We are drifting towards a new Cold War. The reason isn’t anything substantial because there is no reason we should not be able to live in peace in Europe – if we want and if we educated ourselves in handling the problems called conflicts.<\/p>\n
No, the reason is the woefully incompetent way in which politicians and media focus on violence and ignore underlying conflicts and civilian means<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0yes yes, of course there are exceptions but…<\/p>\n Escalation doesn’t create peace<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is just one example – NATO S-G Anders Fogh Rasmussen and NATO’s supreme commander in Europe General Breedlove (funny name given his anything but loving views coming rather from a Strangelove …) in the Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n They tell you about all the escalation they have already done and plan to do – without a word about the underlying conflict, the longer historical post-1989\u00a0perspective, the politics and psychology of it all – only the violent means and threats, threats, threats.<\/p>\n They tell you this without a thought about the possible consequences of their words and actions.<\/p>\n In a nutshell: Conflict illiteracy coupled with playing tough, lacking empathy and insight as well as a decent sense of one’s own role in the problem called a conflict.<\/p>\n Well, you may add lack of principle: The West has strong (moralising) views and take action in some conflicts – in others we keep silent and do nothing when international law is violated and fellow human beings suffer. We do cynical interests<\/em>\u00a0with sugar-coated public relations\u00a0motives<\/em> about human rights, democracy, freedom etc.<\/p>\n I am touched, therefore, by Richard Branson’s initiative and its motivation which I share<\/a>: It is unbearable for those of us who remember what the Cold War meant that ended in 1989 to think of it coming back with striking similarities.<\/p>\n Business gains from peace and vice versa<\/strong><\/p>\n Undoubtedly business has a role to play in conflict resolution. When in the right mode, business can contribute to peace and has much much more to gain from peace than from war.<\/p>\n As I have argued elsewhere<\/a>, it is one of the huge myths of our time that military industry is good for the economy as a whole. It is a cancer on it. It is only good for the companies that produce and export weapons, the merchant’s of death.<\/p>\n For the merchants of life – about 95% of the world economy – military production and warfare is a burden.<\/p>\n The West is going down economically. A major reason is that – like the old Soviet Union – it is militarising itself to death and simultaneously losing legitimacy and sympathy worldwide thanks to one failed war after the other.<\/p>\n Branson’s challenge: It’s a bigger conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n