New PressInfo on TFF

New PressInfo on TFF's site from August 30, 2002 T F F P r e s s I n f o 1 5 7 ///////////////////////////////// August 30, 2002 E U C O U N T R I E S M U S T A C T N O W T O B R E A K O U T O F T H E U S / I R A Q D I P L O M A T I C B L A C K O U T By Jan Oberg, TFF director, and Christian Harleman, TFF Board member Ignoring conflict-resolution's rules of thumb Any professional conflict-resolution expert will tell you that it is better to keep some channels open for communication with the adversary than to close them. She or he would also argue that the more we know about the other side - and about ourselves - the greater the chance that we will eventually make a compromise or otherwise solve the problem. That is, if we want to find a solution. The Bush regime obviously doesn't, and the rest of the West - in particular the EU - doesn't seem able to be able get its act together and decide on much more than criticising Iraq for one set of reasons and the U.S. for another. The United Nations, who ought to be the mediator, has been systematically marginalised by the U.S. and has little legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqis. So, we are heading for war because, in reality, a U.S. war on Iraq is the only plan in town, and it is as mad as it is bad. It's sad but true; the world community (if there is one) desperately needs go-betweens, mitigators and mediators but no country or organisation is able or willing to play that role. This speaks volumes about the political and moral immaturity of the post-Cold War worldorder. In Baghdad, the U.S. has some contacts at the Embassy of Poland while Russia and China have huge embassies. Norway has a functioning embassy headed by an experienced charge d'affaires. When it comes to the EU, the present chair, Denmark, does not even have representation. Sweden has a not-too-high ranking diplomat from its embassy in Amman going to Baghdad a few days per month. The only EU member with serious representation in Baghdad, although not a full embassy, is France, which also runs a comprehensive cultural centre there. This state of diplomatic affairs is a scandal in itself. It guarantees that major Western governments know virtually nothing about the reality on the ground and remain unable to communicate face-to-face with Iraqis from higher political levels. Add to this the fact that there are very few Western journalists permanently present in Iraq but, presumably, intelligence agents from virtually all major Western nations, and you have a perfect diplomatic blackout, a recipe for later political disaster. This PressInfo offers advice to the EU with regards to a policy towards Iraq © TFF 2002 Read the entire analysis here: http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/2002/pf157_IraqEU.html You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the source and copyright. All TFF PressInfos, new and old http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/index.html Send TFF PressInfos to a friend of mine mailto:subscribe-TFFpressinfo@transnational.org I don't want TFF PressInfo and PeaceBrowser mailto:unsubscribe-pressinfo@transnational.org TFF first page, guide and news http://www.transnational.org/sitemap.html _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ TFF Guide and News http://www.transnational.org/sitemap.html TFF Forums http://www.transnational.org/forum/index.html TFF Features http://www.transnational.org/features/index.html TFF PressInfo http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/index.html TFF Publications http://www.transnational.org/publica/index.html <http://www.transnational.org/links/index.html> TFF Link Library http://www.transnational.org/links/index.html TFF About us http://www.transnational.org/tff/index.html TFF Kalejdoskop http://www.transnational.org/kalejdo/index.html TFF Online bookstore http://www.tff-store-and-donations.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TSD&Category_Code=P TFF Donations http://www.tff-store-and-donations.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TSD&Category_Code=D Or use MoneyGram and we can have your donation in 10 minutes! http://www.moneygram.com Donationer fra Norden: SVERIGE Sätt in beloppet på postgirokonto 494 94 84 - 2. Ange Ditt namn och att Du vill bli TFF Vän DENMARK Indbetal beløbet til GiroBank Danmark 0 87 23 93. Skriv Ditt navn og at Du vil være TFF ven. NORGE Betala till Postbanken Norge 0805-19 44 446. Skriv navnet og at Du vill bli TFF Ven. TFF Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research http://www.transnational.org Vegagatan 25 S - 224 57 Lund Sweden Phone +46 46 14 59 09 Fax + 46 46 14 45 12 mailto:tff@transnational.org Public not-for-profit charity 845001-4637 _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/