PressInfo 2002

Denmark, like many traditional allies of the United States, will have to rethink and reorient its foreign and security policies away from dependence upon the United States. For countries that have held the United States as their role model and authority in security affairs – and as a sort of protective father figure – the rapid demise of the United States as a responsible and respected super power is so shocking that it is likely to be denied. The regime of George W. Bush represents a very dangerous combination of historically overwhelming physical power, intellectual poverty, and decreasing legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the world. Responsible powers, big or small, look in vain to Washington for leadership or vision. They must begin to learn to stand on their own feet. At the end of the old cold war, a wealth of new possibilities arose to create a...

This comprhensive peace proposal was submitted to Feature editor Robert Donahue, the International Herald Tribune on December 5. On December 19, Donahue accepted the article for publication by e-mail. Then nothing happened. On February 6, however, Mr. Donahue told us that he had let another editor read the article. This editor “didn’t like the article and thought that many of its points were unrealistic – and I respect my colleague,” he said over the phone. So the International Herald Tribune changed its mind and hoped we would accept their apology. On February 17, the European Council of the EU came together and began formulating a common foreign policy in relation to the Iraq crisis. The International Herald Tribune made a politically motivated turnaround and effectively wasted exactly two months of this proposal’s life in the public debate. We are proud to publish the original manuscript with all its “unrealistic” points...

Governments, editors, commentators and even supporters of the United Nations currently express the view that a war against Iraq is, or will be, acceptable if the United States and others “go back” to the Security Council and obtain a “UN mandate” before they attack. But, this is false logic and could spell the end of the UN as a peace organisation. If you think that the planned war is or entails a violation of international law, such a mandate does not make it more legal. If you think that the war is morally wrong or unfair, such a mandate won’t make it right or just. If you think that war has nothing to do with conflict-resolution but must be categorised as aggression, a resolution – inevitably the result of horse-trading among the Five Permanent (and nuclear) Security Council members and the other ten under the leadership of Columbia – does...

A presentation at the Zayed Centre for Coordination & Follow-upAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 26 November 2002 The Beginning of Sanctions 1. The 2 August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq led to UN Security Council resolution 661 of 6 August 1990 imposing military, economic and financial sanctions on Iraq with the objective of ending Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. 2. Following the Gulf War and Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait, the UN Security Council on 3 April 1991 adopted resolution 687. This resolution extends comprehensive economic and financial sanctions to Iraq to be lifted only when the UN Security Council confirms that Iraq has carried out the destruction, removal or rendering harmless, under international supervision, of all chemical and biological weapons as well as ballistic missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometers. (a) 3. Resolution 661 demanded ‘withdrawal from Kuwait’; resolution 687 calls for Iraq’s disarmament as a condition...

A presentation at the Zayed Centre for Coordination & Follow-up Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 26 November 2002 The Beginning of Sanctions 1. The 2 August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq led to UN Security Council resolution 661 of 6 August 1990 imposing military, economic and financial sanctions on Iraq with the objective of ending Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. 2. Following the Gulf War and Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait, the UN Security Council on 3 April 1991 adopted resolution 687. This resolution extends comprehensive economic and financial sanctions to Iraq to be lifted only when the UN Security Council confirms that Iraq has carried out the destruction, removal or rendering harmless, under international supervision, of all chemical and biological weapons as well as ballistic missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometers. (a) 3. Resolution 661 demanded ‘withdrawal from Kuwait’; resolution 687 calls for Iraq’s disarmament as a...

The demonising of the enemy before the war is intense. The Swedish media, for instance, take for granted that a war against Iraq will take place. No alternatives to war are mentioned. Iraq has become a synonym for Saddam Hussein in the Swedish media, leaving 23 million human beings in oblivion. Iraq as a society and culture, from now on, belongs to the zone of silence. It is above all very important that not even the tiniest element of humanness affects our perception of the country. Iraqis must not be pictured as human beings, mothers, fathers, children with hopes and fears, poverty or wealth. We must only imagine Saddam and his palaces that we will pulverize in a technological inferno. None of the potential consequences of a full-fledged war are being discussed. Millions of refugees; tens of thousands of dead and injured (both Iraqis and Americans, especially if chemical weapons...

The demonising of the enemy before the war is intense. The Swedish media, for instance, take for granted that a war against Iraq will take place. No alternatives to war are mentioned. Iraq has become a synonym for Saddam Hussein in the Swedish media, leaving 23 million human beings in oblivion. Iraq as a society and culture, from now on, belongs to the zone of silence. It is above all very important that not even the tiniest element of humanness affects our perception of the country. Iraqis must not be pictured as human beings, mothers, fathers, children with hopes and fears, poverty or wealth. We must only imagine Saddam and his palaces that we will pulverize in a technological inferno. None of the potential consequences of a full-fledged war are being discussed. Millions of refugees; tens of thousands of dead and injured (both Iraqis and Americans, especially if chemical weapons...

The speech by Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh for United Nations Day was to a great extent about Iraq. Twelve years ago, the Security Council of the UN decided to take measures to fully disarm Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, by applying sanctions and imposing inspections, in order to remove the threat to international peace and security posed by Iraq, a threat manifested by the nation’s aggression and occupation of Kuwait. What has happened during those twelve years? Highly successful inspections were conducted under the leadership of the Swedish ambassador Rolf Ekéus. Those inspections led to the destruction of most of Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons. No reliable expertise claims that Iraq is even close to possessing nuclear weapons. Along with the bombing of Iraq’s infrastructure by the United States and Britain (without UN mandate and in total discord with international human rights agreements), the sanctions have crushed the country’s...

As a healthy response to the Bush Administration’s war policies, the number of people taking to the streets in protest is increasing with each step toward war. These protesters realize that they do not want the United States to initiate a pre-emptive and illegal war, but perhaps they do not yet realize that they are also fighting to retain an international order based on multilateralism, the rule of law and the United Nations itself. To save the UN from the Administration’s destructive and radical unilateralism, other key nations will have to stand up to its bullying. France, Russia and China, because of their veto power in the Security Council, could withhold legal authority for America to proceed to war. Whether they will exercise this power, given the pressure they’re under from the Administration, remains to be seen. But if one or more of them does so, the Administration would be...

Utrikesminister Anna Lindhs tal inför FN-dagen handlade bland annat om Irak-frågan. För 12 år sedan beslutade FN:s säkerhetsråd om nedrustning av Iraks massförstörande vapen, inspektioner av denna nedrustning och sanktioner för att undanröja det hot mot internationell fred och säkerhet som Iraks angrepp på och ockupation av Kuwait hade manifesterat. Dagens Irak utgör inget hot mot internationell fred och säkerhet Vad har hänt under dessa 12 år? Under ledning av den svenska ambassadören Rolf Ekéus genomfördes fram till 1998 framgångsrika inspektioner som undanröjde det meste av Iraks biologiska och kemiska vapen. Ingen tillförlitlig expertis hävdar att Irak ens är i närheten av att ha kärnvapen. Sanktionerna har, tillsammans med de bombningar av Iraks infrastruktur, som i strid med folkrätten och utan FN-mandat utförts av USA och Storbritannien, krossat landets ekonomi och skapat en katastrofal livssituation för dess 23 miljoner invånare. Iraks militära kapacitet är, oavsett en viss import av konventionella...

Skrevet på den af FN erklærede international Fredsdag, 21. september 2002. Forfatteren var medlem af den danske regerings Sikkerheds- og Nedrustningspolitiske Udvalg (SNU) fra 1981 til 1994, var generalsekretær for Fredsfonden, 1985 – 1987 og skrev sin doktordisputats om Danmarks sikkerhedspolitik efter 1945 i et globalt perspektiv med titlen “Myter om vor sikkerhed”, 1981. Fortsættelse af PressInfo 159. På grund af den indflydelse det amerikanske paradigme og en føjelig forskningstradition har haft, har der været en underprioritering af vigtige forskningsemner i Danmark og i resten af Skandinavien igennem de sidste få tiår. For eksempel: 1. En systematisk forskning i det amerikanske samfund og dets internationale rolle. Samtidig har de norske lande eksperter, som kender hvert land i Europa, Afrika og Asien. USA, vennen og lederen, har været opfattet som let at forstå, sympatisere med og som uproblematisk. 2. Studier af ikke-voldelig konfliktløsning blev opfattet som irrelevante i den kolde krigs...

U.S. foreign policy seems to be moving beyond the realm of political science textbooks. Washington today means ever more bellicose groupthink. It’s the theatre of the absurd. Statements without shared meanings are uttered from a moral void. With the spiralling integration of paranoia and megalomania, one must rather turn to textbooks of psychology for interpretation. We are living in increasingly dangerous times. How shall we react, intellectually and emotionally? How, for instance, shall we react to a surreal news bite like this? “The US has plans to establish an American-led military administration in Iraq, similar to the postwar occupation of Germany and Japan, which could last for several years after the fall of Saddam Hussein… Saddam would be replaced by US General Tommy Franks…” No, it is not fiction. Read the story here: New York Times, October 10, 2002 U.S. has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials Report The Guardian,...