Category: Uncategorized
Sabbatai Zevi
We generally associate 1492 with Columbus’s voyage to the Americas, but it was a remarkably eventful year in other respect. Even without leaving the confines of Spain, it was the year that the Reconquista was completed and the year that Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews. Similarly, 1648 is known to the West primarily as …
Osnabrück Linen
Today I learned that Osnabrück, one of the two cities where the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated, is noted for its linen cloth. It is not a fine cloth but a very course weave, known generically in the English-speaking world as “Osnaburg” (and elsewhere under similar names). It is noted for having been commonly used …
Peace of Westphalia in the news, January-February 2023
As our belated look at Peace of Westphalia news comes into the current year, we are presented with a curious article in a Spanish journal called Atalayar under the title, “Diplomacy, a concept to be rescued.”The context, of course, is the Ukraine War. The author believes that there is a lack of sincere diplomacy on …
Peace of Westphalia in the news, January-February 2023Read More
Mediation and Russia-Ukraine
In spite of some recent talk of resuming negotiations, there doesn’t appear to be any serious attempt to mediate peace at present. Zelenskyy declared negotiations impossible after the Russian annexations in September, while Putin refuses to negotiate until the U.S. recognizes Russia’s conquests. This is a classic problem in beginning talks: one or both sides …
Mediation and Westphalia
The Thirty Years’ War lasted for over a generation, but not for lack of attempts to end it. Several parties volunteered to mediate an end to the fighting soon after Sweden’s invasion in 1630, and continued to do so until the Treaty of Hamburg (1641) set the terms for the Congress of Westphalia. Most of …
Mediation at Westphalia and Russia-Ukraine
After a previous post about the need for mediation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, I thought it would be appropriate for an historical lesson on mediation at the Congress of Westphalia — which was, in a way, one of the most mediated conferences ever. But first, let’s step back and talk about mediation in general. Mediation, …
“How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end?”
The title is a quotation of a title taken from substack. I like it because it helps to focus on the thing that most people don’t seem to be debating, which is how we’re going to get out of this war. The author, Timothy Snyder, suggests that the war may end with a power struggle …
Once More on Nuclear War
Today I read an article called “In the Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud” on Quillette about the threat of nuclear war. The article does a very sensible thing in comparing our current danger to the Cuban Missile Crisis, probably the time our world came the closest to a nuclear exchange. (Every time I read about …
Peace of Westphalia Day
This is a special day for those of us here at peaceofwestphalia.org, because it is the 374th anniversary of the signing of the treaties of Munster and Osnabruck that make up the Peace of Westphalia. I celebrated, as I always do, by making a Mazarin torte. It is an excellent opportunity to pick up a …
Peace of Westphalia in the News, 6/2022
This post is a welcome change, for me at least, because it brings the Peace of Westphalia into completely different contexts than I’m used to reading about. The first article is “Spy x Family: 5 Things You Need To Know About Westalis,” an article at gamerant.com — not the usual source of Westphalia references. “Spy …