- On May 8, the DPRK fired an unidentified ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan. In this regard, Japan set up a special group to study the information at the crisis headquarters under the Prime Minister’s Office, and also sent a protest to the DPRK through diplomatic channels.
- Vilnius has officially withdrawn from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines, making a decision that fundamentally changes the country’s defense doctrine. According to local media reports, the Lithuanian parliament overwhelmingly supported the denunciation of the international treaty.
- On the night of May 7 Numerous explosions occurred in the Pakistani part of Kashmir. The Indian Army reported “Operation Sindoor”: the military strikes ”terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” with ballistic missiles. Pakistan’s Defense Ministry confirmed that India had launched a missile strike on targets inside the country.
- On May 6, Ukrainian units made a new attempt to break through into the Kursk region. Armored groups made up of tanks, IFV’s and quad bikes are trying to overcome the “dragon’s teeth” barriers near the village of Novy Put.
- On the evening of May 5, Al Masirah reported that the United States and Israel carried out joint strikes on the Houthi-controlled town of Hodeidah and the Bajel cement factory in al-Hodeidah province in western Yemen. The Israeli army later confirmed the strikes.
- In March, 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a rearmament plan to transition to a wartime economy. Under the pretext of “accelerating the reindustrialization of the country”, the LPM 24-30 was issued, which provides for a budget of €413 billion (€118 billion more than the previous program), of which €268 billion goes towards the purchase of arms and military equipment.
- In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), armed rebels captured the city of Goma, more than a hundred people were killed, many wounded. The group is supported by Rwanda, and troops from neighboring countries have already started mutual firing across the border. At the heart of the controversy is an ethnic conflict flavored with the valuable ore, coltan. Ethnic disagreements in 1994 had already led to the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus, which killed about a million people.
- Politico: The Netherlands is preparing for a military clash with Russia. According to the director of the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD, once – or if – a peace agreement with Ukraine is reached, Russia could be ready for a new military conflict within a year. “The Netherlands, like the rest of NATO, is on high alert to make sure we will be ready.”
- NATO is conducting live-fire exercises on the Swedish island of Gotland (330 kilometers from Kaliningrad). Also, international NATO military exercises with the participation of German helicopters are taking place in Lithuania. In early April, the NATO Air Force practiced a scenario of a Russian attack on the military bloc’s countries as part of the Ramstein Flag exercise.
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In 1945, after the end of World War II, the most destructive of all wars in human history, representatives of 50 countries gathered in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference to draft a Charter for an international organization. The delegates based their work on proposals developed by representatives of Great Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks in August-October 1944. The Charter was signed on June 26, 1945 by representatives of 50 countries. The purposes of the UN are spelled out in its Charter and include:
— Maintaining international peace and security. For this purpose, the UN takes collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace, suppress acts of aggression and other violations of peace.
— Development of friendly relations between peoples on the basis of respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
— Cooperation in solving international problems of economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian nature, as well as promoting respect for human rights.
The above-mentioned reports cause dissonance among the authors of the Center for Systemic Initiatives, and we think among the readers as well. And we want to ask ourselves: how did it happen that even as half of the world’s countries unite in an extraterritorial union aimed at preserving and consolidating creative endeavors, we continue to see military conflicts erupting in different corners of the planet? Has such a large organization as the UN failed to uphold its principles for at least 50 years?
Researchers at Uppsala University count 112 armed clashes involving states between January and June 2022 alone.
Despite the fact that the UN considers preventing the recurrence of conflicts as one of its most important tasks, 33% of armed conflicts between 1989 and 2018 were repeated, the Oslo Peace Research Institute found. And in the vast majority of cases (91%), the subject matter of the conflict remains the same. Ninety percent of recurrent conflicts erupted with renewed vigor within 8 years; 50% within two years.
What should be done to avoid the development of such a destructive trend?
It is vital for leadership at all levels today (and, in fact, yesterday) to study and introduce the concept of social inertia* into the practice of daily life.
Social inertia — the tendency of social systems to maintain their current state, even in the presence of external or internal stimuli for change. In other words, it is a phenomenon in which sociocultural structures and social attitudes retain their stability and resistance to change, even in the presence of incentives for transformation.
This means that, from childhood, during child rearing, and through the information environment, the population needs to form a system of concepts about the modern world, about what a mature person should be like, to instill new values, to explain how technology works – that is, massively engage in educational activities. And most importantly, it must be done continuously and intensively (and not just every 10, 25, or even 100 years).
Among other things, the explanations should relate to global events, and should be conducted for all citizens, not just for the elite. Without solving these problems – i.e., continuing to preserve the usual order of things, our planet retains its vulnerability to the informational-algorithmic operations of those who have previously taken advantage of general ignorance in order to establish a colonial order.
Leaders of countries, various levels of governors, will have to face a difficult and challenging path in overcoming social stereotypes. However, this is the only way to become a real agent in world politics, which will contribute to the preservation of peace in the world.
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*Social inertia is resistance to change or resistance to stable relationships in societies or social groups.
*Social inertia is a companion of rest and movement, as opposed to inhibition processes, which are aimed at slowing down already existing movements and require special efforts. Due to inertia, previous processes stereotypically and automatically continue. Inertia mechanisms and conscious inhibition, in combination, can pose a sufficient danger to socio-economic development.
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