By Anna Lindh
Foreign Minister of Sweden
International Herald Tribune
September 18, 1999
Stockholm - The horrifying examples of human and material disaster in recent years - in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and East Timor - tell us much about our failure to take preventive measures to avoid violent conflicts.
We cannot claim that we did not see the signs or hear the early warnings that ultimately led to mass killings and mental trauma for both the victims and perpetrators. We can only deplore that the international community did not find the ways and means to act in time. There were evidently no political mechanisms and no instruments available for early action to follow early warning. Or else we lacked the political will and courage to do what we saw was needed.
In all cultures and in every society, prevention is something normal. Measures are taken to avert crop destruction by floods or rodents. Cattle are protected from predators. Warning signals are placed at rail crossings and air traffic is controlled to avoid accidents. Insurance polices are developed in almost all areas of human activity. All this is the result of preventive thinking, based on the assumption that accidents and disasters can be avoided if you think ahead while preparing for the worst.
Prevention in our societies is based on ethics and values. We share a set of values that makes us respect and protect human lives. We are responsible for our families but also for our communities, regions and nations. We set rules of behavior to make prevention work and we organize to become efficient.
At the international level this has found its expression in the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the European Union and regional and specialized organizations based on commonly accepted principles. Those principles, such as the right of life, freedom and justice, are deeply rooted values in all parts of the world.
It is high time to transfer and strengthen the sophisticated preventive habits we know so well at home into the field of international security. Any seemingly small skirmish caused by a violation of human rights, oppression or theft by undemocratic rulers or exploitation of ethnic or religious groups by others risks becoming the business not only of the parties immediately concerned but also of their neighbors and the whole international community.
Enormous human and economic costs are involved in violent conflicts, costs that citizens and taxpayers are no longer prepared to bear. It is not only a humanitarian imperative but also in our own interest to use human and economic resources for prevention and building a better common future rather than destroying conditions for development. We need a global culture of conflict prevention.
Lack of knowledge is in many cases not the real obstacle to action. The problem is rather that knowledge within international organizations, nongovernmental groups, governments and academic institutions too rarely is brought to use for preventive action in a systematic way. We must identify structural risk factors, shed light on root causes of conflict and design efficient means to find peaceful avenues to developments that may otherwise lead to violence. Well elaborated options for action must be available at an early stage.
In the former Yugoslavia, the international community has demonstrated its commitment to act on the basis of universal human values. When massive human rights violations occur, international intervention is legitimate. At the same time, it is clear that earlier action could have avoided much of the human and economic losses suffered in the conflict.
With a new global culture of prevention we can make better use of our institutions for international security and development. We can design tools to be used in a manner proportional to the level of conflict. These could be applied through trade, economic assistance and political action. We must shift the focus from crisis management to providing a quick response to early warning signals. This is a challenge that the Swedish government has accepted through its action plan, ''Preventing Violent Conflict,'' that was introduced in May and welcomed by the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.
We will not be able to achieve much, however, unless there is a common recognition within the international community of the need for a changeof perspective.
