Opinion: Norway’s secret weapon

No country in the world has been more in the forefront in trying to facilitate peace and settle conflicts than Norway

HDS Greenway, Global Post, July 17, 2011

The morning sun cuts through the frost smoke hanging over the Oslo fjord, on Dec. 9, 2010. (Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)

 

OSLO, Norway — No country in the world has been more in the forefront in trying to facilitate peace and settle conflicts than Norway. Being a small Scandinavian country with no ax to grind, and no colonial history, Norway is ideally positioned in its chosen task.

Strong civil society and labor movements in Norway have “traditionally emphasized international solidarity, which joined forces with Christian movements that underscore compassion,” says Jan Egeland, a former diplomat and now director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

Egeland spent a long career trying to facilitate peace among combatants. He recently summed up his thoughts in a paper delivered last month at a cultural biennale in Venice.

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