Ifda dossier 47, May/June 1985

internationally, knows that, when all is said and done, it
is important to sit at the negotiation table until the final
full stop in the joint agreement has been written. In the
long term we would like to see a European policy which in-
cludes the real Europe - both East and West. But this is a
long way down the road. The time is ripe for the EEC to feel
the pressure of a demand for a better coordination of the
Community's foreign policy.
Notwithstanding their strength, the super powers' influence
is declining, not least because regions increase their
self-assertion and raise their ambitions to participate in
the international decision process. Exceptions are,
however still apparent, The Falkland and Lebanon conflicts
would appear to be bad examples of the region's increasing
influence because words remained words and were not trans-
lated into actions. The practical support of the Argentine
from Castro's Cuba to Pinochet's Chile never went further
than speeches. The Argentinian noticed little in the form
of action from his Latin American friends. The Palestinians
feel the gap between words and actions from the Arab world
even more.
Nevertheless these two conflicts may be important elements
in the development of a political solidarity in the regions,
which may be noticeable internationally. We must continue
to hope that as a rule, political solutions will be found,
and that military solutions will be the exception.
To the degree that experience comes to the fore in shaping
future policies, Europe should be on solid ground. Histo-
rically this has been the field of fire for the policies of
the super powers, whether they resulted in disagreements and
war or in agreements and new alliances. Our attention has
been concentrated on the relationships between those coun-
tries participating in the international decision process,
which means the industrial world. The rest of the world,
that is the majority of the world's population, has been
held either as colonies or, as lately, receivers of smaller
or larger alms. We have, however, not taken the majority of
the world's population seriously, in the sense that we have
regarded the development of the Third World as important
also for us - our economy, employment and our security.
Before this is recognized fully both in the Eastern and the
Western blocks, we will continue to give priority to counter-
acting the traditional contrasts and will neglect the grea-
ter danger inherent in such an "ostrich" policy vis-a-vis
the Third World.
Two examples will indicate what I mean. Endless negotiations
between North and South in the 70s, in respect of economic
cooperation which could benefit both parties, gave few
results. One of these, however, was the establishment of a
joint commodities fund. In short, the intention was to
secure the producer stable prices, and the consumer stable
supplies.