WORLD
PEACE FORCE
—100
YEARS FOR TRANSITION
SYNOPSIS:
This essay will explore the various problems
that must be overcome before a world peace force
will be fully in charge of the peace of the planet Earth.
When we speak of such a long period of transition,
it is an acknowledgment that no particular generation of humans
will be in charge of the ultimate outcome.
But we also know that even such a long journey
will never be completed
unless it begins
sometime.
OUTLINE:
1.
WHEN WILL THE TRANSITION BEGIN?
2.
THE OLD FORMS OF LAW-AND-ORDER
WILL REMAIN IN PLACE UNTIL THEY ARE NO LONGER NEEDED.
3.
MAJOR RESISTANCE TO THE WORLD PEACE FORCE
CAN BE EXPECTED FROM POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERS.
4.
INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS IN SMALL COUNTRIES
AS THE FIRST STEPS TOWARD A WORLD PEACE FORCE.
A. Example—Sudan.
B. Peacekeeping in Small Nations is Not
Controversial.
C. Successful Deployment of the World Peace Force
Will Make its Work Known.
WORLD
PEACE FORCE
—100
YEARS FOR TRANSITION
by
James Park
1. WHEN WILL THE TRANSITION
BEGIN?
Perhaps only in retrospect will it be possible to
say
just when the era of world peace began.
It might even be said that some of the efforts in the early 21st century
marked the beginning of the long transition to world peace.
Even early efforts that did not work
might later be seen as the beginning of a turn in world consciousness
so that people were more concerned about the peace of our planet
than the power of any given
nation-state.
2. THE OLD FORMS OF
LAW-AND-ORDER
WILL REMAIN IN PLACE UNTIL THEY
ARE NO LONGER NEEDED.
As we begin this process of thinking about a new
Earth at peace,
we recognize that right now national military forces
are in charge of world order.
Most importantly, the United States of America
has been acting as the enforcer of its views.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say
that the President of the United States
took charge of world order in the early 21st century.
George W. Bush took military action in 2003 in Iraq
because there is no other force strong enough to control the world.
President Barak Obama is taking a different
approach,
beginning in 2009.
The previous state of affairs emerged
not because of any international decisions
to make the USA the enforcer of world peace and security.
But it was a decision-by-default:
No other national military force was strong enough to take over Iraq.
And perhaps other countries decided
that it was not proper for them to attempt
to enforce their ideas of law-and-order on the world.
We might refer back to an earlier time when the
world was ruled
by the Pax Britannia—peace
enforced on the world
by the power of the royal navy and various colonial armed forces.
But the British Empire has now disappeared.
And it does not seem likely to re-emerge.
It was not really replaced by the Pax Americana
because the United States of America
did not actually own
other nations as colonies.
And the military forces of the USA
were not used as the police forces
of other nations except with a few minor exceptions,
which were always protested
by a significant segment of the American population.
And usually the Congress of the USA
was the means by which foreign military adventures
begun by the President of the United States were ended.
A useful analogy might be the old west in the USA.
Before recognized sheriffs and their men enforced law-and-order,
each individual in the wild west had to have a gun
in order to protect himself or herself from
hostile Indians and outlaws.
In many cases, such ad-hoc 'justice' was not really justice.
It was whatever order the
people with the guns thought they should
impose.
But over a period of perhaps 50 years,
real law-and-order did emerge in the wild west.
And it was no longer necessary for each individual to carry a gun.
And the emergence of modern means of communication
has made it mostly unnecessary for individuals to own guns.
It is better to call upon the local police to deal with outlaws.
There will probably never be a time in human history
when police will no longer be necessary.
There might be some advanced cultures
where the people are so peaceful that the police are rarely needed.
But even in the most law-abiding societies,
there will always be a few individuals who violate the laws
and who therefore need to be controlled by the established police
forces.
The same is true on the international scale:
Law-and-order on the planet Earth
must be maintained by national military forces
until there is a better police force
that can take over the duties of the ad-hoc, self-appointed sheriff of
the world.
There have been meaningful international efforts to
create peace.
And we should expect more moves toward planetary peace
during the 100 years of transition to the World Peace Force.
When rogue nations such as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
decided to take over the world,
the rest of the world was unified in opposing them.
The Second World War, 1939-1945,
was a genuine combined effort of the peaceful nations of the world
to resist the efforts of the Axis powers to rule the world.
The Korean war, 1949-1954, was also an international
effort
coordinated by the United Nations
to prevent North Korea from taking over South Korea.
Since then, we have seen more unilateral efforts by
the United States
to impose its will on other nations such as Vietnam and Iraq.
In Vietnam we claimed we were fighting Communism.
In Iraq we claimed we were fighting terrorism.
The war in Afghanistan is more international in scope
than the American occupation of Iraq.
Several other nations besides the USA are meaningfully involved
in trying to settle the problems of Afghanistan.
If and when a World Peace Force emerges,
then it will be the logical military force to call upon
whenever law-and-order breaks down anywhere on planet Earth.
When there are one million
men and women armed and ready,
then national military forces
will be a relic of the past.
Just as there will always be a need for police
in the city of Minneapolis, where I live,
since there will always be a fringe population of law-violators,
so there will always be a need for the World Peace Force,
since there will always be a fringe of political and military leaders
who will lead their nations into behavior
no longer approved by the world community.
As the city police become more effective in
enforcing the law,
there is less and less need for individuals citizens
to take responsibility to enforce law-and-order.
Most major cities still do have problems with gun-toting criminals.
But with each gun taken off the streets,
the people become more safe.
And as law-and-order is more deeply established in
our local communities,
the demand by law-abiding citizens to own guns
becomes less and less valid.
But there will always be a need for armed police
to control the armed criminals.
3. MAJOR RESISTANCE TO THE
WORLD PEACE FORCE
CAN BE EXPECTED FROM POLITICAL AND
MILITARY LEADERS.
Because the world is so familiar with national
military forces,
the peoples of the world will not believe that any World Peace Force
will work until it actually proves
effective in real battles.
And the national military heritage of each nation
will also be a barrier to the development of a World Peace Force.
National pride and the honor extended to soldiers who lost their lives
in various wars
will not be diminished until world
pride and honor
is extended to soldiers who
lost their lives defending world peace.
This is one significant reason 100 years will be
required
to make the transition to the World Peace Force.
Past generations of national pride will not easily pass from the scene.
It will take two or three generations of new experiences
before the military culture of any nation will disappear.
And there will be a long period of overlap
when national military forces will be maintained
even while peace-keep actions are undertaken by the World Peace Force.
Already it has been 50 years since the first and
last use of
the atomic bomb.
But the United States is still a very long way from giving up this
weapon.
Such voluntary disarmament will not take place
until we citizens of the USA are convinced
that nuclear weapons are no longer needed.
Will the USA keep its nuclear missiles
until after a credible World
Peace Force
has shown by its successes
that it can enforce
the peace even better
than nuclear arms owned by various nation-states?
4. INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS IN
SMALL COUNTRIES
AS THE FIRST STEPS TOWARD A WORLD
PEACE FORCE.
Because all national leaders will be leery of any
World Peace Force,
they will keep control of their national military forces
for as long as such armed forces are needed,
or at long as the national leaders can convince their peoples
that they need to keep funding national armed forces.
But it seems likely that small military actions of a
few thousand soldiers
drawn from the national military forces of various nations
and used to enforce law-and-order in small nations
where the government has not been able to maintain peace and security
will be a transitional phase toward a World Peace Force.
A. Example—Sudan.
For example, Sudan is a divided nation in Africa.
The ethnic strife long seen there might be ended
when an international military force moves in to Sudan
to prevent further violence
and killing.
And if these soldiers are mostly from other nations in Africa,
it will not be seen as an attempt to revive Western imperialism.
The soldiers and the people they protect will have the same colors of skin.
If soldiers from different nations in Africa,
speaking different languages
and supported by disparate populations in their home countries
can in fact end the
ethnic violence in Sudan,
then this will be a small example of international cooperation
that might become a model for the next phase of international
peace-keeping.
It might even become necessary to establish
a semi-permanent force of troops from other nations
because the government of Sudan is too identified with one ethnic group.
(And the president has been indicted for committing genocide.)
If the national armed forces of Sudan
cannot be trusted to maintain peace and security,
then other soldiers will have to take that responsibility.
After a few years of peace and security in the Sudan,
then perhaps a new form of government will emerge,
which will show by its objective actions that it can maintain
law-and-order
without favoring one ethnic group over other groups.
If and when that happens, the international forces can depart.
If there were a World Peace Force,
this would likely become the standard pattern
for handling internal strife and small civil wars:
There would no delays
while the nations decide what to do:
As soon as it is known that genocide is happening,
the World Peace Force would
be there
with soldiers to separate the factions that want to kill one another.
B.
Peacekeeping in Small Nations is Not
Controversial.
We in the Western nations do not have any perceived
national interests in Sudan.
All we could want is the humanitarian goal of the end of violence and
killing.
And we have no particular reason to favor one ethnic group over another.
If there were a small World Peace Force already in
existence,
there would be almost unanimous approval for deploying those soldiers
to create and maintain peace in Sudan or other similar situations.
At first, it might be necessary to use troops
who do not speak the languages of the groups in conflict.
But once the killing stops,
then more appropriate soldiers can be employed to maintain the peace
over however many years are required
before the nation is able to handle its own internal affairs once again.
In small counties, political changes will probably mark the beginning
of the solution.
However, it will never be the role of the World
Peace Force
to favor any one form of government over others.
The WPF is only there to prevent killing.
Then the people will have to settle their disputes peacefully.
The people of each country will have to establish their own forms of
government
that will enforce local and national law-and-order.
C. Successful
Deployment of the World Peace Force
Will Make its Work Known.
After the World Peace Force (or similar
international efforts)
have actually been able to maintain the peace in a few small countries,
the peoples of the world will find it more reasonable and natural
to call upon the World Peace Force than to send their own national
troops.
With each successful story of the World Peace Force
in small, troubled nations
the reputation of the World Peace Force will grow.
There will be more financial support for the WPF from everyone who
cares about peace.
And the children of the world will learn
that peace can be maintained by armed men and women
who do not work for
any of the nation-states on the planet Earth.
When children grow up in a world
where there are representatives of the World Peace Force
already stationed in every place on the Earth,
then the WPF will seem as wise as having local police.
As each succeeding generation has positive news
about the World Peace Force,
it will seem to be a more reasonable and natural part of world
history.
When trouble breaks out anywhere on the Earth,
everyone will think first of the WPF
rather than beginning debate about sending in their national soldiers.
The peoples of the world will begin to realize that
the total cost of peacekeeping
is much less when they support the World Peace Force
than when they spend money on their own national military forces.
As support for the World Peace Force grows,
support for national military forces will diminish.
And after about 100 years of success,
the armies, navies, & air forces of all of the nations on Earth
can be phased out—because
they are no longer needed.
AUTHOR:
James Park is an existential philosopher
living and
writing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Much more will be discovered about him on his website:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/
World Peace
Force—Early Thinking
This
link leads to a collection of other essays by James Park
dealing with various dimensions of the proposed World Peace Force.
Links to other useful ideas along the same lines can
be added here.
Who else—anywhere
on Earth—is
thinking about a World Peace Force?
Created
October 4, 2008; Revised 11-22-2008; 1-29-2009; 3-27-2009; 5-6-2009; 5-8-2009