In memoriam

The President of the Republic of Estonia on the Security Policy of Estonia at the St Gallen Forum on Security Policy, 25 January 1995

This presentation is about aspects of Estonian security policy. Hundreds of such presentations are made each year. A special brand of academic cockroach has emerged in welfare states—they scuttle from one political kitchen to another, repeating texts with only the name of the state changed at best. They spend more money than the UN peacekeepers, their metalanguage is full of meaning but untranslatable to mere mortals, and they have created an effective circle of solidary defence for themselves. At a time when international organisations melt away before our eyes like margarine under the Saharan sun; when the noise of rockets drowns out the upbeat singing heard from seedy bars; when heads torn from bodies roll on the pavement like footballs on stadium turf, the honourable academic cockroaches have created a mirage of a world in which security, stability and human rights are growing stronger with each day. Often, their most convincing arguments are that, on average, one truce is concluded per week, and even more often we witness blithe declarations in which the explosion of an artillery shell or rocket is hailed as the last one ever, and humankind is ennobled in the Beethovenesque apotheosis of the imminent brotherhood of man.