|
A
Peace Candidate for President of Iceland
By
Dietrich
Fischer
Director of the European University Center for Peace
Studies (EPU) and Co-Director of TRANSCEND
TFF
associate
June 5, 2004
The vast majority of people around
the world are much better off in peacetime than in
war. Only a few arms merchants and power-hungry
politicians benefit from war, at the expense of soldiers
who are sent into battle, and the ever growing number of
civilian victims of war.
Iceland is in a unique position to
promote a new agenda for world peace, based on its
history of the Althing, the world's oldest democratic
legislative assembly, established in 930. It is a
forum where differences can be aired and mutually
acceptable solutions explored. In the year 1000,
Norwegian missionaries wanted to impose Christianity in
Iceland. A religious war threatened. But at
the Althing, it was decided to adopt Christianity,
without outlawing traditional rituals if done in private,
and this helped avoid a war. While people talk,
they don't shoot.
In addition, Icelanders have never
served in military forces. This may well be a key reason
why Iceland has enjoyed centuries of peace.
Similarly, Costa Rica has enjoyed peace since it
abolished its army after a brief civil war in 1948, while
its Central American neighbors suffered from war, and
Costa Rica's per capita income is twice that of its
neighbors, because it invested in its civilian economy
what its neighbors spent for their military.
In November 2002, the current
government of Iceland proposed to use Icelandic passenger
aircraft to carry U.S. weapons and troops to the
Gulf. Thor Magnusson, founder of Peace 2000
(www.peace2000.org, www.althing.us), was arrested and
imprisoned after sending an email to the police, aviation
authorities, airlines and government officials warning
that if Icelandic aircraft would carry weapons and troops
to support an illegal war against Iraq, the airlines
would become legitimate war targets and could be attacked
by terrorist organizations. The Icelandic
government tried to get Thor sentenced for up to 16 years
in prison based on new terrorist laws. In February
2004, Thor won the case both in Reykjavik District Court
and the Icelandic High Court. "Our victory is not
winning the case in court, it is that we stopped this
crazy plan of using passenger aircraft of Icelandair to
carry weapons and troops to the Gulf" said
Thor.
If Iceland elects Thor Magnusson as
President, he will give voice to the vast majority of
people around the world who want peace, but are seldom
heard. His platform includes three key points: (1)
setting up an institute for democratic studies that will
help develop true democracy, as a model for the entire
world; (2) converting the US military base in Iceland
into the headquarters of a United Nations peacekeeping
force; (3) creating an institute for conflict resolution
where conflict parties from around the world can meet
with experienced mediators.
The history of Iceland can serve as
a blueprint for a peaceful world and the transition of
nations from national military forces to common
security. Negotiating a peaceful agreement before
violence breaks out is not only much less costly, but can
save many lives.
Dialogue forums, modelled after the
Icelandic Althing, can be formed in conflict regions
around the world, including such places as the Middle
East, where citizens with different positions and
viewpoints can assemble and explore peaceful solutions to
the conflict.
The current justice minister wants
to introduce an Icelandic army. Thor has a much
better plan. As the American troops are now
scheduled to leave their military base in Iceland, he
proposes to use it as headquarters of an international
peace-keeping force. Nations that want to abolish
their national military can sign a contract to be
protected by that force, for a relatively small annual
fee, as Alan F. Kay and Hazel Henderson
(www.alanfkay.com) have long advocated. For each
country to maintain its own military forces is as
wasteful as if each building in a town had its own fire
brigade, instead of the house owners pooling their
resources for one fire brigade that can be deployed
wherever and whenever needed. Countries that take
steps to avoid war, such as accepting binding arbitration
in international disputes, can get reduced rates, in the
same way as households that keep a fire-extinguisher can
get reduced fire insurance rates.
Thor also plans to establish an
International Conflict Resolution Center, where parties
to conflicts from around the world can be invited for
talks, assisted by experienced, creative mediators, who
can help the parties find solutions that meet everyone's
essential needs.
There are many examples from
history where individuals were able to avert bloodshed
through original proposals that were acceptable to all
sides. For example, a civil war in Romania between
the ethnic Rumanian majority and the country's ethnic
Hungarian minority was averted through mediation that
produced a solution that allows the Hungarians to use
their own language in schools and local newspapers, in
return for a promise not to seek secession. This
involved only a few people, for a relatively short time,
whereas sending a peacekeeping force to quell fighting
after violence has erupted takes tens of thousands of
troops, for years, and costs many lives.
The series of wars between Ecuador
an Peru over an uninhabited small border territory ended
when the Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung
proposed to make the disputed territory a "bi-national
zone", jointly administered by both governments, with a
natural park to attract tourists and bring more income to
both countries. He pointed out that this cost only
$250 for a meal with the incoming president and a night
in a hotel, whereas the first Gulf war cost $100 billion,
not counting the destruction it caused, and the lives
lost.
What the world needs is an active
peace policy that anticipates dangers and avoids them
before they are upon us, instead of reacting afterwards,
as is usually the case. Better a fence at the top
of a cliff than an ambulance waiting at the
bottom.
The new threat of international
terrorism cannot be conquered with force alone.
Killing terrorists turns them into martyrs, which attract
more followers. Terrorism resembles the ancient
dragon, the "hydra," with multiple heads, and each time a
head is cut off, ten new ones grow. It is necessary
to find the root causes, what motivates men and women to
commit suicide for a cause they believe in. Only if
we address the roots, can we hope to eliminate
terrorism.
The policy of nuclear deterrence
pursued by the great powers is absurd. It is a
mutual suicide pact. It is as if we packed our car
full of dynamite, to explode on impact, in order to deter
others from hitting our car. But accidents do
happen. We better establish traffic rules for
international relations to prevent deadly
clashes.
Is a peace policy utopian? On
the contrary, it is the only realistic approach that can
save us. The greatest utopians are those who call
themselves "realists", because they believe we can
survive the nuclear age with power politics of the
past.
The world needs a peace president
who can help lift the veil from our eyes that has blinded
us for too long, and help us initiate the institutions
and policies that can help restore peace in the
world. Thor Magnusson can and will do that.
Iceland has a great opportunity to lead the world to
peace. I hope Iceland's voters will seize that
opportunity.
A smaller country like Iceland is
in a much better position to undertake peace initiatives
than one of the big powers, like the United States or
Russia, or the former colonial powers UK, France, Germany
and Italy, because they would be suspected of pursuing
their own interests. Iceland, without a history of
colonization, is above that suspicion.
There are precedents. In
1973, Finnish President Urho Kekkonen invited all
European countries to send delegations to the Helsinki
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which
lasted until 1975, and prepared the way for the end of
the Cold War. All European countries except Albania
came. As President, Kekkonen had the status to
convene such a meeting.
A second example is Costa Rican
President Oscar Arias Sanchez. After he was elected
in 1986, he consulted with all the other Central American
Presidents about the unsuccessful draft agreements
produced during the Contadora process. He rewrote
them based on his consultations, and in a meeting in
Guatemala City on August 7, 1987, he got the Presidents
of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua to sign
with him an agreement that provided for dialogue between
governments and opposition groups, ending the shipment of
arms to insurgents, amnesty for insurgents if they lay
down their arms, democracy, and free elections. The
agreement, Esquipulas II, named after the location of the
initial meeting in Guatemala, became the basis for peace
agreements not only for the Contra war in Nicaragua, but
also for later peace agreements in El Salvador and
Guatemala. Oscar Arias won the 1987 Nobel Peace
Prize.
Thor Magnusson, as President of
Iceland, will make use of the opportunities offered by
this position to put Iceland on the map as a source of
peace in the world. It has already happened
elsewhere, which proves that it is possible.
©
TFF & the author 2004
Tell a friend about this article
Send to:
From:
Message and your name
|