WORLD WITHOUT WAR
Minnesota and North Dakota share a border
several hundred miles long.
It consists of a section of the Red River of the North,
which flows northward into Manitoba, Canada,
and finally into Hudsons Bay.
There has never been a war over this border.
How many other borders on the earth
have never seen war?
The
reason that Minnesota and North Dakota
have never gone to war over any dispute
is that this is one of the most civilized parts of the world.
We have non-violent means of settling all disputes.
If there were ever a difference over any issue,
such as different rates of sales taxes or property taxes
on the two sides of the Red River,
then these are settled by discussion.
And if cooperation does not resolve the disputes,
the Federal courts are available to help decide
any issue between these two states.
Another reason that Minnesota and North Dakota
have never gone to war
is that they do not have any standing military
forces.
Both states have elements of the National Guard,
which are parts of the larger United States military forces,
which are sometimes called upon to take part in military actions
overseas.
But it is unthinkable that the National Guard of North Dakota
would ever fight the National Guard of Minnesota.
Anyone who tried to start such a fight
would be removed from office immediately as insane.
It
might take several decades or even as much as a
century,
but there is no logical reason why the rest of the world
cannot be made as peaceful and immune to war
as we are in the the north central United States.
What
are the most obvious first steps toward a civilized,
war-free world?
I. A World Police Force
to Replace all National Military Forces.
II. A World Court with
all the Powers Necessary to Enforce its Rulings.
III. Several Years of
Peace
in which the New World Police and World Court
Show that they Can Do the Work
Formerly Performed by National Military
Forces.
IV. Disarmament of all
National Military Forces,
Phased in Over Many
Years.
I.
A World Police Force to Replace all National Military Forces.
A
World Police Force or World Peace Force
of about one million men and women stationed all over the Earth
would be established and funded from non-national money.
The
World Peace Force would not be subject to the dictates
of any national governments, ethnic groups, political parties, or
individuals.
Rather, it would operate according to World Law
(which will have to be much better defined than it is now),
in order to enforce only clearly defined rules of world order.
For
example, the World Peace Force will not take sides
in any disputes among groups within a nation
(even disputes that cross national borders)
unless the behavior of either side (or both sides)
violates clearly-defined rules of world order.
One
example of a situation where the World Peace Force
would intervene is genocide,
where people are killing one another because of their group identity.
Once
the World Peace Force is established
and has proved its ability to keep order in the world,
all national military forces will be phased out.
National military forces will not
be needed
because the World Peace Force will prevent
any aggression of one nation against another.
The
World Peace Force will be stationed all over the world,
which will enable it to know when problems are beginning to arise.
II. A World Court with all the Powers Necessary to Enforce its Rulings.
The World Peace Force will
usually take action
without any decisions by other organizations
---just as a city police force does not need direction from
politicians.
But occasionally, the proper course of action
will have to be settled by the World Court.
These are ambiguous situations
that do not easily fit any of the rules of international order.
And these will be situations that do not require immediate action
in order to prevent war or genocide.
For example, disputes over international borders,
where there is no actual violence taking place,
could be settled by the World Court,
which would hear all sides to the dispute
until enough facts and opinions had been collected
to make a wise decision.
Then the World Peace Force would be instructed
to enforce whatever border-decision the World Court achieved.
In the past, United Nations decisions have been
ignored
because the UN did not have any military forces to enforce the
decisions.
But in the future, national forces will have been disbanded.
And the only people will military weapons will be the World Peace
Force.
III.
Several Years of Peace
in which the New World Police and World Court
Show that they Can Do the Work
Formerly Performed by National Military
Forces.
After the World Peace Force
has come into being,
there will be a transition period during which it will have to prove
itself,
before national military forces will be disbanded.
The World Peace Force will not be strong enough
to handle major international conflicts between nations.
But small conflicts can be handled by the World Peace Force.
As in the Wild West of the frontier America,
the people all had to have guns in order to enforce law and order
until there were established ordinary police forces,
which could handle all criminals
without calling upon the ordinary citizens to form a posse.
As an example of better law and order,
Canada during the same period of settlement of its West
did not have a lawless and violent history
because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the Mounties)
were there before many settlers arrived.
Law and order was established before
the people came.
If the World Peace Force is funded by voluntary
contributions,
then it will have to prove itself over a period of several years
before it will have sufficient funds to expand its size and fire-power
so that it can handle major conflicts between nations.
But this job will become much easier
as national military forces are phased out.
When the politicians of any nation
have no further military power at their disposal,
they will not attempt to settle disputes by committing war on one
another.
Just how long it will take for national forces to be
replaced
by a world order policed by the World Peace Force is difficult to
predict.
If there is a relatively peaceful phase of world history,
then it can be accomplished in a few decades.
And each success, approved by all open-minded observers,
will encourage nations to voluntarily give up their national forces.
There will be a few hold-out dictators who know
that once they give up their national military forces,
they themselves will be out of office, in prison, or dead.
They have kept themselves in power
by the fact that they commanded the military forces,
which kept any opposition from forming.
Unfortunately, the last military dictators
will have to be overthrown by the World Peace Force
---because they refused to disarm.
And the World Peace Force should have people
trained in the art of nation-building
after a military dictator has been removed
and the last of his military forces have been demobilized.
For a period of some years,
the World Peace Force itself might have to police that nation
until it creates a different form of government
and sets up new laws and new police forces
to enforce the new law and order.
IV.
Disarmament of all National Military Forces,
Phased in Over Many
Years.
It is relatively easy for us
to think of other nations being disarmed.
We will especially welcome the downfall of the last military dictators.
But disarmament means that even the major, peace-loving nations
will have to give up their national forces.
And we will do this only when we have been convinced by strong
historical examples
that the World Peace Force can actually do a better job
of creating world order
than when this was attempted by certain nations
using their own national military forces.
Everyone knows that the strongest nation in the
world
militarily is the USA.
But if American citizens individually and in small groups
prove to be the strongest financial base for the World Peace Force,
then the same people will vote again and again
to eliminate the US national military forces
once the World Peace Force has proven by its behavior
that it can do the job even better.
Speaking as just one citizen of the USA,
I will have to be completely convinced that the World Peace Force
is able to do it job using voluntary funding from all sources
before I will vote to disband the US national military forces.
This might not happen during my life-time.
But if not, then I hope that next generation
will see its way clear to abolishing all national military forces
once the World Peace Force has proven its ability to enforce world law
and order.
AUTHOR:
James Park is an independent existential philosopher,
living and writing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Much more will be learned about him from his website:
An Existential
Philosopher's Museum.
draft 3-5-2001, revised 3-24-2003;
6-25-2003; 1-6-2007; 1-13-2007
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