(Not yet; 09-03; p.4)
New York
On 24 September chancellor Schröder spoke to
the general assembly of the United Nations.
Differing from the security council, in the general assembly every
member state has the right to vote. In contrast to security council
resolutions, resolutions agreed on by the general assembly do
not have any binding effect; they do however represent the opinions
of the UN's more than 180 sovereign member states.
While the UN's secretary-general K Annan and
the French president J Chirac condemned the action of occupying
Iraq without the security council's approval - and thus foreclosed
let that becoming a bad habit - Mr Bush as well as the British
foreign minister J Straw did not retreat from their positions.
Chancellor Schröder did not mention Iraq, but stressed that it
is the wish of the German government to support long-term peace-securing
in Afghanistan. (All speeches can be accessed on the respective
internet pages of the UN.)
The world in a perspective
What lessons could be learned from these three
places of world politics? - At first the excuse characteristic
of the think-lazy that everything is so bloody complex, then the
expressionist attitude of disparate synchronicity and eventually
the romantic sigh about lost harmony.
Against those remains to realise that especially foreign policy
is about power positions - which already Aristotle knew over 2000
years ago when he defined friendship between states -, but that
means have been established to solve conflicts of interests in
a for the most part peaceful way, e.g. the institutions of the
United Nations or the World Trade Organisation.
(end of article)