Never Again Having to Say “Never Again”
By Charles J. Brown
Jan 27, 2005 — Secretary of State Colin Powell made history when he accused the government of Sudan of sponsoring genocide in Darfur. Never before has the United States invoked the 1948 Genocide Convention to condemn the actions of another state. Powell should be applauded for his willingness to take such a step, especially since his actions stand in stark contrast to the U.S. response to Rwanda a decade ago.
But what exactly does this do for the people of Darfur? The answer, unfortunately, is not much. No matter how honorable Powell’s intentions, his statement will do nothing to stop the killing. From Liberia to Haiti to Sudan, President Bush has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to talk a good game – at least until the news media moves on to the next story. The Bush Administration skillfully uses the oratory of outrage to conceal its own propensity for inaction.
The Administration’s rhetorical slight-of-hand represents more than mere indifference to suffering. When states like Sudan fail – spiraling into chaos, lawlessness, and violence – they affect America’s national interests. As September 11th so vividly demonstrated, we need to address the challenges posed by the Afghanistans of the world not only because they harm their own people, but also because they can disrupt peace, destabilize entire regions, and engender extremism.
Sadly, the Bush Administration has shown little interest in finding solutions to the problem of failed states. Over the past four years we have had to deal with two costly wars (and even more expensive efforts at reconstruction), a half-dozen major humanitarian crises, and more than eight hundred international terrorist attacks. Almost all of them involved failed states. A much smarter approach would be to work in partnership with the international community to identify common solutions to combat states from falling into crisis.
A multilateral approach to failed states represents a smart, effective and pragmatic investment in our efforts to win the war on terror. Terrorists take advantage of failing and failed states to encourage extremism and conceal their operations. If we prevent states from falling into chaos, we strike at the very conditions that terrorists exploit. When we ignore them, as the Bush Administration has done so often, we leave the United States more vulnerable to their attacks.
Preventing failed states is not going to happen quickly or easily. The challenges are multifaceted and too complex for any one nation to solve on its own. The United States will have to make modest investments to mobilize peacekeepers, manage humanitarian relief, and undertake post-conflict reconstruction and nation-building. It will have to work closely both with its allies and with existing international institutions such as the United Nations.
The good news is that some of the necessary structures already are in place, and the remaining pieces will not require significant additional American investment. The United States can be most supportive by pledging to
? work with our allies to help fund a new International Crisis Prevention Agency that will take cooperative, preemptive steps to prevent failed and failing states from spiraling into social chaos and political violence;
? support the establishment of a permanent United Nations Early Warning Center that would have the authority to undertake field investigations into allegations of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave violations of international law;
? ensure that any referrals made by the Center result in immediate action by the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter;
? push the Security Council to refer any allegations of atrocities to the International Criminal Court for immediate investigation;
? explore ways to create a separate and distinct international force – one that would include military peacekeeping units, police officers, and civilian experts in humanitarian relief, infrastructure management, and the rule of law – with the ability to respond quickly to grave humanitarian emergencies, security vacuums, and post-conflict reconstruction; and
? remain engaged with fragile, conflict-prone societies, no matter how difficult conditions may become.
Of course, none of these measures will alleviate the suffering in Darfur. Nor should any discussion about their implementation be regarded as a substitute for concerted international action to stop the genocide now. But if we learn nothing else from Darfur, we should at the very least understand that we can do more to prevent the next crisis from taking place.
Somewhere on the planet, some other country already has begun its slide toward the abyss. It does not have to be that way. We can act now to make sure that we never again have to say “never again.” Or we can stand by and watch as yet another supposedly imponderable, unexplainable – and entirely preventable – humanitarian crisis unfolds.
Charles J. Brown is President and CEO He traveled in Southern Sudan on behalf of Freedom House, during the north-south civil war.