LONDON, June 26: US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Thursday attacked French President Jacques Chirac’s concept of a multipolar world, dismissing it as a “theory of rivalry” that had never promoted peace.

“Multipolarity was never a unifying idea or vision... it was a necessary evil that sustained the essence of war but did not promote peace,” she said in an address to the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS.)

“Multipolarity is a theory of rivalry, of competing interests and, at its very worst, of competing values,” she told the assembly of experts on international and security affairs.

“We tried it before... it led to the Great War, to the Second World War and to the Cold War,” she said.

She questioned the motives of those who “nostalgically” sought to defend this concept of international relations.

“Why should we try to divide ourselves?” Rice asked. “Only the enemies of freedom would cheer these divisions.”

Although she did not refer specifically to France, Rice’s remarks represented thinly veiled criticism of Paris’ stance.

Throughout the Iraq crisis, France defended its vision of a multipolar world of various power centres, including the United States and Europe, to justify its right to express different views from those of Washington.

At the G8 summit of the world’s leading industrial nations in the French town of Evian this month, Chirac — determined to promote his vision of a multipolar world — invited leaders from a dozen emerging and developing states to join in the talks.

Rice was meeting British leaders in London Friday before travelling to the Middle East over the weekend.—AFP