General

Oct. 25, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 125th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on Friday, Oct. 24, was not the usual panel discussion, but instead a dialogue between Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Theodore Postol (U.S.), professor emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Zepp-LaRouche began by describing the present strategic turmoil, where we are buffeted between hope and chaos. The Wall Street Journal said that the U.S. had given permission to Ukraine to use Tomahawk missiles to strike deep into Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump then denied the story, and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that a Russian response would be serious, even overwhelming. There was also some confusion about the planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest, which was on, then off again. Regarding Gaza, Zepp-LaRouche remarked, “The so-called peace deal does not seem to hold.” The Israeli Knesset voted to annex the West Bank, a repudiation of Palestinian statehood and an indication of Israeli obstruction to peace. The window of opportunity to stop World War III may be closing soon, she warned.

On the hopeful side, she reported on the Bering Strait Tunnel Project round-table discussion, which took place on Oct. 22, with experts on engineering, rail development, finance, and diplomacy from the U.S., Russia, Italy, and Germany.

Putin’s Leadership vs. German Lunacy

Zepp-LaRouche described Putin as “one whom one can only admire for his seemingly endless patience.” She charged that the “regime-change” people who want to get rid of “that thoughtful Putin” have not considered who would replace him, who would control Russia’s nuclear arsenal. Her sentiments were echoed by Postol, who said: “Whenever Putin shows restraint that saves humanity from catastrophe, they think it shows weakness on his part … he shows extraordinary ability to finesse these situations…. We can only be grateful that we did not have a Joe Biden equivalent in the Russian leadership.”

On the other hand, Zepp-LaRouche described how German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has shifted to an “idiotic” policy of “strategic uncertainty” regarding the deployment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. To keep one’s opponent guessing is “really playing with fire,” she said. Postol added that he finds it hard to believe that anyone could have such a lack of grasp of history as to behave as Merz is behaving: “Germany is now being subjected to strategic deception by its political leadership and the American leadership.” Merz is lying when he says that the missiles deployed to Germany will not be nuclear armed. “The Russians will have no choice but to treat these weapons as nuclear armed,” Postol said. If they are conventional, they are meaningless. He compared this to the installations in Poland and Romania of defensive missiles that can quickly be converted to offense; the Russians do not have the luxury of speculating as to what the current status of those missiles may be. Merz’s approach will tremendously increase the likelihood that nuclear war will begin on German soil.

Teetering on the Brink of Nuclear War

Postol reported that there had been catastrophic events in the past few days, and that Trump’s statements and actions have seriously damaged the prospects for diplomatic progress. Putin has wisely offered to adhere to START provisions for a year while negotiations take place on renewing the treaty. However, due to Trump’s actions, “I think that Russia has now been put in a situation … where it really has no choice but to solve its security concerns on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

Postol, a leading expert on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, revisited some of the alarming material he has presented in past IPC meetings. “A nuclear war will effectively end modern civilization,” he said. “This is simply a fact of physics…. Fighting and winning a nuclear war is simply not technically feasible.” Statements by Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer betray a deep ignorance of these facts.

Because of the extreme destructive effects of nuclear weapons, any nation that is attacked with them will be forced to respond with nuclear weapons in a desperate effort to save itself. Able Archer was a 1983 NATO military exercise, simulating a war with the Warsaw Pact, conducted with high-level participants, including then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. By day five of the exercise, it had escalated to the hypothetical use of strategic nuclear weapons—and the U.S. and Soviet Union no longer existed.

Regarding the physical effects of the use of nuclear weapons, Postol said that most people imagine the main devastation to be the result of the shockwave, but that is just a secondary effect. Extraordinary damage is done by the initial fireball, which is much worse than the shockwave. The fireball would set fires over a vast area—approximately 600-700 square kilometers would be instantly ignited. Hurricane-force winds would be sucked into this area by upward convection, causing a gigantic firestorm, a fire tornado. Shelters would turn into ovens. Three-hundred-kph winds would accompany the shockwave that follows. Postol illustrated this very dramatically and passionately with historic images.

Europe’s War Dance

Zepp-LaRouche noted that Putin had changed Russia’s strategic doctrine one year ago, from a basic “no first use” doctrine to one under which Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons, when even a conventionally armed country backed by a nuclear power threatens the national existence of Russia. The previous doctrine was not sufficient to deter existential threats.

Postol commented on the rearmament drive from leading NATO nations: “As for all this talk about going to war with Russia, it’s almost laughable.” Russia clearly has no intention to invade Europe or occupy Ukraine. They have been forced to take action because of the behavior of the West. In January of 2022, then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the U.S. reserved the right to put nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Why is anyone surprised that Russia then invaded Ukraine?

Zepp-LaRouche asked Postol for his take on the strident calls for a conventional arms buildup. Postol said that the collapse of the German economy is a direct result of the Ukraine war. When Biden blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, he did much more damage to Germany than to Russia. “Germany is in the process of deindustrializing,” but Merz is not concerned with that. He wants to divert limited funds away from the people of Germany to prepare for an unnecessary war with Russia. European leaders are so desperate to cover up their own responsibility for the economic collapse that they are willing to initiate a war with Russia.

Good and Evil

When the session was opened to questions, one person asked about the question of evil in strategic politics. Zepp-LaRouche stressed the tenth of her Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture, that man is basically good. She said that the origin of evil is the system of oligarchy. Friedrich Schiller said the most important requirement for humanity is Empfindungsvermögen (empathy). What good does it do you to have written on your tombstone that you owned 200 Porsches and ate kilotons of caviar? Hannah Arendt was not entirely wrong about the “banality of evil.”

Postol agreed that man is good, with some qualification. He said that man is also “cursed with animal instincts.” We need a world where reason can overwhelm our animal instincts. Unfortunately, he said, there are very few people in positions of power today who wish to do good. European leaders of today created the conditions which led to the Ukraine war. They lack the courage of a Nikita Khrushchev to admit it when they have made mistakes.

Conclusion

Zepp-LaRouche expressed her appreciation of Postol as a “voice of reason,” saying that if you don’t start with what Postol laid out about the reality of nuclear war, you will end up wrong. She encouraged all participants to redouble their efforts to halt the march toward nuclear war, before the window of opportunity closes forever. [eir]

Oct. 17, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 124th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition commenced with optimistic remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute Founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. “All reasonable people in the world should be happy about the recent phone call between President Trump and President Putin,” she said, announcing the upcoming meeting between the two Presidents which is scheduled to take place in Budapest. She had no reading yet on the Oct. 17 meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, but predicted that there is now a “big big question mark” over the delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. She spoke of the possibility of a “Putin-Trump tunnel” connecting Alaska to Siberia, adding that the multi-national development of Siberia would represent an “incredible boost to the world economy.” This brings back the idea to the European continent that “diplomacy is the way to resolve conflicts.”

Zepp-LaRouche reported that the momentum of President Trump’s Gaza peace plan has carried over into the Ukraine situation. We published yesterday a very important interview with H.E. Ambassador Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark, which underscores the absolute necessity of a “peace through development” approach, centered upon the Oasis Plan, originally proposed by Lyndon LaRouche in 1975.

“The Historical Roots of the”Peace Through Development” Plans

Later during the meeting, Schiller Institute activist Tim Rush reported on a think tank conference in Washington, D.C., where he noted a shift in world opinion against Israeli genocide. He intervened from the floor, referencing the Oasis Plan and the Eisenhower administration’s Water for Peace conference in 1967, to illustrate that these ideas have history. He referred the participants to a June 28, 2024, article in EIR titled “When ‘Water for Peace’ Was at the Center of U.S. Politics—1953-1968”. Co-moderator Dennis Speed noted a similar historical parallel, in a hand-drawn map recently shared by the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. and made public by U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, which envisioned a “Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge” over the Bering Strait, a predecessor to the tunnel proposed by LaRouche in his World Land-Bridge plan.

Dialogue Between Israelis and Palestinians

Ali Rastbeen, director of the Académie Géopolitique de Paris, is a French national of Iranian origin. He said, of the peace plan for Gaza, that regional actors must maintain a balance between Israeli security and justice for the Palestinians. The regional actor he chose to emphasize was Iran. “Iran has remained silent—no official declaration … we haven’t seen that since 1979,” he said, calling this a “major strategic change…. Iran has been marginalized, no longer projecting power through proxies … a forced re-definition of its role…. Its influence has decreased, to the profit of the Arab countries.”

Rastbeen emphasized that we are entering a new era with the end of proxy wars. Regional power in the Middle East is now measured in the ability to negotiate, provide stability and cooperation.

Mossi Raz, former Knesset member and Director of Peace Now in Israel, observed that neither Hamas nor Israel can solve its problems by using force, and emphasized that pressure from the international community made this agreement possible. Pressure from the international community made this agreement possible. He warned that the success of the agreement was threatened by “misunderstandings on both sides”: the Palestinians are upset that Israel has continued to kill Palestinians, Israelis are upset because Hamas has not delivered all the dead hostages. The international community must keep pressure on both sides to comply exactly with the agreement, in order to prevent a further outbreak of war.

An excerpt was shown from Zepp-LaRouche’s video interview with Dr. Hassassian, who said that “President Trump has flexed muscles on Israel” to get a breakthrough in negotiations. He warned that the occupation has to end, and an independent Palestinian state with the 1967 borders is necessary for lasting peace and security. Zepp-LaRouche replied that “this is a very precious moment” to transform the dynamic of the region with the Oasis Plan. Hassassian agreed, saying, “This is the right time for your organization to push forward and to market the Oasis Plan… The benefits will not go just to the Gazans and the Palestinians,” but to the region as a whole.

Zepp-LaRouche said in response to Rastbeen’s description of a shift from ideology to diplomacy in Iran, that this is an interesting angle from which to look at the crisis. But the most important shift will be to an emphasis on economic development. This would “completely change the parameters.” Instead of coercion, we need a policy of mutual benefit. Raz offered his support for the Oasis Plan, but added that the economic dimension is a major factor, but not the only factor.

Discussion

A participant asked whether the “peace through development” approach is really desirable, given that economic growth threatens our “finite planet.” Zepp-LaRouche explained that there is a common misconception that growth must be linear and quantitative, as opposed to what the Schiller Institute proposes, which is qualitative growth such as the development of fusion energy, which China is making a reality.

Dennis Speed asked Raz to respond to former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg’s assertion that Israel’s acts are at odds with Jewish tradition. Raz responded by acknowledging the importance of diplomacy and dialogue. Zepp-LaRouche added we have called for a dialogue of cultures, based on the best traditions of each culture in science and art, where human creativity expressed itself. “People have lost the idea of what a renaissance really is,” she said. “Collaboration among cultures would always spark a new development.”

A participant asked: Are we talking about a kind of consciousness we have never seen before? Zepp-LaRouche responded by saying that we must both reactivate our best traditions, and also create something new. It must be as different as today’s bestialized culture, as the Renaissance was from the Middle Ages, which were dominated by superstition and barbarism.

An African participant stated that she strongly supports the Oasis Plan, but asked: Why must we forgive the perpetrators of the genocide, of the killer sanctions? In response, Zepp-LaRouche insisted that we have to take advantage of branching points in history, in which we can influence the shape of things to come. We clearly have such a conjuncture, now that 500 years of colonialism is coming to an end. We should not try to impose the Western neoliberal model, but respect the singular characteristics of various cultures. We have to end the idea that conflicts can be resolved by military means.

In concluding remarks, Raz said that we need to incorporate the Oasis Plan among other issues which must be resolved, and it will take years to resolve them all.

In response to a question about China’s tightening of its export controls on rare earth elements, Zepp-LaRouche said that this “could bring the whole military-industrial complex to a screeching halt.” China’s next five-year plan could mean a change of relations among nations, a model of governance based on sovereignty, non-interference and cooperation.

An Ecuadorian reported that her new neoliberal government is attacking the indigenous population, which is protesting unjust austerity measures. Co-moderator Dennis Small said that Ecuador is part of a larger pattern; the neocons are willing to invade Venezuela, create regime-change in Peru (which they have done through an orchestrated scandal), and bail out Argentina, in order to maintain their control.

Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants that although the discussion has focused on Gaza, she had emphasized at the start that the Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest is of crucial importance because of the ever-present danger of nuclear war, as was described by Ted Postol in the previous week’s IPC meeting. He will give another presentation at the next meeting. “In the age of nuclear weapons, we cannot have war as a method of conflict resolution”; we must return to diplomacy. [eir]

International Peace Coalition, Week 122

by EIR Staff

Oct. 3—Helga Zepp LaRouche opened the 122nd weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) by calling on members to study the speech given by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Valdai Club meeting this week and circulate it to every political and institutional leader. She emphasized that Putin had made clear that Russia has no interest nor intention to invade Europe, and that the hysteria being riled up about Russian planes and drones threatening Europe was “nonsense.” Putin said that the European people do not support the “deafening” war mongering from their leaders and the media. He said that, as in 1914, it is the Europeans who are provoking a war.

On Gaza, Mrs. LaRouche said that the world is increasingly disgusted, as demonstrated by the general strike in Italy (which is reported to have a million people on the streets), and two demonstrations in Germany against the government’s policy for building up for war on Russia. She called for more support for the Oasis Plan and attention to the need for a power- and water-development plan for the entire Southwest Asian region, and for a global new paradigm for development and security for all nations.

Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian international lawyer, executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and co-founder of Nonviolence International, among other activities, noted that there have now been two years of Israeli genocide, “in the public eye, in the light of day, despite the incredible denials by Israel.” We are witnessing the “destruction of international law,” he warned, but we must fight to retain a system of international law by all means. Trump’s policy is that international law doesn’t matter, only power, and that those with power can do whatever they want. The Gaza “peace plan” is just an ultimatum, that Israel has the power and thus can do what it wants. Hamas may accept it anyway, simply out of desperation to end the daily slaughter. The Oasis Plan demonstrates the international policy which must be adopted. People must act in the absence of government actions, he said.

Asked why he had written about some successes by the Palestinians over these years of genocide, he answered that it was to overcome despair, and to let people know that their struggle has increasingly inspired people around the world to support them, especially youth, university students, and even many Jews, and for calls for Palestinian statehood.

A Thorn in the Side of Unilateralism

Prof. Lier Pires Ferreira, of the Center for BRICS Studies (NuBRICS) at the Fluminense Federal University of Brazil, attacked “Trumpism” for its assault against Brazil. Brazil, he said, following its era of dictatorship, established relations with Russia, China, and others while also maintaining friendly relations with the U.S., but President Bolsonaro (2019-2023) ended that, aligning only with the U.S. Trumpism and the extreme right, he said, use the media and “big tech” to spread disinformation and lies. Trump is targeting the BRICS, and the Lula government in Brazil, because it is a “thorn in the side of unilateralism.” He strongly promoted the idea that water is a “public good, not a commodity” and is key to sovereign development—one of the central tenets of the LaRouche Oasis Plan.

Zepp-LaRouche agreed that we must join forces internationally, but added that it must include development as a core of any solution. She pointed to China’s extraordinary development, noting a recently completed water project larger than any other in the world, saying that, if people understood that such development were possible, they would be better able to unite for a new paradigm.

Former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar said the so-called Gaza peace plan is not a peace plan at all, but a plan to retain Israeli and U.S. domination. The U.S. is “not an impartial broker,” and other countries should assert themselves as impartial brokers. Kuttab agreed, but said it is not a question of impartial brokers, but of a “framework for discussion” based on international law, rather than “fiat” by the powerful.

Steve Starr, a renowned nuclear-weapons expert, began by announcing that he was no longer teaching at the University of Missouri, which had dismissed him, due to his talking about genocide in Gaza and related issues, but that he was continuing his work to expose the extreme danger of nuclear war. He noted that the New START Treaty would expire in February 2026 if a new treaty is not negotiated. If it expires, the number of nuclear weapons and delivery systems will essentially double, he warned. He also warned that if the plan to send nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine proceeds, it will mean war, likely nuclear war. He closed by showing a clip from Terminator 2, which accurately shows the gruesome impact of a nuclear explosion over a major city, both to human beings and to the infrastructure. Zepp-LaRouche called for Starr’s presentation to be shown to every politician, especially those talking about “winning” a nuclear war.

Department of War: A Rejection of Peace

Larry Johnson, a former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), began by noting that the Trump pronouncement that the Department of Defense will be called the Department of War is an intentional rejection of the idea behind the creation of the Department of Defense after World War II, which was to declare that there would be no more wars. Now the U.S. has warships and war planes on Venezuela’s border and in bases in Puerto Rico, which can not be sustained for long, leading Johnson to conclude that there will be a war on Venezuela within days or a week.

On Trump’s declaration that Hamas must accept the “peace plan” within four days or there would be “Hell to pay,” he ponders whether or not Trump has been watching what has gone on in Gaza over the past two years, which is already pure Hell. On Ukraine, the Russians are moving forward rapidly, and he suspects they plan to finish the operation within about three months.

Father Harry Bury, a long-time international peace advocate, submitted a video statement. He said he had formed a non-violence movement in the Twin Cities, where he lives, and that the mayors of those cities had declared the cities to be “non-violent,” while advancing efforts to educate former gang members to gain employment. He said he has partnered with the Schiller Institute on the Oasis Plan, a concept already being implemented by the BRICS nations around the world for development as a basis for peace, calling on the U.S. to cooperate with the BRICS.

Asuka Burke of the Schiller Institute gave a report on the international call with youth around the world held with Zepp-LaRouche this past week, with 60 participants from countries across Africa, Europe, Ibero America, and the U.S.

A comment posted by one participant said: “I am 78 years old, but I’d like to be part of the Youth Movement.” Mrs. LaRouche responded that he and other older people are totally welcome to join.

Another questioner observed that there could be no peace without justice. Zepp-LaRouche responded that justice had to include development for all nations, or it would not be just. She pointed to the Peace of Westphalia, which included justice, but also forgiveness, without which there would be no peace. IPC co-moderator Dennis Small added, in a variation of the famous concept by Pope Paul VI, “the new name for justice is development.”

Christoph Mohs of the Schiller Institute gave a report on two rallies for peace in Germany today, in Berlin and Stuttgart, with about 30,000 people. This included the distribution of many leftists, but also attendance by many “regular people,” many youth, and many Jews. Prof Jeffrey Sachs addressed both rallies by video, noting that it was the Western nations, not Russia, who cancelled the nuclear treaties, and that the Europeans refuse to even talk to Russia today.

Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting with a call for distributing both Father Harry Bury’s statement to churches around the world and the presentation from Steve Starr on the horror of nuclear war.