It is politicians who cause wars and conflicts.
Why should the people have to take responsibility for the aftermath?

The country's top international politics expert tells us
Stories of conflict and peace

There have only been a few hundred years in human history without war.
That's how much humanity has been fighting constantly.
What is the reason?
There are many reasons, such as limited resources, different races, and different hegemonies.
The problem is that politicians are the ones who start wars and conflicts, but the damage is borne solely by the people and the nation.
This is why we must abandon the very idea of ​​trying to solve any problem through war or conflict.

Since time immemorial, mankind has often tried to solve problems through war.
But after reading this book, you will realize that no war ends cleanly.
The idea is that we should not even think about trying to solve anything through war.
And the biggest reason why we should not use war is that in most cases, it is not the rich or the powerful who suffer the most, but the socially and economically disadvantaged.

--- p.9

Eastern Ukraine is friendly with Russia, and western Ukraine is friendly with Europe.
This is where almost all the problems arise.
The public has often been divided based on the president's inclinations, and even in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, the public was divided based on the presidential candidates' inclinations.
This division led to great social conflict, the most representative of which was the so-called 'Orange Revolution'.

--- p.21

Russia demands from the United States:
They demand that Ukraine be banned from joining NATO and that the troops and nuclear weapons deployed to the new NATO member be withdrawn.
It also called for compliance with the Minsk agreements signed in 2014.
However, the United States rejected Russia's demands outright, and Ukrainian President Zelensky did not withdraw his intention to join NATO, which ultimately led to war.
--- p.25

If there is a ceasefire, Ukraine will likely remain a conflict zone.
The biggest problem remains that Russia, which invaded another country, is being given a free pass without being punished.
The best-case scenario would be for mature Russian citizens to remove Putin from power, but that will take time.
A war can only end when one side wins unilaterally, or when both sides come to the conclusion that it is better to compromise than to fight.

--- p.30

After World War I, the international community sided with the Jews.
It was decided to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
Why? As I mentioned earlier, Jews played a significant role in helping Western Europe, including Britain, win World War I.

--- p.37

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War system also collapsed.
The United States becomes the sole superpower.
U.S. President Clinton takes an active role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The result was the Oslo Accords of 1993.
The core idea is that Israel and Palestine should become independent sovereign states and coexist as a “nation-to-nation” system.

--- p.43

The prospects for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are bleak.
This is because Netanyahu, who has the strongest extreme right-wing tendency in Israeli history, is in power for a long time and Trump is president again.
As of March 2025, Trump has shocked the world by not only openly siding with Israel, but also by declaring that the United States intends to dominate the Gaza Strip.

--- p.52

Sephardi refers to a Jewish group that mainly lived in the Iberian Peninsula region, including Spain and Portugal.
They formed the lower class in Israel.
So, the basis of my life overlapped with my residence in Palestine.
Those with weak socioeconomic foundations oppose the progressive forces' policy of returning occupied territories.
And it is driving Israel's rightward shift.
The far-right became stronger after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with an influx of up to 700,000 Russian Jews.
The result is Netanyahu's long-term rule.

--- p.54

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, fearing that the regime would collapse.
There was another reason.
In 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran.
As a result, the dynasty (Pahlavi Dynasty) collapsed and an Islamic republic was established with an Islamic religious leader holding supreme power.
The Soviet Union is nervous.
They were also afraid that an Islamic revolution would occur in the Islamic republics in the southern regions of the Soviet Union, such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.
The Soviet Union waged war in Afghanistan, adjacent to these republics, to prevent the revolution from spreading.
--- p.59

One of the reasons the United States was interested in the Middle East was because of oil, and the 'shale gas revolution' solved the energy problem.
There is no need to pay attention to the Middle East anymore.
Shale gas is natural gas contained in shale, a rock layer formed by horizontal sedimentation of mud.
The transition from an energy era dependent on oil to a new energy era called shale gas is called the 'shale gas revolution.'
With the discovery and exploitation of large quantities of shale gas in the United States, the country has transformed from an energy importer to an energy exporter.

--- p.66

China and Taiwan are deeply hostile to each other.
China views Taiwan as a puppet government (a government that claims to be independent but is actually controlled by external forces) established by Chiang Kai-shek, who lost the war, while Taiwan views China as a communist force that staged a coup.
Each side claims that it is the only legitimate ruling power and regards the other as a target for unification by force.

--- p.76

In the international community, Taiwan is not an independent country.
So you have to be careful when notating it.
It should be written as 'Chinese Taipei'.
Taiwan is also called Taiwan, but Taiwan is just the Chinese pronunciation of Taiwan.
Just like how Beijing is called Peking.
Therefore, when referring to Taiwan, it should be referred to as a liaison office, which is lower than an embassy, ​​such as ‘Representative Office of the Republic of Korea in Taipei’ or ‘Representative Office of the Republic of Korea in Taipei’.
Because Taiwan is not a country, it is not a diplomatic target.

--- p.79

The Democratic Party's support base is made up of people who are alienated from the Kuomintang.
Those who support the Democratic Progressive Party believe that the recovery of mainland China is an unrealistic slogan.
The Democratic Progressive Party is furious, saying that the Kuomintang is only maintaining the status quo under the pretext of recovering mainland China and is only engaging in corruption.
In fact, the KMT hoped that China and Taiwan would settle into a relationship similar to that of China and Hong Kong or China and Macau.
--- p.86

Immediately after the founding of the People's Republic of China, relations between China and India were quite good.
India recognized China as a country before the United States or Western Europe.
However, after allowing the Tibetan government in exile to exist, relations between the two rapidly deteriorated.
And starting in the fall of 1959, armed conflicts began along the border.

--- p.95

India stays close to the United States when it comes to border disputes with China, but that doesn't mean it takes an anti-China stance.
We also oppose the United States' attempts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.
Because Russia has provided India with weapons and cheap oil, and has helped it more than the United States since independence.
Yet, when he met Putin, he displayed a strong presence to the point of giving him a sharp advice to stop the war.
According to a 2022 survey by a US consulting firm, India views the US as a threat as much as China.

--- p.108

Britain's so-called 'divide and rule' is notorious.
During their rule over India, the British intentionally highlighted the differences between Islam and Hinduism, fostering animosity between the two religions, and these sentiments continued to dominate the people even after independence.
It seems likely that this sentiment is the biggest cause of the conflict between India and Pakistan.
There is a country that followed the British division and rule.
It's the Japanese colonial period.
When Japan ruled our country, it tried to divide the people by inciting regionalism.

--- p.113

With China and Russia also intervening in the Kashmir conflict, the region's conflict has become increasingly difficult to resolve.
China provides weapons and military technology to Pakistan, and Russia provides weapons and military technology to India.
Particular attention should be paid to China's intervention.

--- p.125

Not only Turkey, but most countries are against the Kurds establishing a state.
One reason is that the areas where Kurds live are rich in resources.
Western European countries such as Britain and France, as well as neighboring Arab countries, are competing with each other to seize those resources.
Another example is the British decision to not give the Kurds land they had promised to give them because of their genetic resources.
--- p.145

Of course, ISIS also played a role in the US and Western Europe's withdrawal from the Syrian civil war.
Because helping anti-government forces would end up supporting ISIS.
Since both the anti-government forces and IS are fighting against the government forces, supporting the anti-government forces will also benefit IS.
What does ISIS mean to the United States and Western Europe? It's a force that has committed countless terrorist attacks and must be annihilated.
Ultimately, the United States and Western Europe became increasingly passive in their support of the anti-government forces.

--- p.158

But Syrians, whether those who remained in Syria or those who returned to Syria after wandering as refugees, dislike the Assad regime, but they also dislike HTS.
After the Assad family fled to Russia, Assad's remnants attacked the HTS-led coalition transitional government. HTS immediately retaliated.
Syrians who witnessed this process were shocked.
Even though they were remnants, they were also citizens.

--- p.159

During the 8888 Uprising, the government indiscriminately massacred even non-resisting civilians.
Thousands die.
How horrible it is for soldiers to point guns at their own people.
As a result of the resistance, Ne Win steps down, but the military again stage a coup and seize power.
The military becomes more vicious.
Aung San Suu Kyi was also placed under house arrest, unable to leave her home.
The figures were not released until 2010, over 20 years later.

--- p.170

The civil war in Myanmar resembles the Syrian civil war.
This is because the democratization movement turned into an armed struggle, citizens were divided by religion and ethnicity, and the interests of neighboring countries and world powers were intertwined.
Moreover, the impotent response of international organizations, including the UN, and the passive attitude of the United States toward matters that do not directly benefit the country are the same.

--- p.181

In December 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi will appear before the International Court of Justice as a witness to the 2017 Rohingya genocide.
By denying the massacre here, you are effectively supporting the military.
The international community was deeply disappointed, and protests continued across Europe demanding the revocation of the Nobel Peace Prize.
--- p.184

Ethiopia was the only African country at the time to win against a Western power.
European countries that had been proud of Africa as their front yard were shocked.
As a result, Ethiopia became one of two countries in Africa recognized as a legitimate state by Western imperialist powers.
The remaining country is Liberia.

--- p.192

The Abiy government's actions during the civil war have lost the trust of the international community.
Although they deny that they have committed human rights violations and war crimes against humanity, many countries are already distancing themselves from them.
Prime Minister Abiy has been particularly dissatisfied with the United States.
They protested, saying that the so-called "terrorists" TPLF and themselves, who were elected through a formal election, should not be judged by the same standards.
They also claim that this civil war is strictly a domestic issue and that the United States and Western countries have no right to interfere.

--- p.202