In memoriam Pierre Harmel (1911-2009)

On 11 March 2009 Pierre Harmel passed away. His tenure as Belgian foreign minister (1966-1973) coincided with the burgeoning East-West detente, in which he himself took no small part. Replying to those who linked him with a ‘doctrine’, he invariably responded: ‘Je ne suis pas l’homme d’une doctrine. Je suis l’homme d’une politique’.