Archive 1986 – 2017

På engelsk her  Ikke-spredningsaftalen, som trådte i kraft i 1970, er det centrale element i de internationale anstrengelser for at kontrollere spredningen af kernevåben. Måske fik aftalen et forkert navn ved sin dannelse, for aftalen handler både om kernevåbennedrustning og om ikke-spredning. I sin kerne er aftalen en handel mellem de stater, der har kernevåben og de, der ikke har. Handelen er, enkelt udtrykt, at kernevåbenstaterne accepterer en total afrustning af deres kernevåbenarsenaler, mens de stater, der ikke har kernevåben accepterer ikke at skaffe sig dem. Denne aftale eller handel mellem aftalens parter, der angiver den kurs, de hver for sig vil følge med hensyn til kernevåben, er aftalens vigtigste del. Den er imidlertid også den del, som amerikanske borgere dårligst forstår. Den sørgelige kendsgerning er, at fra første færd har kernevåbenstaterne vist ringe tilbøjelighed til at opfylde deres del af aftalen. Så sent som i 2000 kom kernevåbenstaterne overens...

På danska och på engelska Dags att kontrollera verkligheten bakom verklighetsföreställningen Tillbaka till ruta ett. Några dagar före femårsdagen av kriget mot det som då kallades Jugoslavien, stack den etniska rensningen åter upp sitt fula huvud på Balkan. Carl Bildt, ytterst kunnig och klarsynt före detta diplomat i området, sade att vi fick se fem år av internationell politik gå upp i rök. Bildt har rätt i huvudsak men hans tidsperspektiv är för kort; det är 15 år av västvärldens politik för konflikt(fel)hantering som har gått upp i rök. Och det är sannerligen vissa som har skäl att försöka tona ner denna katastrof och dess följder: det så kallade världssamfundet och dess allierade den albanska ledningen i Kosovo. När Milosevic och extremisterna på den serbiska sidan begick brott där på 1990-talet, pekades de ut som förövare, ofta innan någon hade kontrollerat händelserna och omständigheterna kring dessa. Närhelst extremister på den...

 In Danish here In Swedish here The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970, is the centerpiece of international efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Perhaps the treaty was given the wrong name when it was created because the treaty is about nuclear disarmament as well as non-proliferation. At the heart of the treaty is a deal between those states that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not. The deal, simply put, is that the nuclear weapons states agree to the complete disarmament of their nuclear arsenals, while the non-nuclear weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons. This agreement, or bargain, between the parties to the treaty, setting forth the course of action each will pursue with regard to nuclear weapons, is the most important aspect of the treaty. It is, however, the least understood, particularly by American citizens. The sad fact is that from...

Danish version – Swedish version Time to give Reality Show politics a reality check Back to Square One. A few days before the 5th Anniversary of the war against what was then called Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing again reared its ugly head in the Balkans. Carl Bildt, most knowledgeable and clear-sighted former diplomat in the region, said that we saw five years of international policy go up in flames. Bildt is right in substance but his time perspective is too short; it is 15 years of Western conflict (mis)management policies that has gone up in flames. And indeed, some have reasons to try to play down this catastrophe and its consequences: the international so-called community and its allies, the Albanian leadership in Kosovo. When Milosevic and extremists on the Serb side committed crimes there in the 1990s, they were pointed out as the perpetrators, often before anyone had checked the events...

På engelsk her  Ikke-spredningsaftalen, som trådte i kraft i 1970, er det centrale element i de internationale anstrengelser for at kontrollere spredningen af kernevåben. Måske fik aftalen et forkert navn ved sin dannelse, for aftalen handler både om kernevåbennedrustning og om ikke-spredning. I sin kerne er aftalen en handel mellem de stater, der har kernevåben og de, der ikke har. Handelen er, enkelt udtrykt, at kernevåbenstaterne accepterer en total afrustning af deres kernevåbenarsenaler, mens de stater, der ikke har kernevåben accepterer ikke at skaffe sig dem. Denne aftale eller handel mellem aftalens parter, der angiver den kurs, de hver for sig vil følge med hensyn til kernevåben, er aftalens vigtigste del. Den er imidlertid også den del, som amerikanske borgere dårligst forstår. Den sørgelige kendsgerning er, at fra første færd har kernevåbenstaterne vist ringe tilbøjelighed til at opfylde deres del af aftalen. Så sent som i 2000 kom kernevåbenstaterne overens...

Icke-spridningsavtalet ifrån 1970 är mittpunkten i de internationella försöken att kontrollera spridningen av kärnvapen. Eftersom avtalet behandlar avrustning såväl som icke-spridning gavs det måhända fel namn när det skapades. Centralt i Ickespridningsavtalets står överenskommelsen mellan de stater som innehar kärnvapen och de stater som inte förfogar över dem. Enkelt uttryckt säger avtalet att kärnvapenstater ska fullfölja avrustningen av sina kärnvapenarsenaler och, som quid pro quo, samtycker icke-kärnvapenstater till att inte anskaffa dem. Denna överenskommelse, eller förhandling, som bestämmer kursen som avtalets parter skall efterfölja gällande kärnvapen, är den viktigaste aspekten av Icke-spridningsavtalet. Den är dock den minst förstådda, speciellt av amerikanska medborgare. Sorliga fakta o dubbelmoral Det är ett sorgligt faktum att från avtalets början har kärnvapenstaterna visat ringa benägenhet att fullfölja sin del av avtalet. Så sent som år 2000 enades kärnvapenstaterna om 13 praktiska steg för att uppnå avrustning. Deras resultat är nästan ett fullständigt misslyckande, inte för...

In Danish here In Swedish here The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force in 1970, is the centerpiece of international efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Perhaps the treaty was given the wrong name when it was created because the treaty is about nuclear disarmament as well as non-proliferation. At the heart of the treaty is a deal between those states that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not. The deal, simply put, is that the nuclear weapons states agree to the complete disarmament of their nuclear arsenals, while the non-nuclear weapon states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons. This agreement, or bargain, between the parties to the treaty, setting forth the course of action each will pursue with regard to nuclear weapons, is the most important aspect of the treaty. It is, however, the least understood, particularly by American citizens. The sad fact is that from...

Icke-spridningsavtalet ifrån 1970 är mittpunkten i de internationella försöken att kontrollera spridningen av kärnvapen. Eftersom avtalet behandlar avrustning såväl som icke-spridning gavs det måhända fel namn när det skapades. Centralt i Ickespridningsavtalets står överenskommelsen mellan de stater som innehar kärnvapen och de stater som inte förfogar över dem. Enkelt uttryckt säger avtalet att kärnvapenstater ska fullfölja avrustningen av sina kärnvapenarsenaler och, som quid pro quo, samtycker icke-kärnvapenstater till att inte anskaffa dem. Denna överenskommelse, eller förhandling, som bestämmer kursen som avtalets parter skall efterfölja gällande kärnvapen, är den viktigaste aspekten av Icke-spridningsavtalet. Den är dock den minst förstådda, speciellt av amerikanska medborgare. Sorliga fakta o dubbelmoral Det är ett sorgligt faktum att från avtalets början har kärnvapenstaterna visat ringa benägenhet att fullfölja sin del av avtalet. Så sent som år 2000 enades kärnvapenstaterna om 13 praktiska steg för att uppnå avrustning. Deras resultat är nästan ett fullständigt misslyckande, inte för...

LONDON – Who in extremis could put his hand on his heart and say he would not sanction torture if he knew the detainee possessed information that could save thousand of lives? This has been the central conundrum of the long debate on the morality of torture. In 1979, nearly two decades after the revelations of torture during the war of Algerian independence against colonial France, the commanding general of the French forces during the Battle of Algiers, Jacques Massu, published his memoirs defending its policy. The man who in his family life tried to make amends by adopting two Algerian orphans made the argument that torturers may be responsible servants of the state in times of extreme crisis. Three years ago another top French general, Paul Aussaresses, went public with his memoirs. “The first time I tortured someone”, he wrote, “it was useless: the fellow died without saying a thing....

Traces lead from Abu-Ghraib back to the death row of SCI Greene, Pennsylvania, USA  “Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That’s not the way we do things in America,” President George W. Bush commented on May 8 concerning the soldiers who are accused of torturing inmates of the prison Abu-Ghraib in Iraq. In the course of the last days it has become obvious that the USA doesn’t constrain itself to deploying military troops to the so-called crisis regions of the world. It also sends staff of private security corporations as well as state and federal security guards. Sargent Charles A. Graner, one of the main defendants in the Abu-Ghraib torture scandal, is one of the 16,000 employees of the Pennsylvania National Security Guards, who are serving as guards in the 26 prisons of the State of Pennsylvania. 4,000 of them have been deployed to Bosnia,...

LONDON – India is now in the middle of what many Chinese would give their right arm for- a general election. Yet China is the power that gets all the attention. When president Richard Nixon first went to China it was widely assumed at the time that the reason he ignored India and courted China was that China had nuclear weapons and could help balance the Soviet Union. Since 1998 India has possessed nuclear weapons and can balance China. Slowly Washington is waking up to the fact that the tortoise soon might overtake the hare. Still the investors and the press continue in their old ways. Last year the inflow of foreign capital into China was two and a half times that into India. The press barely covers the Indian election whilst every day there is a story out of Beijing. This skewed appreciation has been going on since the...

People called me, mostly the press both Thai and international, asking how to make sense of the incident. For some of my friends who might not have followed what happened in Southern Thailand on April 28, 2004, let me offer a brief reflection. The government killed 108 men who attacked 10 official sites (police stations among others) in three provinces (Pattani, Yala and Songkhla). The attackers were mostly young (some below 20, at least one around 60), most used knives (official figures were more than a hundred with only 4 M16, 2 HK and a few guns). It was reported that in some cases these people charged the police stations with knives in their hands and engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the police. But in an incident which took place in Songkhla, it seems the attackers were young soccer players from a local school. A good team with good winning record:...