Paddy Ashdown'd recent lecture at LSE

[Cromwell]

I was watching the BBC at 3am and bumped into this. It did me a lot of good so I found the transcript for you guys. I find there is not much I disagree with.

 

http://www.ohr.int/print/?content_id=31338

 

Orally:

A podcast of this event is available to download.

Listen or Download: Swords and Ploughshares (MP3) - Approx 20MB / 89 minutes

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublic...09t1904z001.htm

 

Any thoughts?

Edited May 29, 2007 by Cromwell

[zakarpatska]

I was watching the BBC at 3am and bumped into this. It did me a lot of good so I found the transcript for you guys. I find there is not much I disagree with.

 

http://www.ohr.int/print/?content_id=31338

 

Visually:

A podcast of this event is available to download.

Listen or Download: Swords and Ploughshares (MP3) - Approx 20MB / 89 minutes

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublic...09t1904z001.htm

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks for posting this. I thought the talk was excellent and really interesting if somewhat depressing. Have you read Ashdown's book? If so what do you think of it?

[ink]

This talk is from December 2003 right?

 

That was some time ago - I wonder if Mr Ashdown would feel differenlty about things now. Also, the way he talks about the progress made in Bosnia it sounds like it might have something to do with him. No, wait. It did have something to do with him, He was essentially the EU governor of Bosnia for years - of course he's going to big up the progress made. Big deal - compare it to the progress made in Bosnia after WWII and I can draw parallels with it until the cows come home - yet the Bosnians were still willing to get genocidal on each others' proverbial a$$es forty years later. Things now look (on the surface at least) even worse than post-WWII - the country is still divided geographically and demographically and there is no glue to hold it together other than a UN/EU administration thats saying "you can't fall apart, you can't fall apart, you can't fall apart". Convincing at the moment... But not the stuff of centuries of stability. Probably.

 

That said, I like this optimism and I hope that it turns out that he's right and I'm wrong.

[zakarpatska]

This talk is from December 2003 right?

 

That was some time ago - I wonder if Mr Ashdown would feel differenlty about things now. Also, the way he talks about the progress made in Bosnia it sounds like it might have something to do with him. No, wait. It did have something to do with him, He was essentially the EU governor of Bosnia for years - of course he's going to big up the progress made. Big deal - compare it to the progress made in Bosnia after WWII and I can draw parallels with it until the cows come home - yet the Bosnians were still willing to get genocidal on each others' proverbial a$$es forty years later. Things now look (on the surface at least) even worse than post-WWII - the country is still divided geographically and demographically and there is no glue to hold it together other than a UN/EU administration thats saying "you can't fall apart, you can't fall apart, you can't fall apart". Convincing at the moment... But not the stuff of centuries of stability. Probably.

 

That said, I like this optimism and I hope that it turns out that he's right and I'm wrong.

 

My understanding is that the talk was from 21 May 2007 - at least that is what the web site says. Also the content of the talk makes it highly unlikely it is from 2003.

[Daan]

Uh, the website says it is from 8 December 2003.

[zakarpatska]

Uh, the website says it is from 8 December 2003.

 

Hi the web site I was looking at is here:

 

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublic...09t1904z001.htm

 

The text about the talk from the above web site is included below:

 

Date: Monday 21 May 2007

Time: 5.30-7pm

Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building

Speaker: Lord Paddy Ashdown

Respondant: Professor Mary Kaldor

Chair: Professor David Held

 

In this lecture Lord Paddy Ashdown discusses his new book - Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century. There have been 15 UN-led interventions since 1946, and there are at least 74 wars in progress today. From his perspective as a former Royal Marine officer in the 1960s to the High Representative in Bosnia from 2002-6, Lord Ashdown discusses the successes and failures of peace-keeping operations, questions what lessons have been learned - and what lessons keep being forgotten. The men and women of the British armed forces are currently engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans in 'peacekeeping operations'. How do we avoid these missions turning into long-term entanglements, like the current disaster that is Iraq? How do we bring our soldiers home? And what do we do about 'failed states' that are havens for gangsters and terrorists? Paddy Ashdown fears we will soon see major wars between nation states. Many will begin as minor conflicts that will expand into full-scale wars unless the international community intervenes.

 

Paddy Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats between 1988 - 1999, before becoming High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2002 – 2006. Mary Kaldor is co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, and was a member of the International Independent Commission to investigate the Kosovo Crisis. David Held is co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance.

 

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

 

For more information, email j.f.stone@lse.ac.uk.

Podcast

 

A podcast of this event is available to download.

Listen or Download: Swords and Ploughshares (MP3) - Approx 20MB / 89 minutes

 

 

Also a link to the book referenced in the talk can be found here:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swords-Ploughshare...1826&sr=8-1

 

According to the link the book was published in 2007.

 

I'm not saying this talk is not from 2003 - just that from the information above I thought it was more recent.

[ink]

Seems we were talking about different talks. How confusing. I'll now have to wait till I get home to download the audio version.

[Conall]

My understanding is that the talk was from 21 May 2007 - at least that is what the web site says. Also the content of the talk makes it highly unlikely it is from 2003.

 

It was indeed on the 21st May 2007; I should know as I was in the audience. It was an interesting and thought provoking discourse but offered little in the way of solutions. Furthermore he didn't really try to address the practicality of how you transition from hostilities (war/active peacemaking) to peacekeeping and the restoration of legitimate government. I found his reference to Rupert Smith's seminal Utility of Force the most interesting aspect and encouraging. On a more negative note there was an highly unrealistic appraisal of the UN's ability to act (no reference to the poor quality of most UN troops and ongoing corruption issues for example) in an effective and sustainable manner. I would recommend taking the time to listen to the podcast. I haven't read his book but would consider doing so as a result - or at the very least giving it a serious appraisal in a book shop.

 

Best regards

 

Tom