JAN OBERG: The Western Empire is going down! | The Weight of Chains Podcast #007

Tonight’s guest is someone who has spent decades studying war, peace, and the dangerous space in between. Jan Øberg is a peace researcher, author, and co-founder of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research in Sweden — an independent think tank dedicated to conflict analysis, diplomacy, and alternatives to militarized foreign policy. At a moment when global tensions are escalating — from the dangerous confrontation involving the United States, Israel, and Iran to rising military spending across Europe and the Middle East — voices calling for diplomacy are becoming increasingly rare. Øberg has long argued that the international system has moved away from preventing conflicts and instead focuses on managing them once they explode. Tonight we’ll look at what’s driving the current wave of geopolitical confrontation, the erosion of international law, and the growing role of military alliances in shaping global politics. But we’ll also bring the conversation closer to home — to the Balkans — where the legacy of intervention and international oversight still shapes politics today, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the authority of the High Representative continues to raise questions about sovereignty, democracy, and long-term stability. In a world that seems to be drifting further from diplomacy and closer to confrontation, we’ll ask whether peace thinking still has a place in international politics — or whether the world has already entered a new era of permanent geopolitical rivalry. Host: Boris Malagurski Video, Editing & Design: Pavle Vasiljević - vpx Media