Mutual Respect as a Precondition for Dialogue

​​In his laudation, Prof. Dr. Klaus Briegleb referred to Professor Guldimann's awareness of the relationship between the internal structure of nations and the relationships between them: "The initial decisions are made within societies as to how they relate to each other, for good and for ill." Briegleb emphasised Guldimann's view that there had to be a public relationship between parties and opposing sides.

Guldimann has faith in the power of discourse taking place in preparation for and on the fringes of formal diplomatic activity. That way, one can go into the causes of conflict more deeply than in official talks, even if they are secret, should they not prove to be successful. When such blockades occur, "it's worth 'talking about talks' in order to win time and trust."

Making peace

In his speech of thanks, Tim Guldimann named three conditions which have to be fulfilled before agreement can be reached between parties.
1. The parties have to be able to conduct talks in which both sides have the same chance to make their contribution.
2. They must engage each other with respect.
3. Force, violence and the threat of force or violence have to be excluded.

He explored these ideas in the cases of the Middle East conflict, the conflict over the Iranian nuclear programme and the fight against terrorism.

An agreement is not impossible

The former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, once said that one can only make peace with one's enemies. The Moses Mendelssohn Prize is awarded every two years. The award jury consists of members of the Catholic and the Protestant church and of the Jewish Community Berlin. Laureates include Teddy Kollek, Yehudi Menuhin and Hans Koschnick.But even if one rejects your enemy's positions as unacceptable, that rejection still does not justify a refusal to talk to them. Otherwise one is making the solution of the problem into the precondition for the process of reaching an agreement.

Guldimann said that he found signs of hope in the conflict after he had spoken in Iran to a representative of Hamas who said that while his organisation rejected recognition of Israel on grounds of principle, if Israel were to express its regret for what it had done to the Palestinian people, "our culture would require us to sit down with them at the same table."

It is true that the Hamas representative was setting a precondition, but at the same time he was making it clear that agreement was not impossible.

The conflict with Iran

The overthrow of the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadeq by the CIA in 1953 on the one hand, and the occupation of the US embassy in Teheran by pro-government students in November 1979 on the other, have led the US and Iranian governments to a policy of mutually refusing to communicate.

Although the governments of Presidents Clinton and Chatami began a policy of cautious rapprochement, the positions of the two sides have now hardened once more. That has undermined the respect with which Germany, Britain and France have been approaching Iran in their negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.

Guldimann admits that one must assume that the current Iranian government would be scarcely likely to give way on its nuclear programme without outside pressure, but the question is how to impose that pressure in such a way that the respect which will form the basis for a future solution is not destroyed.

Danger of undermining one's values

Guldimann said his view was that conflicts are not fomented just by their original causes; they are also stoked by exclusion, refusal to engage in dialogue and lack of respect. On the other side, the expression of respect for the other side can become the most important precondition for substantial concessions in the course of reaching agreement.

In his speech, he warned decidedly against the view that the cause of the tension between the West and the Muslim world lies in the contradiction between our principles of enlightenment and the fundamentals of Islam. That view, he says, is ahistorical, incorrect and dangerous.

Finally he warned against an exaggerated approach to security, leaving scarcely any room for a real evaluation of priorities. That way, he said, we undermine rather than defend our values.

Once we start to talk about the appropriateness of torture as a weapon in the fight against terrorism, or when we forbid civil servants from wearing headscarves on the grounds that they are a "battle cry of socio-political aggression," and when we neglect human rights as in Guantánamo, we run the risk of "saying farewell to our own claim that our values are universally valid."

Kurt Scharf

© Qantara.de 2006

Translated from the German by Michael Lawton

Kurt Scharf was awarded the Moses Mendelssohn Prize in 1998. Scharf has translated literary works from Farsi into German. He also served as the director of Germany's Goethe Institute in Teheran and Istanbul.

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