By Dr. D.K. Giri
The crying need of the world currently is peace and security, without which life and living are untenable. Violent conflicts across the world and two bloody wars have disrupted politics and economiesand have made life insecure. What is worse, the world leadership as a whole has failed to stop these two wars – Gaza and Ukraine. Only recently, since the end of January 2025, American President Donald Trump took a bold initiative, albeit controversial, to stop the war in Ukraine. There are multiple interpretations and reactions to Trump’s initiative, but what is noteworthy is the determination displayed by him to end the war in Ukraine.
In international theory, it is established that absence of war does not necessarily lead to peace. To ensure durable peace, appropriate social, economic and political structures have to be created. It is high time the international community engaged in constructing those structures. The existing inter-governmental organisations mainly United Nations have failed to generate any momentum for peace in the world, let alone stopping conflicts and wars.
Out of six thematic sessions in just-held Raisina Dialogue 2025, there was one dedicated to peace, but except for wrangling by European countries and their desperation against Trump administration, nothing substantial emerged towards peace building.This should have been the focus of the Raisina Dialogue this year. Trump’s ‘whimsical’, approach to peace would have been supported by a structured dialogue on peace.
Out of all the countries, India, the biggest democracy, without history of intervention or aggression against any country, can initiate the peace-building process in the world. This should be a part of the new world order that is likely to emerge after the ‘Trumpian assault’ on the existing one. Russia and China have been trying to transform international politics to their advantage. America, ‘the current superpower’, was consolidating the Western dominance.
The West was defined as America plus Europe. That has dramatically changed. The American Vice-President has strongly advocated withdrawing from Europe. He just said in a strategy meeting at Oval Office that, “I loathe the idea of bailing out Europe again”. Defence Secretary of US Pete Hegseth shared Vice-President’s ‘loatheness’. So, Trump’s new world order may throw up new issues and equations of power. At any rate, the desire for peace will be a priority.
Keeping the emerging scenario in mind, can we draft a peace manifesto for one world? This resonates with India’s fundamental spiritual philosophy, VasudhaivaKutumbakam. The premise is, a peaceful one world is the end, and a universal welfare system backed by a common security is the means. One world concept is derived from thousands of years of Indian thought, like the Advaita and the VasudhaivaKutumbakam embedded in the Vedas and Upanishads. They proclaim the indivisibility of the humanity and featured the earth and its inhabitants as one grand family. These ideas and wisdom remained submerged until Shri Shankaracharya presented them to the world of knowledge in the 8th Century A.D. In modern times, Swami Vivekananda elaborated their content and meaning to the wider world about a century and a half ago. Remember his legendary speech in Chicago to the World Parliament of Religions when he addressed the gathering as, “Brothers and sisters”.
But today, we are living in a divided world, composed of nation-states, driven by nationalism and often daggers drawn at each other in the name of national security and under the influence of doctrines like deterrence. This mindset has led the world to wasting a lot of resources which could have been used for the welfare of the people everywhere in the world.
Today, we are living in not only a divided world but also a shrinking world. The communication technology has drastically reduced distances between places, countries and continents. Yesterday’s distant countries are today neighbourhoods. Also, the inter-dependence between countries has grown phenomenally. Lot of people miss this point. But the management of world affairs and inter-country relations is being managed in a confrontational mode. This has to be replaced in a peace structure by a solidarity mode, imbued with the spirit of one world.
Why did the League of Nations and United Nations fail to deliver their declared objective of preventing wars in the world? Let us elaborate as we declare UN as a failure as of now. The main reason of their failure was the built-in dichotomy between the de facto objectives of those international peace structures and of their national components. It has been found that, while keeping the League of Nations and the UN largely as talking shops of international peace, the system did not stop their national constituents from building up war machines. They wanted to fight wars with neighbouring countries in order to meet their unfair national ambitions to concur and expand.
As a result, under the nose of the League of Nations, Hitler of Germany pursued his policy of aggression by use of violent force which ignited the Second World War. In the current epoch, under the very nose of the United Nations, People’s Republic of China is pursuing an expansionist policy by use of force, which, unless effectively halted, has the potential to instigate the Third World War. What Russia has done in Ukraine is another example.
Admittedly, there is a fundamental flaw in the way the world is organised and governed today. It is based on confrontation and competition. Instead, it is important to create structures of equality, freedom and solidarity. The earth has enough resources, if mobilised prudently, for everyone to live in peace and prosperity. But it is necessary to organise the societies and countries in a cooperative and a solidarity mode. This is possible under national and universal welfare state systems. For external security, there has to be a common security system for national defence.
If the guiding principle in organising world governance is ‘one world’, the result inevitably will be universal peace and security. The nuts and bolts of this can be detailed out as there are good experiences across the world. One can draw on the welfare state systems practiced in the Scandinavian countries. These countries are at the top of the list for having peaceful and contented societies in the world. A world survey has repeatedly rated Finland as the happiest country in the world.
The slogan in the welfare system is caring from cradle-to-the grave. They call it so, because the welfare system protects an individual from their birth until their death. Since the child is born, the family gets an allowance for childcare, as they grow; they get free education and free medical care. After the education, the state is responsible for providing a gainful employment failing which it has to provide unemployment allowance to them. And, finally, when a person dies, their funeral/burial expenditure is met by the state. Thus, social security for everyone is guaranteed.
The second component of this manifesto is the common security system which would cut down the defence expenditure of all countries of the world and help them spend on welfare and development. The idea of a peace manifesto is thus mooted here for discussion in the thinking world. There is alternative to war, but no alternative to peace which everyone seeks. Let peace prevail. —INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
New Delhi
26 March 2025
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