ifda dossier 74 - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

variety of ways have been impinging on
both domestic and world affairs.
The influence of the latter may appear
less visible and direct but is in a variety
of wiiys basic and could contribute to
major historical shifts, not just in the
structure of norms and opinions that
perform longer term catalytic roles but
also in unravelling and highlighting
hitherto suppressed facts and realities
that hiid been defined out of existence
by forces interested in preserving the
stnins and keepin~onflicts and
confrontations alive for perpetuating the
s;ime. '1he peiice movement in F-uropc,
for example, hiis not only stirred the
conscience of large sections of the
people, including privileged strata of the
middle classes, hut has also, through
patient research and advocacy, exposed
the horrible economic and ecological
costs of the arms ace and laid hare the
depressing consequences thereof for
employment, economic viability of
regimes, fulfilment of minimum con-
sumer need of people in countries
spenclingso much on armaments, not
to speak of h;il;inee of payments dif-
ficulties facing major governments and
the st;irtlingcffects of all these on
stability of currencies, interest rates and
the extension of the debt trap to what
used to be buoyant and self-reliant
economies at one time.
Likewise, the ecology, women's and
human rights movements have not just
raised important ethical issues on behalf
of deprived strata of the people, the
comin~"eerations, women and tribal
populations but have also contributed
to national and intern:itional dcbiite~ on
the consequences of prevailing models
of development, national security and
the like which have succeeded in creat-
ing a body of informed opinion that has
over time led to changed perceptions of
reality among sections of the ruling
elites. And this has not been limited to
countries in which these movements had
large media impacts. Thus for a long
time it was thought that the peace
movement was anathema to the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. Yet in
some ways the impact has been the
greatest in that part of the world.
There is also growinpadmission of "the
common environment danger1' cirlsii'ig
out of "the state of the earth's resources"
and "the crying social problen~ of
the developing world" in the same
Gorbachev thesis1 that propounded the
logic of de-escalating the arms race. But
more than the growing acceptance of
these more obvious dangers, the more
basic contribution of the various social
moven~ents, particularly as some of their
leaders may have been moving out of
their single-constituency foci and realizing
the interrelationship between dimensions,
is to contribute to a deeper
theoretical grasp of the human condition
and to force public attention on
linkages and interconnections that are
likely to escape demands for 'adjustments'
and 'accommodations' that
merely pragmatic and short-range understanding
is likely to produce.
It is with respect to the interrclation-
ships that are likely to be ignored or
left out of consideration, and the conse-
quences of foeussing on single dimen-
sions or limited concerns that I want to