From a War-Torn Planet to a Post-War World

Twenty Years After the US Invasion of Iraq,

An Appeal for a 21st Century ‘Strength through Peace’ Pledge 

Twenty years after the illegal US invasion of Iraq – and one year in to the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine – war and militarism have emerged, alongside the climate crisis they help compound, as the curse of the 21st century, blighting efforts to build a truly new, humane world order. Because, in the atomic age, the world cannot reasonably be expected to endure decades more endemic conflict, condemning individual wars and war crimes is, while necessary, not sufficient: it is high time to renounce war itself as a crime against humanity and the planet.

Even the globally traumatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic failed to break the spell of what UN Secretary-General António Guterres called, issuing a largely-unheeded appeal for a global ceasefire, “the folly of war”. And in the wake of the brutal Russian assault on Ukraine, the drumbeat demand for yet more war – the mindless mantra of ‘weapons, weapons, weapons’ – is drowning out calls for peace, diplomacy, reconciliation and disarmament.

As matters precariously stand, the world may seem further away from the central vision of the United Nations – saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war – than ever; and certainly, the world stands closer to destruction than ever: just 90 seconds, according to the recently reset ‘Doomsday Clock’ of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Today, Peace Quest Cape Breton and the Peace Quest Student Society at Cape Breton University are issuing a ‘Strength through Peace’ Pledge, a set of premises about civilized state behavior in the 21st century which we believe the vast majority of the world’s peoples – and a significant majority of UN states – would endorse. And we begin not by asking but demanding that our government, this purportedly ‘progressive’ state of Canada, take a new, bold stand for peace, as it had the courage to do 20 years ago when it refused to serve as accomplice to a fateful, criminal American war.

The ‘Strength through Peace’ Pledge

The government of X subscribes to the following tenets of civilized state behaviour, declaring to its citizens and all peoples of the world that, in the 21st century:

1) war as an instrument of foreign policy – a continuation of politics by violent means – is impermissible and illegitimate under any circumstances;

2) conventional war, itself intolerably destructive and injurious, runs the unacceptable risk of uncontrollable escalation to nuclear use, posing an existential threat to life on Earth paralleled only by the ravages of global warming;

3) offensive wars can and must be prevented through international law and conventions verifiably eliminating all weapons of mass destruction, and limiting all national armed forces to a size and capability strictly commensurate with territorial self-defence;

4) the absence of war implies and requires the presence of credible alternative means and mechanisms for conflict prevention, resolution, and impartial dispute arbitration, backed by substantial and sustained investments in peacebuilding and peace education;

5) the moribund United Nations agenda item, ‘General and Complete Disarmament’ – envisioning a world of defensive-only armed forces and radically reduced military spending – must be recentralized and revived in every appropriate forum;

6) national, regional, and international plans for ‘defence conversion’ should be urgently developed, progressively dismantling the military-industrial complex while providing support and assistance to help military personnel and workers in the defence sector transition to new opportunities and employment;

7) the thoroughgoing demilitarization – and complete denuclearization – of world affairs is an indispensable component and vital dimension of the United Nations’ long-stated goal of fostering a culture of peace and non-violence at all levels of human relations, including relations with the other-than-human world;

8) such demilitarization will crucially facilitate and accelerate the democratization and decolonization, grounded in reconciliation and reparation, of a world system currently dominated by military-industrial powers and alliances, structures of violence concentrated predominantly in the Global North;

9) such demilitarization will produce not only a ‘peace dividend,’ as global expenditure on ‘defence’ plummets from its dizzy height of $2+trillion per annum, but also a ‘green dividend,’ as some of the world’s most environmentally unfriendly, emissions-intensive practices are ended, and some of the gravest threats to the world’s biosphere are eliminated;

10) above all, renouncing war is rendered imperative by the following fundamental consideration: that in an age of unprecedented existential peril, discharging the most basic function of any state – guaranteeing the safety and security of its citizens – is no longer compatible with the traditional pursuit of ‘national security’ through military means.