Today’s global crises require not just an urgent response but long-term collaboration, too
t the UN building in Geneva, in the early hours of 24 November 2013, I reached for a microphone and announced we had come to an initial agreement with Iran on its nuclear programme. Standing with me were the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN security council – France, the UK, the US, China and Russia, who together with Germany had stuck together throughout the years it took to get us to that point.
At our disposal we have two fundamentally different models of collaboration, which I think of as tankers and yachts. Tankers are big and difficult to manoeuvre, but they survive for long periods of time, despite rough seas and battering winds. The United Nations is such a tanker. So areand the European Union. They can be slow and unwieldy, often taking ages to reach agreement. Nevertheless, all do vital work, much of it unglamorous and little reported.
Walking through Benghazi and Tripoli a decade ago following Gaddafi’s downfall, I was struck by the sense of optimism and hope in the cheers, laughter and occasional rapid gunfire into the air. I knew from experience that it would not last; the euphoria would soon give way to the harsh reality of building the future. Different ideas and expectations would clash in argument or worse, as rival camps set their sights on winning, come what may.
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