Mark Muller Stuart KC recently gave a speech at the RSA Conference in Edinburgh on November 24th 2017 on Scotand’s Culture and Soft Power in relation to 21st Century Conflict. 

Using Culture and Scotland’s Soft Power to Help to Resolve Conflict in the 21st Century

By

Mark Muller Stuart KC

RSA Conference Edinburgh

Media, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage Network Event:

Culture – Adding Value to External Relations 24 November 2017

I want to take this opportunity to talk about how small nations like Scotland, and its soft power institutions, can play a valuable role in the resolution and transformation of conflict.

Last year saw the publication of two important reports about the UK’s inability to build a sustainable peace in Iraq and then Libya. These reports raise questions about the UK’s record and future role as a p5 player in the stabilization and resolution of conflict.

Today, Libya conjures up images of Islamic fundamentalism and lawless disruption but the people I met during the Libyan revolution on behalf of the Bar Council were the same as you and me – all they wanted was to live under the rule of law with some semblance of human dignity and chance of happiness.

That did not happen because, as President Obama rightly observed, the UK and Europe,failed to help Libya build a sustainable peace after Cameron became ‘distracted’ and relied too heavily upon a post- conflict stabilisation plan which MI6 described as a “Noddy guide” and had no plan B when Tripoli fell to competing militias rather through an orchestrated internal coup d’état.

Replete with the jargon of Afghanistan, the government inspired stabilization plan neither addressed Libyan culture nor harnessed the power of civil society or acted on our call to promote an inter-militia dialogue about how to rebuild the rule of law and agree an inclusive transition before the conflict ended.

So I thought I might share a few thoughts about how we could do better next time round. For if our experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya teaches us anything it is that hard power by itself cannot transform societies and that we need a full-spectrum approach to conflict resolution, which harnesses hard but also soft power, including that of civil society, cultural diplomacy, and small nations like Scotland.

Now I realise this might sit uneasily with those who believe states like the UK should monopolise rather than share diplomatic power.But the failure to quell terrorism since 9/11or predict events such as the Arab Spring, rise of ISIS the crisis in Ukraine or the Syria migrant crisis,raises serious questions about our current ability to spot, prevent and deal with conflicts in the 21st Century – failures which have come to rock Europe as little children wash up upon its shores like flotsam.

I believe the UK needs to rid itself of some of the more outdated 20th century diplomatic practices in relation to stabilization. Where too state officials talk to other officials, and experts in surreal green zones without the very people they are supposed to be stabilizing. While other men and women are sent out from forward military bases in your name to police conflicts they know little about. Conflicts – which are no long interstate in nature – but involve an array of non-state actors, backed by shadowy sponsors, who pay little respect to territorial boundaries, the sovereign rights of states or the law of armed conflict. For today, we live in a post 9/11 world, beset by disruption in which the distinctions between foreign and domestic policy, hard and soft power, state and non-state mediators, are fast disappearing.

Matters were perhaps not best helped by the overly rigid counter-terror paradigm put in place by the Blair/Bush administrations after 9/11, where new prescription regimes meant that few diplomats dared to engage with marginal communities on the ground or with the radical groups that claimed to represent them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Yet we know that virtually all conflict is driven by exclusion and when cultural and diplomatic exchange stops violence often starts. Fortunately, a number of non-state mediators emerged to fill the gap – the most pre-eminent of which is the Centre of Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) – for which I worked. Since 9/11 it has helped bring an end to conflicts in Aceh, Nepal, Philippines, Kenya, Spain and Tunisia, often by working with groups that others considered beyond the pale. Today it is involved in a quarter of the world’s conflicts at any one time and has spawned a welter of other non-state dialogue organisations, including Beyond Borders Scotland.

But since 9/11we have seen not just the emergence of new non-state mediators working on the track I and II level, but also a range of innovative NGOs in the diplomatic, humanitarian, environmental, human rights, artistic, education and cultural diplomacy sector – from elite economic organisations like Davos to diplomatic ones like the Club of Madrid to grassroots campaigns against global poverty-who in one way or another have all entered the 21st century conflict environment to fundamentally alter it.

So what have I learnt as a non-state and now UN mediator:

1. That governments no longer, and should no longer, exercise a monopoly over peace-making or building;
2. That societies not government ultimately make peace and rebuild communities;
3. That if you want to stabilise a country you have to understand its culture and people;
4. That civil society has a real role to play in conflict transformation in the 21st Century;
5. That a new pact is required between UN multilateral agencies, government, and non-stateactors,which recognises the innovative and healing qualities of soft power and civil society institutions.

All of this points to a more radical, all-inclusive, full-spectrum and multi-layered approach to the amelioration of conflict by the international community.

This leads me to the role that small nations like Scotland can play within this new diplomatic landscape. I remember reflecting on Scotland’s international role in June 2014 as seventy countries walked out at the Commonwealth Games. The last time that happened was in 1986, when Scotland was a very different country with no devolved parliament or government. Is Scotland’s international role, I ruminated, confined merely to sports, the arts and the promotion of Walter Scott type heritage? The answer is No.

Since 1986 Scotland has undertaken one of the most recent radical constitutional journeys of any modern nation in Europe and has much to offer the international community in terms of conflict resolution as a result. So whether Scotland becomes independent or remains within an enduring political union, surely the time has come to ask how Scotland can play a greater role in international affairs.

In a recent article Neal Ascherson was moved to observe that Scots tended to be more progressive, egalitarian and democratic than the rest of Britain, and should break the bond of dependency. He implied those national values needed to be reflected in a foreign policy of Scotland’s own making.Whether Ascherson is right or not about how Scots differ from the other parts of the UK remains a matter of debate. What is true is that most people from small northern European states tend to support the use of soft rather than hard power to resolve conflict in international affairs.

I confess that when I attended the Scottish debate on the Iraq war in 2003, I found the idea of a different Scottish foreign position within a devolved setting counter-intuitive. I have since changed my mind. My experiences as an international human rights advocate and mediator convince me Scotland has a real and unique contribution to make in the field of conflict resolution, and in the promotionofmutual understanding betweennations and cultures.

Firstly, Scotland has a strong separate identity,which exercises a powerful hold over the world’s collective imagination. It is perceived as a proud, independent, small nation which has managed to preserve its culture and identity, despite the presence of a much more powerful neighbour. This gives it real traction with smaller nations and others fighting for greater autonomy. Despite Scotland’s role in the British Empire, the bald truth is that it is viewed very differently from its bigger neighbour.

Secondly, Scotland has a phenomenal story to tell. Its devolved settlement is in fact one of the best examples of how smaller nations within larger states can transition towards greater democracy in a peaceful and consensual manner. The de-centralisation of power within the UK provides a template for other countries confronted by the need for change.The 2012 Edinburgh Agreement is a conflict resolution instrument in all but name.Scotland can therefore offer a platform and forum for debate and dialogue on issues that are often central to political transition.

Since 2005 I have worked in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Spain, the Caucasus and Ukraine, all of which have internal conflicts that touch upon cultural autonomy and the devolution of power. International interest in Scotland is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon. That is to say nothing of the interest shown in the referendum process or its gender balanced politics. As a senior advisor to many international organisations, I have taken groups to South Africa and Northern Ireland to learn lessons about political transition,so why not Scotland? After all,Scotland has elderstatesmen and women with real experience of multilateral diplomacy at the highest level within the EU, NATO and the UN Security Council, in contrast to some Scandinavian countries involved in conflict resolution.

Thirdly, its cultural festivals, soft power legal and educational institutions, countryside and castles, provide the perfect backdrop for cultural diplomacy and engagement with wider international civil society in relation to transition issues.

That is why in 2010 I established Beyond Borders Scotland, with the help of patrons from across the political divide. Since then, apart from its culture and thought festivals and conflict work overseas, Beyond Borders and has hosted delegations from Georgia, Turkey, Kurdistan, Bahrain, Oman, the Basque Country, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, India and Sri Lanka. Many were interested in learning more about Scotland’s devolved settlement, parliamentary procedures and referendum process,while others used Scotland as a sanctuary and platform for internal dialogue and peacemaking.

None of this would have been possible without the Scottish government and parliament’s support. In 2014 the then First Minister helped launch our programme celebrating ‘The World in Scotland and ScotlandintheWorld.’ One year later, in August 2015,the new Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, helped Beyond Borders and the European Institute of Peace launch Scotland’s first Women in Conflict Initiative and Peace Fellowship Programme in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which seeks to promote women’s participation in peace-making processes. The initiative brought together women peacemakers from Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen in Scotland to meet with other peacemakers, to help devise Scotland’s first long-term peace fellowship programme.

This in turn influenced the decision of the UN Special Envoy to Syria,Staffan de Mistura,to let Scotland host the Envoy’s Women’s Advisory Body for internal discussions in relation to the Syria peace talks being rolled out in Geneva. On 5 May 2016, all party leaders in Scotland came together to welcome Syrian female peacemakers to the Scottish parliament, which kindly gave over its space for their deliberation after the FCO helped with visa assistance. The event demonstrated Scotland’s growing standing, commitment and capacity to act in the service of peace-making. It was partly as a result of this successful collaboration with the UN that the First Minister went on to commit the Scottish government to provide funding to train fifty female peacemakers and activists every year for the next five years. In April 2017 I had the honour of welcoming the First Minister to the UN in New York to announce a further £1. 2 million funding for the BeyondBorders-UNDPA assisted initiative.

These experiences have convinced me that Scotland has a profound contribution to make inthe field of peacebuilding, conflict resolution and wider cultural exchange between different nations, cultures and religions. The time has surely come for UK policy makers to consider whether these islands should adopt a more innovative, asymmetrical, full-spectrum approach to conflict resolution,in which the power of state and non-state actors,hard and soft power institutions, as well as the nations in our Kingdom, work in partnership in the service of cultural diplomacy and peacemaking.

How this is to be achieved is a matter for further debate but let me make two preliminary calls for action. Firstly, for the UK government to respond actively to Scotland’s greater role in the promotion of conflict resolution, cultural diplomacy, and the support of the rule of law overseas, by exercising discretion and encouraging the Scottish government to support this vital activity of international work, particularly in relation to certain development areas with which it has connections. Secondly, for the Scottish Government to create new capacity and formal budget lines for the promotion and funding of this type of non-state international activity, through the setting up an international dialogue and peacebuilding funding mechanism and unit that reports directly to the First Minister.

This is necessary since existing public cultural grant making institutions, like Creative Scotland, however good, are presently not designed to promote or carry out this type of specialized activity.They have neither the budget nor expertise or appropriate international reach or experience. The current siloed approach of its grant funding does not fit will with the cross-cutting cultural and diplomatic strategic thinking that in reality underpins much of this type of international peacemaking and highly nuanced culturalexchange. This should not be read as criticism but as a call for Scotland to capitalize on a rapidly expanding area of international civic work.

In summary, we should be proud of Scotland’s recent contribution in this field. For as the utility of hard power declines,and that of soft power increases,it ill-behooves any policy maker serious about improving the peace-making record of the UK, not to recognise Scotland’s growing capacity to act in this area. The positive values that underpin Scotland’s current civic nationalism and humanitarianism can only make it a greater force for good in the world. I hope this small offering helps generate the start of a debate about Scotland’s role in international affairs in a post-Brexit world, whatever its constitutional status turns out to be.

END

RSA “MCICH NETWORK”

Media, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage Network Event:

Edinburgh, Friday 24th November 2017 (0915-1615)

at

The French Consulate, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh,

by gracious consent of Consul General Emmanuel Cocher FRSA

CULTURE – ADDING VALUE TO EXTERNAL RELATIONS

This event is to mark the forthcoming 2018 Year of European Cultural Heritage. It was initiated by the RSA Fellows’ Media, Creative Industries, Culture & Heritage Network [MCICH], and is grant aided as shown elsewhere, although especial thanks are due to the French Consulate for both the venue and other valued help. The aim is a series of short illustrated “Provocations” to spark Q&A and debate, consideration of relevant issues, innovative approaches, and maybe even a series of 2018 activities and/or a project. The programme and speaker biographies follow, and speakers are shown in alphabetical not speaker order. One outcome might be a mapping exercise of “heritage and cultural innovations” in Scotland for the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage.

Founded in 1754, the RSA [Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce] combines thought leadership with social innovation to further human progress. Building on its 250 year history as a beacon for enlightenment values, it undertakes influential and varied research projects and hosts an ambitious lecture series in London with many events across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. The Society’s work is supported by well over 27,000 Fellows, an international network of influencers and innovators from every field and background. Around 3,000 Fellows are found in 90+ countries around the world.

Founded in 1754, and currently chaired by Vikki Heywood CBE, the RSA is a charity registered in England and Wales no. 212424 and in Scotland no. SC037784. Its registered office is at 8 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6