Mikhail Gorbachev’s Opening Remarks at the New Policy Forum Conference in Montpellier, France, November 24, 2011

Dear friends,

First of all, let me welcome you to this conference and thank all those who have responded to our invitation. I would like to make special mention of the initiative and the contribution of the Languedoc-Roussillon Region and to thank out hosts and the region’s president, Christian Bourquin, who is present here, for their warm hospitality.

Let me also pay tribute to the memory of the outstanding son of this region, who was its leader for many years, the politician and historian George Freche.

The Mediterranean is a region that shaped our civilization, the birthplace of three world religions. What is happening in this area now is a mirror reflecting the problems and contradictions of today’s world.

Since last winter and all through this year we have been watching the events of what is called the Arab Spring. The peoples of the Arab world have risen to challenge both their own ruling regimes and the outside forces that nurtured those regimes and have been their patrons for many years.

Direct analogies are often drawn between the popular uprisings in the Arab world and the events of the 1980s in Eastern Europe. Of course, such historical analogies are always somewhat lame, but there indeed is a link between these processes: both became possible as a result of the end of the Cold War.

That confrontation and the division of the world were an obstacle to a truly democratic globalization, stunting the development of many nations, including in the Arab world.

So today, tens of thousands of people in the Arab countries are taking to the streets to defy the rulers and the elites that lost touch with the people, to protest corruption and injustice and to demand a life of dignity and democratic change, an end to the dependence and backwardness to which authoritarian regimes condemned the Arab world.

Today, however, the future of the mass movements is hanging in the balance. There are both domestic and external dangers here:

The danger that these processes could be hijacked by self-serving, undemocratic forces and that the fruits of the peoples’ rush to freedom would be stolen by the forces and parties ‘of order’ – whether of a military or of extremist Islamic variety.
And the danger that these processes could be distorted by outside interference on the part of those who do not stop at using force, as we have seen in Libya. My position is that, despite the anti-popular and adventurist nature of the Kaddafi regime, removing it by means of outside military intervention is not the right path.

I believe that current developments in the Arab world are the most recent and perhaps the most graphic example of much broader and significant processes at work – of a historic transformation of world politics, of a truly global political revolution.

When we formulated the agenda of our conference six months ago, choosing the theme of The Waves of Change in the Mediterranean, we mostly had in mind the developments on the South Coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, however, we see that the North Coast too is on fire. A crisis, which is not just economic but also political, has hit this area – from Greece to Portugal and Spain, spreading to Italy yesterday and, perhaps, even to France tomorrow.

The whole of Europe, which only yesterday looked like an oasis of stability and an example to be emulated by others, including the Arab East, is engaged in an agonizing search for a way out of the most severe crisis in the history of the European Union.

In fact, the essence of the shifts now occurring in the world is a search for new foundations for democratic development within nations and for building democratic international relations.

The underlying causes of the acute crisis to which the end is not yet in sight are rooted in the mistakes made by the political and economic elites of the West after the end of the Cold War.

The ‘winner’s complex’ and the attitudes of triumphalism intoxicated Western leaders who as a result ignored the need for profound changes and, more and more, were acting without any democratic control of their own societies and of the international community.

This led to reckless decisions in the economy, with a model of market fundamentalism being imposed everywhere, and in politics, with the ‘sole remaining superpower choosing the path of unilateralism and military intervention.

The current crisis is a well-deserved ‘morning after.’ On the one hand, it has become clear that an unconstrained ultraliberal, socially irresponsible economy is, like a financial pyramid, sooner or later bound to collapse. On the other hand, it is now obvious that the political monopoly of the United States and West is coming to an end.

The reaction to this has been painful. Adjustment to the new realities is inevitable but difficult. This is particularly obvious in the United States, where this process of adjustment is meeting with real resistance.

I want to emphasize once again that the world is going through a transition. Today we see the dangers and the risks of this transition better than before. This is a time when the responsibility of political leaders has increased enormously. They must understand that at stake is a lot more than winning the next election.

What’s needed is an all-out effort to build new foundations of global politics and economics, involving a critical reappraisal of values and a common search for ways towards sustainable development.

When at the height of the crisis it was decided to convene the G-20, we heard statements by, among others, Presidents Sarkozy and Obama and Prime Minister Brown that suggested that this new mechanism will set its sights on these goals. But the G-20 turned out to be no more than a rescue operation to save the financial system. It has not lived up to our hopes.
Similarly, the system of international organizations – both global and regional – has not been re-energized. For example, we are now seeing attempts by the League of Arab States to influence the course of events in the region, but these attempts are belated and lack resolve.

The world of today is complex, overstressed and changing with unprecedented speed. This, however, is no reason to despair or panic, or to give up on seeking solutions to problems, as some do, admitting defeat.

Even when decisions are taken, they often remain a dead letter because leaders are incapable to develop mechanisms of their implementation. This undermines people’s faith in democratic politics.

The challenge for the intellectual community is to help find the ideas and mechanisms that will restore that faith.
Our Forum could make its contribution to the efforts aimed at meeting this challenge.

You may recall that some time ago we decided to prepare a report of the New Policy Forum. It’s not a mere formality. With the combined intellect of our participants, we are capable of producing a strong report that could give an impetus to a renovation of global politics. I therefore think that our discussion should include suggestions about how to organize this work, which could open a new phase in the activities of the Forum.