World peace and global harmony: A utopian dream?

A quick look at world history will show that since the dawn of man, regional wars and conflicts, interspersed with periodic world wars, started and either finished quickly or else lingering on for years on end.

Wars and conflicts that ostensibly ended with negotiations and treaties often restarted for the same original reasons.

With such a grim baggage, can mankind ever dream of a lasting, just world peace and global harmony?

What constitutes a just peace can vary widely depending on different perspectives and values.

Just peace is often defined as addressing historical injustices, ensuring fair representation and participation for all, and establishing mechanisms to resolve disputes peacefully and equitably.

While the world has experienced periods of relative peace, true just peace, where all conflicts are resolved fairly and all parties feel secure, has been elusive throughout history. Most periods of peace have been based on power dynamics, treaties or simply a lack of major conflict, rather than a true sense of justice and equality.

Let’s face it—countries don’t go to war. The leaders of countries go to war. The number of people responsible for the decision to go to war can usually fit comfortably inside a single large room.

While the idea of lasting peace may be a distant and idealistic goal, it’s not necessarily impossible.

Just peace implies a state of harmony that addresses the root causes of conflict, ensures human rights, and distributes power equitably. This is distinct from a peace imposed by force or one that ignores past grievances.

Throughout history, peace treaties have often been dictated by winners, leading to resentment and continued conflict. The rise of powerful empires, like the Roman Empire, created periods of relative peace, but this was often maintained through military might and the subjugation of others.

Historically, periods of relative peace were often maintained through dominance or coercion, rather than a genuine sense of justice for all.

Factors such as resource scarcity, ideological differences and historical injustices can make achieving a truly just peace difficult.

According to the Global Conflict Tracker, there are at least 26 hot wars and simmering conflicts in the world today, including the long-drawn-out war in Ukraine; the potential powder keg developing over Chinese territorial claims in Taiwan and the South China Sea; and wars, civil wars and conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

At least 108 million people were killed in wars in the 20th century. Estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout all of human history are up to one billion. The number would be much higher still if they also considered the civilians who died due to the fighting, the increased number of deaths from hunger and disease resulting from these conflicts, and the deaths in smaller conflicts that are not considered wars.

Wars are also terrible in many other ways: they make people’s lives insecure, lower their living standards, destroy the environment, and, if fought between countries armed with nuclear weapons, can be an existential threat to humanity.

Looking at the news alone, it can be difficult to understand whether more or fewer people are dying as a result of war than in the past. One has to rely on statistics that are carefully collected so that they can be compared over time.

The United Nations, international organisations and peace movements continue to strive for a more just and sustainable peace, focusing on conflict resolution, human rights and global cooperation. They have been doing that for decades, but it hasn’t got us anywhere near a peaceful world and a harmonious life.

Nearly 40% of peace agreements since 1975 have collapsed within five years of their inception. Whether war breaks out again or spoilers set back the process, many agreements simply don’t last long after they’ve been signed.

The unfortunate reality is evident today across the globe. Negotiations have broken down in Sudan, Israel and Palestine, as well as in Ukraine and other places trapped in conflict. Policymakers across the globe are discovering that convincing combatants to put down their arms and come to the negotiation table often seems impossible. Crafting peace agreements that last is harder still.

Yet we can still draw a few lessons from successful agreements and the challenges negotiators faced on the road to peace. In Colombia, the government's negotiations with the country’s largest guerrilla group, known as the FARC, succeeded in 2016, even though peace processes there had failed to make real progress for more than 50 years. And what was once deemed an impossibly intractable conflict in Northern Ireland saw a peace process culminating in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, with women at the frontlines of the negotiating table and most militia groups ultimately defused in the years after.

In a world in which tyranny continues to exist, war may sometimes be justified. In the same way, it is necessary to fight to defend oneself when attacked; so too, it’s sometimes necessary to go to war to put down injustice or even the possibility of injustice when its likelihood is great enough.

Rarely, however, is this given as a primary reason. Even democracies seem to be roused to war only by self-interest.

A genuinely just peace, one that resolves all underlying conflicts and ensures justice for all, remains a goal rather than a historical reality. Maybe war is an inevitable product of human nature. Maybe to get rid of war, we have to become something other than human.