Daily Alert Archives

To Avoid the Use of Force, Be Ready to Use It

(CNN) Einat Wilf - The ancient Romans said: "he who wants peace must prepare for war." To successfully implement this doctrine, three components must be in place: the capability to use force, projection of a true willingness to use it, and a deep desire to avoid doing so. Prepare for war too much and you risk instigating the very war you wish to avoid; prepare too little and you risk encouraging aggression through weakness and appeasement. An artful balancing act is needed to reach a successful diplomatic outcome. Building the capacity to use force and conveying the willingness to use it can easily lead outsiders to mistakenly interpret such acts as the policies of reckless leaders itching for war. When Netanyahu gave his now famous speech at the UN a year ago, charting a red line to Iran's nuclear weapons program, his speech was not about how to go to war - it was about how to avoid it. His message was that a clear red line to Iran, backed by a credible military threat, was necessary for diplomacy to work. The fact is that diplomacy alone was not going to achieve the aim of curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Diplomacy backed by force had a fighting chance. The writer is a former member of the Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
2013-10-04 00:00:00
Full Article