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Experience of Kuwait: Difference between revisions
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''4. What is the view of the population in Kuwait on globalisation regarding a win-win-strategy? Do they seek a win-win situation for everybody?'' | __NOTOC__ | ||
'''''4. What is the view of the population in Kuwait on globalisation regarding a win-win-strategy? Do they seek a win-win situation for everybody?''''' | |||
===Answer by Jana Hybášková:=== | ===Answer by Jana Hybášková:=== | ||
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The conclusion is clear: Without strategic threats globalization will be closer to a win-win situation. To better manage globalization we should properly manage strategic threats. | The conclusion is clear: Without strategic threats globalization will be closer to a win-win situation. To better manage globalization we should properly manage strategic threats. | ||
====Henning Strate==== | |||
I would like to respond to question about the experience of Kuwait. | |||
The answer suggests that while being an important trade hub for centuries Kuwait drastically changed due to the discovery and production of crude oil, increasing wealth to new levels and altering life in Kuwait. It also enabled the establishment of a modern state administration. However, the oil reserves and Kuwaiti wealth gave the country a strategic value in which it became a target for the aspirations of its neighbouring countries, especially Iraq (then under leadership of Saddam Hussein). It then fell victim to Iraqi agression and pillaging with damage still felt today. | |||
I wonder, though, whether the attack on Kuwait truly was a consequence of its strategic value in a globalised world or due to other reasons. There was once a Roman military writer Vegetius who coined the phrase „He who desires peace, prepares for war.“, and I wonder if the state of Kuwait was simply UNprepared and this became its very undoing? The matter of „War and Peace“ is a question of how much effort a country spends on international relations and defense procurement, or is it not? What do you think? | |||
Monday, 4 January 2010 | |||
====Jana Hybášková==== | |||
Dear all, | |||
It was my pleasure to share my experience and experiences with you. I hope I did not discourage you from any further contacts with politicians! You, yourself have the responsibility. If you are not active in public space, the others will occupy it! Thank you for your cooperation. | |||
Great MMX! | |||
Dear Henning, | |||
Even though I was later Ambassador in Kuwait, even though I followed the events of 1990 very closely, and even though I later met with April Glapsie, the truth is that we really do not know, what really happened? The fact is that Kuwait was drilling Rumaila oil field and the fact is that there were tough negotiations going on, and Kuwait did not stop taking oil from Rumaila. The key question, if April Glaspie gave a wrong signal to Saddam, yes or no stays opened. | |||
So I only quote Wikipedia: | |||
By the time the ceasefire with Iran was signed in August 1988, Iraq was virtually bankrupt, with most of its debt owed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts, but they refused. Kuwait was also accused by Iraq of exceeding its OPEC quotas and driving down the price of oil, thus further hurting the Iraqi economy. | |||
The collapse in oil prices had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. The Iraqi Government described it as a form of economic warfare, which it claimed was aggravated by Kuwait slant-drilling across the border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field.[18] | |||
Iraq claimed Kuwait had been a part of the Ottoman Empire's province of Basra. Its ruling dynasty, the al-Sabah family, had concluded a protectorate agreement in 1899 that assigned responsibility for its foreign affairs to Britain. Britain drew the border between the two countries, and deliberately tried to limit Iraq's access to the ocean so that any future Iraqi government would be in no position to threaten Britain's domination of the Persian Gulf. Iraq refused to accept the border, and did not recognize the Kuwaiti government until 1963.[19] | |||
In early July, Iraq complained about Kuwait's behavior, such as not respecting their quota, and openly threatened to take military action. On the 23rd, the CIA reported that Iraq had moved 30,000 troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border, and the U.S. naval fleet in the Persian Gulf was placed on alert. On the 25th, Saddam Hussein met with April Glaspie, an American ambassador, in Baghdad. At that meeting, Glaspie told the Iraqi delegation, "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts." On the 31st, negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah failed violently.[20] On 2 August 1990 Iraq launched an invasion with its warplanes, bombing Kuwait City, the Kuwaiti capital. | |||
Wednesday, 6 January 2010 | |||