Ambassador Aud Lise Norheim Explains Norway's Peacemaking Policies

HE Aud Lise Norheim

The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) recently hosted a public lecture and open discussion with Aud Lise Norheim, the current ambassador of Norway to Lebanon. Entitled "Facilitating Peace Processes: Can Small Countries like Norway Play a Role," Norheim's talk was held on February 13 at Bathish Auditorium in West Hall.

The event was the second in the IFI-sponsored series, "The Ambassador in the Academy," which will bring resident and roving ambassadors to AUB for a day to exchange thoughts with students, faculty, and staff.

Norheim explained Norway's policies of maintaining contacts with all parties to a conflict, even when some parties are widely boycotted by other governments, with the view of facilitating movement towards successful peace negotiations to end the conflict. She said the shared values and great sense of solidarity of Norway's homogenous society have allowed the country to become "a humanitarian superpower," whose only interest as a facilitator and mediator in peace processes is to ensure world peace.

Norheim proudly spoke of her country's long-standing tradition of supporting discrepant initiatives by the international community to end armed conflict worldwide, including Norway's continuing efforts to render "the United Nations' Middle East policies less aggressively pro-Israel." Noting the especially fruitful coordination between government actors her country has managed to instigate through the renowned Oslo Agreement, as well as the ongoing peace processes in Sudan, Norheim delineated Norway's humanitarian assistance, which has characterized its financial contribution to countries beleaguered by armed conflict and civil strife.

Recognizing that creating a global culture of peace is an arduous endeavor and that eighty percent of conflict resolution processes usually fail, Norheim concluded by saying the engagement of presumed terrorists in peace negotiations is crucial for decreasing the possibility of terrorist attacks. Such attacks are likely to persist if their perpetrators and their concerns continue to be marginalized.