MR. BUSH'S WIN-WIN OPTION
By Hazel Henderson; author, futurist, consultant on sustainable
development and member of the World
Summit 2002 Memorandum Group. Her latest book is 'Beyond Globalization:
Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy'.
Many policy pitfalls have been pointed out to President Bush as
his team crafts a response to the terrible attacks of September
11, 2001. They include the need to avoid any rapid retaliation with
the use of force, which might kill more civilians. Afghanistan is
already a wasteland of poverty, drought and suffering - while Osama
bin Laden’s camps are mobile and hard to detect. Recruiting allies
and NATO could lead to another set of “us versus them” divisions
that could further alienate many other countries - and risk further
terrorist acts.
President Bush can learn from his father and avoid such traps by
uniting the whole world to participate in curbing terrorism. President
Bush now has $40 billion of discretionary funds granted by Congress.
He could take $500 million of this and pay the rest of the USA’s
arrears owed to the United Nations and to our allies for past UN
peacekeeping actions, which were fully approved by the USA. The
US Congress voted to pay $582 million of these US arrears a few
days after the terrorist attacks, but this money may not arrive
at the UN immediately. The US still owes over $500 million more
and is racking up more arrears daily. Mr. Bush can properly bypass
the Congress and cite our national security in an Executive Order
to pay the UN what we still owe.
Why is this so necessary? Because, like his father during the Gulf
War in 1991, President Bush needs to create the very broadest coalition
of support for the US in dealing with terrorism. Only the UN can
deliver this: the support of every country in the world via a UN
Resolution. Even our approaches to Pakistan will need to be strengthened
by support of all countries - through a UN Resolution.
Such UN action will be swift and supportive of the US - since it
can invoke the power of international law and precedent. Then a
UN Summit on Terrorism can be quickly convened - with the willing
help of our European and NATO partners and include every country
wishing to be free of the scourge of terrorism.
The new “war,” as we are learning, is different. The old cowboy
West “guns blazing” models belong to the last century. The USA has
been the key player in today’s technological and economic globalization.
Such technological innovation created the tightly-wired interdependent
world we now share with all peoples - rich and poor, industrialized
or still pastoral. We took all the firewalls down between national
economies and we are now learning how to deal with the consequences:
massive flows of “hot money” and the crises and contagion as all
economies now move up or down in synch.
Similarly, the world’s 2 billion people surviving on less than
$2 per day can see on global media our affluent, often wasteful
consumption. The result of this global interdependence is resentment,
anger, desperate immigrants seeking better lives for their children
- and inevitably, greater risks of terrorism. We in the USA are
called to a greater maturity - matching our power and wealth. We
lost our innocence on September 11th.
Today’s current economic, technological globalization could end
in another global recession and war as the previous globalization
did in the 1930s. Therefore, to prevent this, we must help shape
a more just and ecologically sustainable global economy. The myriad
of international agreements needed to shape this healthier, more
balanced globalization, must reinforce those already achieved on
human rights, workplace core labor standards and the treaties to
protect our global environment.
These accords were brokered over 55 years by the United Nations
- and today, many more need to be ratified by the USA, from the
Kyoto protocols on global climate change to the International Criminal
Court. We need INTERPOL and many other international agencies to
help catch Osama bin Laden and his accomplices. Then these criminals
can be tried before the International Court in the Hague - along
with Slobodan Milosovic and others who commit crimes against all
humanity.
President Bush’s first months of unilateralism, during which he
abrogated no less than six international treaties, including his
missile defense threat to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, caused
deep anger, even amongst the USA’s closest allies. Mr. Bush needs
them now - as well as all other countries fighting terrorism.
Only the United Nations has a big enough tent to bring all countries
to a Summit on Terrorism, where all - including many sympathetic
Muslim countries can shape a worldwide strategy to combat terrorists
wherever they are in our wired, global village. Such win-win strategies
will become more prevalent as we all learn the lessons of global
interdependence.
ends.
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