A bimonthly magazine on international affairs, edited in Germany's capital

In 140 Characters (#140c): Carl Bildt

SHARE
,

Sweden’s former PM and foreign minister on being undiplomatic on Twitter.

BPJ_04-2015_Bildt_cut

@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.

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

google_store_120px_widthapp_store_120px_width
bpj_app_September_October_2015_245px_width-1