Making a difference

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul looks back over recent years. The focus is on the time since 1998, when she assumed the leadership of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development; but she also gives an impressive account of how she experienced first-hand the horrors
of authoritarian rule during a visit to a prison in El Salvador as member of the European Parliament in the 1980s. In the tradition of Willy Brandt, this Social Democrat stresses that there can be no development without peace, and no peace without development. She explains her role in complex multilateral negotiations, describes her impressions of crisis states such as Rwanda, Afghanistan and Cambodia and faces up to Germany’s responsibility for colonial-era genocide in Namibia. The key message is that development policy is not about alms for the poor. The goal is a socially just and environmentally sustainable world order, which, as a result, is stable in the long run. (dem)