by Richard Gowan | Aug 13, 2008 | Conflict and security, Cooperation and coherence, Europe and Central Asia
The idea that EU personnel should help keep the peace in Georgia – noted here yesterday but in the air since last week – is gaining traction. Today, the European Council said that the EU would boost OSCE observers there, but that just means more Euros under the OSCE’s flag. But the Council left open the possibility of a mission under its own banner, and that’s reportedly being discussed in private.
Russia has indicated that it is open to a greater “international aspect”. One potential problem: the Russians may also insist that EU monitors operate within the framework of, or in very close coordination with, the existing (Russian-led) CIS “peacekeeping force” in South Ossetia. That could mean EU-badged troops taking orders from Russian officers, or at least having to defer to them.
That may be the price to pay to avoid more bloodshed (the European Council says it’ll support “every effort” and while it stipulates the UN and OSCE, that could mean the CIS too). And the EU would demand that the force in South Ossetia come under a UN mandate – previously, it’s relied on an agreement between Georgia and Moscow that the Georgians have voided by quitting the CIS.
But a Russian-EU hook-up will not impress those Georgians who had hoped that the EU might come to their aid during the war – experience in Kosovo and elsewhere indicates that it won’t be long before an angry war vet decides to take personal revenge. And it will be greeted with hoots from the Washington neocons: is this the marvellous European Security and Defence Policy? Are some EU members more comfortable with Russian command than with the U.S. in Afghanistan?
How can the EU limit the damage to its image? In operational terms, the answer must be to maximize the autonomy of its contingent as much as possible (in recent days, I’ve kicked ideas to and fro with Nicu Popescu of ECFR on this, and he’s reproduced part of the exchange on his blog). But the key is to ensure that the EU is also seen to be delivering humanitarian and reconstruction aid, and boosting Georgian democracy every way it knows. But the U.S. is ahead in that game – and this is Korski’s turf, so I challenge him to put forward a plan…
by Jules Evans | Aug 13, 2008 | Conflict and security
Ten years ago last week, a bomb went off in a parked Vauxhall car on Market Street in Omagh, a market town with a population of 22,000 in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It killed 29 people, as well as two unborn babies, and injured many others.
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the Sperrin Lakeland Trust, which has a hospital on Market Street in Omagh, asked the Maudsley Hospital in London, which is one of the leading centres in the world for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, to send help. It did, flying in a team of psychologists headed by perhaps the leading psychologist in the UK, professor David Clark.
Over the next few weeks, Clark and his team treated hundreds of the traumatised citizens of Omagh using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a form of therapy developed in the US in the 1950s and 60s.
One shop worker said he needed months of counselling after helping a woman in the street. Richard Walker, quoted by the BBC, said: “There was a woman lying with her clothes nearly half blown off her with her leg broken and her knees all broken. It was a terrible sight. I went for over two months of counselling once a week and it really helped. They got me to make a tape of what happened and play it over and over to get it out of your system.”
Not everyone responded to treatment. Some, ten years later, are still in treatment. But Clark says a significant proportion of those treated did respond well, and their mental suffering decreased and stayed diminished over time.
The UK government was understandably impressed by the evidence Clark amassed. He told me, at a CBT conference at the Maudsley Hospital last year, ‘It was our work, and the evidence from it, in Omagh that really impressed the government that CBT worked’.
As a result, the government started to listen seriously to Lord Layard’s calls for a national mental health service, mainly staffed by CBT therapists, to treat the one in six British citizens who will suffer from depression or chronic anxiety at some point in their lives. In 2006, the government approved the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, according to which the government will spend £173mn a year by 2010 on training new therapists, mainly in CBT.
The government hasn’t spent that money yet, and maybe it won’t be around long enough to do so. I sincerely hope the next government will continue with this plan, which seems to me one of the most important government initiatives of the last few years.
Omagh, meanwhile, is now home to one of the most advanced centres in the world for the treatment of PSTD and for helping communities cope with catastrophe – the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation.
by Alex Evans | Aug 13, 2008 | East Asia and Pacific, Global system, Influence and networks
As regular readers will know, we’re always on the lookout for lessons from China on how [not] to do public diplomacy. So we’re happy to be able to pass on that faced with a Free Tibet protest in Beijing today, the Chinese authorities decided that as well as arresting all eight protestors, it might be as well to err on the side of caution by roughing up and then detaining ITN’s China correspondent too.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doz4zjg9Bx8]
ITN: “John Ray is a fully accredited China correspondent who was doing his legitimate job as a journalist. We intend to protest in the strongest possible terms to the Chinese authorities and seek assurances that the treatment meted out to Mr Ray will not be repeated.”
International Olympic Committee: “The IOC has learned through media reports that a British journalist was allegedly assaulted today while covering a demonstration near an Olympic venue in Beijing. The IOC’s position is clear: the media must be free to report on the Olympic Games. We are endeavouring to discover the full facts of this incident and, if necessary, will raise our concerns with the appropriate authority.”
Reporter: “the level of force was unbelievable”.
This small victory for brand China follows yesterday’s news that the cute 9 year old girl who sang at the Opening Ceremony was in fact lip-synching:
According to the ceremony’s musical director, Chen Qigang, Miss Lin actually lip-synched “Ode to the Motherland” to the voice of another girl after the politburo decided her own singing was not good enough. The replacement singer, however, was deemed not attractive enough to grace the world’s television screens.
“I think all China’s viewers and listeners should understand that was a matter of national interest,” Mr Chen said in an interview with Radio Beijing.
Absolutely. After all, there’s a reputation to uphold.
