Feature: Saving cash, saving lives
By Alex Stevenson
Lowering defence spending around the world has always been a utopian dream for idealists. Yet growing numbers of mainstream politicians from around the world believe they have finally come up with a way of making it possible.
The argument is a simple one – with money, unsurprisingly, at its heart. Defence spending is a huge commitment to the public purse; recent military interventionists in Iraq and Afghanistan are cases in point. It would be much more attractive not having to spend the money in the first place.
Is this plausible? Perhaps. It’s certainly the rationale behind conflict prevention, which seeks to pour money into preventing conflicts before they begin. With the world’s resources getting more and more stretched efforts towards mediation and dialogue can prevent situations spiralling out of control.
Is there an international body capable of spearheading these efforts? The United Nations, of course, has a role. But so do elected representatives around the world.
MPs step forward
A new international alliance of MPs is seeking to advance this aim. Yesterday, on the terrace of the House of Commons, the international parliamentarians network for conflict prevention and human security held its UK launch. The palatial surroundings seemed far removed from many of the areas where conflict is in danger of occurring. Yet preventing tensions dissolving into disaster wherever they exist was at the forefront of the minds of those present.
Flying the flag for Britain was Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes. “It’s a network. to involve and engage parliamentarians – that’s its only membership group – to work together to prevent conflicts around the world,” he explained.
Listen to Simon Hughes on the network’s goals:
“How are we going to do it? By bringing pressure on governments where we all live and work to change their policies.”
There is no denying the ambition of this goal. And work is already underway. After being set up in Brussels last year the network quickly set as one of its goals the establishment of a biennial summit on conflict and security. A task force of senior officials including former Kosovo independence negotiator Marti Ahtassari began work. And an executive council was set up to drive the group’s work.
Mr Hughes represents Britain on the latter. Another member, German Green party MEP Angelika Beer, was also present.
“We focus on conflicts which are not on the table at the moment. We have the responsibility to support human beings worldwide and to prevent this escalation,” she pressed. “If we don’t do it we will have conflicts around the world.”
And Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the political committee in the Palestinian parliament, was equally passionate.
Listen to Abdullah Abdullah on his reasons for joining the network:
“I joined this network because I believed in the cause it is advocating. Conflict prevention is one of the most cost-efficient ways of dealing with conflicts before they erupt – [it helps] save lives, save money and to bring people at least to a safer place to live in.”
Mr Abdullah’s presence on the council was interesting in itself. Why should a Palestinian – whose national history has seen 60 years of violent and entrenched conflict – be interested in helping promote this cause?
“I think because I am a Palestinian I know. how much cost you pay in being in conflict,” he said.
“[You] lose your freedom, your property, your closest friends – I am alerted more than anybody else to what it means to prevent a conflict from erupting into violence.”
The truth is that conflict doesn’t solve problems – it creates more of them. Recent events in Palestine, as Mr Abdullah recalled, underline this fundamental truth.
“The last war Israel has launched against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – look at the cost,” he urged.
“The cost is not only the human lives that were lost, the property destroyed. It is the values that were destroyed, the degradation of morality.”
Gathering support
Momentum is crucial to these initiatives. And the network appeared to be doing well yesterday, with the simplicity of the network’s underlying motives appealing to public figures from different backgrounds.
Lindsay Roy, the victor of last year’s Glenrothes by-election, reflected the support on show from all the MPs attending.
“I believe entirely there’s a huge amount of money spent on armaments and not enough spent on conflict prevention,” he enthused.
“As a headteacher we often dealt with conflicts in the aftermath rather than preventing the conflicts.”
While the “macro to micro” relevance of the conflict prevention principle resonated with Mr Roy, one very senior diplomat viewed the calling of the network in slightly grander terms.
“Turkey is in a particularly interesting region,” reflected the country’s ambassador to the UK, Yigit Alpogan. “There are conflicts all around us. And as a country who enjoys stability and a democratic regime of government we think we should not be disinterested to what is going on around us and if possible we should make our contributions.”
He said Iraq, in particular, was an example of a country whose situation had improved in the last year thanks to the international community’s support for the country’s democratic government.
“We may say there have been contributions by the. community in general for this particular conflict prevention in Iraq so we can be all satisfied for what we can obtain for our efforts in Iraq.”
The compelling nature of the proposals also has a spiritual element made clear by Archbishop of York John Sentamu. Speaking at the launch in his usual forthright tones, the Archbishop called on parliamentarians to use their “knowledge and power” to make a difference.
“We spend far too little on conflict prevention, resorting to. [military action] when actually the genie is out of the bottle,” he said.
“We must take action now because our global village is losing hope, fuelled by the culture of blame. We need to act and act decisively, now.
“We’ve put up with so much nonsense – it’s time for us to say no to all the bad governments around the world.”
Reality check
The words of support might be there, but how about the action which the Archbishop is striving for? Inevitably, assessing success is going to be hugely difficult.
The network has agreed to focus its initial efforts on two areas – one geographical, the other resource-based. Yet if they are successful in preventing tensions in Ukraine from spilling over into conflict, how will anyone know it was because of them? And when water-based conflicts do erupt – as they surely must – will this represent a failure?
In this context any signal of support from government is of significance. Foreign secretary David Miliband’s message to the launch was hugely welcomed as a result.
“Conflict prevention and resolution are at the heart of the government’s approach to foreign policy,” he noted.
“That is why we are so keen to build our capacity to support early-warning, conflict prevention and resolution, as well as that of regional and international organisations.
“I believe that attempting to link parliamentarians with a common interest across the globe is an initiative which should bring about real benefits, particularly in terms of sharing knowledge and expertise.”
These are just words, of course, but there is a real opportunity for the message to be delivered to the G20 next week. Mr Hughes believes the fundamental truth – conflict prevention saves money – could attract a receptive audience.
“The heads of government will come to London, all of them under pressure in their own countries to try to save money because of the economic consequences of the last few months,” he said. “And so governments if they’re sensible will say, ‘where can I spend less?’
“David Miliband, who’s said he’s supported us, we hope will now carry through that level of support with his colleagues when the prime minister meets with the other 19 leaders next week and say this is an issue that should be on the agenda too.”
Governments around the world spend £2,000 on defence spending for every £1 they shell out on conflict prevention. That huge discrepancy is what needs addressing; let’s see whether, in the coming years, parliamentarians succeed in making some progress towards levelling this gross imbalance.
