Time Immemorial: From and For

In April, 1983, I made known my thinking on what needed to be done to remove the Falkland Islands from the active register of global conflict zones.

In November 1982, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the resumption of talks between Britain and Argentina on sovereignty over the islands. And the prestigious Economist magazine cautioned Britain’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, against turning the Falklands into a military fortress. Instead, it called on her to float options for “internationalizing” the islands.

Writing in the magazine Commonwealth, I proposed that a condominium form of shared sovereignty be put in place. This, as a concept, was not new.

France and Britain, for centuries bitter opponents, fashioned in 1906 such an arrangement for the governance of the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, and this maintained for many years, until the islands gained independence, as Vanuatu, now a valued member state of the United Nations.

Perhaps when conflict and its wounds are fresh in the memories and tempers of people, that is when something different from the status quo needs to be envisaged, and attempted. We need not fully embrace Danton’s exhortation, “Boldness, More Boldness, Always Boldness,” but withdrawal from comprehensive analysis and novel engagement, can that really serve anyone?

The Azerbaijanis and Armenians should be good neighbors; their region deserves this, and obviously needs it. If the contested area of Nagorno Karabakh was a place where residents could choose and enjoy either nationality, or, indeed, dual nationality, and enjoy freedom of Religious observation, while governed by a Condominium built and overseen by the UN and the OSCE Minsk Group, might this enable the emergence of a calmer, partnership-oriented, Southern Caucasus region, one situated, let us not forget, where Europe and Asia meet?