-Caveat Lector-
>From Irish Times
Saturday, May 1, 1999
Ethnicity a response
to global inequality
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WORLD VIEW/PEADAR KIRBY
The sort of scenes we are now witnessing in Kosovo seem to be fast becoming
a defining characteristic of the post-Cold War world.
>From Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone to Iraq's Kurds, Bosnia and, now,
Kosovo, the mass exodus of huge numbers of people from fratricidal slaughter
is like an icon of the new world order.
Its very regularity makes humanitarianism an inadequate response. If it is
not to be repeated, we need urgently to think through the roots of
insecurity in this new world and how to prevent the breakdown of whole
societies.
NATO's action, even if it were to achieve all its aims, would have done so
at the cost of sowing deeper seeds of longterm insecurity in the Balkans.
Furthermore, there are disturbing imperial overtones to it.
One is the belief in the power of vastly superior force to resolve highly
complex and deeply rooted social problems.
Another is the tendency, for long evident in US foreign policy, to reduce
foreign actions to a crusade of good against evil, the civilised against the
barbarian, identifying where possible one figure as the personification of
the evil to be eradicated.
It is clear to even the most cursory observer that what we in Europe call
nationalism lies at the heart of most of the major security tragedies of the
post-Cold War world. Nationalism, and ethnic conflict in general, is
regarded as a throwback to some pre-modern atavism, something not supposed
to occur on the brink of the third millennium.
Yet it is occurring, with ever greater regularity it seems, and needs
urgently to be understood as a feature of today's world. It is significant
that the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells devotes the entire second
volume of his breathtaking recent trilogy on the information age to what he
calls "the power of identity".
Castells regards ethnicity, and the struggle for identity based on it, as
the defining characteristic of resistance to economic and cultural
globalisation, especially among those who are gaining few benefits from it.
The struggle for identity may take many ugly forms, as it did in Rwanda or
as it is doing today in Kosovo. The power of Castells's point is that, far
from being a throwback to some ancient past, it is an integral part of the
information age. A far more effective way to deal with it would be to
understand the tendency of globalisation to distribute its benefits very
unequally.
This strongly suggests that a more secure world will require the
international community to devote far more careful attention to the issue of
equality, both worldwide and within each of our societies.
This is where economic and social policies and foreign policy meet.
More than ever, the roots of the world's security problems lie in
underdevelopment.
To be effective, security policy needs to intervene in this cycle long
before it reaches the extreme of mass ethnic cleansing.
This, I suggest, is where the neutral states have an important role to play.
Drawing on its own experience of national struggle, its recent development
success and its ongoing peace process, Ireland is well placed to offer an
understanding of what it requires to build stable and secure societies.
Ireland can insist that, far from an historical relic, nationalism is a
deeply rooted cultural and political force with the potential to build
stable societies if constructively channelled but also with a power for
terrifying social destruction.
On economic development, it knows better than most the importance that flows
of foreign direct investment and foreign aid, when well used, can play in
providing a better livelihood for people.
It can point out that the decline in aid flows from the OECD and the fact
that the great bulk of foreign investment worldwide goes to about 15
countries, serves to sow seeds of long-term social insecurity in those parts
of the world which are excluded.
The difficulties of our own peace process also hold valuable lessons about
how sensitive must be the attempts to coax adversaries into dialogue. The
sorts of ultimatums delivered to the Serbs at Rambouillet, we could point
out, would have been disastrous if used in our own peace process.
In achieving success at dialogue, it is vital to have interlocutors involved
who show a sympathy to the plight of each of the sides.
Consistent support over the years in Serbia for independent media, for human
rights groups, for opposition political groups could all have helped lay
stronger foundations for democracy to emerge.
The implication of this argument, then, is for Ireland to become more
involved in forums in which such a view of security building can be actively
promoted.
For this reason, involvement in Partnership for Peace is to be greatly
welcomed, but only if Ireland enters it with the confidence to promote a
view of international security drawn from its own historical experience.
It is to be greatly regretted therefore that activist civil society here
seems to take what amounts to an isolationist position on this issue.
Instead of lamenting Ireland joining PfP, I suggest that civil society has a
vital role to play in ensuring that our officials take a strong and
proactive stance within PfP and not silently acquiesce in more militaristic
approaches to international security.
Peadar Kirby lectures on the MA in International Relations in Dublin City
University.
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