Affäre-Khadafi: Wie hat es so weit kommen können?

The interests of a state in another country are secured either by mastering the “key” of that country or, by resorting to “brute force” as a means of persuasion, or the use of “informal power”, or the “defense by proxy” by resorting to influential friends, as well as through the “diplomatic concession”. Addressing the “Khadafi affair” has given us the limits of Swiss policy disclosed: the lack of “key” to the cultural environment in Libya, the disintegration of the “informal power”, the difficulty to mobilize reliable allies, the lack of transparency, and the remainder in the public impression that the foreign policy is almost exclusively subordinate to the imperative of the economy. Khadafi is a Bedouin who lives in a world of symbols. The title he has appropriated itself, “King of Kings”, his clothing and his tent, from which he never separates, remind us. The Bedouin is known for its unmeasured hospitality. To cater for its guests, he would be willing to kill his mount. And he would also be ready to die to defend his honor or avenge. A wisdom from Libya says: “Because of a flea, he has his clothes burned” and an Algerian wisdom: “Keep your nose, even if everything goes Other lost”. The nose symbolizes the honor and dignity. How many battles have been triggered in the Arab antiquity not because biting poetry stanzas between tribes. It is useless for a rational explanation for such an attitude to seek or behavior. “Informal power” is essential in diplomacy, because it can, if it is maintained constant, form a symbolic protective wall. It requires two conditions: to take self-confidence and willingness some estimated risks. Switzerland has advantages that would allow it to set up such a force: no colonial past, neutrality, a central role in the development, promotion and protection of international humanitarian law and human rights, etc. Through political attitudes, modes of behavior and statements, the inconsistencies and the contradictions between on the one hand the values ​​and principles and on the other hand the behavior reflect, comes the “informal power” to crumble. When a Swiss politician would explain that he hoped trade relations with Libya, before the settlement of the conflict be resumed quickly, this is a strong sign of weakness, the Khadafi, who has been “upright Die!” In the culture of educated, in its own way has been able to exploit to force his interlocutors to its knees by gradually the voice rises, calling for the disintegration of the Confederation or the “jihad” against Switzerland. potential joined the “Khadafi affair” as a major crisis. The official opinion would therefore should be unique to a national debate and supported by the Swiss population. This would have led to the strengthening of the “informal power” of the country. An Arabic maxim says: “Nothing scrapes better your skin than your nail. Yes, then stand on their own feet “. As to be expected with the support of some foreign governments, proved ineffective. The “Arab solidarity” has time works well. Switzerland has not even with the support of governments, such as Algeria, estimated as “friends”, count. She has been one of the first governments that Khadafi gave their solidarity known it has the Arab League influenced so that it takes the same position. The “mercenary individualism” of certain European and North American countries expressed by the cautious statements to the “coveted Libya” from. The moderate statements by French, US, Italian and official from other representatives after calling Khadafi to “jihad” against Switzerland, are disturbing. Let us imagine, if this “fatwa” by one of the leaders of the countries that would have been adopted “axis of evil”, just in front, as the tone of the declarations and the excitement would have been in the corridors of the Security Council. The publicized devotion of the official European representative in Khadafi has us sadly recalls the Arab League Summit in the Libyan city of Sirte in this truth than to Handkuss for the revolutionary leader and “top Geschickelenker” came the farewells at Silvio Berlusconi. One the arguments that loaded the talks on the crisis with Libya, concerning the “energy and economic security.” The import of Libyan oil represents 50 percent of total imports of this strategy object. The crisis with Libya should not be an obstacle to a sovereign political decision, but rather an opportunity to the energy policy of the country to reconsider. Diversification is possible and indispensable. Other credible energy producers should be considered. Before the crisis, in 2007, presented in the rest of the Libyan deposits in Swiss banks 0.13 percent of the total deposits in the Swiss banks represent and exports of Switzerland to Libya 0.14 percent. It is estimated that annual national income, coming from Libya, to CHF 200 million, slightly more than 26 francs per year and per capita, that is 0.04 percent of GDP per capita. An Arabic maxim says: “The graceful woman dying of hunger and fed not from her breast”. The question that one would have the Swiss citizens should ask, was not whether he was ready to die of hunger, to avoid humiliation, but rather whether he was willing to take the hypothetical risk and reduce less than 0.1 percent its living standards, in order to preserve his dignity. He knows that the inhabitants live from other developed countries, such as Germany and France, with a GDP that is 30 percent lower. The citizen response is predictable. A referendum on this subject – so simple in Switzerland – would have had more sense than that on minarets. But there is another facet to this topic. To increase the public service of 26 francs per year and per capita, there will be a volume of CHF 730 million, which will be due from the industrial and financial elite in Switzerland (export-related gains and interest on the Libyan bank). For this small number of privileged people is the annual income, thanks to the business with Libya, enormous. This would be widespread in Switzerland considers substance, that it is the industrial and financial groups that determine Swiss policy on tackling the crisis with Libya and which would dictate the behavior of the Swiss ambassador in Tripoli. Switzerland would better manage crises like the Khadafi affair if they would respect the four rule of political hygiene: 1. invest more to the “key” to the Arab world to acquire. 2. Add to the “informal power” and maintain them. 3. Insert yourself for their own resources and to support its population. 4. Never exclusively subordinate their foreign policy imperatives of the economy and thereby exposing themselves to the political blackmail. To end the “Khadafi- affair” Switzerland will have to choose between two approaches: the escalation of the conflict by agitation or the de-escalation by calm behavior. You could ask for the disintegration of the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” and its re-partition of the neighboring countries, to call for a crusade against the country and arrested several Libyan nationals on the Swiss territory. It could, however, on the contrary, declare the case definitively, wait for the release of Max Göldi, until he is serving his four-month sentence, and thereby respect “the independence of the judiciary” and publicly declare that if the detainees at the end of his sentence would not be released, sovereign measures would be taken, which could lead to the exit of Libya from all Swiss companies, and even to break off relations. A diplomatic as well as medial restraint should follow this declaration. Such an approach would make the “informal power” of the Confederation again and contribute to the crisis more quickly to solve, as one hopes. Abbas Aroua 29th March 2010 Translation from French by Monica Hostettler