1/3/2002
In Europe Annan Looks for Allies

This week Kofi Annan has been on a mission to Europe, more precisely to Britain and Germany, to enlist the support of the leaders of the Continent's two most powerful economies for multilateral solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. Included in the tour was a major set piece lecture designed primarily to focus attention on the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development - not as 'just another conference on the environment' but as part of a continuum of multilateral initiatives to address the imbalances in world society that the events of September 11th had thrown into sharp relief.

The multilateral approach is the way that most European nations prefer to proceed. It was therefore inevitable that with unilateralist rumblings coming from across the Atlantic, especially over Iraq, the Secretary-General should have rehearsed his clear view on the unwisdom of any action beyond the economic sanctions agreed by the Security Council.
He was careful to state, however, his belief that Saddam Hussein should admit the weapons inspectors. European leaders such as Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, the German Chancellor, will endorse that message.

Yet Annan prefers to accent the positive and his decision to link the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting in Doha at the end of last year with the forthcoming conferences on Development Financing in Monterrey next month and, of course, the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development - was meant to convey a clear sense of purpose and continuum.

Imperfect though such meetings may be - though these days they are better organised and focused - the linkages are becoming ever clearer. One of Annan's great strengths is the ability to synthesise the complex and the obscure into the simple and the obvious. Thus he explained, in his lecture to an international audience at the London School of Economics, that "the struggle for development has to be carried on mainly in developing countries ……But it is a struggle that concerns the whole world."

And, from a rich country perspective, not by any means for altruistic reasons only - but for global security, for the preservation of the global environment, for the development of trade and prosperity. If the necessity for such actions was still unclear at a time when the world's leaders issued their doubtful promissory notes at the Millennium Summit, it had become tragically clear only twelve months later.

So the three conferences, according to Annan, - although dealing with apparently diverse issues - present parallel and complementary opportunities for all nations to learn a little better how to bed down together. And in a way capable of being sustained down the generations. History might, he hoped, record the following.

"Challenged by the goals its political leaders had set at the Millennium Summit, and shocked into a stronger sense of common destiny by the horror of 11 September 2001, during the following 12 months the human race at last summoned the will to tackle the really tough issues facing it. In passionate debates, held in the meeting rooms and corridors of three great world assemblies, it painstakingly assembled the tools, thrashed out the strategies, and formed the creative partnerships that were needed to do the job."

Is this wishful thinking? Certainly no-one could accuse the Secretary-General of having an itzy-bitzy vision. Someone has to suggest to the leaders of the world where, collectively, they should be heading. And undoubtedly there are signs of progress, even though rhetoric still outpaces reality by a mile.

In Europe, at least, already the world's largest provider of development assistance there is now a real political will to tackle poverty. The European Union has become the de facto, if reluctant, world leader of the coalition against climate change; at Johannesburg it will probably see this role extended into sustainable development. As a political model of transnational co-operation under a democratic framework of law, the European Union is forging a path that potentially offers groups of poor nations new opportunities for investment and prosperity.

The first real clues to history's verdict will come at Monterrey next month. The stakes for the whole world are high. Annan is upping the ante. He needs the Europeans - not just on side, but as his most enthusiastic backers. Meanwhile the thundercloud of a potential unilateralist strike on Iraq, or of significant further terrorist outrages, continues to menace.