Benjamin Klasche

'What Relations Matter?' is the question @BirgitPoopuu and I ask in our @ISQ_Jrnl theory note. We combined deep relational approaches with IR critical theory and developed what we call 'critical relationalism' to engage with this question. /1 doi.org/10.1093/isq/sq…

There is a strange idea in some environmentalist circles that human population is the main cause of ecological breakdown, and that humans have an *intrinsically* negative impact on ecosystems. Both claims are incorrect. First, human ecological impact is entirely a function of the system of production and provisioning. It depends on what is being produced, under what conditions, and how the yields of production are distributed. For instance, an economy that uses mostly public transit, renewable energy, multi-unit housing and plant-based protein can meet human needs with a fraction of the impact of an economy that produces a lot of SUVs, fossil fuels, mansions and industrial beef, and which allocates a bunch of totally unnecessary production to service the fantasies of overconsuming elites. Remember, we know it is possible to provide decent living standards (DLS) for 8.5 billion people with 30% of current global energy and material use, by ensuring efficient technologies and focusing production on socially necessary goods and services. That much is fairly straightforward. But one might say that, even so, every person will always have some negative impact. This too is incorrect. Again, it depends entirely on the production system, and specifically, what people are mobilized to do. Under capitalism, labour is mobilized overwhelmingly to produce things that are profitable to capital. But labour could just as easily be mobilized instead for regeneration. Using straightforward public finance mechanisms, we can fund massive programmes to reforest barren lands, regenerate degraded ecosystems, restore biodiversity, advance agroecological methods, etc. Under these conditions, it is possible for societies to not only have minimal negative impact on ecology, but to have a net-positive impact, actively improving ecological indicators. People buy into the myth of the intrinsic destructiveness of humans because we have come to take capitalism for granted. But it is 100% possible to organize production and labour differently. Under capitalism, we are compelled to produce whatever is most profitable to capital, even if it is destructive to humans and nature. Under conditions of economic democracy, we can produce what we know is necessary for well-being and ecology.

„diese gewaltige Arbeit der Erinnerung an die Schoah – die auch eine Arbeit im Dienste der Demokratie war – [wird] in ihr Gegenteil verkehrt…Sie wird dazu benutzt, um Ungleichheit, Unterdrückung und Kolonialismus zu legitimieren.“| taz.de taz.de/Historiker-Tra…

Thank you, @CEEShub_TLU for the kick-ass kick-off event, with all the visual and poetical treats by the creative talents of Estonia. Just look at this board generated by @IllustraatorPir real-time while we compared notes about ways to think about security and peace.

Yesterday we kicked off the @CEEShub_TLU with a panel of security’s experts from @MFAestonia, @pagulasabi and scholars from @TapriTampereUni and @PolsciCph.

Coming Tuesday I will moderate the kick of panel of the @CEEShub_TLU in Tallinn. Join me and @BirgitPoopuu, @MMalksoo, @EliseFeron1, @eerojanson, and @vseviov on discussion on the need to challenge our understanding of security.

3/4 Niemand steht über dem Völkerrecht - alle müssen sich daran halten: USA, Russland, Syrien, Türkei, Israel, Äthiopien, Iran. Es wäre wünschenswert, wenn auch andere demokratisch legitimierte Politiker für Völkerrechtsverbrechen zur Verantwortung gezogen würden.

@hanskundnani It must be hard to speak about it when you try to avoid the disillusionment that (hopefully) followed after seeing the news when you supported the German governments blank check to Israel for over a year. It seems they never talked about Israel though.

German foreign policy think tankers seem to have almost nothing to say about the ICC's announcement today, even as they continue to tweet about Russia and Ukraine, i.e. exactly as I argued in this piece published in April. open.substack.com/pub/theideasle…

Benjamin Klasche: Germany is moving to the right one state at a time #Estonia news.err.ee/1609476356/ben…

How could the international community have sunk so low? Awarding COP 29 to Azerbaijan, a petro-dictatorship that tramples on every value the COP claims to defend, is an affront to common sense and human dignity. Let's remember who the host is: a country that orchestrated brutal ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, that indoctrinates its youth to hate Armenians, and that still holds Armenian prisoners of war in defiance of international conventions. Azerbaijan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, a practitioner of the famous "caviar diplomacy", where truth is exchanged for privilege. A country that is wiping out the Christian churches of the world's first Christian country, that has used jihadists as mercenaries and that practices toxic anti-French and anti-European propaganda as far afield as New Caledonia. War crimes, torture, unbridled propaganda... And this is where the planet chooses to discuss climate justice and peace? Such a decision is not only absurd, it is highly immoral. How many more masks will have to come off before we stop offering podiums to oppressors? #StopGreenwashGenocide #FreeArmenianHostages #COP29 #copofshame

The @CEEShub_TLU website is live! Check it out: securityhub.ee Learn more about our agenda, vision, events, and research!

@AuswaertigesAmt Ich war der Auffassung, dass das Auswärtige Amt sich nicht mehr um das Völkerrecht schert.

Sollten die Berichte über nordkoreanische Soldaten in der #Ukraine zutreffen und #Nordkorea damit den russischen Angriffskrieg in der Ukraine auch mit Truppen unterstützen, wäre dies gravierend und ein Verstoß gegen das #Völkerrecht. #DPRK (1/2)

What I think this shows is that what is seen as a problem is not the “relativisation” of the Holocaust or the questioning of its “singularity” as is often claimed. Rather, it is what you are comparing it to - and who you are explicitly or implicitly comparing the Nazis to. 2/4

While these scenes are hard to process, it is important to understand that extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians—often children—are absolutely not isolated incidents. These events represent a part of the systematic and widespread actions being carried out by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The rationale? The opportunity to target (and destroy) the Palestinians, which the State of Israel appears determined not to let slip away.

As a UN Independent Expert, I am deeply concerned by the stance #Germany is taking on Israel/Palestine, and its dangerous implications and consequences. Minister #Baerbock should be invited to provide the evidence of what she claims, and then explain how "civilian objects losing protected status" justify the massacres Israel is committing in Gaza and elsewhere. Has Germany decided to stand with a State that is committing international crimes, it is a political choice, but it has also legal implications. May justice prevail where politics abhorrently failed.

Das "Selbstverteidigungsrecht Israels" ist in seiner Verwendung ein Euphemismus für das "Recht" auf Apartheid, Genozid, ethnische Säuberungen, völkerrechtswidrige Angriffskriege, illegale Besatzung und non-stop Kriegsverbrechen.

German Foreign Minister Baerbock defends Israel's killings of Palestinian civilians. "Civilian places" lose "their protected status" because "terrorists abuse that", she claims. This is of course nonsense under international law. The International Criminal Court accuses Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But Baerbock wants to justify the crimes. "That's what Germany stands for", she claims. What a disgrace.

You can be a celebrity or a ordinary person. If you stay SILENT, PASSIVE, INACTIVE while Palestinians trapped in Gaza - human beings who breath, feel and dream exactly like you - get slaughtered by an unchecked army, you are no different from those who continued to go by their lives during past genocides who erased from earth millions.

Kolumne: Die Klimakrise eskaliert - aber in Deutschland ist sie, was das Interesse der Bevölkerung angeht, in 2 Jahren abgestürzt, während Migrationsängste explodierten. Das hat nichts mit Fakten zu tun, sondern mit medial verzerrter Realitätswahrnehmung. spiegel.de/wissenschaft/m…

Every time you fall for the weaponization of antisemitism in the service of the Israeli state, you are enabling this genocide.

Wer mitten im größten xenophob-völkischen Rechtsruck der Bundesrepublik einen Artikel postet, aus dem sich solche Schlagzeilen generieren lassen, muss sich dafür auch in die Verantwortung nehmen. Das schrieb ich so auch über Scholz nach seinem Abschiebe-Titel im Spiegel. Herr Özdemir ist Politik- und Marketingprofi. Und im Artikel gerade das Stereotyp der migrantischen maskulinen Gewalt zu nutzen, ist im besten Fall verantwortungslos, im schlimmeren Fall eiskalt berechnend. Selbst wenn man annehmen würde, dass der Satz vom großen Problem Migration stimmen würde, würde ich von verantwortungsvollen Politiker*innen erwarten, zu handeln, statt verbal Öl ins Feuer zu gießen, Probleme anzugehen, statt diese ideologische Spiegelfechtereien zu bedienen. Zumindest verlangte ich das von Politiker*innen und Parteien, die vorgeben, eine moralischere Politik zu machen, als die anderen. Wenn das "falsch abgebogen" ist, wie mir manchen nun unterstellen, dann würde ich die Frage aufwerfen, ob es nicht die anderen sind, die falsch, nach rechts, abbiegen. Übrigens können wir darauf warten, dass die Einlassungen von Özdemir in kaum einer rechten Wahlkampfrede, in kaum einer Äusserung fehlen werden. Genau damit hat er sich in Geschichte des neo-völkischen Deutschland eingeschrieben, sein Name ist nun mit dieser Wende verbunden, ob er das wollte oder nicht.