Wrangling over Atalanta

Since December Switzerland has been discussing whether its own soldiers should join in Operation Atalanta, the EU naval campaign against Somali pirates. A decision will be taken in autumn at the earliest. This unhurried procedure is proof that our merchant fleet faces only a limited degree of emergency and is not dependent on the Swiss contribution to Atalanta. The debate is obviously about something else. First and foremost, it is about the army. Its officers would gain practical operational experience from foreign assignments, which have been legally possible for some years now. For an army that (fortunately) has no experience of war, this would not be insignificant. All the more so considering the intent to make it the «best in the world», to quote the Minister of Defence. And in that army, the special unit being discussed for Atalanta would also need to be ready for immediate deployment – if not, it would be better to dissolve it altogether.

Second, it is about our foreign policy stance. In recent years, EU or NATO members have repeatedly asked Switzerland to make a military contribution – inter alia, for Afghanistan, the Congo or Chad. These countries – our most important partners – regard Switzerland as an economically powerful country that maintains a large army and one that should therefore take part in international peacekeeping operations. The Federal Cabinet can react to this in three ways. It could acquiesce, which it is hardly doing. Or it could explain why it finds those operations debatable and what alternative course of action it may be considering, possibly together with other countries. The Federal Cabinet that would do this is not yet born, however. Or it could make clear that the Swiss Army is no foreign policy tool, but exists for purely domestic policy reasons; that Switzerland's only foreign policy tools are diplomacy, peace brokering, development cooperation and the corresponding budgets.

This could also be done in case of Somalia. Somalia will continue to produce pirates and the like – Atalanta or not – for as long as it remains mired in civil strife, unable to feed millions of displaced persons, with all economic activity in a state of collapse. Besides, misguided outside interventions (by the USA and its ally Ethiopia) in the Somali civil war are helping to prolong it. Finally, the practice by companies from East Asia to Europe of depleting fish stocks in Somalia's unpatrolled territorial waters and illegally dumping toxic wastes in them has helped spawn the problem of piracy. On balance therefore, smart outside players have their work cut out for them – and so does Switzerland.

Peter Niggli, Director of Alliance Sud  

Published in: Alliance Sud News No. 60 / Summer 2009 (Editorial