The 97th weekly Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) convened on April 11, in the midst of an increasingly turbulent world. Moderator Anastasia Battle began the meeting by noting that, after 97 weeks, there are regularly over 1,000 attendees every week from around 55 countries, showing that the coalition truly represents an international process.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, then spoke. She said the world is experiencing another big shock with the imposition of President Trump’s tariffs, and that this now threatens to collapse the entire economy. However, she noted, the tariffs are not the cause, but merely the trigger for a system which has been bankrupt for a long time, and she pointed to the Schiller Institute’s work over decades in this regard.
A new system is needed, Zepp-LaRouche emphasized, rather than simply putting a bandaid over the problems. This includes addressing the underdevelopment of the Global South, something that can be done through directed credit and technology-intensive investment. She called attention to the April 10 Schiller Institute statement, “What Each and Every Nation Must Do Now: Wall Street Gave Us This Crisis—LaRouche Has the Solution,” and urged people to mobilize energetically and get this out everywhere.
Zepp-LaRouche also discussed the accelerating trade dispute with China, saying it is still an open question whether it will lead to negotiations or all-out trade war. She quoted top Chinese scholar Wang Wen who said that while China has never thought of the United States as an enemy, China does have significant military strength and would no longer be defeated by the U.S.
Considering all the other war hysteria gripping the world—from the West’s actions in Ukraine, to Israel’s actions against Gaza and the danger of war against Iran, to increasing censorship in Europe—it’s clear that a new security and development architecture is needed that considers the interests of all.
Graham Fuller, former U.S. diplomat, CIA official, and Islamic scholar, spoke next. Fuller addressed the ongoing discussion around the threatened war with Iran: Will we have it, or will it end in negotiations? There is currently a massive buildup of U.S. forces in the Indian Ocean, which is more than powerful enough to be devastating, were that decision to be made, but is also convincing for its intimidation power.
Many argue that a U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is likely, citing as reasons that Iran’s allies Hezbollah and Hamas are weakened, that the U.S. Congress is impotent to stop it, and that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has dreamed about this for years and now has Trump wrapped around his finger. But at the same time, it must be acknowledged that the dynamic between Netanyahu and Trump is not so simple, and the fact is, if there were a war with Iran it would collapse the Ukraine negotiations—which Trump doesn’t want.
Will Diplomacy Win?
Fuller concluded by saying that he leans toward thinking that diplomacy will win out over war, and remains hopeful that the factors pushing against war are stronger than those pushing toward it.
Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork in Ireland and a member of the Royal Irish Academy, discussed the overall strategic basis for a relationship between the great powers today. This is the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Yalta Conference of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill, he began, adding that many people consider this crucial summit to have been dominated by the great powers asserting their “spheres of influence"—which helped to shape the Cold War. However, Yalta was more about great power unity, Roberts argued, and the intent was actually to create a new international security architecture that would lead to durable peace. The powers also expected all nations to benefit from it, though that potential collapsed when the Cold War began.
Roberts continued by saying that the important ingredient is political will: If the great powers intend to foster a durable peace, it can work. If they don’t, it will fail. The same is true today, he noted, and Trump’s recent efforts at détente with Russia show that such a unity is again possible. A durable peace today must be based on great power collaboration. This is why it’s so important that the Ukraine war come to an end and the Southwest Asia crisis be restrained, and why U.S.-Chinese differences must not turn into war—there is something more at stake than any of the individual conflicts. What’s at stake is the potential for a peaceful, stable world.
Next was a video statement from Daisuke Kotegawa, the former executive director for Japan of the International Monetary Fund. As a financial expert, Kotegawa stressed that today’s global economic instability stems from both the mismanagement of the financial system by Western authorities and the repeated use of double standards. He highlighted the attack on Japan following events in the 1980s, where certain “solutions” were imposed on Japan in the name of saving the financial system, even though these caused immense suffering in the real economy.
