The President of the Geneva School of Diplomacy, Mr. Colum de Sales Murphy, gave a talk at the School for International Training (SIT)entitled "Somalia and Bosnia: Applying and Misapplying Lessons of the Past".
Mr. Murphy talked of his own experience as former High Official of the United Nations Organization in the field of peace negotiation in Somalia and Bosnia Herzegovina. Amongst the many remarks he made, he talked of the invention of the "Mogadishu Line" concept in Somalia and how it was misused later on in Bosnia. Using the quotation from George Santayana, the Spanish-American poet and philosopher who said that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", Mr. Murphy reiterated the need for the international community to not remake the same mistakes of the past.
If you want a short summary of Mr. Murphy's experience in Bosnia, please check the review by Stanley Hoffmann, on Foreign Affairs
Article Released by the GENEVA SCHOOL of DIPLOMACY
