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LONDON – On September 17th President George Bush declared that the capture or death of Osama bin Laden was his prime objective. “I want justice”, he said, “There’s an old poster out West I recall that said, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.'” He also said that the purpose of going to war in Afghanistan was to “smoke him out”. Almost to the day, seven months later, a new video tape of bin Laden surfaces on the screens of al-Jazeera tv station seemingly suggesting he is still alive. Washington appears almost insouciant. Meanwhile, Afghanistan has been intensively bombed. But no one bothers much to cast aspersions on the reports that more innocent civilians, including many more children, died than they did in the destruction of the World Trade Centre. For sure an odious regime was pushed aside and one that harboured bin Laden, but bin Laden had never been short of hiding...

LONDON – As Israeli tanks roam at will through Palestinian territory, it is apparent to all but the most blinded that the ability of Yasser Arafat and his people to regain the initiative has never been more circumscribed. No one doubts the power of the Palestinian militants to inflict enormous pain on Israeli civilians. No one should minimise the sheer fear that runs through everyday Israeli family life. Indeed, no one should be surprised if tens of thousands of young highly educated families pack up their bags and join other Israelis in the modern day diasporas of places like the San Francisco Bay area where some 30,000 of them have already built new – and safer – lives. And no one should feign surprise if, among battle hardened veterans of previous Israeli campaigns, the number of peaceniks begins to grow. But the truth is however large the peace movement or...

Bokrecension Christian Palme har som DN:s Balkankorrespondent under åren 1993 – 98 och även annars för samma tidnings utlandsredaktion bevakat krigen förknippade med Jugoslaviens sönderfall. Det har med åren blivit många resor och reportage, från alla delar av den krigsdrabbade regionen men också – sedan 1993 – till Haag och Krigsförbrytartribunalen där. Palme är både kunnig och engagerad. I sin nya bok “Om ondskan i vår tid” med undertiteln “Sökandet efter rättvisa på Balkan” fokuserar han på tribunalen i Haag och låter ett av de sista kapitlen handla om Slobodan Milosevics entré i rättssalen i Haag den 3 juli förra året. I det allra sista avsnittet fokuserar han på en ödesfråga, upprättandet av en permanent krigsförbrytartribunal, ICC, som kan bli verklighet redan i år, då 60 länder väntas ha ratificerat det s k Romfördraget från 1998, dock inte USA, där Bushregimen med eftertryck motsätter sig tanken. Ändå är “Om ondskan...

Per Stig Møller afviser, som snart den sidste udenrigsminister i Europa, at der er brug for at udtrykke kritik af amerikansk udenrigspolitik, Bush-regimets krigeriskhed og “krigen mod terroren.” Måske er der tale om en specielt forsigtig erkendelsesproces, fordi forandringerne i vor verden er både store og hurtige. Med et stadigt mere autistiskt og magtfuldt USA stilles Danmark overfor den største sikkerhedspolitiske udfordring i moderne tid. Det kan meget vel tænkes at vi i årene fremover får stærkt behov for nytænkning og omorientering i udenrigs- og sikkerhedspolitiken. Det er derfor ekstra ulykkeligt når den samme minister vil centralisere stort set al forskning i internationale spørgsmål og underordne den sit eget ministerium. Ved den gamle kolde krigs afslutning opstod der objektivt set et væld af nye muligheder for at skabe et fredeligt, helt Europa og løse konflikter med et minimum af vold samt afskaffe kærnevåbnene. Med opløsningen af Sovjetunionen og Warszawapagten, der...

LONDON – No other main line, legitimate, business is as corrupt as the arms trade. That the obvious needs to be said again is only because of two more scandals that have surfaced, both involving murder, and still the countries that are responsible for 90% of the world’s arms sales continue to allow their arms companies to do their dirty business with only minimalist controls and interference. First, on March 19th came the suicide of a former Belgium government minister who for ten years had been awaiting trial for the murder of a one time deputy prime minister, André Cools. Cools, it has been suspected, was killed to prevent him denouncing the illegal same of documents to an arms manufacturer. It was an offshoot of the same long running scandal that brought down the Belgian secretary-general of Nato over alleged bribes paid to the Socialist Party by Agusta, the Italian helicopter...

LONDON – George W.Bush, the world now realizes, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. World events, everything from the political composition of the U.S. Supreme Court, from terrorism to the American economy seem to have a preordained way of working in his electoral favour. Again it is happening with Latin America. By rights the chickens should be coming home to roost as Bush girds up for his end of week visit to Mexico, Peru and Central America but, in fact, Argentina apart, the tides, both political and economic, appear to be working in his favour. Just the other day the International Monetary Fund issued a report saying that Latin America was “set for recovery”, likely to benefit from lower financing costs, higher commodities and an expected rebound in the U.S. economy, with a projected growth by the end of the year of 4% (excluding Argentina).  For the last...

The Invention of Peace. Reflections on War and International Order By Michael Howard Yale University Press, 2000 The professor of military history of the universities of Yale and Oxford here in a short book distills the great historical sweep of his earlier volumes. With his usual felicity of expression he explains the origins of war in human society, its ingrained nature through the millennia, and argues that it would be foolish to believe that after the Cold War permanent peace has come upon us.I recomend this book for those who like the long view of history and who like to be convinced that mankind will never change its (violent)spots!

LONDON – In his autobiography “A Soldier’s Way”, General Colin Powell recounts the build up to the 1991 Gulf War when he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Dick Cheney was the Secretary of Defence. “Cheney kept assigning me last-minute tasks….He had a third question and I jotted it down in my notebook simply as “prefix 5”, my nuclear qualification code. “Let’s not even think about nukes”, I said, “You know we’re not going to let that genie loose”. “Of course not”, Cheney said. “But take a look to be thorough and just out of curiosity”. Colin L. Powell – A Soldier’s Way (UK Edition) Colin L. Powell – My American Journey (US Edition) Powell played the same role in the Administration of Bush father as he does in that of Bush son, the voice of reason, not the token black but the token liberal who is allowed to speak, in...

Tibetan Centre For Conflict Resolution, TCCRNangsi Rest HouseDharamsala -176215.Distt. Kangra, (H.P.) India.Telephone : 01892-26627 Tibetan Centre for Conflict Resolution (TCCR) is a non-profitable, educational organisation dedicated to the non-violent management of conflicts in the Tibetan Community and the world as a whole. Tibetan Centre for Conflict Resolution Aims : To promote the approaches and tools of non-violent conflict resolution and democratic processes in our Tibetan community in exile and elsewhere. Thus strengthening our unity, which, in turn ensures the continuance of our non-violent struggle in the long run. We Believe That : Conflicts are challenges Conflicts are life’s challenges to us. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama said during a private audience to us, “As long as there is human Society, there will always be conflicts. As I always say that if we do not want conflicts at all we have to make the entire humanity stupid or dull, and...

LONDON – Only this weekend’s election can save Zimbabwe- once the star of black Africa- from total ruin. And even that is uncertain. A country so mismanaged requires more than a new leader and governing party. It requires ten years of political calm and incorruptible government to get back on its feet. And Zimbabwe for all the intimidatatory tactics of President Robert Mugabe remains a democracy and thus Mugabe, even if he loses the poll, will live to fight another day, able to mobilize the bitterness and resentment of the poor and unemployed to undermine a new government, as he has worked to undermine the opposition the last few years. The trouble with Robert Mugabe is that his single-minded, Marxist militancy that was a useful tool in driving to defeat the white, racist, government of Rhodesia (as it then was) and its British supporters in the Conservative party is the same...

A Balkan perspective 1. A Global Perspective and General Deliberations – and Concrete Repercussions September 11th will surely go down in the annals of terrorism as a defining moment. Terrorism had long been recognised as a global, regional, and national security threat, but the developments of the last year have the potential to outline the future shape of the world community. September 11th gave momentum to two processes, the consequences of which are very difficult to control or foresee. The mass-scale terrorist attacks and the ‘war on terrorism’ are caught in the same vicious circle. They comprise a global spiral of violence. The crucial difference behind this ‘post-modern’ terrorism is that it involves major non-state and state powers: a powerful global network of terrorist cells, Al-Qaeda, and the only global super-power, the USA. Unfortunately, the struggle between the ‘elephants’ brings heavy consequences to the ‘ants’ of the ‘global village’. Certain...

Since we agreed to work towards the convening of this Conference, the whole world has been shaken to its foundations, first by the atrocities in the United States on September 11th, and then by the American response, which was to proclaim a “war against terrorism”, and to launch the first instalment of that war in Afghanistan. Critics at the time argued that terrorism ought properly to be understood as a criminal offence, and that a declaration of “war” against an enemy which was often shadowy and ill-defined, involved not only logistical but also logical problems which would cause serious difficulties as the project unwound. The subsequent bombardment of Afghanistan has of course created a large number of civilian casualties. By the end of 2001, as many or more innocent civilians had been killed in Afghanistan by high altitude bombardment as perished in the Twin Towers in New York in the...