October 2001

LONDON – At least ex-president Ronald Reagan is too ill to feel the pain. If Daniel Ortega Saavedra and his colleagues from the revolutionary Sandinista movement are swept back into power in the coming general election it won’t be Reagan’s feathers he ruffles. Still there are enough old Central American warriors in the top echelons of the Bush government- Elliott Abrams in the White House, for example- who perhaps will not be able to stop their pain reflexes working and once again there will be pressure for America to send in the CIA to head off an apparently unfriendly government. How will they put it? “If we will ignore the malignancy of Nicaragua it will spread and become a mortal threat to the entire New World” to quote President Reagan. Or again, “The Sandinistas are just two days drive from Harlingen, Texas”. Or, as his Secretary of Defence, Caspar Weinberger...

AS IF PEOPLES MATTEREDBy Zelim SkurbatyPublished by Kluwer Law InternationalMartinus Nijhoff PublishersThe Hague/Boston/London, 2000, xxvii + 498pp.The Raoul Wallenberg Institute Human Rights Library Vol. 4 Dr Skurbaty has written a very important book, probably destined to become something of a classic. He draws upon an enormous amount of philosophy, humanities and social science and footnotes everything, including his frequent use of Latin. He is a learned, not only educated, man, up to a level I have only experienced in academies in the old Soviet Union, leaning on the older Russian tradition now disappearing rapidly, yielding to business administration and computer science there as elsewhere. As a learned man Skurbaty belongs to an endangered species; his is not the kind of knowledge picked up by a voracious reader but knowledge with purpose. He mobilizes his intellectual apparatus to explore well-mined territory occupied by international law. Then there are the many philosophical...

Printed in SGI Quarterly in an edited a slightly shortened version.The Soka Gakkai International Magazine, Number 26, October 2001 Conflict-management and -prevention are international buzz-words of the post-Cold War era. Several hundred new so-called non-governmental organisations, NGOs, have emerged while older ones have re-oriented themselves toward conflict-“management.” Governments and inter-governmental organisations have been busy setting up units for conflict-prevention. Universities and other organisations have flooded the market with books and reports on how to handle what is often, with gross simplification, called domestic and ethnic conflicts. But: what have we learned about conflict these last ten years? Has all this lead to a more peaceful world? If not, what are the challenges ahead? In 1991 when TFF teams started doing fieldwork in all parts of former Yugoslavia, there were only a handful of similar independent, small groups around and only a tiny fraction of them with a scholarly basis. We were devoted...

Advancing human security and controlling terrorism By Michael Renner  and Dick Bell, Worldwatch Institute What do you think of this advice from a senior U.S. military officer and statesman about how the people of the United States should deal with a part of the world torn by war, poverty, disease, and hunger: “…it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the complications really are,rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment….It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment.” The speaker was General George C. Marshall, outlining the Marshall Plan in an address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. Surveying the wrecked economies...

LONDON – As the bombing progresses the crater America has dug for itself gets ever bigger. It is not so much that the bombing has stirred up a hornets’ nest in neighbouring Pakistan where militant fundamentalist allies of the Taliban and Qaida itch to get control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, it is that it has destabilised America’s carefully nurtured tight relationship with the main pillars of the Islamic world – Saudi Arabia with its massive oil wealth and holy sites, and Egypt, with its large population and inbred sense of historical destiny. If these long-lasting, diplomatically and militarily tight relationships become undone, then the whole script of the Middle East story will have to be re-written. There will be no reliable fixer of the world oil price; there will be no trustworthy Arab interlocutor with the Palestinians; Israel will be totally surrounded by enemies who have lost all patience with...

(Denna text skrevs före inledningen av bombningarna i Afghanistan) Statsminister Göran Persson sände den 12 september ett kondoleansbrev, omedelbart efter terrorattackerna den 11 september. Sverige deltog också i EU:s uttalande. Det dröjde emellertid ända till den 22 september innan statsministern gjorde följande uttalande: Det är korrekt att FN:s säkerhetsråd erkände den konstitutiva rätten till individuellt och kollektivt självförsvar i enlighet med Stadgan i resolution 1368 den 12 september. Det betraktade också terrorhandlingarna som ett hot mot internationell fred och säkerhet. Resolutionen betonar vidare att de som är ansvariga för att hjälpa, stödja eller ge skydd åt förövarna, organisatörerna eller sponsorerna av dessa handlingar kommer att hållas ansvariga. I detta syfte uttrycker det at det – Rådet – är redo “att vidta alla nådvändiga åtgärder för att svara på terroristattackerna…” Men inte med ett ord ger resolutionen Förenta staterna någon rätt att svara på terrorattackerna genom att inleda ett “krig mot...

There is all reason to rejoice at the fact that the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan have been awarded the centenary Nobel Peace Prize. It is the right choice. Though one would wish it had happened before, the award comes at a critical moment when governments around the world need to be reminded of the fundamental importance of the UN and its norms. It is the only government organisation that truly represents “the international community.” It is the leading one symbolising humanity’s struggle to abolish war and seek peace by peaceful means. It does a lot of good and much less harm than most self-appointed peacemakers like NATO. And its budget is still about 3% of what its governments waste on weapons and wars. Kofi Annan The Nobel Committee correctly emphasises that Kofi Annan has brought new life to the organisation. He is a soft-spoken man with inner calm,...

LONDON – When George Bush senior went to war over Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait he secured a mandate from the UN Security Council. Bill Clinton didn’t bother with such a resolution when he decided to bomb Belgrade, and now America, although easily winning a vote at the Security Council condemning the attacks on New York and Washington, has decided not to ask for a resolution authorising its bombing of Afghanistan. It suggests that America has not changed its spots. Commentators the world over have been hailing the end of American isolationism. But peel off the outer skin and the same old America of the last decade is there – doing what it thinks is right, the way it wants, interpreting the laws of the world community as it sees fit and then having the gall to say, which at least it didn’t before this crisis, “if you are not with...

Det fanns en gång ett Sverige som var annorlunda och som ville hjälpa till att förändra världen. Under de senaste få åren har det blivit ett passivt och fogligt alldagligt Sverige som nästan har övergivit sin kreativitet och sin oberoende utrikespolitik. Nu följer det flocken och dess ledare. Sverige, ett litet land med 8 miljoner innevånare, grundade sitt välstånd på tung industri och vetenskap, på ett skandinaviskt välfärdstänkande och ett starkt civilsamhälle, fyllt av aktiva NGOs. Det fanns t.o.m. en särskild benämning på detta: “folkrörelse-Sverige”. Som utrikespolitisk aktör hade Sverige en särskild betydelse i världen genom att verka för mål som internationell solidaritet, allianfrihet, kärnvapennedrustning, gemensam säkerhet, förtroendeskapande och fredsbevarande genom en aktiv neutralitetspolitik. Det gav ett starkt och pålitligt stöd till Förenta Nationerna. Det tog ställning när små stater angreps. Dess regering främjade folkrörelseaktiviteter som Den stora Fredsresan och Folkriksdagen för nedrustning. Den svenska utrikespolitiken grundades på folklig debatt...

 12 oktober, 2001  Der var en gang et Sverige, som var anderledes og som ønskede at gøre en forskel i verden. Igennem de sidste få år, er det blevet det tilpassede Sverige, som har afviklet sin kreativitet og sin uafhængige udenrigspolitik. Som et land med kun 8 millioner indbyggere byggede Sverige sin velfærd på tung industri, videnskab, skandinavisk velfærdstænkning, lighed og på et stærkt civilsamfund fyldt med aktive folkelige bevægelser. Man talte faktisk om “Folkrörelses-Sverige”. Som udenrigspolitisk aktør gjorde Sverige en forskel ved kraftigt at fremme mål som international solidaritet, alliancefrihed, kernevåbenafrustning, fælles sikkerhed, tillidsskabelse og fredsbevarelse gennem en aktiv neutralitetspolitik. Det var en sikker støtte for FN. Det tog et standpunkt, når små nationer blev angrebet, og regeringen fremmede folkebevægelser som Den store Fredsrejse og Folkerigsdagen for Nedrustning i 1980erne. Sveriges udenrigspolitik baseredes på offentlig debat og engagement og var således i betragtelig grad forankret i folkelig støtte. Det...

The images of the hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center are nightmare images of unspeakable horror that will forever be a part of our reality. Imagine, however, another nightmare — that of a mushroom cloud rising over an American city. This is a threat we can no longer ignore. Perhaps today citizens and leaders alike will better understand the seriousness of the nuclear threat. Our leaders have failed to grasp that our present nuclear weapons policies contribute to the possibility of nuclear terrorism against our country. Large nuclear arsenals do not protect us any more than a missile shield would have prevented the attacks against the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. In 1998 India and Pakistan both demonstrated their nuclear capabilities. Pakistan, which borders on Afghanistan, is now the only country in the world to recognize the Taliban regime. Should there be a US led war in...

(This text was finalised before the bombing of Afghanistan began) This PressInfo offers concrete examples of how the Swedish government chooses to acquiesce in the policies of the U.S. and the European Union (EU) rather than defending the interests of small states and the UN norm of peace by peaceful means. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson sent a letter of condolences immediately after the September 11 terror attack and Sweden participated in the EU statement . However, it was not until September 24 that the Prime Minister stated the following (excerpts): “The terrorist attack on the United States was a crime against international peace and security. The Member States of the European Union stand united in their recognition of the right of the US to defend itself. The EU has also declared its intention to cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism,” said the Prime Minister Goran Persson...