Regional politics is like the curtain hanging between the front room an the back part of the house. We hide behind the regional issues so we don't have to take on the larger issues. Being a great fish in a small lake has come easy to our people but the life does not suit us. I think we need to play a larger role on the world stage and that means pay less attention to our regional differences.
What should such a role be? Peacekeeper? Peacemaker? We don't want to be the conquering heroes. We saw how that went over in Iraq. The Americans hardly won their war before they put all the Iraqis out of business and started a new one.
We could be the finance ministers of the world. Think about how that might work. We take on the role that Switzerland once held as the world's private bank. People might think twice about doing business with us but eventually the money would come here. And if the money is here then the leaders will come here too.
Is it any mistake that the International Courts of Justice are based in Switzerland? The UN is based in New York City and I have always wondered how that works out for people the Americans don't like. Chavez visited there and just baked the American Prez on his own ground.
In Switzerland everyone recognizes their neutrality. We could become the next Switzerland and stand on the grounds of international neutrality. We would be inviolable. We have already sworn off the nuclears. We don't need massive weapons to destroy enemies we don't wish for.
As peacekeepers we do our part but that makes us non-neutral. We play a vital role in the process but we're not really keeping the peace are we? I mean there are wars everywhere. Peacekeeping is not a very successful mission.
As a financial center for international trade we might leverage a special relationship with all the belligerent parties and help them see the cooler paths. Blessed are the peacemakers, they say. But who blesses the peacekeepers? They stand up and face bullets and bombs without much right to fire back.
The aftermath of being a regional power is that you are assigned your niche on the world stage and then you have to play that role quietly. Other nations make the grave decisions and we must all live by them. Is that really fair?
