*** GUY SPITAELS: L'improbable équilibre. Géopolitique du désordre mondial. Editions Luc Pire (37-39 quai aux Pierres de taille, B-1000 Brussels. E-mail: editions@lucpire.be - Internet: http: //http://www.lucpire.be ). "Voix politiques" series. 2003, 374 pp. ISBN 2-87415-269-2.
This is an extraordinary book. Because of its author: Guy Spitaels is a politician who has left his mark on the history of Belgium over the last thirty years, more than on the international stage, despite having been President of the Union of European Socialist Parties and being honorary President of the Socialist International, and also in academia - despite lecturing at the European College in Bruges. The man shines through, in fact, there where one least expects it: in a dazzling analysis of the state of the world we're in, which sees activists and intellectuals merging into an explosive cocktail. And there is more: this book is also extraordinary since its publication is in perfect keeping with current events that require keys if they are to be properly deciphered. The book overflows with keys to interpretation. It cannot be taken for read that all of them will convince the reader, but they at least have the merit of providing the politically committed explanation of a politically aligned intellectual (formerly President of the French-speaking Socialist Party in Belgium) taking a stand as an implacable censor of the times which he himself has helped form to a small degree. He is also a humanist who refuses to resign himself (any more?) to the cynicism that accompanies politics, which means that he opens his preface with a quotation from Louis XV to the Crown Prince on the battlefield at Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, where Great Britain and the United Provinces had been beaten: "You see, my son, what victory costs. Our enemies' blood is also human blood. True glory lies in sparing it". "Old Europe", basically, still has lessons to give as long as we agree to meditate on its history and turn our back (as it has been showing us by setting an example for the last fifty years) on the old demons that are no longer its prerogative.
The first part of the world assessed by the author assesses is the "Great Non-Power" of Russia. As far as Guy Spitaels is concerned, "the characteristic event of the past twelve years is certainly not 11 September 2001, but the disappearance of the USSR" that threw Moscow's doors wide open to ultra liberalism without providing any benefits to the world's stability, quite the reverse. Putin's "Presidential authoritarianism" that we see today, a "type of Bonapartism", is less irritating than the attitude of the West which, "forgetting its criticisms of the Soviet regime, admires in many ways the new freedom-quashing and secretive Czar who is dealing harshly with a people who are on the whole gregarious and resigned." The second set of weak players, developing countries, which are having a hard time making themselves heard given the weakness of their economies and the heterogeneity of the situations facing them. Spitaels writes, in this connection, that from the angle of international trade, the gap between rhetoric and reality has never been so flagrant. Although it is true that "numerous poor countries today are more open to trade than industrialised countries", even the European Union's "Everything But Arms" initiative does not find favour in his view because it excludes rice, sugar and bananas. The author says the health of poor countries is to be found above all in the hands of their own governments and should be encouraged by regional regroupings along the lines of the ACP countries. Against these two sets of actors, the United States dominates the world and setting itself up as the "supreme arbiter of Good and Evil", which does not confuse the author: "Presenting the struggle against Iraq as a combat against an authoritarian regime with a view to establishing democracy amounts of courses to arrogant hypocrisy since the feudal Saudi royal family, and the dictatorship of Suharto in Indonesia, of Pinochet in Chile and Mobutu in the Congo, along with the military gangs in Pakistan, were or are strong supporters of the United States in the Southern hemisphere". Starting with the US intervention in Yugoslavia, Guy Spitaels describes the "irresistible rise of unilateralism that leads the US to act alone, shaking off the opinion of other states and jointly established rules".
As far as Guy Spitaels is concerned, Washington is now planning to "discourage the advanced industrialised countries from any attempt to defy the US leadership, heading off the emergence of any global competitor in the future"; which he describes as, "an unacceptable prospect, the heart of the battle both for European vassals and for other potential poles of balance in the world". It is against this alarming background that the author finally turns to the European Union, "prosperous, but impotent in its discordance". Spitaels is European with a passion, but the Europe he sees coming into being does not correspond with his wishes - he sees it getting too big, too cowardly, corresponding to Margaret Thatcher's dream: a big market and no more than that! An area of doubt, however, "Europe is the final actor for the most plausible, if not the most probable, time being which could pose itself as a counterbalance". Only, for this potentiality to be made concrete, Europe cannot do without the "hard core of a federation of nation states". After the pathetic episodes of recent weeks, hasn't that become the main challenge facing the Convention ? Michel Theys
*** PHILIP H. GORDON: Iraq: the Transatlantic Debate. European Union Institute for Security Studies (43 av. du Président Wilson, F-75775 Paris cedex 16. Tel: (33-1) 56891930 - Fax: 56891931 - E-mail: institute@iss-eu.org - Internet: http://www.iss-eu.org ). "Occasional Papers" No. 39. 2002, 22 pp.
Most Americans see Saddam Hussein's regime as a major threat to regional and international security. They therefore believe that this threat should be countered using military force. If the Iraqi regime acquires nuclear weapons, it could use them for dominating the Middle East and perhaps invading its neighbours. Its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists. Decisive action in Iraq could therefore allow for, in the opinion of the USA, the liberation of the Iraqi people, the complete lifting of sanctions against Baghdad and the withdrawal of the US from Saudi Arabia. The Europeans do not deny that the Iraqi regime constitutes a threat but are unsure whether this threat is so urgent that it requires the international community to run the risk of invading a country in the heart of the Middle East. They are afraid that a war in Iraq would become a bloodbath and doubt whether the international community is capable of establishing stability and democracy and expect, rather, an internal struggle for power and resources, with an accompanying risk of civil war. They also fear that an attack against Iraq would constitute a dangerous precedent in the use of preventive force. After examining the arguments in favour of, then against war, the writer of this study returns to the origins of the disagreements between the Union and the USA, before they proposed a common strategy. (MF)
*** PIERRE HASSNER: Etats-Unis: l'empire de la force ou la force de l'empire ? European Union Institute for Security Studies (see above). "Cahiers de Chaillot" series, No. 54. 2002, 49 pp, 6 euros..
Emeritus Research Director at the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales of the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques in Paris, but also having taught in the United States, Pierre Hassner looks in this "Cahier" at history and sociology to answer several questions that are more burning than ever. The question, for example, of whether the United States is in the process of moving from the temptation of retreat and isolationism to the temptation of imperialism, and the question this raises of whether this means liberal imperialism based on economic dynamism, or strong-arm imperialism based on military might? Although they are highly nuanced, the author's answers do not provide total tranquillity. One of his conclusions is that the widening gap between America, caught up in warmongering, patriotic fever, and a more hesitant Europe, less dynamic but more aware of the traps and dangers of military adventure, is of concern, when "dialogue could prove very fruitful, if each side agreed to listen to the other". (MT)
*** THERESE DELPECH: Le terrorisme international et l'Europe. European Union Institute for Security Studies (see above). "Cahiers de Chaillot" series. 2002, 58 pp, 6 euros.
"How did Europe experience the 11th of September?", "Is terrorism also aiming at the Old Continent?", "What lessons should be drawn from this tragic event?". Each of these questions raises other questions, and this book provides food for thought along, occasionally, with a few answers. Although the emotion caused by the collapse of the Twin Power could be felt in Europeans, it seems that it did not last long. So little time, in fact, that the author even argues that Europeans "never understood the 11 September for what it was - a return to war within the most developed countries". Thérèse Delpech, Director of "Prospective Studies" at the atomic energy commissariat, describes "Europe after the attacks". She goes on to describe the outline of debate in the future, from moving closer to Russia to the role of the European Union, via the question of Iraq. By way of a conclusion, she includes a chapter called "Ten lessons of 11th September". (AD)
*** The Cotonou Agreement. New habits of servitude. Colophon publications (25 rue Gratès, B-1170 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 6758156 - Fax: 6758327 - E-mail: colophon@online.be - Internet: http://www.colophon.be ). "Essais" series. 2002, 127 pp, EUR 15. ISBN 2-930254-08-4.
Following the wave for independence by third world countries, the former ruling countries were obliged to maintain preferential relationships with their former colonies. It was in this spirit that the two Conventions Yaoundé were established between European and ACP counties, followed by the four Conventions of Lomé. The writers of this collective publication, edited by a consortium of five NGOs (and therefore quite distinctive), are of the opinion that the results of these conventions have been disappointing. Basically, nothing has changed, it has always involved globalisation that "dared not speak its name", with European countries anxious, above all to avoid competition.
The Cotonou, Agreement following these Conventions, was signed on 23 June 2000 in Benin and stretches over a twenty-year period. In the opinion of the writers, the sights have not been readjusted. On the contrary, the different writers believe that the majority of solidarity mechanisms have disappeared and its provisions are almost entirely based on neo-liberal models. The Agreement reflects a clear alignment of WTO rules. The people affected are poorly informed or not informed at all and civil society is rarely involved in discussions. The European Parliament is de facto excluded, even on the budgetary level because the European Development Funds (EDF) is not included in the Community budget. In brief, the ten authors are very critical of this agreement, which is not adapted to the conditions of ACP economies and does not respond in any way to the essential needs of the poorest elements in these societies. This is to such an extent that certain contributions are not afraid to talk about its "neo-colonialist directions". As for the changes that are claimed to have been introduced, they are mainly those of a semantic value. The contributors explain that it is not for nothing that it was very difficult to ratify this agreement and that trade negotiations due to begin at the end of 2002, were delayed (MF)
*** The trade in children in West Africa: political responses. Innocenti Research Centre, Unicef (12 piazza SS. Annunciata, I-50122 Florence, Italy. Tel: (39- 055) 20330 - Fax: 244817 E-mail: florenceorders@unicef.org - Internet: http://www.unicef-icdc.org ). "Insight Innocenti" series. 2002, 27 pp. ISBN 88-85401-84-8.
Every year thousands of children are taken from their parents under the pretext of giving them a better life. They are transported like cattle and sold as merchandise in foreign countries that are often not far away but from where they never return. They are denied all rights, education, contact with their families and are effectively reduced to slavery. This short UNICEF publication puts forward political solutions in an effort to fight against this scourge in eight countries of this region particularly affected by the phenomenon: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Mali, Nigeria and Togo. Initially analysing the mechanisms of this scourge in a way that is descriptive, the study demonstrates the difficulties that we can come up against simply in the semantic effort of trying to understand - that slavery is not interpreted by everyone in the same way. Analysing the problem also varies according to the regions, the people and events, which does not facilitate any vantage point. Exploring the multiple attempts by countries, NGOs and UNICEF in particular, the book then provides recommendations for the officially recognising the problems in view of identifying them and more effectively fighting against them. (PBu)
*** YOUCEF ZIREM: Algérie, la guerre des ombres. Les non-dits d'une tragédie. Editions Grip (33 rue Van Hoorde, B-1030 Brussels. Tel. (32-2) 2418420 - Fax: 2451933 - E-mail: admi@grip.org - Internet: http://www.grip.org ) and Editions Complexe (24 rue de Bosnie, B-1060 Brussels). "Les livres du Grip", No. 263. 2002, 123 pp. ISBN 2-87027-931-0.
More than 150,000 Algerians have lost their lives, assassinated in a decade of civil war, without it being possible to decide for certain who was responsible for the crime or, at least, the origins of this collective madness. This book uses a hallucinating collection of atrocities, attributed to a bewildering number of different organisations, to show that the Algerian issue cannot be reduced to a conflict between "progressives" and "Islamists", modernity and tradition, government forces and rebels. The author is a freelance Algerian journalist, who reveals that Islamic groups everywhere are infiltrated by both government agents and French and US secret agents and even Israeli, Egyptian and Moroccan agents, all of them attempting to maintain or take control over the ruling class of this country rich in oil and gas. This essay puts the shadowy world of criminal organisations active in Algeria into perspective, a country that has lost itself but each camp being infiltrated by its rivals makes any attempt to read the facts very complex if not illusory. (PBu)
*** EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Official publication office of the European Communities, L-2985, Luxembourg, http: //publications.eu.int) has published the following documents:
*** Cordis focus. DG Enterprise (Fax: (352-4301) 32084 - E-mail: innovation@cec.eu.int - Internet: http://www.cordis.lu/news ). 13 January 2003, No. 213, 27pp. Free subscription.
"The Commission warmly welcomes a debate on Union funding for defence research" announced the current issue of Cordis focus. A positive opinion is therefore given to the Greek Presidency's proposal that Europe should not confine itself to civilian projects but also carry out research into military areas that could pay financial dividends. In the view of economists, military research is essential for helping Europe reach its goal of becoming the most competitive economy in the world by 2010. There is still one outstanding question: "is research lacking imagination, when it takes refuge in the military for applying its knowledge?" We are also able to read about European Commissioner Busquin calling for a total ban on human cloning. Among the other subjects tackled are: "Should Europe develop its own technology for the space launch?" "3rd generation Innovation Policy?" and "Good Harvests with less water for irrigation".
*** Centro InEuropa, rivista di studi e di iniziativa europea. Dove vai Europa ? ( Via Ippolito D'Aste 7/5 - I-16121 Genoa - Tel: (39-10) 540928 - Fax: 564356 - E-mail: ineuropa@euroframe.it - http://www.centroineuropa.it ). Anno XII, November 2002, 60 pp. ISBN 88-8163-318-3. Price: EUR 7.75
The review analysed preliminary considerations on the draft Constitutional Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
*** Liaisons sociales Europe. (1 av. Edouard-Belin, F-92500 Rueil-Malmaison. Tel: (33-1) 41299623 and 41299670 - Fax: 299670 - Internet: http://www.ls-europe .com). 9 - 22 January 2003, No. 711, 8pp. EUR 25.
In one of these issues we are able to read the following title, "European Works Committees Move off-piste". In effect, it would definitely seem that discussions between social partners are going to be very lively. They were arranged by the Commission and will focus on revising the directive on the European works committees. Free movement of goods and collective action also gets a mention in this edition. The focus also falls on Spain and its "counter reform of the labour market". There is also an article on, "Improving the draft directive on asbestos" and graphs outlining the state of implementation of the Community directives 1st January 2003.
*** Europe info. Monthly publication of COMECE (Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community) and OCIPE (Catholic European Study and Information Centre) (42 rue Stevin B-1000 Brussels - Tel: (32-2) 2350510 - E-mail: europinfos@comece.org). January 2003, No 45, 12 pp.
"Mobilisation for Europe", a theme that we've heard much about for fifty years. But this year, so the publication announces, is "decisive". It will "mark a decisive stage for Europe, with referendums in ten of the candidate countries, as well as the drawing to a close of the Convention". The common objective of the two initiatives is the reunification of Europe. It should be able to provide governments with the power to mobilise the enthusiasm of public opinion and give the Convention the necessary capability to resolve deadlock in some areas. But much still needs to be done. It is necessary to recognise that public opinion is very distant from the debate. As proof of this low level, "two out of every three citizens do not know what the Convention is and many do not know which countries will soon be joining the Union".
*** IOM News. International Organisation for Migration (PO Box 71- Geneva 19. Tel: (41-22) 7179111 - Fax: 7986150 - E-mail: info@iom.int - Internet: http: //http://www.iom.int ). December 2002, 24pp.
To summarise and as a preview, a few telling figures appear in the "World Migration Report 2003". We are also able to find the answers to the following questions, "Where to and Why people emigrate?" and "What's New in Migration Management?". Other subjects tackled include: Shelters built for the Victims from the Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuadorians on the road to Spain, Starting up Afghan Radio Programmes after Six Years in Exile and their role in at-risk communities, Humanitarian Aid to Roma Survivors of the Holocaust and action by some African specialists working for their countries. There is also an article focusing on Kosovo and its need to "Go beyond communication barriers".