Neutrality Studies

Dr. Werner Rügemer, German publisher and interventionist philosopher, who wrote Fatal Friendship, traces how US finance shaped Europe from WWI to today. He recounts US bank influence in wartime, the Dawes Plan, BIS controversies, Marshall Plan commercial leverage, postwar occupation structures, Treuhand privatization, NATO-EU sequencing, and modern BlackRock ties to European politics.

Prof. Ivo Yotsov, a former Bulgarian Navy captain and naval academy professor with a PhD in International Economics, offers a Black Sea view on power and regional strategy. He critiques standard IR theories and argues realism must factor in culture, history, private military firms and virtual domains. He outlines Eastern Europe's cultural ties with Russia and proposes deeper regional integration as a buffer and alternative to sole reliance on EU/NATO structures.

Marianne Volonté, a Swiss lawyer and behavioral analyst who created the MyMark personality test. She unpacks why self-ignorance weakens leadership. She maps five personality archetypes and shows why achievers dominate. She explores Swiss-style institutional listening and argues for mandated self-reflection in politics.

Gen. Harald Kujat, former NATO Military Committee chairman and seasoned Bundeswehr officer, presents concrete peace proposals with Russia. He discusses ceasefire-to-treaty paths, hard choices on territory and guarantees, a European coalition of guarantors, and the need for European strategic autonomy and rebuilt defense capabilities. The conversation focuses on ending the killing and remaking a pan-European security order.

Originally published on Jan 29, 2026.Is Sweden actually safer now that it has joined NATO, or has it just painted a target on its own back? With talk of American bases and a strange push for Greenland, one must to ask: is Scandinavia becoming the next war zone?Thorbjørn Sassersson is here to help with insights. He is an award-winning Swedish journalist who runs an independent news outlet.Links:Newsvoice: https://newsvoice.se/english/Neutrality Studies Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudiesNeutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...

Originally published on Jan 28, 2026.Did peace deals fail by accident, or were they just used to buy time for war? Is the European Union using this crisis to take power away from its own member states? And why does admitting this is a proxy war actually offer the best hope for peace?I dig into these questions with Dr. György Varga, a Hungarian diplomat who saw the build-up to this fight with his own eyes. As the former head of the OSCE mission on the Russian border, he spent four years watching the situation get worse before the invasion started. He brings a rare, on-the-ground view of why diplomacy failed and what the West got wrong.Links:Neutrality Studies Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudiesNeutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...

Originally published on Jan 27, 2026.Everyone thinks neutrality means staying out of trouble. But what if it's actually about diving straight into the chaos to stay involved? We need to ask: is international law just a tool for the powerful, or can the little guys use it to strike back?To find out, I brought in Dr. Stefano Catellan and Professor Frederick Dhondt from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. They’ve spent years digging into this history for their new book, Small Power Neutrality and the Law of the Sea, uncovering how small nations used the open ocean to outsmart the world's biggest empires.Links:[Book] Small Power Neutrality and the Law of the Sea: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Neutra...Neutrality Studies Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudiesNeutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...

Originally published on Jan 26, 2026.Is the transatlantic partnership simply an abusive marriage disguised as diplomacy? We examine if the recent spectacle at Davos signals the collapse of Western cohesion and ask whether Europe possesses the resolve to finally decouple from a volatile American leadership or remain trapped in a fading colonial dynamic.Today I sit down again with Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow. As a Malaysian scholar and author of “Understanding China”, Chandran offers an unvarnished perspective from the Global Majority, cutting through the self-congratulatory noise of the Western elite to reveal the geopolitical shifts they refuse to see.Links:The USA Today: a Derangement Threatening the World: https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/...China has a worthy blueprint to improve the UN system. Why is the West ignoring it?: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinio...[Book] Understanding China - Governance, Socio-Economics, Global Influence: https://global-inst.com/understanding...Neutrality Studies Youtube Channel: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudies⁠Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...

Originally published on Jan 24, 2026.How does a journalist get snatched off a quiet Zurich street by plainclothes officers? Why did a federal police chief allegedly break protocol to force his expulsion? And most chillingly, who were the mysterious agents attempting an illegal interrogation inside his prison cell?These aren't hypothetical scenarios from a spy thriller—they are the exact questions I had to ask Ali Abunimah. As the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and a relentless voice for Palestinian human rights, Ali has faced decades of demonization, but his recent ordeal in my home country of Switzerland reveals a terrifying new low for Western democracies. We dive deep into the corruption exposed by his recent court victory, the shadowy figures involved, and the systemic collapse of free speech we are witnessing in real-time.Links:Electronic Intifada: https://electronicintifada.net/Ali's X (Twitter): https://x.com/AliAbunimahNeutrality Studies Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudiesNeutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...

Originally published on Jan 23, 2026.With Western elites in Davos finally abandoning the charade of a "rules-based order" and Trump’s trade wars alienating even New Delhi, we face a stark reality: Is globalization dead, or just changing management? And if the West is bowing out, is India ready to lead the Global South?To map out this volatile landscape, I sat down with two Indian colleagues who see these shifts not as threats, but as inevitable evolutions. Professor Anuradha Chenoy, the former Dean of the School of International Studies at JNU, brings the historical weight of the non-aligned perspective, while Kanika Raka from the Kautilya School of Public Policy offers a sharp look at the tactical realities of India's 2026 BRICS chairmanship. We aren't just speculating on the end of Western hegemony; we're discussing the nuts and bolts of what actually comes next.Links:Neutrality Studies Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@neutralitystudiesNeutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.com(Opt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/a...)Merch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourth...