The New Year Quote by Javier Solana

Diplomatic language rarely tries to be memorable; it tries to be irreversible. Solana’s line is built like a warning label: “very clear,” “unity,” “determination,” “entire international community,” “collective responsibility.” Each phrase is a brick in a wall meant to leave Baghdad with fewer rhetorical exits. This is not persuasion aimed at the Iraqi public so much as choreography for everyone else watching: allies who need reassurance, fence-sitters who need a nudge, and skeptics who must be shown that escalation is “procedural,” not chosen.

The intent is to convert a Security Council resolution from paper into pressure. “Message to Baghdad” frames Iraq as the singular addressee and problem, while “entire international community” inflates the sender into something like a moral majority. It’s a classic move in multilateral politics: treat consensus as an instrument, not a description. Even if the unity is partial or fragile, declaring it out loud attempts to make dissent look like sabotage.

The subtext sits in “assume its collective responsibility.” Responsibility for what, exactly? The phrase politely avoids naming the consequence - inspections, sanctions, force - while implying that action is the only adult option. It also launders agency: if coercion follows, it won’t be any one capital’s decision; it will be the community “assuming” duties it already had. Contextually, this kind of rhetoric belongs to the post-Cold War moment when institutions sought to prove they could discipline rogue states - and when leaders needed the UN’s seal to make hard power feel like governance.