Kjell Bondevik, Former Prime Minister of Norway, Visits Occidental

It could be said that in 2002, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Scandinavian country of Norway had one very unlikely characteristic in common: they were both led by clergymen. Or at least so went the humor of then President Mohammad Khatami of Iran and Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway. On October 1, Prime Minister Bondevik visited Occidental College as the second speaker in the Diplomacy and World Affairs Brown Bag Series.

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Since the departure of one Mr. Obama three decades ago, the Oxy community has welcomed to its campus its fair share of world leaders. Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, president and founder of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human rights, was its most recent. He and a small entourage converged on Johnson Hall on the first day of October where he discussed, among other things, Norway as a model country, his time in office, the Oslo Center and its work, and perhaps the most crucial conflict resolution stone so often left unturned, dialogue.

After leaving a long career in government in 2005, Prime Minister Bondevik founded his Oslo Center. In order to achieve the goals it sets, the organization groups its action into three “core pillars.” To deal with situations like those in Burma and North Korea, the Oslo Center employs its Human Rights division. When faced with issues of young nations, the Democracy arm of the Oslo Center works with an eye for coalition building. But of particular note for Bondevik is the third “pillar” into which his organization is involved, Dialogue, with considerable investment in interreligious discourse.

For the context in which interreligious dialogue plays a central part is a contemporary global political climate marked by religiopolitical tensions and the effort to combat extremism. However unpredicted the renewed focus on religion in national and international politics may be, the potential conflict resulting from a conflict between the Western and Islamic worlds does, as Bondevik firmly asserted, compel those involved to choose the path of dialogue, not division.

The Prime Minister’s emphasis on religion is not altogether surprising; he is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church. And his philosophy is astoundingly simple, the sort of synthesis only a clergyman-politician could make without hesitation. One on hand, religion and politics, he says, must remain distinct; they should not bleed together. Yet on the other, said the Prime Minister, we “cannot leave behind religion when going to work.”

With the topic of religion forming the background to much of his discussion, Kjell Bondevik covered issues from Islamic immigration into Europe to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the cartoon of Mohammad that set tempers and Danish flags aflame across the Muslim world. His comments were refreshing and genuine, realized both in study and in practice. The level of investment in his cause was clear.

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Prime Minister Bondevik is only the most recent featured speaker in the Brown Bag Series. Among those previously hosted are prominent journalists, scholars, and politicians. The next Brown Bag event will take place on October 12, featuring the chief foreign affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, Jay Solomon.