WORLD PEACE

The nations of the world will enjoy peace when they freely surrender a portion of their respective sovereignties into the hands of a representative government of all the nations. When such a representative or democratic world power controls the world’s land, air and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail—but not until then.

I. INTERNATIONALISM

The human race is the fundamental body to which we all belong. We are all members of the human family—we are each others’ brothers and sisters. As international teams of astronauts look down from space and the Internet makes instant worldwide communication possible, internationalism rather than nationalism is beginning to better represent the fundamental relationship we have with one another on the planet.

While national matters are best handled by national sovereignty, international affairs can best be handled by international sovereignty. Imagine a world with democratic nations, where an international legislature makes laws designed to safely keep national armies within their own borders with an international court to interpret the law and an international police force to enforce the international law. Peace can become the watch care of such an international government.

THE LAW AND FORCE

The people of the fifty U.S. states live together in peace because the state governments have surrendered their sovereignty and have abandoned all notions of the rights of self-determination. Since the bloody civil war that established it, this peaceful union remains unchallenged, stable and thriving. England, Scotland, and Wales were constantly fighting each other until they, too, gave up their respective sovereignties to the United Kingdom. Now the UK enjoys peace within its borders.

Peace is dependent on the reign of law. And, law is dependent on the just use of force by authorized peace keepers. Civilized people have restricted individual crime by legalizing the use of force only when it is used to ensure peace. An International Government can reduce war to a minimum, just as domestic courts function to minimize crime, by making war a legal action only when conducted by authorized troops for the peace, safety, and security of all humankind.

The well-meaning pacifist proclaims, “You can’t have peace by waging war.” But, that is exactly what must be done. Just as we can easily distinguish between the criminal and the sheriff who uses legal force against him, similarly, war, waged by order of the legal authority of International Government for safe-guarding the peace of nations, is distinguished from war waged for territory or revenge.

There can’t be lasting peace without force. Any hope for world peace without coercive international law is a futile dream. To make peace we must be willing to wage legal war. Without law, you can only have peace when the weaker submits to the stronger.

The time is approaching for an age of Internationalism–when the mostly democratic nations of our world will follow the wise counsel of the fathers of American independence where they wrote, in the Declaration of Independence:

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter, abolish, or institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

II. PEACE FORCE FOR US TODAY

Even though the people of the world are beginning to imagine a peaceful world backed by international law, the world is still an unorganized and lawless entity. Only a minority of humans live in democratic nations. Murderous individuals and groups still threaten the people of the world. Like other nations, the U.S. faces aggressive hostility from outside our national borders. Unilateral disarmament in the face of these threats would be a direct contribution to war. A defenseless nation, without the protection of international law, is vulnerable. Only by remaining intelligent and fully armed is the U.S. able to defend itself until until the international courts can be established.

Prior to World War II, the U.S. watched Nazi Germany stop making automobiles and begin making airplanes. They watched as the Nazi government terrorized and conscripted its citizens, devalued its schools, rationed food, limited incomes and imprisoned its own citizens in concentration camps. They were 2,000 miles away so the U.S. refused to be involved. Leaders in England, France, and America saw Mussolini, Hitler, and Tojo arming but didn't take it seriously enough. The League of Nations was impotent; and the world democracies were unorganized and unwilling to fight. They hated war and longed for peace – but what can be said of nations that stand by, complacently, while world gangsters plunder the civilized world, murdering and starving entire families in a campaign of genocide?

At various times an army of 5,000 to 25,000 might have prevented World War II, the war that eventually cost humanity 60 million deaths. May it never happen again! Yet, in today’s world, we’re faced with some of the same conditions. And yet many of us would choose to watch and idly wish for world peace.

We are outraged when we see gangsters committing crime locally. But, when we see the heads of governments committing crimes against a captive population, some see it as a sovereign matter – the right of those nations to express their will and determine their own course. But, no nation or individual has a right to destroy life or liberty. No nation can rationalize murder under the cover of real or perceived injustices they may have suffered. No nation should be allowed to participate in deception while they arm themselves in preparation for war. Honest nations keep their word and live up to their treaties. Honest men and women cannot have confidential dealings with thugs and gangsters.

In a world without international law, a dogma of non-intervention is uncivilized. What would we think of a police officer who refused to help a citizen who was engaged in a struggle with a armed criminal, simply because the crime was happening across the street in another jurisdiction? We would expect the armed officer to cross the street and offer assistance. But, it is just such strange and inhuman conduct on the part of the world powers that currently enables unscrupulous war lords and dictators to become rulers in their domains. It is immoral and cowardly for a group of law-abiding citizens to stand idly by and see fellow citizens being held up, beaten and robbed; and such moral indifference, in the name of non-intervention, can be suicidal to a nation.

Until such time as a world government ensures world peace, the only wise and just policy is to be strong to protect ourselves and to assist those whose life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is daily threatened. It is a difficult reality to accept, but there can be no neutrality between right and wrong.

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