At the outset of the 162nd consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche warned that “both theaters of war… are escalating.” The recent NATO summit produced nothing but more calls for confrontation in Ukraine between Europe and Russia. She called attention to the announcement by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that the United States had approved the sale of Tomahawk cruise missiles and the corresponding ground-based Typhon launchers to Berlin. Tomahawk missiles are offensive, nuclear-capable weapons. Trump had rejected a request from Ukrainian Acting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in October 2025 to provide them.
In Iran, the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the United States has collapsed. Between 41 and 43 million people joined in events to mourn assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the largest funeral in recorded history. “The population is rallying around the government more than ever before,” she said.
The one bright spot is Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and the Pope’s message on July 4 is “a very important clarion call to the Americans,” Zepp-LaRouche emphasized. Instead of traveling to the United States to deliver his remarks in person, he visited the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean where migrant refugees are being held. Zepp-LaRouche concluded, “If we do not change course very very soon… we may reach a point of no return.”
President Donald Ramotar, former president of Guyana (2011-2015), warned that the migrant issue has become a global problem, and is being used as a political football by governments with failed economic policies. He recounted the history of the Windrush Generation, an “invited exodus” of Caribbean migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom between 1948 and 1971 to help rebuild the nation after World War II. Now they or their descendants are being expelled. In the Western Hemisphere, there is migration caused by military coups or economic sanctions sponsored by the U.S. There is also the “Brain Drain”, where highly educated people in the Global South are being deliberately targeted. More than 70% of Guyanese university graduates are being lured to jobs in the U.S. Cuba has the human capital necessary to rapidly develop, but the economic warfare from the United States has created a crisis that forces people to emigrate. The solution is development. Ramotar said further that colonial policies are still in effect; raw materials are being extracted and exported by foreign interests and not being used for development of our nations. “The vultures are gathering” now that Guyana has found uranium, in addition to its oil and gold wealth. He decried “the false impression that China wants to take over the world,” and described the mutually beneficial relationship that his country has had with China.
Jack Gilroy, an activist with Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi–New York State, and Pax Christi International, recalled the trauma of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, and the crucial role played by Pope John XXIII at that time. The Russians saw the pope as a voice of reason and his message resonated with them.
Edouard Husson is a professor, historian, and editor-in-chief of the newsletter Brennus in Paris. He commented on the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump had Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei assassinated and then seems surprised and shocked when the Iranian population rallies around him. He described the massive turnout for Khamenei’s funeral as an event as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall. “Western leaders no longer know how to win the wars they start, nor do they know how to make peace.”
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Founder and President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) in Malaysia, said, “We must resolve the root crisis, which is the dispossession of the Palestinian people… The vast majority of humankind wants to resolve this issue,” but the United States is the obstacle to resolving it.
Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) observed that the recent NATO summit had made matters worse in both Europe and the Middle East. Small went on to analyze the economic causes of refugee flows from Mesoamerica to the U.S., which he characterized as misery “imposed by Wall Street and the City of London.” Johnson replied first with a sports analogy, recalling the first time Muhammad Ali or Willie Mays was defeated and comparing that to the ongoing demise of the once-mighty United States. As examples, he cited how the Houthis stopped the U.S. Navy cold in the Red Sea, and now Iran has prevailed over the U.S. military. If the United States were to attempt a ground invasion of Iran, any viable staging area for a large amount of U.S. troops would be completely vulnerable to precision attacks by Iranian drones and missiles, a completely different situation than the U.S. faced with its invasion of Iraq. The funeral of Khamanei was unprecedented in world history, Johnson said, and compared it to the U.S. response to the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. “The real issue remains oil,” he said. 70% of the U.S. oil refineries are set up to process heavy crude, which does not come from domestic production and is essential to produce diesel and aviation fuel. We have been drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and it is significantly depleted.
Johnson also noted the significance of the fact that Russia has moved from the use of the term “Special Military Operation” to calling the situation in Ukraine a war. He mocked the propaganda in the West which asserts that Ukraine has the upper hand, which he called “delusional bullshit.”
The Crumbling Empire
Zepp-LaRouche responded to the other speakers, stating that “all the colonial wars have been lost” but narrative control has been strengthened. She asked the other speakers for their views on this topic, and what followed was a wide-ranging discussion which included a focus on recent events in Bangladesh. Husson described how “divide and rule” tactics are used to keep French politics from addressing the real topics: war and peace, and economic collapse.
Ramotar asked that we imagine the potential for China and India to enter a collaborative relationship. The government of India vacillates between anticolonialism, and Hindu chauvinism which pushes them to collaborate with Israel due to shared hatred of Islam. “The old tactics of divide and rule are still a very potent weapon.”
Johnson mused that “when you have leaders consumed with their own hubris, and oblivious to facts,” you get what we have today. He zeroed in on the controversy about the sale of F-35 fighters to Türkiye, and recited an astonishing litany of technical problems that afflict the plane. “Why do you want to give Turkey a turkey?” he quipped.
Moderator Anastasia Battle reminded participants to contact the U.S. Congress and urge them to strike section 219 from the National Defense Authorization Act, to prevent the effective merger of U.S. and Israeli military and intelligence functions.
Discussion
German activist Jonathan Thron reported on a presentation to a chapter meeting of the NachDenkSeiten newsletter on the potential for nuclear fission and fusion energy, and the BRICS. He commented that “people are really looking for optimism,” and the “green” outlook is no longer dominant. A participant asked, what about artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of data centers, which consume extraordinary amounts of energy? “The development of AI is a natural development,” Thron replied; “do we use it for good purposes or bad purposes?” Zepp-LaRouche noted that first unprovoked war of aggression against Iran was based on fraudulent intelligence from Palantir, the huge AI firm.
Zepp-LaRouche closed by saying that a conclusion we can draw from this discussion is that we need to sharpen our understanding of empire and colonialism. Friedrich Schiller, the German poet, philosopher and historian after whom the Schiller Institute is named, wrote the Revolt of the Netherlands for only one reason, to show that empires can be defeated.
