International Peace Coalition

by EIR staff

The 138^th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the International Peace Coalition. She discussed the implications of President Trump’s speech at Davos, during which he made clear his disdain for international law. She deplored his “typical mafioso-like” statements on Iran.

However, she said, the metaphorical glass is half-full, “maybe more than half-full”, in light of the meeting between Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 22, 2026, aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.  The meeting was described by the Kremlin as “useful” and “constructive.” What is important is that there is an ongoing dialogue, and the “spirit of Anchorage” has not fallen by the wayside. “If this is continued, it really could shift the balance,” Zepp-LaRouche said.

Russia will provide $1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza. Putin also joked about the invitation by Trump to join his “Peace Council” with a $1 billion membership fee, saying, “I will pay the one billion, and you can take it out of the frozen assets.” Putin has made the offer to extend the last arms control treaty, START, which is due to expire in a few weeks. There has been no response yet from Trump.

Zepp-LaRouche reviewed some positive initiatives, and praised a new proposal from a French group: a petition to return to the founding charter of the UN, which will be reviewed, edited by IPC participants and brought back for a vote next week.

She was followed by Dr. Ted Postol, MIT Professor Emeritus and one of the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons.  He analyzed “the mythical idea of Golden Dome,” Trump’s proclaimed plan for anti-missile defense. It involves orbiting satellites with interceptors to catch ICBMs in boost phase. “Implicit in this idea is understanding that the existing ground-based systems have little or no capability,” since they can’t tell the difference between warheads and the hundreds of decoys which are deployed during the descent phase. Orbiting satellites have less than three minutes to intercept in boost phase, when the missile velocity is relatively slow and no decoys have yet been released. Their orbit must be low enough to maximize that window of opportunity, which will cause atmospheric drag and the lifespan of the satellite will only be about six years before it falls to earth. You would need 1100-1200 satellites in orbit to even think about an interception of one ICBM. The system scales 1000 to 1 – for a launch of 100 missiles, 120,000 satellites. You could “punch a hole in the Golden Dome satellite constellation” with an interceptor launched from below, “and your launch would go unopposed.”

Postol expressed his concern that “something is different about Trump in the past few months… something more extreme.” He said that some people have suggested that he may have had a minor stroke. “We have a criminal government right now in control of the United States.”

In response to Postol’s demolition of the Golden Dome scheme, Zepp-LaRouche asked, why is there no one in Trump’s team that will tell him this is unworkable? Postol said that people follow orders, they don’t ask questions. What followed was an exchange about the difference between Lyndon LaRouche’s conception of the Strategic Defense Initiative based on “new physical principles”, as opposed to what Reagan’s program became under the influence of LaRouche’s opponents.

Jens Jorgen Nielsen is the Former Moscow correspondent for the Danish daily Politiken, and an author of books on Russia and Ukraine, as well as being Director of the Russian-Danish Dialogue and assistant professor of communication and cultural differences. He addressed the issue of Trump’s desired annexation of Greenland, stressing that Greenland has its own government and people there are very concerned about the possibility of being occupied by US. Some factions there are calling for immediate independence from Denmark; what would Trump do under those circumstances? Most Danes and Greenlanders were not reassured that U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reached an agreement over Greenland at the World Economic Forum that did not include them.

A short excerpt was presented from a video interview with Alberto Vizcarra, a leader of the National Front for Saving Mexican Agriculture. He described the dire state of Mexican agriculture, where exports have collapsed due to neoliberal economic policies. He went on to review the past proposals of LaRouche for projects in the mutual interests of Mexico and the US.
Daniel Burke of the Schiller Institute announced a new international youth class series. He called the youth movement a “crucial strategic flank.”

Discussion

There was a further exchange between Zepp-LaRouche and Nielsen on what Nielsen calls a “law-based order” as opposed to a “rules-based order. Zepp-LaRouche suggested that “rules-based order” sounds like it is based on something arbitrary. They agreed that the abrogation of treaties, combined with the possible stationing of medium-range missiles in Europe, puts the world on edge.

One participant asked how we can we organize against ICE. This provoked several responses. Co-moderator Dennis Speed observed that America has long been a plaything of intelligence agencies, particularly British. What is going on in Minnesota is closely tied to the debacles in US foreign policy. To break from the downward spiral, we need action which is not merely non-violent, but which also poses solutions. The other IPC co-moderator, Dennis Small, stated that the only reason immigration is an issue is that US foreign policy has wrecked the economies of our neighbors to the south, causing waves of refugees.

Regular participant John Steinbach noted that nuclear weapons are never defensive in nature, and ABM systems are intended to block retaliation after a first strike.

Returning to the question of Greenland, Dennis Small said that the question of the Arctic is not merely a military one. It is a golden opportunity for international collaboration on economic development.

Zepp-LaRouche commented that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos has received much favorable attention, but it is a disguised reflection of Chatham House line. She said that he “stated something that was obvious, that rules-based order is a fraud.” However, the he people who are praising him are oblivious to economics, because he was the author of the “reset” policy.

In her concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche reported that out of the recent EIR seminar, titled “It’s Worse Than You Think: The Strategic Implications of the Attack on Venezuela and How To Bring the World Back from the Brink,” we have put together a committee that will take responsibility to organize globally for a new paradigm. She announced that it will operate under the slogan, “Citizens of the World Unite.”

Jan. 9, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 136th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. She warned that, in the wake of Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela, “there is no more international law, and it has been replaced by ‘might makes right’ and the law of the jungle.” She then introduced Dennis Kucinich, former U.S. Congressman from Ohio and former U.S. Presidential candidate. Kucinich said that we are at an inflection point where we will either stand for peace, or watch the world disintegrate around us. He said that in addition to the Venezuela war, the murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE operatives demonstrates the lawlessness of the Trump administration. This breakdown of order is leading us ever closer to another world war. “We are tiptoeing through the graveyard of history, pretending that a nuclear war can’t happen,” Kucinich said.

Zepp-LaRouche then noted Trump’s announcement that he wants to increase the military budget by 50% to $1.5 trillion, which should be seen in conjunction with the rearmament of Germany and Japan. Both Trump and JD Vance have stated that they want to take Greenland, and the spokeswoman for the Trump administration has statedly plainly that a military option is on the table.

She said it was important not to forget the attempted drone attacks on the residence of Russian President Putin. Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” wants to station troops in Ukraine after a peace deal, which is “ludicrous” because the potential stationing of NATO troops in Ukraine is what started the war in the first place. She said that the killing of Renee Nicole Good was bad enough, but what was worse was Trump and Vance taking the side of the ICE agent who killed her. “The only tiny element of positive news,” Zepp-LaRouche acknowledged, was the unprecedented public reaction against the sanctions on Swiss Col. Jacques Baud.

Richard Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 to 2014. He analyzed the failure of the postwar framework established in 1945, which allowed the five nations that were winners of the war a privileged position, an unrestricted veto that was not contingent upon international law. There was one rule of law for the winners, and a different one for everyone else, which was “woven into the normative order,” he said. “The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials only held the losers accountable for their crimes.” Trump’s vision for the world is dominated by geopolitics, not the rule of law. The attack on Putin’s residence and the Venezuela intervention were designed to be immune from the restrictions of international law.

Zepp-LaRouche reiterated her view that geopolitics has been the cause of two world wars, and thanked Falk for shedding new light on the problem.

Col. (ret.) Alain Corvez (France), international consultant and former advisor to the French Defense and Interior Ministries, said that there are certain states, particularly the U.S. and Israel, which do not respect the UN Charter, and the Charter is therefore finished. He just returned from Iran, where he saw the unabashed lies of the international media. Life is difficult for the Iranians after 45 years of sanctions, and there are legitimate demonstrations, which the U.S. hopes to harness to make a “color revolution,” which will not succeed.

Prof. Fernando Garzón (Ecuador) is Director of Solidarity with Palestine and former consultant on Defense Policy Strategies. He agreed with Corvez that there are developments in Iran which, like Venezuela, are being misrepresented by the international media.

He described two models: The military operational model which has been increasing, such as in Gaza, and includes the use of AI, typified by Palantir, for military purposes. In Gaza there was a kind of experimentation which is now being applied in Venezuela, not solely by the U.S., but also with coordination with Britain and France.

The second model is governance, where military campaigns are associated with investments. The oil companies had begun to negotiate well in advance of the kidnapping of Maduro. The “Gaza Riviera” scheme, promoted by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, applies a method where violent military actions are used to impose a business arrangement. An extremely important counterweight to all of this is the BRICS, which is trying to return to a civilized approach.

A snippet was aired of an Interview with Diego Sequera from Venezuela, who said that Americans are suffering economically and fed up with the endless wars. Trump’s oil grab will be financed by taxpayers, not Exxon.

Former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar observed that the Trump administration is trying to destroy the rule of law inside the U.S. itself, using the military domestically under various pretexts. The murder of Renee Nicole Good is one indication. This is contributing to the deterioration in the international situation.

Co-moderator Dennis Small said that the last ten days have seen a phase change, including three major developments: the drone attacks on the President of Russia; the attack on Venezuela and the threats against other nations; and the “cold-blooded assassination” of Renee Good. Small described this as “the Era of Shock and Awe,” the idea that using sheer terror, you can change the way the world functions. They are turning Venezuela, Cuba and others into “Gaza West,” the approach of “complete strangulation.”

U.S. Presidential candidate Diana Sare had announced her candidacy earlier than planned, in response to the Venezuela attack. She said that the CIA was probably involved in the drone attack on Russia’s President, and this was directed at Russia’s ability to respond to a nuclear attack. Russia provided the evidence to the U.S. military. Did Trump fire anyone? No, he went ahead with an attack on Venezuela and seized a Russian tanker.

Small announced that there will be an emergency round table discussion on Monday, Jan. 12 on “How To Bring the World Back from the Brink.”

Discussion

Humanitarian activist Rafed Aljoboury pointed out that the Venezuela attack happened immediately following Netanyahu’s U.S. visit, and asked, why would Iran aid America to suppress the resistance in Iraq? Colonel Corvez replied that the U.S. has always been against Iran. The Iranians did not associate themselves with U.S. in Iraq.

Frequent participant John Steinbach noted that Israel has a long history of acting as a U.S. proxy, collaborating with the worst right-wing regimes and suppressing independence movements all over the world, so this should be understood when we look at Israeli involvement in Venezuela. He asked Professor Falk to compare international law to the so-called “rules-based order.” Falk replied that there is a “geopolitical de facto veto” when we speak of international law.

Small responded to Aljoboury: if we try to go back and re-litigate each dispute among nations, we will lose. We must use the approach of the Treaty of Westphalia. It has always been British geopolitics that has manipulated very real grievances to play divide and rule.

Zepp-LaRouche said that the previously existing order, the attempt to impose a unipolar world, provoked a backlash and now we have chaos. President Putin has called for a new Eurasian Security Architecture, but if you have an order which does not include everyone, it won’t work. She has carefully studied President Xi’s Global Governance Initiative, and approves of it as a starting point for discussion. Her Schiller Institute proposal and the Chinese proposal are the only two universal plans on the table. Either we learn to think of the One Humanity first, or it cannot work.

EIR

Report on the 135th meeting of the International Peace Coalition

The 135th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, began with remarks by its initiator, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who forecast that “2026 will be a year of even more dramatic changes.” The “all-dominating new development,” she said, was the Ukrainian attack with 91 drones on the residence of Russian President Putin. If Putin had been killed, the situation could have spiraled toward World War III. The Ukrainian government denied responsibility, and the CIA supported their claim, but then on Jan. 1, Russia presented evidence in the form of well-preserved navigation systems from drones which had been shot down in the course of the attack. These systems revealed the Ukrainian origins of the attack.

The killing in Gaza and the West Bank continues, she reported, as Netanyahu is feted at Mar-a-Lago. The attack on Venezuela could lead to a continent-wide destabilization. The China-Taiwan situation is worsening. Japan and Germany, two of the Axis powers, are re-arming. All of these developments underline the urgent need for a new Security and Development Architecture.

Flirting with Nuclear War

Wolfgang Effenberger is a German journalist and author of Pax Americana (2004) and The Underestimated Power (2022). He warned that the U.S. has upgraded its military command structure in Germany, which heightens the threat to peace. Despite initial assurances from the U.S. that no missile systems will be stationed there, the German government has announced that such systems are, in fact, on the agenda, including the hypersonic missiles known as “Dark Eagle,” if the U.S. manages to develop them in a deployable form. This poses a threat to Russia, not one of deterrence, but of a potential first strike. He described the short flight time of nuclear missiles from Germany to Russia as “a knife to the throat.” If the INF treaty were still in place, these missiles would have been prohibited, but U.S. President Donald Trump walked away from the treaty. At the end of February we will see the end of the last strategic arms limitation treaty, the START. He cited Theodore Postol’s warnings against backing Russia into a corner with nuclear weapons.

Beto Almeida, a Brazilian co-founder of TeleSUR, and a member of the advisory board for the Brazilian Press Association, reviewed the world’s hot spots, with an initial emphasis on the China-Taiwan tensions and the U.S. assault on Venezuela. He then went on to review the history of how NATO promised Russia that it would not expand Eastward, and then promptly broke that promise. He recalled that State Department functionary and neocon icon Victoria Nuland publicly admitted U.S. involvement with the Maidan coup in Ukraine, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly admitted the West’s fraudulent involvement in the Minsk Accords. He decried the cynicism of Ukraine’s denial of involvement in the drone attack on Putin’s residence, calling it terrorism. The narrative in the West is framed in such a way as to make it appear that the threat is coming from Russia, he said, when the reality is that Russia is under attack. Almeida echoed Trump’s reported remarks in a phone call with Putin, “Thank God we didn’t give them Tomahawks.”

Zepp-LaRouche thanked them for their remarks, underscoring the danger of the current brinksmanship, such as the threats by NATO commanders, including General Christopher Donahue, of an attack on Kaliningrad.

IPC co-moderator Dennis Small observed that the attack on Putin’s residence meets the criterion for a nuclear response under Russian strategic doctrine. The attack could not have occurred without U.S. technical support, and Russian commentators are also increasingly pointing to the British role. The Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine of deterrence depended upon a “modicum of sanity,” which is no longer present. NATO leaders have stated explicitly that they think they can win a nuclear exchange.

Almeida described it as significant that Russia, which no longer identifies as a socialist nation, has a working partnership with China that is closer than at any time in the past. The Western nations could also change their paradigm to work with new institutions like the BRICS, rather than clinging to “the unipolar position of destroying everything.”

Proposed Initiatives

Zepp-LaRouche proposed that we should use this session of the IPC to launch several initiatives. She suggested that IPC participants should send a letter to Trump, asking him to “discontinue the policies of the Biden administration” and halt the deployment of strategic weapons in Europe. She also proposed a combined endorsement of Xi Jinping’s Global Government Initiative and Pope Leo’s recommendation of Nicholas of Cusa’s method of the coincidence of opposites, using these two kindred conceptions to raise the level of the discussion globally. Almeida suggested that letters be sent not only to Trump, but also to other leaders from around the planet. During the discussion, this sentiment was echoed by other participants. Dennis Small suggested that anyone who does not precisely agree with the wording of the IPC letter should write their own letter.

Many Germans participated in the discussion. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her disappointment in the failure of the German peace movement to mobilize in sufficient numbers to make a difference. She attributed this failure to factional squabbling, and said that we must redefine the debate from a higher vantage point, which is why she proposes a combined endorsement of Xi’s Global Government Initiative and Pope Leo’s recommendation of Nicholas of Cusa’s method of the coincidence of opposites, to free people from the axiomatic trap of geopolitical dogma.

Economic Issues

Questions came in on economic issues, including one about the exposés of corruption in Ukraine and aid monies going to Ukrainian and U.S. officials as kickbacks, and one about the corruption in the war machine economy. Dennis Small responded by saying, “The biggest corruption in the military budget is the military budget itself.” The military industries in the U.S. are owned by the financial speculators. “You’ve got these categories of pure speculation, which is what is destroying the system.”

Contrasting today’s economy with the highly successful period following the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act, Small said that today we have the inverse of Glass-Steagall: Instead of low interest rates to incentivize production and higher rates to discourage speculation, in today’s economy, we reward speculation and suffocate production.

Almeida added that China’s production-oriented economy is a stabilizing influence globally, while U.S. has promoted a destabilizing orgy of speculation.

In her concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche said that she had often asked herself, why was the Age of Reason not implemented at the time of Schiller and Humboldt, when it was so widely discussed? She came to the conclusion that science and technology had not advanced to the point where poverty could be eradicated. The average person must have economic security in order to live a life of reason. Today it is eminently feasible to eliminate poverty; the time is ripe for a New Paradigm. We need “this beautiful vision” and we need to “move with power and energy to implement it.”

Report on IPC Meeting No. 134, Dec. 26, 2025

Dec. 26, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 134th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with comments by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the IPC. She emphasized that we are not experiencing a multitude of discrete crises, but rather an “absolute epochal change” as the 500-year era of colonialism comes to an end.

Reviewing the situation in Europe, she said that the neocon narrative that the Russian invasion of Ukraine came out of the blue in 2022, unprovoked and with no prehistory, is no longer viable. The recently declassified conversations between Presidents Putin and George W. Bush simply underscore the fact that this war was entirely preventable. The West obviously knew that the stationing of nuclear- capable missiles along Russia’s borders was crossing a “red line.” The idea that rearmament of Europe is the solution to Europe’s economic collapse is “economic stupidity.” Free speech and free thought in Europe are under attack; the sanctioning of Jacques Baud, a respected and moderate analyst, exemplifies this. Elsewhere in the world, there are big warnings in the Israeli press of renewed aggression against Israel’s neighbors after the Dec. 29th visit of Netanyahu to the U.S., where he hopes to get the green light to attack. She concluded by saying, “We have to convince the Western governments to give up their arrogant idea” that they must dominate the world. We must move from confrontation to cooperation. 2026 will be a year of decision. Rachel Clark, interpreter, consultant, and international coordinator between Japan and the United States, is a longtime activist for Veterans for Peace. She reminded the participants that the Ukraine war began at the latest in 2014, with the attack on eastern Ukraine by the Kiev regime which killed 14,000 Ukrainians. Keeping this fact in mind, she reported that the remilitarization of Japan, carried out despite that nation’s postwar constitution, was instigated by pressure from the U.S. during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The U.S. military is effectively an occupation force in that nation. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which formally renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes, has been overridden, despite protests by the Japanese populace. The power of the U.S.-Japan Joint Committee makes Japan’s elected legislature, the Diet, into a Kabuki Theater. Japan, which has a land area equivalent to California, has 350 military installations. Japan may be used as a sacrificial pawn in a proxy war, much like Ukraine. Japan has become the “poster child of Operation Mockingbird,” referring to the CIA project of planting propaganda in corporate media news reports; the media do not report on U.S. provocations toward China, but cover China’s responses as if they were unprovoked. A video was presented with highlights from the Dec. 14 youth conference of the Schiller Institute, featuring remarks from Helga Zepp-LaRouche, former South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, South African Ambassador to Mexico Beryl Sisulu, former Chief of Staff of the Senegalese Air Force Alain Charlemagne Pereira, and youth from a broad spectrum of African nations, Southwest Asia, and Japan. Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) asserted that there will be no agreement on Ukraine; the demands of the Ukrainians and Europeans are at odds with Russia’s conditions for peace negotiations, which are that the West recognize the territories formerly in Eastern Ukraine as part of the Russian Federation, and that there be no NATO presence in Ukraine. Demilitarization and Denazification, the original stated goals of the Special Military Operation, are still in place and non-negotiable. The Ukraine war will be settled on the battlefield, Johnson insisted, and Europe is irrelevant. Europe is no longer the world’s center of science and industrial production—there is nothing that they can offer that other countries need. The Russians are sitting on the sofa with a big bag of popcorn, watching the U.S. and Europe quarrel.

Regarding Venezuela, he pointed out that it is three times the size of Vietnam; the U.S. does not have the military capability to invade and control it. “I have no idea why we have chosen Venezuela to be the so-called hill to die on.” The U.S. is not in a position to achieve its goals through the use of military force.

Dialogue

Zepp-LaRouche thanked Rachel Clark and insisted that we must somehow ensure that the true history of World War II is communicated to young people. Larry Johnson reminded the participants that Japan and Germany, which are now re-arming, were the axis powers in World War II. Our governments try to depict Russia and China as imperialist aggressor nations, but it is the West which has blood on its hands from innumerable conflicts it has initiated. Trump is boasting about his plan for “Trump-class” naval vessels, but he apparently hasn’t heard about hypersonic missiles. The U.S. Navy could not stand up to the Houthis—how can they challenge China?

Zepp-LaRouche said that she cannot accept the prospect that Germany will go down in history as a nation which “just couldn’t make it, like the Incas or the Mayans.” Larry Johnson said he had never seen such a disconnect between the wishes of the populace in Europe and the U.S., and what their leaders are doing.

Congressional candidate Jose Vega presented the video of his Dec. 23 intervention on Ritchie Torres, which has been seen by roughly 2 million people on assorted platforms. “These people are not authorities, they are clowns and should be addressed as such,” he said.
Open Discussion

Frequent IPC participant John Steinbach recalled his long-working relationship with Rachel Clark, and observed that Japan has one of the world’s largest stockpiles of plutonium and an “off the shelf” capability of building nuclear weapons in a relatively short interval of time. Clark proposed that port cities around the world collaborate to ban military vessels from their harbors if they are carrying nuclear weapons.

A question came in from an online viewer: “How do you end poverty under capitalism?” Zepp-LaRouche said that there is no poverty eradication program in either Europe or the U.S., as opposed to China, where it has been successful: In fact, China is responsible for 60% of poverty eradication worldwide. Later, co-moderator Dennis Small stressed that it is important to define what we mean by “capitalism.” Do we mean financier speculation, or do we mean the American System approach typified by Alexander Hamilton, which is very similar to what China is doing today?

Rachel Clark said that we should stigmatize those corporations that profit from war, and pressure companies like Raytheon or Lockheed Martin to retool for civilian production. Part of the enormous U.S. military budget should be diverted to enable high school students to visit the world outside the U.S., an invaluable educational experience.

Clark said this meeting gave her optimism and we must inspire younger generations to lead the fight for peace. Zepp-LaRouche recounted how she was shocked during her first visit to the U.S. at the way Germans were depicted in shows like “Hogan’s Heroes.” She proposed that we encourage a major project for young people to visit actual historical archives, rather than relying on the narrative factory in the popular media. We must persuade the citizens of our nations that they are responsible for changing the policies of their nations: “It is possible to defeat even the strongest arm of the tyrant, if they unite for a good plan.”

Dec. 19, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 133rd consecutive weekly Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition took place on Dec. 19. Helga Zepp-LaRouche started the event detailing the tumultuous nature of the period. She noted that the European Union has failed in its plans for financing the Ukraine war against Russia. The best that the EU could accomplish is to borrow €90 billion at taxpayer expense, in order to lend this to Ukraine, for Ukraine to turn around and pay back the €45 billion that it already owes to the EU. This is one giant Ponzi scheme which will not advance the war effort since Ukraine has no more soldiers left to fight. This is destroying any remaining unity of the EU with countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and others resisting this insanity.

Threats to steal the Russian frozen assets puts the entire financial system at risk of collapse. The 16-hour EU meeting was a scene of great desperation where representatives were not allowed to leave until a plan was agreed upon. As confirmed by media reports, the Ukraine war could have been prevented in 2020 if Ukraine would have simply agreed to no membership in NATO. Zepp-LaRouche spoke of the danger of war in Venezuela, saying that it would be a disaster. This insanity is splitting the MAGA base since Trump had campaigned against more foreign wars. She spoke of the EU sanctions against Swiss author Jacques Baud for the “crime” of refusing to repeat the official narrative. This violation of free speech is contrary to the Charter of the UN, EU, and the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Zepp-LaRouche warned that the EU may try to impose sanctions against Pope Leo for having spoken against war. She warned of the dangerous comments by Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who argued for a “pre-emptive strike” by NATO against Russia, or other NATO messaging that the nature of man is war. Zepp-LaRouche rejected these claims completely and called on everyone to build support for her call to dissolve NATO. She called upon the world’s youth to join together to end war and build a new paradigm of development. She said that the establishment has no right to take away the future of mankind.

Jack Gilroy spoke next about his theology of resistance. Gilroy has been active with Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi for years. He gave a quick history of geopolitics starting with his experience in 1955 as part of NATO troops on the border of Czechoslovakia, where he and his fellow soldiers knew that they were “sacrificial lambs” if any fighting erupted. In October 1962 war was prevented during the Cuban Missile Crisis due to the negotiating between Kennedy and Khrushchev, with help from Pope John XXIII. In June 1963, and again in June 1963 President Kennedy spoke of disarmament at American University and in September at the UN. JFK also said that he wanted to shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, many spoke of the potential for industrial conversion for peaceful purposes, but the “merchants of death” needed to keep Russia as an enemy. In 2014 the CIA overthrew the elected government in Ukraine to help create the war against Russia. Stocks soared for the merchants of death when Russia invaded Ukraine. NATO put the entire world in a new Cuban Missile Crisis in 2024 by delivering long-range missiles in Ukraine. It is time that we move away from the lie that militarism gives us security. The only true security comes from development and justice. Gilroy said that the future will see the true heroes of this period are JFK, Pope John XXIII, and Lyndon LaRouche. In the question period Gilroy also spoke of the Raising Together Theater which addresses issues of peace and justice.

Dennis Small spoke of the fight inside the White House over going to war with Venezuela. The war faction is led by the evil Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, and the very ambitious Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These two are pushing Trump into a trap. Small then compared the imperial wars and colonial looting represented in the recently issued National Security Strategy document, compared to the economic development and cooperation in China’s recent statement on Latin America and the Caribbean. The NSS document states that the U.S. must dominate the world and its security depends upon not allowing any nation or group of nations to become strong enough to represent a threat. However, China speaks of “universal security,” common goals, and cooperation. In particular China uses the term, “trilateral development” in which China invites the U.S. to join in in developing Latin America. The NSS document rejects this offer and insists that the U.S. has sole access to the region’s resources and all other countries be pushed out of the area. Small listed the major projects in South and Central America that China has completed or were sabotaged by the U.S.

Professor Eduardo Siqueira of UMass-Boston said that there is too much focus on war instead of peace. He said that the recent NSS document put on paper what many leaders in Ibero America already knew, that the U.S. intends to use “gunboat diplomacy.” The U.S. will force countries to act against their own interests. This has been the U.S. policy in Venezuela since Hugo Chávez took power. In order to remove Chávez and his followers from power, the U.S. attempted a coup, it bribed Venezuelan military leaders to overthrow the government, it used mercenaries in Colombia, and it created artificial candidates such as Juan Guaidó and María Machado. While the U.S. threatens to attack Nicolás Maduro for alleged drug ties, the U.S. pardoned former Honduran President Juan Hernández. Siqueira said that the U.S. is using the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy to create puppet regimes, but the big target is Brazil. Stephen Miller changes the narrative every day with new lies, but the plan remains to stop the influence of China and the BRICS nations. Siqueira said that whenever an empire is in decline, it becomes desperate. Jack Gilroy said that he had visited Venezuela several times and was impressed with the Cuban doctors who would go to the poorest neighborhoods to care for the forgotten people.

There were several young speakers who attended the November Schiller youth conference in Paris and the International Youth Conference on Dec. 14. Tim from Uganda spoke calling on all the youth of the world to unite for development to stop wars. Tim said that when Africa is free, then the world will be free. Estevao from Brazil spoke of the urgency to use the principles of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia to take into account the interests of the other in achieving peace. Estevao went through the Dec. 14 Schiller youth conference with 150 youth from 37 countries, where issues such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act could be used to put credit into production instead of speculation. Carla from the Bronx spoke of her organizing student groups around the great projects such as the Bering Straits project and the Oasis Plan, which could bring peace through development, by which she generated an exciting response.

The question period was more of a dialogue. Several people suggested that everyone pick a reading list for the holiday period, but Dennis Small pointed out that several suggested books failed to address the higher principle of the “one humanity.” Small said that people should master the works of Lyndon LaRouche to maximize their impact as organizers. Clearly we all need to act morally, but Small said that only if we educate ourselves can we be effective. When asked about how to change the U.S., Zepp-LaRouche said that Americans need to know their “pre-history,” going back to at least to Paolo Toscanelli. There is a more universal history and she was most concerned about any shift to a chauvinist outlook. American elites have adopted a British colonialist policy as shown by H.G. Wells’ “Open Conspiracy.” Zepp-LaRouche concluded with her call for building support for her statement to “Withdraw from NATO” and reading LaRouche’s works, namely “On the Historical Individual” and “Secrets Known Only To the Inner Elite.”

Report on International Peace Coalition #131

Dec. 5, 2025 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator, opened the 131st consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) with news of encouraging developments, beginning with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to India. She said that the soul of Yevgeny Primakov must be happy right now, because the China-India-Russia relationship is flourishing, despite “the efforts of the imperial forces of the world” to divide them. She described this as a setback for “global NATO.”

On the other hand, the “most outrageous and infamous development” of the past days was the efforts of the Financial Times to sabotage the negotiations for ending the Ukraine War, by running the interview with Italian Vice Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone musing about a preemptive strike against Russia.

There are other crisis spots. In Venezuela, Russia may provide military support if it is requested, while Marco Rubio is ranting about Venezuela having a relationship to Hezbollah. The conflict between China and Japan is heating up, and the Israeli assault on Gaza is clearly not over. All these conflicts are extremely worrisome, and highlight the importance of “getting rid of geopolitics for good” with the ideas found in her Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture.

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), opened with a joke, aimed at Vice Admiral Dragone: Italy now has a new tank with five gears: four reverse gears, and one forward gear in case of an attack from the rear. He added that the Ukraine war is essentially over; the Ukrainians may persist and lose an additional 50,000 troops, but the result will be the same as if it were ended now. McGovern hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump has come to realize this. He commented on the narcissism evident in Trump’s repeated demand that he be given a Nobel Peace Prize.

He described it as “a big deal” that Putin gave an interview in India, in which he said that his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi lasted five hours and was “a meaningful, substantive, and highly productive conversation.”

An AI video shared by Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which moderator Anastasia Battle described as “super fun,” was presented. It portrayed an imagined dialogue between Dmitri Mendeleev and Thomas Edison on the theme of the “Putin-Trump tunnel” under the Bering Strait and its potential global effects.

Another video was featured, a video interview conducted by the Schiller Institute’s Harley Schlanger with Avi Shlaim, professor at Oxford University, historian, and author of The Iron Wall and his autobiography, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew. Shlaim said that he had been reluctant to use the word “genocide” to describe what Israel is doing to Gaza, but the turning point for him was when Israel suspended all humanitarian aid to Gazans. He said that “the Trump peace plan is not a peace plan,” although it is a positive initiative, but it is essentially “a colonial plan for control of the Gaza Strip,” where decisions would be made by foreigners, aided by “Quislings” within the Palestinian community. There are no provisions for any elections or democracy. Looking back on the past decades, he said that “with the assassination of Rabin, hope was lost, and there was nothing to replace it.”

In response, Zepp-LaRouche expressed the hope that Trump’s visit with President Xi Jinping could produce an agreement on building the Oasis Plan, in which case “Trump would deserve not one Nobel Peace Prize, but two!” She renewed her plea for the U.S. to choose cooperation with China, rather than confrontation.

McGovern described the involvement of Jared Kushner in the Ukraine negotiations as a “salutary development,” because it may indicate a realization on Trump’s part of the economic benefits of a negotiated peace. He described Russia and China as being “united as never before.” Since Trump cannot realistically contemplate a military conquest of China, an attack on Venezuela could be a face-saving demonstration of U.S. military might, similar to Reagan’s invasion of the island of Grenada.

A participant sent in a question: would the IPC consider expanding the Bering Strait tunnel into a regional development zone, a “transcontinental world trade village”? Co-moderator Dennis Small recapitulated the Schiller Institute’s history of proposals for the “World Land-Bridge Network,” which would produce such development zones in conjunction with rail development all over the world. We can “leverage” the conflict hot spots around the world to make this happen, he said, since economic development is a necessary prerequisite to real peace. Helga Zepp-LaRouche developed her late husband’s concept of the “development corridor.” Time is increasingly a factor in economic activity, and transportation infrastructure tremendously accelerates commerce.

Organizing Reports

Alan Rivera presented images of the field deployments of the Mexican organization, with displays of a world map that is Pacific-centered rather than the typical Atlantic-centered maps. The display advocates for the BRICS and shows the opportunity for major development projects.

Purnima Anand, who is President of the BRICS International Forum in New Delhi, India, reported on the visit of Putin to her country and his successful meeting with President Modi. She described that nearly 10,000 youth participated in the youth forum and pledged the cooperation of her organization with the Schiller Institute and IPC. Zepp-LaRouche responded by saying that if the young people from around the world can come together, “there is no mountain that cannot be moved.” She invited Anand and all others to take part in the upcoming youth conference of the Schiller Institute.

Christoph Mohs described the mobilization of young people in Germany against the proposed military draft there, showing images of the protests with thousands of students. There were protests in 90 cities across Germany. What was lacking, he said, was a positive vision for the future.

Discussion

Frequent participant John Steinbach lamented the financialization of the economy which ensued after the repeal of Glass-Steagall under Bill Clinton. He remarked that we need to go back to an emphasis on “making things, rather than making money.” Zepp-LaRouche, in response, agreed that the collapse of the financial system is a question of “when,” not “if.” She said that solution requires the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche, including the restoration of Glass-Steagall.

A former AfD parliamentarian from Germany decried the war propaganda in his country, reminding his countrymen of the sacrifices Russia made during WWII, and described how he had made public comments to that effect and became a center of controversy. Zepp-LaRouche congratulated him for speaking out, noting that the failure of citizens to speak out is what enabled the Nazis to come to power in Germany.

A Libertarian Party activist in Oregon described an antiwar coalition he is building in that state, and how they successfully defeated a pro-war Republican, making them a one term congressman.

In response to another question, Zepp-LaRouche noted the upcoming 250th anniversary of American independence and called for a second American Revolution, for the U.S. to “find its way back to its own ideas.”

In conclusion, Zepp-LaRouche warned that despite the good news of Putin’s meeting with Modi, Europe is still in the pit of a drive for more war, and there will be no solution until we eliminate “the root cause, which is geopolitics.”

by EIR staff

The 130^th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition took place on November 28. Schiller Institute Founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the meeting with a survey of turmoil in the world, listing the conflict zones including Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, and the emerging conflict between Japan and China. She noted that retired German General Harald Kujat has called on the UK, France and Germany to endorse the recently leaked 28 point proposal for a resolution of the war in Ukraine. President Trump’s administration is divided, with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff favoring diplomacy, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio adamantly opposing the peace proposal. Those betting on a regime change in Russia “should think twice,” she said, because Putin enjoys the support of the Russian population and “Putin is an unbelievably patient and diplomatically-oriented person” whom we should prefer as a negotiating partner.

On the Gaza question, she observed that US policy continues to be terrible, although eleven US senators are now calling for an investigation into Israeli war crimes.

Zepp-LaRouche took note of some recent acts by President Trump, including his statement that he intends to”permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” following the shootings of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., and Trump’s unfounded remarks about Whites being persecuted in South Africa, asserting that the country would not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Miami, which the United States is set to host. Trump has also revoked the visa for former South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor,  who has spoken at IPC and Schiller Institute events.

On the hopeful side, she cited President Putin’s initiative for a new strategic architecture, which he has framed not as a challenge to the West but as a blueprint for a polycentric world order grounded in balance, anchored in organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS.  She said that President Putin’s formulation is essentially the same as her own proposal for a new strategic architecture, as well as Xi Jinping’s Global Security and Global Governance Initiatives.

Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 to 2014, began by saying that Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s remarks were “very much in keeping with my own world-view.” He reported on the activities of the Gaza People’s Tribunal, which he called “an important civil society initiative” in response to the failure of the UN and international organizations to enforce the rulings of the International Court of Justice. He explained that these international organizations are unable to take on the “winners of World War II,” leading to a paralysis of the UN and kindred organizations. Veto power gives the most powerful states in the world an exemption from international law, which he said has “really made a mockery of the ‘never again’ pledge after the Holocaust.” The UNSC resolution on Gaza displayed a shocking disregard for what has been done to the Palestinians, and represents “a deception of hard-power geopolitics.” He expressed similar disdain for Trump’s purported “peace plan” for Gaza.

H.E. Amb. Abdullah Shawesh, of the Embassy of the Palestinian State to New Delhi, declared that sympathy for the Palestinians is fine, but we must “change the reality on the ground… everyone in the world can be a game-changer.” One practical measure which he endorsed was that individuals can back the boycott of Israeli businesses and institutions.

Zepp-LaRouche responded that we will continue to fight for the Oasis Plan, and create an international audience for it. To move people we must present a hopeful vision of the future. All of the crises we are discussing are “only symptoms of the collapsing order of the last 500 years,” and regional crises cannot be solved without a new strategic architecture.

John Steinbach, coordinator of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee of the of the National Capital Area praised Richard Falk for his role in history. He added that the neocons have urged the use of tactical nuclear weapons, an insanely reckless policy. Steinbach echoed Falk’s opposition to Trump’s so-called peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a plan which he described as “isolated concentration camps within a large concentration camp.” Israeli policy is run by the followers of Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein, Steinbach said.

In response to Steinbach and Zepp-LaRouche, Falk concurred that we need a “new framework to manage global security,” a “new architecture.”

EIR Ibero-American Editor Dennis Small offered good news, which is that there exists a “clear economic pathway to resolve the underlying problems.” The answer, he said, was to return to the 1933 Glass-Steagall standard. In the US today, four major banks hold the bulk of financial derivatives. The Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing bails this out, and does not rescue useful banking activity. Deposits from the Fed vastly outstrip the loans issued by banks, and the few loans that are actually going out are not for productive lending, but rather for more derivatives speculation. He described how Mexico’s banking system is run by Wall Street and the City of London, and how the Chicago Board of Trade is the global nerve center for derivatives trading. Compare China, he said, where the government regulates finance to ensure that almost all credit goes to actual production. He concluded by asserting that to save our banking system, we must write off over $2 quadrillion in derivatives.

Alberto Vizcarra of Mexico, adviser of the National Front for Saving Mexican Agriculture, analyzed the effects of financial speculation on Mexico’s agricultural sector. Protests and activism, such as the blocking of major highways in 17 states across Mexico, have begun to move the Mexican government to change the mechanisms which are oppressing Mexico’s farmers. The BRICS alliance is proposing international cooperation by producers to combat the influence of the Chicago Board of Trade.

Discussion

A Nigerian asked Zepp-LaRouche how to combat the smuggling of materials in Africa that are related to nuclear weapons production, as well as posing a more general question about how to solve the global crisis. Zepp-LaRouche, on the question of smuggling, said that this is up to governments, and that perhaps a regional security agreement could be reached to deal with the problem. On the broader issue, she reiterated that we are in a transition from the collapsing old order to something different, and that “we need a lot more discussion of the principles of the new order.”

Dennis Small returned to the question of how to envision and create a brighter future, utilizing human creativity which coheres with the natural progression toward higher ordering principles; “Optimism is the law of the universe,” he said, referencing Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws.A way out of the present turmoil exists; our job is to guide our fellow citizens to take advantage of it.