Annual Hawke Lecture 2003: Waging War and Making Peace
Update Newsletter number 6
March 2004
With The Hon Gareth Evans, President of the International Crisis Group
While news bulletins and headlines scream that we are living in scary
times, President of the International Crisis Group and former Foreign
Minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments, Gareth Evans, says this is a
time when we need to unpack the real from the imagined and address the
deeper international problems that will help to build peace.
Guest speaker at the 2003 Annual Hawke Lecture held on 18 September at the
Adelaide Town Hall, Evans explored the international political, economic and
social tensions that have led to a global environment that appears highly
charged with conflict.
But according to Evans there are emerging statistics that show some
reduction in global conflicts, terrorist incidents, and the number of
casualties from war and terror. So why is the sense of instability so
strong?
“There are three key factors generating widespread alarm – the growth of
international terrorist networks and their capacity and willingness to
attack Western soft targets, the fragility of the treaty regimes dedicated
to achieving non proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the
destabilised governments across the globe with high potential for conflict,”
Evans said.
“But in dealing with these problems we need to address some deeper issues -
the undermining of systems of law or internationally agreed rules, a
diminishing confidence in key institutions established to shape
international rules and codes of conduct, and the lack of consensus about
the strategies needed to deal with terrorism, WMD proliferation and an
epidemic of collapsed and warring states.”
Evans argued strongly for international consensus on a set of ground rules
governing the use of force in response to all forms of threat – from
internal or external conflicts and from terrorism to invasion by traditional
armies armed with nuclear missiles or machetes.
“The alternative to making a serious effort to enforce and upgrade the
international rules we have is to abandon the field to those who are more
comfortable with the ad hoc exercise of power – who don’t really want to be
limited by rules and principles, who feel constrained by international
process and who see multilateral cooperation in very narrow self interested
terms,” Evans said. “That is a kind of world most of us don’t want to live
in.”
Speaking about the global context of current conflicts, Evans said we are
living in a time of the most lopsided global power balance the world has
ever known.
With an annual defence expenditure this year of almost $400 billion, more
than 40 per cent of global defence expenditure, Evans said the US is bound
to attract followers and enemies.
“The US is quite simply the biggest dog that ever turned up on the global
block and its behaviour – actual perceived, anticipated, feared or imagined
– is the catalyst for a great many reactions by other countries both
rational and some irrational, that bear upon global, regional and national
security,” he said.
“But after playing an important leadership role a decade ago in securing
tough international inspection regimes for chemical weapons the US has more
recently scuttled draft protocols for similar enforcements for biological
weapons and asserted their rights to develop a new generation of nuclear
weapons. In ordinary life the adage ‘do as I say and not as I do’ cuts no
ice with anyone and the same applies in the international community.”
Evans said while Australia’s relationship with the US is valuable, it should
not be a “prism through which we view our relationship with everyone else.”
“We have interests of our own and should have views of our own on all the
international issues from rules about force and institutional reform, to the
right approach to dealing with terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and
indeed peace building.
“On the big issues of war and peace Australia is never going to be a
dominant global player but we can be a significant player and a lot more
significant than we are now. The critical thing is to stay focussed, stay
engaged, and look for the opportunities to make a difference, not just to
give applause or be a helpless bystander.”
Director of the Hawke Centre, Elizabeth Ho said that this lecture confirmed
the role of the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, established by UniSA in
1997, in encouraging active debate about topics that have a real impact on
ordinary Australians and on the sustainability of our society.
“There is not one Australian who has not been affected either directly or
indirectly by the instabilities of recent times and in this lecture we got a
real picture about the absolute importance of international cooperation and
the part we can play in achieving it,” she said.
Full transcript: 2003 Annual
Hawke Lecture