Cempaka Belanda: The future of Dutch foreign policy

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Friday, January 29, 2010

The future of Dutch foreign policy

NRC International, 29 January 2010 14:10, Giles Scott-Smith, Opinion

Dutch foreign minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (left) and prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende (centre) visited US president George Bush in the White House in September 2003. Photo Bloomberg

The investigation into the reasoning behind the Dutch support for the US-UK invasion of Iraq may well mark a post-Cold War turning point for Dutch foreign policy. The days of the taken-for-granted US-European relationship are over.

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One significant finding of the investigation into the reasoning behind the Dutch support for the US-UK invasion of Iraq, published earlier this month, was the decisive role of the ‘Atlantic reflex’. The committee chaired by former supreme court judge Willibrord Davids concluded the ministry of foreign affairs had treated the question primarily as an issue of alliance with its strongest international partner, rather than an issue to be decided on merits of international law.

The 'Atlantic reflex' dates from the founding of Nato in 1949, and has since become the cornerstone of Dutch security policy. From then on the global threat posed by communist ideology in general and the military power of the Soviet Union in particular justified acting alongside the principal opponent to this danger, the United States. For many Dutch Cold War Atlanticists, any movement away from this position would undermine the Western alliance and play into the hands of Moscow.

It is important to realise, however, that even during the Cold War the Netherlands never simply followed everything the United States did. Much has been written about the heavy disagreements between the two countries over the continuation of Dutch colonial rule in the Far East after the second world war, and there were other moments of conflicting interests.

No knee-jerk support

The Dutch government was reluctant to send troops to the Korean War in 1950, and in the Suez Crisis of 1956 the Dutch foreign minister, Joseph Luns, supported the British and the French against what he considered to be unreasonable behaviour on the part of US president Eisenhower. Luns, who later became the secretary general of Nato, also insisted it was ludicrous to expect that the Netherlands would send forces to support the US war in Vietnam (yet he did his best to protect the ally from growing criticism in the Dutch parliament). In the 1970s Dutch development aid went directly against US interests. Protests that erupted in the Netherlands in the early 1980s to stop the placement of cruise missiles on Dutch soil were fuelled by a broad socio-political movement that refused to accept the givens of a seemingly eternal (and increasingly dangerous) confrontational Cold War policy.

In short, it is too easy to assume the Netherlands has always displayed knee-jerk support for the wishes of the US. Whenever the interests of the two nations have not coincided, the Netherlands has always sought its own path. This has never been at the cost of the fundamentals of the transatlantic relationship. On the contrary, by making it clear its support cannot be taken for granted, the Netherlands made sure its differing opinions were taken seriously. An alliance such as this, based on a strong adherence to democratic values, can only benefit from respecting alternative viewpoints amongst its members. The ‘Atlantic reflex’, as the Davids report clearly shows, is ultimately in no-one's interests.

Flexibility over dogma

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the former Nato secretary general and the Dutch foreign minister at the time of the Iraq invasion in 2003, said in a radio interview this week the days of the taken-for-granted US-European relationship are now over. US president Obama has referred to himself as a 'Pacific president' and with the emergence of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) the global power system is becoming more multipolar.

From oil and gas deals with the Russians to trade missions with the Chinese, Dutch foreign policy is moving with these new times. At the same time, threats can no longer be defined by a single enemy as in the Cold War. Obviously the relation with the United States will remain of vital importance – if not prima inter pares – based on common values, interests, and goals. But even De Hoop Scheffer, the man at the centre of the Atlantic reflex in 2002-2003, now recognises the changing circumstances. Global politics in the 21st century will be marked by flexibility, not dogma. It will take a little while to sort out what it means in practice, but the Davids report may well mark a post-Cold War turning point for Dutch foreign policy.

Giles Scott-Smith holds the Ernst van der Beugel chair in diplomatic history at Leiden University.

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