When the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union fell in the late Eighties, the USA was the sole remaining superpower. I thought world peace and security was the logical next step, and we could now focus our resources on solving the problems like poverty, hunger, crime, climate change, and disease. We haven’t been able to achieve our potential for worldwide cooperation and progress due to a near constant state of war since the start of the 21st century.
Terrible Waste of War
War is the most destructive and wasteful thing we can do with our time and money. I find it hard to comprehend that with all of the technological and societal advancements we have made as a human race, we still resort to war to resolve our differences. The World War II general & US president Dwight D. Eisenhower said “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man’s intelligence and his comprehension…would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.” I believe that we can and we should find ways to solve disputes between nations and people peacefully.
Undermining the United Nations
After the horror of World War II, the United Nations was created with the goal of providing a democratic and lawful way to resolve international conflicts and prevent war. While the United States was instrumental in the establishment of the UN, in recent times it seems that we have undermined it instead of supporting it. Along with China and Russia, we have repeatedly used our position in the UN Security Council to veto resolutions seeking peace and security. The United Nations has not succeeded in its mission to prevent war, largely because the most powerful countries are not willing to cede their power to a collaborative international body.
War on Terror
Instead of working through the UN for peace as our primary goal, we have tried to use our military might to enforce what we believe to be in the best interest of our country and its allies. Through 2022, the United States federal government spent and obligated $8 trillion dollars on the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the name of global security. These wars have taken a tremendous human and financial toll, but have not made us fundamentally safer. We have lost thousands of US troops, and many more continue to struggle with physical and mental health issues. As of September 2021, an estimated 432,000 civilians in these countries have died violent deaths as a result of the wars, and many more have been displaced. Millions of people have likely developed an intense hatred of us because of these results. A “War on Terror” is likely to breed more terrorists. Now Israel is reacting to their own horrific terrorist attack with a similar destructive result. Albert Einstein said that “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” We need to find a better way.
Framework for Global Cooperation
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been extremely successful in preventing attacks on its member nations. Since its formation in 1949, no member of NATO has been attacked by another country. There is a large deterrence effect for non-members, but an even stronger cooperative effect that makes war between members extremely unlikely. I propose something similar with a larger scope. We could establish a Global Security Treaty, and work through the UN to set up a framework for peace and security. This treaty would be open to all nations that are willing to commit to the following tenets:
- Member countries commit not to wage any war of territorial aggression against another country
- Member countries commit to defending other members in response to an attack
- Member countries commit not to fund proxy groups to carry out any attacks of agression
- Member countries commit to anti-terrorist programs, including programs to address the underlying causes of terrorism, and an international task force to bring terrorists to justice without war
- Member countries commit to a process of establishing and abiding by international law
- Member countries commit to follow a glidepath to an agreed level of defense spending based on a plan for international peace, status to that plan over time, and their GDP
Strong Positive Team Leader
Anyone that has played a team sport or worked on a team knows that the best results come when the team cooperates effectively to achieve a goal. It’s important to have strong players and positive leaders within the team, but if a single player tries to do it all by themself or acts selfishly it can bring down the team. We need to be a strong positive leader on our global team, recognizing that we can’t do it all alone, and creating an environment of cooperation and commitment to achieve the common goal of world peace. The last 75 years have shown that as strong as we are, trying to establish global security by confronting threats on our own or in small coalitions has not worked. Trying to confront terrorism with military force is not effective and collateral damage increases the likelihood of future terrorist attacks. If we pull the global team together for a common purpose, we can achieve the goal of security and peace that most people desire, and then continue that cooperation to address the other challenges we face as a global community.
Further resources:
- Costs of War (brown.edu)
- List of vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions – Wikipedia
- Why NATO Is Essential For World Peace: Former Commander | TIME
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We Can Be Better 
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