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Soft Power and the Politics of Reconciliation PressInfo 85 February 2, 2000
Soft conflict-resolution power is what distinguished columnist JONATHAN POWER writes about in his recentcolumn which you can find every week on TFF's website http://www.transnational.org. So much has gone wrong when governments intervene the hard way - or do nothing - in conflicts around the world. Opinion leaders increasingly know we have to find alternatives - that the last ten years have not brought peace and that the remedy is not more militarisation as the US, NATO, Russia and many others will have us believe. Fortunately there ARE philosophies, concepts, methods and institutions which point in the direction of impartial conflict analysis, soft approaches, respect for local civil society peace-makers. There are nonviolent methods and there are experts who listen to what all parties to a conflict have to tell and respect everybody's fears and suffering. Many begin to see that World Bank loans and authoritarian 'missions' or 'protectorates' full off soldiers and self-styled diplomats who - colonial-style - teach the 'primitive' locals the blessings of Western values won't do the trick. They see people-to-people cooperation, local peacebuilding from the ground-up as well as peace and tolerance education. They see that it is possible to achieve reconciliation and forgiveness. It happens when you put people first, not governments with more or less murky strategic and economic or interests. This week's column is a bit special: Jonathan Power has chosen our foundation as a pioneering example. It's yet another international recognition of the foundtion's work. When others drifted to be politically correct during the fatal Western action in Yugoslavia, TFF and its associates stuck unwaveringly to comprehensive analysis and violence-prevention coupled with principled, non-violent mitigation/mediation that could have resulted in confidence-building, peace and reconciliation. Jonathan Power has worked with Martin Luther King, been a columnist for International Herald Tribune for 17 years; he syndicates his columns to newspapers all over the world. His views touch decision-makers and concerned citizens everywhere. Read about him at: http://www.transnational.org/tff/people/j_power.html. You'll find Power's column at http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/2000/01TFF.html. Six years ago, the international community would have announced that it was well aware that extreme Albanian factions had begun to develop an army and, when Albania fell apart, it would have prevented the spill-over into the Kosovo province by sealing the border.
© TFF 2000
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