12 March 2004	Friday	20 Muharram 1425

LAHORE, March 11: The Paris-based Centre for International Peace and Conflict Resolution director Prof Bertrand Badie has said the "unipolar world has given rise to private violence which even the sole superpower of the world is powerless to control".

Speaking at the Lahore University of Management Sciences here on Thursday, Prof Badie said "private violence" could not be controlled because the perpetrators were not easy to identify. Negotiations or compromise were thus impossible. Private violence had its aims and territory but it did not fit in geo-politics, he said.

He said the bipolar world had a commitment to leadership which maintained a balance of power and resolved international conflicts through mutual negotiations.

The "sole superpower" had nobody to negotiate with. The United States tried to make China its adversary after the collapse of Soviet Union, but it refused to play the role of its enemy.

He said that the US was now facing an enemy it could not defeat because it could not identify it. The 9/11 had proved that it was not capable of maintaining peace even in its own territory.

It had been able to remove Saddam Hussain but was finding it difficult to control Iraq. He said that people like Osama Bin Laden were difficult to identify and locate because they were operating from countries they did not belong to.

The US could pressurize governments but not those involved in suicide attacks. He was of the view that Afghanistan was more difficult to manage than Iraq. He said anarchy was expected to increase with the passage of time as the social contract was collapsing due to an increase in violence by marginalized communities like Palestinians.

He said that the US wanted Europe to remain divided as a unified Europe was against its interests as the sole superpower.