WORLD WITHOUT WAR
SYNOPSIS:
Minnesota and
North Dakota share a border
hundreds of miles long.
It consists of a section of the Red River of the North,
which flows northward into Manitoba, Canada,
and finally into Hudson Bay, part of the Arctic Ocean.
There has never been a war over this border
between these two states of the USA.
How many other borders on the Earth
have never seen war?
The
reason that Minnesota and North Dakota
have never gone to war over any dispute
is that this is one of the most civilized parts of the Earth.
We have non-violent means of settling all disputes.
If Minnesota and North Dakota ever disagree about anything,
such as when to repair a bridge over the Red River,
these are settled by discussion and negotiation.
And if cooperation does not resolve the disputes,
the federal courts are available to help decide
any issue between these two states.
Another reason that Minnesota and North Dakota
have never gone to war
is that they do not have any
standing military
forces.
Both states have elements of the National Guard,
which are parts of the larger United States military forces,
which sometimes take part in military actions
overseas.
But it is unthinkable that the National Guard of North Dakota
would ever fight the National Guard of Minnesota.
Anyone who tried to start such a fight
would immediately
be removed from
office as insane.
It
might take several decades or even as much as a
century,
but there is no logical
reason why the rest of the world
cannot be made as peaceful
and immune to war
as we are in the north central United States.
What
are the most obvious first steps toward a world without
war?
OUTLINE:
1. A WORLD POLICE FORCE
TO REPLACE
ALL NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
2. A WORLD COURT ABLE TO
ENFORCE ITS RULINGS.
3. SEVERAL YEARS OF PEACE
MAINTAINED BY THE NEW WORLD POLICE FORCE.
4. DISARMAMENT OF ALL NATIONAL
MILITARY FORCES,
ACHIEVED
OVER A PERIOD OF MANY YEARS.
WORLD WITHOUT WAR
by James Leonard Park
1.
A WORLD POLICE FORCE
TO REPLACE ALL
NATIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
A
World Police Force or World Peace Force
of about one million men and women stationed all over the Earth
would be established and funded in ways not subject to national whim.
The
World Peace Force would not be subject to the dictates of any
national governments, ethnic groups, political parties, or
individuals.
Rather, it would operate according to World Law
(which will have to be much better defined than at present),
in order to enforce only clearly-defined rules of world order.
For
example, the World Peace Force will not take sides
in any disputes among groups within a nation
(even disputes that cross national borders)
unless the behavior of either side (or both sides)
violates the peace of the world.
One
example of a situation where the World Peace Force
would intervene is genocide
---people are killing one another because of their group-identity.
Once
the World Peace Force is established
and has proven its ability to keep order on the planet Earth,
all national military forces can be phased out.
The old armies will no
longer be needed
because the World Peace Force will prevent
any aggression of one nation against another.
Officers of the
World Peace Force will be stationed all over the world
—just as local police forces patrol
defined geographical
areas.
Because officers of the World Peace Force will already be everywhere,
they will notice whenever problems begin to arise.
2.
A WORLD COURT ABLE TO ENFORCE ITS RULINGS.
The World Peace Force will
usually take action
without any decisions by other organizations
—just as a city police force does not need direction
from
politicians.
But occasionally, the proper course of action
will have to be settled by the World Court.
These are ambiguous situations
that do not easily fit any of the rules of international order.
And these will be situations that do not require immediate action
in order to prevent warfare or genocide.
For example, disputes over international borders,
before any shooting begins,
could be settled by the World Court,
which would hear all sides to the dispute
until enough facts and opinions had been collected
to make a wise decision.
Then the World Peace Force would be instructed
to enforce whatever border-decision the World Court achieved.
In the past, United Nations decisions have been
ignored
because the UN did not have any military forces
to make certain its rulings were followed.
But in the future, national forces will no longer exist.
The only armed soldiers will belong to the World Peace Force.
3. SEVERAL YEARS OF PEACE
MAINTAINED BY
THE NEW WORLD POLICE FORCE.
Once the World Peace Force
has begun to emerge,
there will be a transition period during which it will have to prove
itself.
How long will it take before national military forces can be disbanded?
At first, the World Peace Force will not be strong enough
to handle major international conflicts between nations.
But small conflicts can be handled by the World Peace Force.
As in the wild west of the frontier America,
everyone had to have guns in
order to enforce law-and-order
until there were established ordinary police forces,
which could handle all criminals
without calling ordinary citizens to form a posse.
As an example of better law-and-order,
Canada during the same period of settlement of its west
did not have a lawless and violent history
because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the Mounties)
were there before
many settlers arrived.
Law-and-order was established before
most settlers came.
If the World Peace Force is funded by voluntary
contributions,
then it will have to prove itself over a period of several years
before it will have sufficient funds to expand its size and fire-power
so that it can handle major conflicts between nations.
But this job will become much easier
as national military forces are phased out.
When the politicians of any nation
have no further military power at their disposal,
they will not settle disputes by committing war on one
another.
Just how
long it will take for national forces to be
replaced
by a world order policed by the World Peace Force is difficult to
predict.
If there is a relatively peaceful phase of world history,
then it can be accomplished in a few decades.
And each success—approved by all open-minded observers—
will encourage nations voluntarily to reduce
and then phase-out
their
national forces.
There will be a few hold-out dictators who know
that once they give up their national military forces,
they themselves will be out of office, in prison, or dead.
They have kept themselves in power
by the fact that they commanded the military forces,
which prevented any opposition from forming.
Unfortunately, the last military dictators
might have to be removed by the World Peace Force
—because they
refuse to disarm.
When the last military dictator of any country is finally gone,
the World Peace Force will probably have to patrol that country
while the people decide what form of government they want.
The WPF will guard the people against the vestiges
of the military forces loyal to the deposed dictator.
For a period of some years,
the World Peace Force itself might have to police that nation
until it creates a different form of government
and sets up new laws and new police forces
to enforce the new law-and-order.
4. DISARMAMENT
OF ALL NATIONAL
MILITARY FORCES,
ACHIEVED
OVER A PERIOD OF MANY YEARS.
It is relatively easy for us
to think of other nations being disarmed.
We will especially welcome the downfall of the last military dictators.
But disarmament means that even the major, peace-loving nations
will have to give up their armies, navies, & air forces.
We will disarm only when we are convinced by facts on the
ground
that the World Peace Force can do a better job of preventing
violence
than when 'peace-keeping' was attempted by certain nations
using their own national military forces.
Everyone knows that the strongest military forces
belong to the USA.
But if American citizens individually and in small groups
prove to be the strongest financial base for the World Peace Force,
then the same people will vote again and again
to eliminate the U.S. national military forces
once the World Peace Force has proven by its achievements
that it can maintain peace even better than the USA as world policeman.
Speaking as just one citizen of the USA,
I would have to be completely convinced that the World Peace Force
is able to do its job using voluntary funding from all sources
before I would vote to disband the U.S. national military forces.
This will probably not happen during my life-time.
But if not, then I hope that some succeeding generation
will see its way clear to abolishing all national military forces
once the World Peace Force
has proven its ability to
enforce law-and-order on the planet Earth.
draft 3-5-2001, revised 3-24-2003;
6-25-2003;
1-6-2007; 1-13-2007; 10-3-2008; 4-2-2009; 4-16-2009;
4-19-2009;
6-18-2011; 9-16-2011; 11-5-2011; 7-4-2012;
2-1-2013; 8-29-2013;
9-17-2013; 9-23-2013;
8-15-2014; 3-17-2015; 4-17-2016; 1-4-2017; 12-9-2020;
AUTHOR:
James Park is an independent writer,
living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Much more will be learned about him from his website:
James
Leonard Park—Free
Library
Here are a few closely-related on-line essays:
The
Meaning of
Complete Disarmament
Blessed
Are the
Peacemakers
World
Peace Force—100
Years for Transition
All
of the Internet essays listed above have now become chapters of a book:
World
Peace Force: Disarming the Planet Earth.
This
vision of a world without war is Chapter 2.
Here
is the complete
table of contents,
which shows the rest of the book,
including all other dimensions of this proposal.
A new Facebook Group is just assembling,
which will discuss this book in an organized way
once the first 100 readers have joined this FB Group:
Peace on Earth:
Establish a World Peace Force,
Then Disarm all Nations