network of research and training centres and programmes
Issue 23: February 2003
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UNU Update | |
| The newsletter of United Nations
University and its network of research and training centres and programmes |
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Issue 23: February 2003 |
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Radical change needed for
Societies torn by long-standing conflicts must undergo fundamental changes in their socio-political and economic structures before a sustainable peace can be achieved, according to one of the principal architects of South African democracy. "Rarely do political leaders take the risk to venture into unknown territory and they seldom challenge themselves to define visionary and idealistic positions to work towards a different future," Roelf Meyer told an audience at the University of Ulster January 20. "Many politicians will reason that it is much safer to keep to the old frameworks, politically and personally, than to engage with a new paradigm." Meyer, the National Party government's chief negotiator in the talks that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa, cited his personal experience in delivering a paper called Paradigm Shift – the Essence of Successful Change as this year's UNU International Conflict Research (UNU/INCORE) Tip O'Neill fellow. He said the for progress to be possible, there must be a shift "from the old to the new, from the past to the future." "No conflict can be resolved without opposing views merging, or common new positions being developed that are a major departure from the old ones. Thus, when a state, a country, a region is involved in a protracted socio-political conflict and it is serious in its aim to come to a sustainable solution that is agreed to by all parties, it is pertinent that the leadership of such a country espouses – and so promotes and endorses – radical change."
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