[A-List] Britain/US split?

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World must tackle peace agenda, says Hain 

Minister says greater global unity is needed to confront broader issues
if war on terrorism is to be won

Stuart Millar
Wednesday October 31, 2001
The Guardian

A senior government minister warned yesterday that forthcoming
international negotiations on climate change, development and
trade could influence the chances of long-term success in the campaign
against terrorism. 

Peter Hain, the Foriegn Office minister, said the international
community would have to demonstrate greater political will and
coherence in tackling broader global issues if it was to have any chance
of defeating al-Qaida and other terror groups. "The war
against terrorism is unlike other wars, because we cannot wait until the
war is over to win the peace," he said. "Winning the peace is
part of winning the war." 

Mr Hain was speaking at a conference in London organised by the Royal
United Services Institute and the Guardian to examine the
key issues and challenges facing the international community in the
aftermath of September 11. 

In the first practical example of attempts to implement the cooperative
world order outlined by Tony Blair in his speech to the Labour
conference earlier this month, Mr Hain put the focus firmly on a series
of crucial conferences from now into next year. 

This week, talks are taking place in Morocco for the United Nations'
framework document on climate change, while international
trade negotiations begin next week in the Qatar capital, Doha. 

In March next year, the UN is holding the financing for development
conference in Monterrey, Mexico, which will be followed later in
2002 by the UN's world summit on sustainable development in
Johannesburg. These events, Mr Hain said, would provide
governments with a chance to show they had learned the lessons of
September 11 and were willing to use the existing international
framework to better effect. 

He said: "The message from al-Qaida is that enhanced business as usual
will not be enough. 

"We need a step change in the urgency with which we tackle the peace
agenda, in the amount we invest in it - not only financially
but in political will and ingenuity." 

He added: "We do not need new texts, new principles and treaties to win
the peace. What we need now is better implementation to
translate the texts we have into better lives for real people." 

His comments may also be read as a veiled warning to the US that the
doggedly unilateralist position adopted by George Bush
since he arrived in the White House is no longer acceptable. 

The summits are the first key test of Washington's willingness to
re-engage with the international community on global initiatives to
tackle diverse issues, such as global warming, third world poverty and
the Aids epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. 

"These are the security challenges of the world after September 11," Mr
Hain said. "The grand coalitions of the 21st century will not
be coalitions of government alone, because governments acting alone
cannot provide solutions to this kind of problem." 

But Mr Hain sidestepped questions about whether this ambitious vision
could ever be realistically implemented when the US and
Britain had made so many deals with countries previously regarded as
pariahs to prop up the coalition for military action in
Afghanistan. 

Jonathan Eyal, a senior fellow of the RUSI, said a price was being paid
to maintain the coalition which could affect future success. 

"We have heard nothing recently about the need for democracy in the
Gulf, or about the export of this arid form of Islam coming from
the Gulf. 

"We have three central Asian countries which do not have an accountable
system of government, and nobody is saying much about
Chechnya in the last few weeks. 

Mr Eyal asked: "Are we not repeating exactly the same problems we have
in the past, acquiring fairweather friends and having bigger
difficulties later on?" 

But Mr Hain replied only that these issues needed to be addressed by the
new world order.

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,583838,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx