Newsletter #15
12-02-2026

Dear friends of peace,

We have some great news for you that, contrary to the disastrous policies of most Western governments, should inspire you and show you ways you can get involved in shaping a better future for Europe!

Just in time for the Munich arms lobby conference, where Ulrike Guerot will be speaking at the demonstration on February 14, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. in Odeonsplatz, we have also finalized our new manifesto for peace in Europe and with Russia. You can already find it in several languages on our website: https://europeanpeaceproject.eu. On May 9, 2026, at 5:00 p.m., we want to join you and many more in a performative speech act, together with tens of thousands of voices, to declare peace in Europe and beyond! The manifesto text is once again our offer to you. It can be individually shortened or supplemented. However, our responsibility for content applies only to the original text. If you distribute a modified version, please include your own VidsP (Visual Project) at the end.

The artwork on the website is also freely available again. We hope it inspires you to create your own artwork! So, for those of you who participated last year: Same procedure as last year! We just hope to break the 100,000 mark this time: across Europe, that shouldn’t be a problem!

The European Peace Project is a community initiative and thrives on you, through you, and with you. Now we would like to ask you again:

  1. Help us provide even more translations: Please send us the manifesto in your language or regional language if it’s not already included. Last year, the European Peace Project was such a great success, in part, because we grounded the manifesto in the local context and offered a wide range of regional languages: from Cologne dialect to Limburgish, Alsatian, Basque, and Breton, we included them all, and this brought joy everywhere and connected us as Europeans in our diversity! We hope for the same this year!
  2. Help us increase our participation: 100,000 peace-loving people across Europe would be wonderful! Spread the word about the project, print our flyer at your local copy shop, post the link to our website www.europeanpeaceproject.eu on social media, and share information about our action on May 9, 2026, at 5 p.m. with the European Peace Project to your friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and your own networks – especially in European countries that are not part of the EU! Because the EU is not our Europe! If each of you forwards the information to just 5 people, and each of those forwards it to 5 more people, we can create a snowball effect, and the spark we ignited on May 9 last year can become a European wildfire, so that no EU government can ignore the call for peace coming from its own people!
  3. Please start thinking now about what you want to do on May 9: whether you want to participate alone or in a small group with friends; Whether you’re planning your own larger event, an art project, a happening, a rally, or a demonstration, even if you’re not at home that day, take the manifesto with you and read it aloud wherever you are—on the street, in a public square, or on a balcony—and share it with others. Everyone can participate in whatever way they choose, right where they are!
  4. Please help us make this project big and meaningful! Besides enthusiasm, commitment, and creativity, we also need some funding—again this year—so we can update the website, keep you informed, and create a film and gallery from all your contributions after May 9th. Thank you in advance for your donation! https://europeanpeaceproject.eu/spende/

Anniversary Event:
On March 9, 2026, we launched the European Peace Project, and to celebrate this anniversary, we are hosting a discussion evening this year with Ulrike Guerot and the Russian Consul General, Oleg Yu. Krasnitskiy, on the topic:

Shaping a Peaceful Europe Beyond the EU – Practical Considerations – with the European Peace Project, March 9, 2026, 7:00 p.m., 50733 Cologne

We would like to look back with you on the first successful Europe-wide action on May 9, 2025, and present the next major action for this year on May 9, 2026!

We would also like to introduce you to the European Transcontinental Initiative (ETI) https://www.european-transcontinental-initiative.org/, as the European Peace Project now forms one of the pillars of the ETI. Another pillar will be our demand from last year’s manifesto: the establishment of a European-Russian Youth Office. We want to discuss with Consul General Krasnitskiy how we can prepare for this wonderful and important project despite the terrible EU visa restrictions and sanctions and the “Russian threat lie.” Together, we want to consider what we can already do in terms of (youth) exchange, citizen diplomacy, and reconciliation and understanding work to promote international understanding and counteract the enemy images generated by the government and media.
Finally, the discussion will also address the current geopolitical situation.


Registration is required by February 27th at [email protected] as space is limited. Admission is free. Donations for the venue and the project are appreciated. The location in 50733 Cologne will be sent to you a few days before the event with your confirmation of participation.

At the end of January, we, along with the European Transcontinental Initiative (ETI), participated in a roundtable discussion in Berlin to mark the launch of the first issue of the new geopolitical magazine Global Geopolitics. Our colleague Thomas Fazi was one of five international political scientists and analysts who discussed the current international situation and global development trends. Efe Can Gürcan from Queen’s University Belfast, editor of the new magazine, spoke about the development of a multipolar world order, as did Alexander Rahr, historian and political consultant from Berlin, Christopher Mott from the Canadian-US Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, and Jagannath Panda from the Institute for Security & Development Policy in Stockholm. https://transition-news.org/westliche-eliten-werden-verruckt-und-wollen-multipolaritat-verhindern?fbclid=

Unfortunately, the new year hasn’t started as peacefully as we had hoped. On our website, we’ve published a statement on the US aggression against Venezuela: “Condemn the violation of international law and double standards” https://europeanpeaceproject.eu/

Now that the double standards of the so-called Western “rules-based order” are becoming visible to everyone and are therefore no longer tenable, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the brain-dead NATO military alliance is long outdated and should have dissolved along with the Warsaw Pact. Is Trump’s “billionaires’ club” (we wouldn’t even call it a peace council, which, by the way, already exists in its original and literal sense https://www.wpc-in.org/) really going to become his personal “fan club alliance” for building a new bloc confrontation between the “West” and the BRICS countries?! No! All the more urgently, then, that we must jointly and realistically formulate our own interests on the European continent and develop a new European security architecture with, and not against, Russia—an architecture that, incidentally, has been envisioned since the 1970s and was already enshrined in the Charter of Paris in the 1990s. Europe must not allow itself to develop into an imperialist or military actor! Together with the BRICS nations, we must strengthen international law and the UN Charter, build a bridge between East and West, and become a neutral mediator in the world’s conflicts. https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=145090 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBn5ywZb_fg&t=7s

You can sign a petition to abolish NATO here: https://www.no-to-nato.org/2025/12/manifest-gegen-die-globale-nato-und-aufruf-fur-gemeinsame-sicherheit/?fbclid=

US President Trump said in an interview with the “New York Times”: “I don’t need international law.” It cannot be that the world’s greatest military power follows only the “morality” of one man and no longer adheres to international rules! That would mean the erosion of all international law! Jens Berger writes: “As bitter as it is: In my opinion, Trump has so far outmaneuvered every country with his negotiating methods; the exceptions that prove the rule are China and Russia. Americans play poker, Russians play chess, and the Chinese are masters of Go, a board game in which good players think 30 moves or more ahead. And the Germans? They’re apparently quite good at ‘Sorry!'” We don’t even need to start with chess or Go, but our decision-makers should really understand what a “bluff” is in poker. See: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=145157&fbclid= See: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=145157&fbclid=

In Davos, the speech by Canadian Prime Minister Carney was particularly noteworthy. He said that we can no longer delude ourselves into thinking that aligning ourselves with the superpower guarantees security. The old world order is over. Carney appealed for cooperation among medium-sized states: “If we aren’t sitting at the table together, we’ll soon be on the menu.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvFnC-oFGw

Unfortunately, the spiral of escalation continues in Europe as well. Negotiations continue to be refused or sabotaged. On the night of January 2, 2026, Russia used the hypersonic weapon Oreshnik for the second time, albeit without a warhead.
This was a response to the Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory at the end of December. This refers to the irresponsible and ill-conceived announcements by Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer to deploy NATO troops in Ukraine, the seizure of a Russian ship by the US military in neutral waters, and all the other acts of violence in violation of international law, based on the “law of the jungle,” in the first weeks of this year. Did NATO military officials really believe there would be no Russian reaction?

In May 2024, NATO attacked Russia’s strategic nuclear early warning radar. In June 2025, NATO attacked Russia’s nuclear bombers as a key component of its deterrence strategy. In December 2025, the CIA participated in the attack on Russia’s nuclear command center at Putin’s residence. None of these targets have anything to do with the proxy war in Ukraine; rather, they were tests of Russia’s nuclear retaliation capabilities. We are rapidly approaching a direct war between NATO and Russia. The Oreshniks are immense. They are powerful and cannot be stopped. Arguments that Russia deserves these attacks, or claims that Ukraine is carrying them out independently, are completely misleading. Moral stances and war propaganda will protect no one if they provoke a Russian retaliatory strike. This spiral of violence must be stopped, because it threatens all of our lives! Back to the negotiating table, for example, with the concrete proposal from Michael von der Schulenburg, Kujat, etc. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/geopolitik/ukraine-krieg-verhandlungsfrieden-plan-gerechter-frieden-europa-li.10012558?fbclid=
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/geopolitik/ukraine-krieg-verhandlungsfrieden-plan-gerechter-frieden-europa-li.10012558?fbclid=

Scientists from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have moved the Doomsday Clock forward once again: there are only 85 seconds left until midnight! This puts the world closer to the brink than ever before! On February 5, 2026, the last major arms control treaty between the US and Russia, New START, expired. It limited the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads in both countries to a maximum of 1,550. The number of deployed delivery and launch systems was also limited. Without New START, the US and Russia can continue their nuclear build-up unchecked. All nuclear-weapon states are already modernizing or even expanding their arsenals. The end of the New START treaty threatens to plunge the world into another nuclear arms race. Instead, the US, Russia, and China should sit down together and, for example, agree that the US and Russia would initially reduce their nuclear arsenals to the level of China. This would establish trilateral parity at a significantly lower level. Then all three could jointly reduce their arsenals further, down to the level of the other nuclear states, which would then be included in this process, until all nuclear powers have collectively reached zero! A world free of nuclear weapons was already the goal in the 1980s! Do we want to regress by roughly fifty years in our political objectives?
Die deutsche Bundesregierung darf internationales Recht nicht weiter ignorieren und muss endlich dem Atomwaffenverbotsvertrag beitreten. Ebenso sollte sie sich dafür einsetzen, dass die USA und Russland sich weiter an die Obergrenzen der bisherigen Abrüstungs- und Kontrollverträge halten und Verhandlungen für Folgeabkommen beginnen.
Eine russische Sicht zum Thema von Dimitri Trenin: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=145805&fbclid
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=145805&fbclid

Also worth listening to on this topic is this conversation with Hauke ​​Ritz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d-SSNVhSNg&t=26s

Fortunately, we have (for now) been spared a US-Israeli intervention in Iran – though it was clearly being prepared. Here are two highly recommended articles on the background and how poorly it was once again reported in mainstream German media:

By Karin Leukefeld: https://globalbridge.ch/was-geschieht-im-iran-ein-blick-hinter-die-schlagzeilen/?fbclid=
and By Michael Lüders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWJl9ysPwto

Due to the worrying trend of the rule of law and freedom of expression being eroded further in the EU, we would like to ask for your support and help in spreading the word about the initiative against it by our colleague Michael von der Schulenburg: https://michael-von-der-schulenburg.com/en/rule-of-law-in-the-eu/

By the way, if you’d like daily commentary on current political events as well as article and video recommendations, follow our Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574946140983

Best regards,
Isabelle Casel & the European Peace Project Team