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In 140 Characters (#140c): Carl Bildt

Berlin Policy Journal September/October 2015
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Sweden’s former PM and foreign minister on being undiplomatic on Twitter.

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@carlbildt You’ve served both as PM and Foreign Minister of #Sweden, which job is more enjoyable?

@berlinpolicy Very different jobs. As a PM you have direct overall responsibility in your country. As FM you certainly have your responsibilities, but sometimes rather more limited possibilities of actually influencing the state of the world.

 

@carlbildt You’ve been described in US cables as “medium size dog with big dog attitude“ – fair comment?

@berlinpolicy Well, not entirely unfair. A smaller country must always try to play in a somewhat higher league. Whether I succeeded or not is for others to judge. But the attempt was certainly there.

 

@carlbildt As EU envoy you much contributed to a diplomatic settlement in the #Balkans; main lessons? (1/2)

@berlinpolicy First that you must truly understand the nature of a conflict. I’m not sure we always did that in the Balkans. And secondly that in order to try to get a settlement you must have all the external actors of relevant lined up for the same policy. That took far too long to achieve in the Balkans.

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Read the complete article in the Berlin Policy Journal App – September/October 2015 issue.

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