There are many challenges our country and the international community face in the future - climate change, dwindling biodiversity, polluted oceans, nuclear proliferation, and a pandemic and maybe future pandemics.
None of these challenges involve nation-states using force to spread a political doctrine like Fascism or Communism. Solving our problems will require an internationalist mindset and an alternative to the system of conflict and war, as stated by writer April Short in her story "How Humanity Can Realistically Prevent War from Ever Happening Again."
Short makes an important point in her story: "anthropological evidence suggests war is not innate to humanity, as detailed in a recent Independent Media Institute article on the topic. Further, war can be successfully stopped and can be prevented in the future when societies shift their cultures and values and adopt intentional systems of peace, or what are now called peace systems, due in large part to the work of anthropologist Douglas P. Fry. Fry, a professor and chair of the department of peace and conflict studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has studied existing clusters of neighboring societies that do not make war with each other, and how they operate, for years." These systems exist in Brazil's Upper Xingu River Basin tribes and Aboriginal Australians, as well as in larger societies, like the European Union (EU)--a peace system that would have been assumed impossible just decades prior to its adoption.
Fry noted that the idea of European countries waging war against each other today is absurd; even though the United Kingdom voted to leave the organization. Short said peace systems typically hold certain values: overarching common identity, positive social interconnectedness, interdependence, non-warring values and norms, non-warring myths, rituals, and symbols, and peace leadership.
These ideas do a good job of summarizing the concept of peace through arms control and diplomatic engagement. However, these ideas are being put to the test in a world full of geopolitical tensions. The democratic was of life is receding around the world and is being put to the test in countries with democratic systems. Authoritarian political systems (Russia) and totalitarian political systems (China) are playing a bigger role on the world stage and the United States is opposing them.
What is our biggest obstacle to building peace systems? It would be the overarching common identity. Current conflicts between these various nation-states could blow any peace system up. The key to establishing a peace system in the current quagmire is finding positive rules for all countries to follow. At this time, we must accept that various forms of nation-states will exist and stay away from trying to spread any sort of model outside a nation states' borders.
The problem with this simple idea is that the U.S. has tried to dominate all four corners of the globe since winning the Cold War, and Russia and China are adding fuel to the fire by meddling in the affairs of other countries. The next decade will be key in solving the problems we confront. Can we sit at the table with Russia and China and realize each country has much to lose unless we pool our power behind the idea of international law? A few tasks will be controlling and managing climate change, nuclear proliferation, and preventing the invasion of nation-states by other nation-states. Time will tell if the diplomatic wing of our government, and opposing governments, is up to the task.
Jason Sibert is the executive director of the Peace Economy Project.
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