Former German U.N. Ambassador Hans Arnold said terrorism is too broad a problem to prevent with military force, in a speech yesterday evening in the Union.

“We have to see that there are forces behind terrorist actions that are many-fold,” he said to an audience of about 35 people. “To my mind terrorism is a society problem.”

Drawing a parallel between U.S. patriots during the War for Independence and today’s terrorists in the Middle East, Arnold said military actions against terrorism may bring quick results, but diplomatic negotiations would have more lasting effects against terrorism.

He explained that many Americans identify terrorists as religious extremists, but he believes the terrorists have political, not religious, agendas. Skewed viewpoints on the origins of terrorism may stem from the U.S. news media’s coverage of foreign policy, he said.

Arnold said the news media did not accurately depict the extent of protest from European people against war in Iraq. On the eve of the United States’ attack on Iraq, Arnold said 500,000 anti-war protesters marched in the streets of Munich, his hometown.

With such overwhelming anti-war sentiment in the country, Germany refused to send troops to Iraq, and still is against the United States’ decision to attack Iraq.

In addition to commenting on the U.S. foreign policy to nix terrorism, Arnold spoke about the past and present roles of NATO and the European Union in world politics.

Arnold said that the United States, which initiated the creation of NATO and the U.N., now believes, “there should not be any power or any state that should put them [United States] in a secondary position.”

He believes the end of NATO came with the 9/11 attacks. When the United States was attacked and decided to deal with the terrorist threat alone, Arnold said the role of NATO as an alliance was ignored.

At this point, “there was no way back for NATO,” he said.

The EU, he said, was created to reduce the threat of the Soviet Union, give Europe a stronger say in foreign affairs and increase the prosperity of western Europe. Today, the EU is still trying to unite Europe, without losing the cultural distinctions between countries, he said.

“The Europeans want to be unified, but they don’t want to be uniform,” Arnold said.

He added that the EU will never become a single nation, primarily due to language barriers.

Kristie Foell, director of International Studies, said she tried last year to bring Arnold to campus, but he was completely booked. This year, she was the first in line to invite the former diplomat.

“Dr. Arnold describes himself as a witness of history,” she said. “His years of active service were very interesting ones.”

A member of the German Foreign Service from 1951 to 1986, Arnold witnessed the effects of the Cold War on a divided Germany. In the 1960s, he served as the head of the German Foreign Ministry under Chancellor Willy Brandt. From 1982 through 1986, he represented Germany as a member of the U.N. During this time, he watched the early formation of what would later be called the European Union.