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the ethics of dag hammarskjöld
re-caste royal Swede on horseback. During my visit I had the
privilege of attending the solemn conferring of doctoral degrees
and the festivities in honour of the new doctors, among
them a young mathematician from Minsk. When he realised
that I represented the University of Oslo, he just had to tell
me that his doctoral thesis was on the Norwegian mathematician
Sophus Lie (1842-99) – one of those 19th century
Norwegian scientists who are famous in the eastern part of
Europe and almost forgotten in Norway. On the basis of the
insight won through years of thorough study of the works of
Sophus Lie he insisted on proclaiming his Norwegian hero
‘The Mathematician for the 21st century’.
Reading Vägmärken and speeches from Dag Hammarskjöld’s
period as Secretary-General of the United Nations anew, at
the distance of half a century, has been for me an experience
which reminds me of the title of a well-known post-war
novel by Sigurd Hoel: A rendezvous with years forgotten (Stevnemøte
med glemte år, 1954). Without stressing the comparison
with my enthusiastic friend from Belarus – after all I am
50 years older – my reading of Hammarskjöld’s works has
encouraged me to take the risk and proclaim him as ‘The
Politician for the 21st Century’. Should anyone be doubtful
and raise the objection that this is wishful thinking, my
answer would be: of course it is. But it is wishful thinking
based on a number of sound arguments, among which I will
restrict myself to the most evident:
1. The world of the 21st century is badly in need of a renewed
basis for political leadership and common standards
for judgment on how power is exercised at all levels,
from the smallest local community to the summits of
the United Nations.
2. Common standards for judgment on how power is exercised
could only be moral standards, resting on common
human morality, expressed with unbeatable accuracy in
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