Security in Real Life

In our current class on the “Transformation of the [Nation]-State,” we have been talking about community, identity, democracy, globalization—and the idea of sovereignty and national versus collective security. Interestingly, today, on the BBC’s World Service, I heard that Tony Blair had asked angrily, how are we going to build a more secure world with remarks like that! It's a perfect opportunity to look at a real-world situation and consider some of the questions thrown around in class lately.

Blair was referring to the remarks of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hard-line president of IranIsrael should be wiped off the map.” who said in a speech on the previous day (Thursday) that " Ahmadinejad was speaking at a conference called “World Free of Zionism” held in Tehran.

Iran, by the way, and lest anyone forget, has been pursuing a nuclear program of its own. (According to US State Department information, it has also been stockpiling biological and chemical weapons.) Last month at the UN, Ahmadinejad also gave a very hard-line speech (that I will have to research a bit).

Given this background, and with Ahmadinejad’s latest comments, one can only wonder: where will all this lead us? How does the international community respond—and, in the possible absence of a stern international response, who shall be the standard-bearer? Can or should such remarks be made with impunity? Do these words not reflect an attitude that can only be described as out-of-place and perhaps even dangerous?

Or should Israel’s right to statehood—the very legitimacy of its sovereignty—be re-considered? Can better collective security be achieved without Israel than with it?

Visit to the Jyllands-Posten

This morning, we visited the offices of the Jyllands-Posten, one of the more serious news dailies in Denmark, which is based in Aarhus.

Although I will update this particular entry with more details later, there were several highly interesting things I learned about the Jyllands-Posten. For example, it was founded to provide Danes in Jutland with a source of news and business information not focused on Kobenhavn only. Also, it was founded--and continues to exhibit--markedly conservative tendencies especially in its editorial page outlook. But, at the same time, it is also a newspaper that prides itself on rigurous, objective reporting and, in fact, none of their reporters are allowed to belong to any political party in order to insure against political bias. Quite interesting.

I also learned that it is run by a private foundation--for which I did not get a name--and that the newspaper is owned by a larger holding company that, interestingly, also owns the more left-wing Politiken. The word that comes to mind to dexcribe this interesting and laudable state of Danish affairs is reasonable. Everything is so reasonable. I think people have a lot to learn from the Danish people.

Here are a couple more photos from this morning's tour:

On Sovereignty

We deal with the concept of sovereignty in class today. There are essentially two approaches to the issue of continued state sovereignty: those who believe that because the state is in retreat (due to globalization and other forces) then sovreignty is no longer a valid, relevant or extant concept, and those who believe that despite the profound changes going around in the world around us, the juridical core of sovereignty remains nhanged. This is an interesting debate that is not easily resolved.

One doubt that has arisen during group discussion with other students is the exact conceptual difference between sovereingty -- and the concepts of autonomy, independence, autarchy, and self-determination. This, I think, is such a good, basic question, that it should be examined more formally, perhaps in an essay. Perhaps it's something to consider for next week.

Oh, there were also some very provocative statements made in the reading, which included Jan Aart Scholte, Robert Jackson, Stephen Krasner, Christopher Clapham, Richard Haass (of the Council on Foreign Relations), and the text provided by Georg Sorensen. These are some very powerful thinkers and Sorensen is a fantastic guide to the complex and inter-related issues which they raise.