If you could ask Paddy Ashdown three questions, what would they be?

1. What does Europe currently mean to you, and to what degree would you say Europe is something 'to believe in'? What should the EU's future role be in peacemaking and peacekeeping (in- and outside of the borders of the EU)?
2. When you talk about more success in peacemaking and peacekeeping, you talk about both institutional changes (UN, NATO, EU, Private Sector) as well as changing mindsets. The dilemma seems to be in the shift from conflict phases (which need 'hard power') to prevention and post-conflict reconstruction phases (which need 'soft power'). I sometimes work in international environments, where dilemma reconciliation (based on the works of Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars) is a useful tool for dealing with cultural differences in a working environment. Key ingredient in dilemma reconciliation are the following questions or thought experiments: 'how can we achieve more prevention and reconstruction (using 'soft power') by dealing with more conflict (using 'hard power')' an 'how can we better deal with more conflict (using 'hard power') by achieving even more prevention and reconstruction (using 'soft power')?' Would you like to spend some time trying to reconcile this dilemma?
3. Will the credit crunch and a global economic downturn help in peacemaking and peacekeeping? Or will it have a severly negative impact on these efforts? If so, what can governments and other institutions do to prevent more international conflicts? And what can individuals do?