PEACE---preventing corruption of the World Peace Force---by James Leonard Park

COULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE GO BAD?

SYNOPSIS:

    Whenever human beings have the weapons of war,
there is a risk that those weapons will be turned to evil purposes.
What safeguards prevent the World Peace Force from being misused?

    The military forces belonging to the United States of America
have never been taken over by renegade officers.
Could the World Peace Force be structured in a similar way?
Or could we create even better systems of control,
so that the World Peace Force would never be misused?

OUTLINE:

1. HISTORY SHOWS THAT ARMED FORCES CAN BE MISUSED.

2. SAFEGUARDS BUILT INTO THE WORLD PEACE FORCE
            TO PREVENT MISUSE OF THE ARMED FORCES.

    A. SELECT ONLY THE MOST PEACE-LOVING OFFICERS
            FOR THE WORLD PEACE FORCE.

    B. REMOVE OFFICERS WHO ARE NOT COMMITTED TO PEACE.

    C. DEFUND A WORLD 'PEACE' FORCE THAT FAILS TO KEEP THE PEACE.

    D. DISBAND ONE WORLD 'PEACE' FORCE AND CREATE ANOTHER.

3. THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD BE EVEN MORE SECURE
            THAN THE U.S. MILITARY FORCES.

COULD THE WORLD PEACE FORCE GO BAD?

by James Leonard Park

1. HISTORY SHOWS THAT ARMED FORCES CAN BE MISUSED.

    As recently as the middle of the 20th century,
we have the example of Nazi Germany using its national military forces
in a failed attempt to take over the world.
Hitler is the paradigm of a military dictator who believed
it was the destiny of his country to rule other nations.

    Could the World Peace Force be used in a similar way?
Especially after all national military forces have been disbanded,
what would prevent the World 'Peace' Force from taking over the world?

    Such fears of world-domination by the WPF do have some validity,
especially in the minds of people who use force to dominate others.
If such people were to take over the World 'Peace' Force,
they might try to turn the weapons intended for preserving peace
into weapons for ruling the planet Earth.

2. SAFEGUARDS BUILT INTO THE WORLD PEACE FORCE
TO PREVENT MISUSE OF THE ARMED FORCES.

Since the World Peace Force will take many decades to develop,
any tendency toward misuse of the WPF will probably become evident
early enough to prevent any such tendencies from taking over.

    A. SELECT ONLY THE MOST PEACE-LOVING OFFICERS
            FOR THE WORLD PEACE FORCE.

    Soldiers would be selected for the World Peace Force
because they have an abiding love of peace.
Are there more people on Earth who love war than love peace?
It should not be too difficult to separate these two sorts of people.
Both by their thinking and their behavior,
candidates for the World Peace Force must demonstrate
their unwavering commitment to the cause of peace on Earth.

    B. REMOVE OFFICERS WHO ARE NOT COMMITTED TO PEACE.

    No matter how rigorous the process of selection, there will be mistakes.
Some officers of the World Peace Force will prove by their behavior
that they still favor their own nation over the peace of the planet.
These should be quickly retired and removed from the World Peace Force.

    This assumes that the majority of the leaders of the World Peace Force
were themselves carefully selected to favor peace above everything else.
And they will watch for any nationalistic expressions or behavior
among all of the others who work for the World Peace Force.

    It could also happen that an officer of the World Peace Force
would have a change of heart after being employed to enforce peace.
The peace-loving majority will watch for such changes of commitment.
If and when bad soldiers are discovered,
they will be removed from the World Peace Force in reasonable ways.

    The same applies to the leadership of the World Peace Force.
The civilian board of directors will consist of peace-loving people.
And if ever a director turns away from peace,
he or she will be removed by the other members of the board.

    Also if any of the employees of the World Peace Force
lose their commitment to peace,
the board of directors will removed them from their positions
and replace them with others obviously committed to peace.

    C. DEFUND A WORLD 'PEACE' FORCE THAT FAILS TO KEEP THE PEACE.

    The World Peace Force will have no source of money
other than the contributions of the peace-loving people of the Earth.
And because all of the behavior of the WPF will be known to everyone,
funders will stop sending their money to the WPF if it becomes corrupt.

    Individual nation-states that are displeased
by the World Peace Force will stop sending money.
But if the majority of the funding sources keep sending money,
the loss of some sources of revenue will not cause the WPF to collapse.

    However, if most of the peace-loving people of the Earth
see that the World 'Peace' Force is not keeping the peace,
they will stop sending their money
—and the World 'Peace' Force will collapse
because the soldiers will no longer be paid.

    The World Peace Force will continue to exist only as long
as the people of the world give their continuing support.

    D. DISBAND ONE WORLD 'PEACE' FORCE AND CREATE ANOTHER.

    The worst-case scenario would imagine a World 'Peace' Force
that became so corrupted by oppressors
that the whole organization would have to be replaced.

    The World Peace Force will operate in the full light of day.
Everyone on Earth will know what the WPF is doing on a daily basis.
At least everyone will have easy access to such information.
And if the organization becomes so corrupt
that it is no longer pursuing its original peaceful purposes,
then it will be defunded by all (or most) of the sources of support.

    A fully-corrupt World 'Peace' Force
might have to be replaced by another World Peace Force,
which would start from scratch
in ways similar to the founding of the original World Peace Force.
The New World Peace Force might even be required
to fight against the remnants of the corrupt World 'Peace' Force.

    We could imagine corruption of the armed forces of the USA.
What if a group of generals decided to take over the U.S. government?
This would be immediately stopped by the enlisted men,
who would resist the unlawful orders of the corrupt generals.
If necessary, the soldiers who were loyal to the Constitution of the USA
might have to turn their guns on the rebellious generals
who thought they could use their command-authority to take power.

    Such military take-overs have occurred in other places on the Earth:
Especially in small countries governed by corrupt political leaders,
the people have supported military coups.
The soldiers could see the advantages (and even the justice)
of obeying the orders of the rebellious military leaders
rather than continuing to support the corrupt political leaders.

    Such military take-overs of stable and reasonable governments
does not seem possible because of the simple fact
that the enlisted men and women understand their system of government.
They would disobey unlawful orders to overthrow their own government.

    We could be even more certain of the officers of the World Peace Force.
Because the World Peace Force will ultimately reach a strength
of 10% of all armed forces on the Earth at present,
the World Peace Force will be more careful in selecting its soldiers
than any national military forces have ever been.
Nine out of ten possible candidates will be turned away
perhaps in part because they could not demonstrate
sufficient commitment to peace on Earth.

    These most-peace-loving individuals would not easily be led
into a plot to use the World Peace Force to take over the world.
And if such a plot were hatched by some group of renegade generals,
the peace-loving employees of the World Peace Force
would resist such a plot and stop supporting the corrupt officers.

    The employees of the World Peace Force still committed to peace
could form the core of the New World Peace Force
if some old World 'Peace' Force goes bad.

3. THE WORLD PEACE FORCE WOULD BE EVEN MORE SECURE
            THAN THE U.S. MILITARY FORCES.

    Whenever we begin to think of any level of police forces,
one worry is that the police force itself might become corrupt.
Could they turn from serving the people to oppressing the people?
Any police force must have good methods of preventing corruption.

    The same holds for national military forces:
Having a single person or a small group in charge of the military
could lead to the unfortunate situation
of that national military force being turned against the people.

    We have seen this happen in other countries of the world.
But we rightly believe it could never happen to the U.S. military forces.
Even if the President went mad and decided to bomb Dallas,
the U.S. Air Force would not obey such orders.

    U.S. soldiers are taught to obey only lawful orders.
And the same applies to the military forces of other countries.
National military forces usually cannot be turned against the people.

    Just as U.S. military forces would never be used against Americans,
so it would be even more unthinkable that the World Peace Force
could ever be turned against everyone on Earth.

    The officers of the World Peace Force will understand their mission:
Protect the peace of the planet Earth.
Any other action would be resisted and ignored.

    The World Peace Force will have some of the wisest people on Earth.
Preserving peace requires only a few officers.
Putting the very best people into the uniform of the World Peace Force
will create a group of soldiers
with superior intelligence and commitment to peace.

    If we agree that the U.S. military forces will never to turned
to purposes opposite to the original purposes of their employment,
the same determination will be even more powerful
among the officers of the World Peace Force.
Most of these human beings will be so beyond corruption
that it would be a surprise to all concerned when one officer 'loses it'
and turns against the mission of peace on Earth.

    Internal controls will take care of the individual employee of the WPF
who becomes unable or unwilling to fulfill the mission of peace.

    Removal from service takes place every day in the U.S. military forces.
But that does not become news because it is so routine
to remove soldiers who can no longer perform their duties.

    And if the officer of the U.S. military forces is too high in rank,
he or she might have to be removed by the President.
And we the people also have ways of removing our President
if he or she becomes unable or unwilling to function as President.

    The checks and balances of the World Peace Force
will be even more careful than the internal controls used in the USA.
Any person working for the World Peace Force
could be dismissed from whatever post he or she holds.
And a normal succession of leaders should be expected
from the earliest days of the founding of the WPF.

    All of the peace-loving peoples of the Earth will be watching.
They will make certain that the World Peace Force continues to operate
as a police force for the protection of all people on Earth
and does not become a corrupt, oppressive force to rule the world.

    If we can imagine the tiny risk of needing to remove
military leaders of U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, & Air Force,
we can also imagine an even smaller risk of needing to remove
soldiers, officers, or leaders of the World Peace Force.

Created November 3, 2011; Revised 11-4-2011; 5-10-2012; 8-3-2012; 9-13-2012; 10-25-2012;
7-2-13; 9-4-2013; 9-23-2013; 9-25-2013; 9-36-2013;
8-14-2014; 4-16-2015; 4-22-2016; r5-1-2017; 12-16-2020;

AUTHOR:

James Park is an advocate of world peace.
He is a citizen of the United States of America.
But he would be even more delighted to support a World Peace Force
than the present military forces of the USA.
The transition to a World Peace Force will not take place during his life-time.
But others who have a similar vision of the planet Earth at peace
can carry these plans forward.

More about James Park will be found on his personal website,
James Leonard Park—Free Library