Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

Ausland
intelligence is an asset that is difficult to attain by autonomous means
alone and for which trans-national cooperation is a sine qua non.
Let me open a brief parenthesis here: in our fight against PKK terrorists
based in Iraq, we were not very effective until we started intelligence
cooperation with the US. In the course of that cooperation, we
got actionable intelligence from the US. The kind of intelligence the
American forces provided us with made our cross-boarder operations
effective, although people may of course have different views about the
legality of such operations.
For some time to come, territorial defence will remain the main objective
of any security policy and armed forces its principal instrument. One
recent trend in both Europe and the United States is the modernization of
armed forces to make them smaller, leaner and meaner. NATO encourages
and assists such a transformation in its member states. This process has
been under way in Turkey for a number of years, but the pace of progress
has been slow due to the special circumstances in the country – namely
because of the fight against terrorism and of financial restrictions. What
we all need to do, however, is to develop a higher degree of coordination
and inter-operability at the national level between the armed forces, the
police, and other security agencies. In Turkey, armed forces have now
special units for responding to natural disasters such as earthquakes.
A sound security policy in our times must also incorporate a strong
and sustained international facet. Turkey is a growing contributor to a
variety of peacekeeping, peace enforcement, policing and post-conflict
rehabilitation operations across the globe, sponsored by the UN, NATO,
the EU, OSCE, and others. This is particularly necessary for a neutral
country like Switzerland if it wants to maintain a high standard of readiness
for self-defence. Such engagement would help fend off potential
threats against Switzerland by improving the overall global security index.
The US strategy under President Bush was based on the notion of
“pre-emption”, that is on the notion of a strike at the source of terror and
danger abroad. This strategy obviously did not work. I spent four years
there as Turkey’s Ambassador. I know what the US did and what the consequences
for all those living in our region were. The better option is to
help stabilize countries and to eradicate poverty, conflict, and terrorism
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