungar som ska bestämma utan folket i demokratiska val.

De borgerliga partierna ser ständigt en möjlighet att framföra odemokratiska argument som går ut på att ge så kallade oberoende experter mer makt i samhället, makt att upprätthålla över- och underordningen i samhället. Det kan vara jurister i domstolarna eller ekonomer i riksbanken. Vi måste se vad det handlar om – försök att rulla tillbaka den demokratiska socialismens landvinningar. Läs artikel

As the U.S. military scrambles to meet a mid-January deadline to draw down to 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, a milestone in the conflict has passed almost unremarked: The combined NATO force on the ground now outnumbers the U.S. contingent.

About 13,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Afghanistan as of the end of February, when the U.S. government inked an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all forces over the course of 14 months if conditions were kept.

There are now about 4,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan, a senior U.S. defense official said Sunday, and the number is dropping quickly. As of late November, some 11,000 NATO troops remained from several dozen nations — a figure that includes the U.S. contingent. The largest contingents from other nations include Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy. Each had roughly between 900 and 1,000 troops supporting the effort as of June. […] As the U.S. military narrows its mission sets in Afghanistan, focusing on counterterrorism and advisory support with a shrinking force, the senior official said NATO has its own goals for its troops remaining in the country.

”We understand where they want to continue to play in what mission space they want to continue to work, and we’re working with them; obviously, some of them have [had] the train-advise-assist relationships a decade or more,” he said. ”We want to keep those relationships with the Afghan National Security Forces and the Army. We want those to continue. They’re robust, and we’re working with our partners to ensure that as we adjust together, the missions that we continue to do make sense for those nation partners.” Läs artikel

For almost three decades, we have awaited a mythical “cyber Pearl Harbor,” the harbinger of digital doom that the U.S. cybersecurity community assumes to be inevitable. Strangely enough, some believe this cyber Pearl Harbor already happened twice within the last two months.

Though warnings of cyber Pearl Harbor emerged as early as 1991, former defense secretary Leon Panetta is perhaps best known for promoting the idea, warning in 2012 of an impending “cyber-Pearl Harbor that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life, an attack that would paralyze and shock the nation.” Such a grand event would be tough to miss.

The recent SolarWinds hack is no excuse for doomsday rhetoric, especially from those who have been leveling it for decades.

Den svenska nationalsången uttrycker nordisk samhörighet med klangbotten i religion och språk, fornnordiska myter och berättelser, som senare förstärkts av demokratisk samsyn, starka arbetarrörelser och ambitiösa välfärdssatsningar. För efterkrigstidens föreningsaktiva generationer förblev Norden en central gemenskap även när länderna skilde sig militärstrategiskt. Fyrtio år före EU:s Maastricht- och Schengenfördrag avtalade Nordens länder om en gemensam, passfri arbetsmarknad med samma sociala förmåner för nordiska som för infödda medborgare¹. Nordiska rådet och Ministerrådet sökte skapa politisk samordning, men fick främst kulturell betydelse. Viktigare var initiativ på medborgarnivå, till exempel Föreningen Nordens årliga vänortsmöten vilka kunde skapa livslånga vänskapsband² eller samverkan inom akademin i forskningsbedömning, tidskrifter, konferenser och i det nordiska sommaruniversitetet som 2015 höll sitt 65:e sommarläger.³

Frekvenstilldelningen i 3,5 GHz- och 2,3 GHz-banden återupptas den 19 januari 2021.