Forum

Speech given Peace operations successful, the patients unfortunately died… Thank you very much, herzlichen Dank. It’s about 30 years ago that I spoke German, so I don’t want to make you a victim of whatever might be left of that language in my hard disk! I am honoured to be invited and discuss with you what is so terribly important and urgent, and could have such disastrous consequences for many. May I suggest to you that each one of you promise yourself to speak with at least ten people next week and discuss what you heard and learned during this conference? There’s only one way compatible with democracy: to spread the word and work with nonviolent means. Also, to show the contrast with the undemocratic leaders – including those in so-called democracies – who get their point through by violence. I’m not an expert on Iraq. I happen to know...

LONDON – Of all the rogues there is no question that Kim Jong-Il and his odious regime in North Korea are the furthest advanced in threatening the outside world with nuclear weapons. Yet an honest administration in Washington has to ask itself how much the U.S. has been responsible for bringing about this state of affairs, one that threatens to escalate fast with North Korea announcing in October it was enriching uranium to build a nuclear weapon and now last week in effect abrogating the landmark 1994 agreement. The 1994 agreement avoided war, one that President Bill Clinton was convinced could lead to a nuclear attack on South Korean cities and American troops based in the South. In the circumstances it was an amazing deal, midwifed by former president, Jimmy Carter. The North agreed to close its plutonium-producing nuclear power plant, and seal up the cooling rods from which weapons-grade...

Hvad indebærer en krig mod Irak? Offentliggjort i Politiken 17. december 2002 En række humanitære organisationer og enkeltpersoner opfordrer i et åbent brev regeringen og Folketinget til at sikre sig det bedst mulige grundlag for beslutningen om, hvorvidt Danmark skal støtte en eventuel krig mod Irak. Der må gøres realistiske analyser af de mulige konsekvenser og skabes debat både i Folketinget og i den brede offentlighed. De sidste ugers internationale udvikling gør det sandsynligt at Irak bliver angrebet enten af USA og England eller af en større koalition. Danmark, der har formandskabet i EU, skal derfor tage stilling til to ting: For det første skal det endeligt besluttes, om Danmark vil støtte denne krig, med de politiske, humanitære, økonomiske og folkeretlige konsekvenser, den kan få. For det andet skal regering og folketing tage stilling til, om Danmark vil deltage aktivt i angrebet på Irak. Vi opfordrer hermed folketingets medlemmer og...

The threat of an outbreak of smallpox anywhere in the world is indeed a frightening prospect. It’s quite obvious that even a very small terrorist organisation could easily spread the disease globally without technically advanced vectors – provided it had access to the pathogenic virus. Furthermore, smallpox belongs to the category of biological weapons of mass destruction. It is extremely contagious and will easily spread outside the area of conflict. Thus completely “innocent” or only peripherally affected people can be stricken with disease. This is a severe, global threat against one and all! As a Swedish citizen one must ask: can we handle an attack even if we are affected only in the second-hand? Have those who have been delegated the power created a realistic preparedness against what may happen? In 1980 smallpox was officially declared eradicated following an internationally successful vaccination campaign. Simultaneously the former – sometimes compulsory –...

Hotet att smittkoppor skulle bryta ut någonstans i världen skrämmer många. Det står också klart att även en liten terroristorganisation skulle kunna sprida sjukdomen globalt utan särskilt avancerade vapenbärare – förutsatt att den hade tillgång till det sjukdomsframkallande viruset. Smittkoppor tillhör också kategorin biologiska massförstörelsevapen vilka utmärker sig framför allt genom att drabba många människor och sprida sig långt utanför en konflikthärd och i princip skada människor som inte alls, eller bara perifert, har med konflikten att göra. Detta skapar hot mot allas säkerhet. Som medborgare måste man fråga sig, kan vi klara en attack även om effekten bara når oss i andra hand. Och – har de som vi delegerat makten till verkligen byggt upp en realistisk beredskap mot det som kan hända? Smittkoppor förklarades 1980 som utrotad, efter en framgångsrik internationell vaccinationskampanj. Ungefär samtidigt avbröts i hela världen den tidigare ofta obligatoriska vaccineringen mot smittkoppor. Avsiktligt sparades smittkoppsvirus...

LONDON – There is a telling passage in the latest book by Patrick Buchanan – the former ultra right wing Republican presidential candidate, who actually often speaks a lot of sense. He tells of visiting the disgraced but still astute ex-president Richard Nixon. Just before they take their leave Buchanan’s wife asks Nixon a question. “What do you think are the prospects for Israel’s future existence”? “He extended his right fist, thumb up”, Buchanan writes, “in the manner of a Roman emperor passing sentence on a gladiator, and slowly turned his thumb over and down.” Hamas, the radical anti-Arafat fighting group in Palestine, has always asserted- at least until its remarkable volte-face in Cairo a month ago- that they were determined to drive Israel into the Mediterranean. For them 700 years of Arab ownership of all of old Palestine cannot be overturned by the romantic-religious decision of the British foreign...

First we had talking Tigers, and now these Tigers are changing stripes.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), denizens of the jungles in northern Sri Lanka, who in the past started speaking of peace with a promising roar only to end in a frustrating whimper, have just finished supping at the same table with their arch foes – representatives of the government in Colombo. And after three days of a sumptuous peace-meal, along with a belch of satisfaction, they have delivered themselves of the declaration that they will no longer demand a separate and independent nation for Tamils in the island republic. The Sri Lankan Tamils – different from the plantation Tamils who are descendents of indentured labour exported to work in the tea estates during British rule – constitute about 12.6 per cent of the population and are the main minority. Their separatist war been one of the bloodiest,...

The national security strategy (NSS) of president Bush, unveiled on September 20, has been seized by the government of India to assert its own right to “pre-emptive strikes”. This is a qualitative leap from the doctrine of deterrence. Yet the difference between pre-emptive strike and deterrence has been blurred with the declaration, on September 30, in Washington by Indian finance minister Jaswant Singh that “Pre-emption or prevention is inherent in deterrence”. This comes three days after Washington had asked India to show restraint despite Pakistan continuing cross-border terrorism, and underscores that New Delhi is determined to make the most of the NSS report. This is certain to heighten tension in the region especially with hostile rhetoric being revived in the aftermath of the attack on the Swaminarayan Temple complex in Gujarat on September 24. “ Where there is deterrence there is pre-emption. The same thing is there in Article 51...

According to one theory, parties engaged in protracted conflicts are so habituated to conflict that only a shock can induce the reorientations necessary for peacemaking. Whether or not the UNSG Kofi Annan was inspired by this notion when he tabled his recent outline for a settlement of the Cyprus conflict in all its complexities is unknown. Nor is it clear whether or not the rapid dissemination of the “Annan-plan” among the public that followed was intentional or resulted from unauthorized leaks. What is clear, however, is that the peace plan, Basis for Agreement on a Comprehensive Settlement of the Cyprus Problem, dropped like a bombshell on the divided island, sending shock waves through the two communities. Presented to the parties on 11 November, together with a tight deadline, Annan’s outline instilled a sense of urgency into a situation that ten months after the resumption of peace negotiations (in mid-January 2002)...

Til den norske regering, norske aviser, Stortingsmedlemmer og andre interesserede Det skal i denne uge afgøres om Norges ambassade i Irak skal nedlægges. Det må den ikke blive. EU’s formandsland, Danmark, har slet ingen ambassade i Irak. Sverige sender af og til en tjenestemand til Baghdad fra sin ambassade i Jordan. Disse to lande er altså helt uinformerede om den konkrete situation: en skandale for EU og dem selv! Norge derimod har en velfungerende ambassade med en charge d’affaires, som er blandt de mest engagerede og kyndigste diplomater i denne by. Han har været der i mange år og også har været udstationeret i andre mellemøstlige lande. Under mit besøg for nylig traf jeg ham flere gange og fik særdeles informative og balancerede informationer, som siden har været nyttige for mig selv som forsker og for TFF, som jeg er chef for. For regeringer er det afgørende at løbende få...

“USA:s angreppsplan avslöjad” hette det i en sexspaltig topprubrik på utrikessidan i HD häromveckan (11/11 2002). Bakom rubriken låg antagandet att en journalist någonstans genom kontakter eller rentav grävande journalistik lyckats avslöja något som makthavarna sökt hålla hemligt. Att offentliggöra militära anfallsplaner är förmodligen inte riskfritt. Här hade någon modig journalist utmanat makten. Var det så? Naturligtvis inte. Nyheten om anfallsplanerna var högst sannolikt planterad på initiativ från Pentagon på mycket hög nivå, som ett led i det intensifierade propagandakriget. Den hade först publicerats i New York Times och därefter citerats av TT-Reuter som stod som källa till det i HD publicerade telegrammet. “Uppgav en hög anonym tjänsteman”, hette det. TT hade inte satt rubriken på artikeln ifråga. I texten fanns dock ingenstans en markering av osäkerhet angående “nyhetens” ursprung. Är man så aningslös på TT, undrar jag, att man inte inser att det nu pågår ett högintensivt propagandakrig, där...

Reaktionerna i Storbritannien på händelserna den 11 september innehöll också ett mått av tillfredsställelse: nu skulle resten av (väst)världen få erfara vad det innebar att leva under hotet av terrorattacker, det som utgjort britternas vardag under de tre decennier då hotet från IRA-attacker utgjorde en kännbar realitet. Och som en följd därav kanske visa större sympati för de åtgärder som britterna sett sig tvingade att vidta för att skydda sig mot detta hot och för vilka de, enligt dem själva, oförskyllt pådragit sig kritik från såväl människorättsorganisationer som Amnesty International och Europadomstolen för mänskliga rättigheter. Nordirlandkonflikten var en utdragen lågintensiv konfliktsituation med återkommande toppar av massiv förödelse. Fram till slutet av nittiotalet hade konflikten resulterat i över tretusensexhundra döda och tiofalt fler skadade. De materiella skadorna översteg det fattbara, för att inte tala om de dolda kostnaderna i form av utebliven ekonomisk utveckling av det som i praktiken var en...