The Necessity 

Nela Kedziorova 

You are in charge of everything – now save the world. This vision made me feel anxious, but also a little bit hopeful, because it implies that the world can be saved. However, I don´t believe that a single  person, no matter how important or powerful, is able to implement everything that needs to be done. If  you are, for example, a minister, and want to implement reform, you depend on everyone who is under you in  the ministry because they have all the information needed and know the process. Without others providing guidance, support and information, you can never change anything worthwhile. This is why, in my essay, every proposal is  realisable only if many people contribute to it. And the things that endanger us are so complex that it could not happen differently. Solutions to climate change, inequality and discrimination, disinformation spread,  dangerous regimes, polarization, illnesses, water insecurity and so on are not feasibly solved quickly, and  that´s why they need everyone to make improvements gradually and systemically. However, I realised that there is one necessary thing that  has to be implemented before we start to untangle all the serious problems we face. It is peace. Without peace,  we cannot do anything, because so much of our vast resources are allocated for warfare and the only thing we focus on  is how to beat the enemy. In a peaceful world, resources can be used for  innovations and research and to improve our social systems. This leads to better living conditions and development. Thanks to long-lasting  peace and small military budgets (average 1.2% of GDP in the EU; 1), we have prosperity. If this trend  continues, we can achieve much more. 

A brief history of peace 

Efforts towards “living together in peace” have been seen since the establishment of the first states and materialised in the “Pax Romana” – Ancient Rome peace program. The main goal of this program was to focus on domestic stability instead of warfare (2). However, the historical moment for peaceful coexistence was the  Peace of Westphalia. Before the Peace of Westphalia, our international system based on negotiations did not exist. Wars were seen as a legitimate means to achieve anything. In mediaeval history, states spent  about 75% of their incomes on wars and armies (3). Unfortunately, the existence of the possibility to  negotiate itself could not prevent further wars from being launched, not even the worst ones – First and Second World Wars. Some of the causes of the First World War were the many unclear treaties in which states guaranteed each other military support if they got into a conflict. After the war, we tried to learn from our mistakes and created even bigger alliances.  

In an effort to later prevent the nuclear powers from destroying each other, military alliances became so big that they were actually unassailable. Anyway, it helped to prevent “war” in the traditional  understanding of the word, but it didn´t establish peace. The Cold War was fought differently than any war before, but it still influenced the everyday lives of citizens of both sides significantly. They lived in constant fear of nuclear attack. At least twice, the whole world stood on the brink of a nuclear war between the USA  (NATO) and the USSR (Warsaw pact). It was very unsustainable and dangerous. In my opinion, it might have come to war someday if the tension between the two leading powers had remained on the same level. Nuclear weapons themselves are often seen as a guarantee that the country that owns them will not be attacked. We can never know if the world would be more peaceful without nuclear weapons (or  nuclear energy usage in general), because what was once invented never disappears again. However, we  have to learn not to threaten others with nuclear destruction.  

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, we celebrated the end of the history and success of democracy. Nobody wanted to pay attention to the fact that Russia never actually became a real democratic country or the social freedom issues of the Chinese regime.  Somehow, the idea of an “inevitable democracy” broke down.  

Some commentators call the Russian annexation of Crimea a wake-up call for the West, and especially  Europe, but I think that the reaction of the West does not approve of that. No one wanted to support  a corrupt, post-Soviet republic. Perhaps I am biassed, but I see the full-scale invasion Russia launched  on Ukraine on 24th February 2022 as the real proof for Europe that not everyone shares their enthusiasm  for peaceful cooperation (or at least coexistence). This unlawful attack destroyed everything we took for  granted… 

Before the war in Ukraine, peace was a matter-of-course for me. Since the Second World War, there has just been a single significant war in Europe (my home) – the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. We´ve gotten used to the calm. Insistence of this war on us is caused by the small distance. The war is bordering the European Union and it is not a civil war as the Yugoslav wars were, but clear aggression. We thought that such conflicts were not possible anymore, but Russia changed our minds. This made peace much more valuable. Russia's attack first made us realise how much has been achieved only thanks to long lasting peace. How much depends on it. 

Peace at all costs? 

Due to these facts, we could come to the conclusion that we should try to keep peace at all costs.  However, we have a strong example that shows us that this is not the right way – appeasement before  the Second World War. Naïve beliefs that Hitler would be satisfied if we gave him Austria, Sudeten  (part of former Czechoslovakia; 4), or whatever, led to catastrophic consequences never seen before. 

Nowadays, we see the same tensions – people believing that if we sacrifice Ukraine, everything will be  ok again, voices calling to stop the support because we “prolong the war”. Yes, if we stop supporting  Ukraine, the war will probably end – yet we still don't reach peace. Real peace is not just the absence  of war. If Russia occupied Ukraine, there would not be peace but occupation. This would be a loss not  just for Ukraine. For Putin, this is a war against the whole West, against our values, against the actual  international system – If we let him win, everything we attempted to build after WWII would be lost  forever. 

My home country, the Czech Republic, was occupied by Russia for almost 23 years. The world was  different back then, but as well as Ukraine, we wanted to live in a more free state. However, back then, Russia saw us as their “sphere of influence”. If we allowed Ukraine´s fall now, I don´t believe Putin  would stop until they got their former “satellite states” back. It is impossible to predict whether the  next target would be a Western Balkan country, a NATO member, or someone else, but just the prospect of the war spreading should keep us strongly behind Ukraine. There is no peace without freedom. 

Peace, unfortunately, makes people indolent. Getting used to the idea of really being in war – even  though we do not fight on the front – is very uncomfortable. This situation is hard for everyone – and to reject the necessity to fight against the Russian regime is a strategy to deal with it. Many people, mostly those with low incomes, feel the impact of the war very hard. Energy prices are rising, we face enormous inflation and fear gas supply shortages in winter. Who wouldn't like the illusion of the possibility to “settle it” with Russia in this situation? Of course, the idea of forgiving them is still unimaginable. And  not just for me, but for most Western citizens. But worsening living conditions will make some people doubt. Russian propaganda is just waiting for this. Frustrated people are looking for someone to blame for their struggles, and they vote for politicians who promise them safety and prosperity. This can be  misused by populists that would rather let Ukraine down without our aid. 

Forgive = Forget? 

One day, forgiving Russia may be possible – if they admit their fault, we should be able to reconnect  with them. However, frankly, I don´t believe that Russia will be able to admit their fault after decades  of anti-Western propaganda, military culture, and a regime that slowly turned into basically a fascist  dictatorship. Anyhow, we did forgive Germany after the Second World War – because they learned  their lesson. If Russia (and not just Russia) also did so, they would not be those aggressors anymore and we could likely forgive them.  

However, to forgive does not mean to forget. We are never allowed to forget the Holocaust. We can  never be allowed to forget Russian crimes in Ukraine. In our minds, we have to keep the pain forever because the vision of never letting it happen again must be our biggest motivation in efforts for peace. The conditions before the Second World War and now are analogous – lives of people are getting worse.  Hitler masterfully used the fears and disgruntlement of Germans and gave them someone to blame for  their struggles. He made the same promises that populists are making us now. Right-wing extremism is becoming more common and can appear in places we absolutely do not expect it. My friend went from anarcho-capitalism to the far Right. It made me think – why is radicalization so easy? In my opinion, today’s state of the world is a dangerous mix of disappointment from failing democracies, social media abuse, bad economic situations, pandemic, war, and general division of society. The longer the war continues, the less willing people in my country are to help refugees; the fewer Ukrainian flags are hanging around the city; and with flags out of sight Ukraine is out of mind. Everyone  feels high energy prices, inflation, and fear of a cold winter without Russian gas, and it is easy to forget about solidarity. We say “war in Ukraine'', which indicates that Ukraine is to blame for our problems.  However, I hope I don't have to stress again that the Russian regime is the one who launched the attack and caused it all. 

We may see efforts to force Ukraine to make an unjust peace deal with the Russian Federation in the future as the war gets longer, harder, and more expensive for the West. However, these efforts, if initiated by third countries, usually fail. Forced peace can never last. If the war continues in the hearts and minds of  the people, nothing will be solved. Peace is an active process and the majority has to actively contribute to it. If there is no real willingness to stop the fighting, negotiations are useless.  We cannot see peace as the main goal in the first place. This may sound like a contradiction to everything  I stated before. However, peace is not just the absence of war. We should never give up on defending  ourselves to save peace, because it is not sustainable. Peace that would enslave us would bring just the  feeling that this is unjust. Feelings of injustice, frustration and anger are powerful, but also dangerous; their  uncontrollable expansion in oppressed societies will eventually result in a new outbreak of war. Moreover, peace is a means to achieve everything else. It is important, but it should come as a natural part of our support for our mutual human values. 

How to: Preventing wars 

We have tried to create many different strategies to prevent wars in recent centuries. One of them is establishing international organisations, as a safe space for negotiations. Only one of them has ever gained global significance - the United Nations. Established after the Second World War, the main mission of the UN is international peace. The great powers that succeeded in WWII (the USA, GB, France, the USSR (now Russia) and China) each received a permanent seat and full veto power on the UN Security Council. If the UN wants to act, every so-called permanent member will have to agree  on the plan. This system may have worked in the past, but it is absolutely not prepared for the possibility that a permanent member attacks someone, like is happening now with Russia in Ukraine. It also doesn't reflect today´s state of the world – back  in 1945, European powers still held most of their colonies but now they are mostly established as sovereign states. There is not a  single state from Africa or South America that is permanently on the Security Council. This system prevents the international organisation from being able to really establish peace because it cannot act in conflicts where any of the five permanent members have personal interests. And they barely agree on anything. If the UN wants to serve peace, it will have to be reconstructed – the Security Council permanent members must give up their ultimate veto power.  Their powers, and obligatory actions should be authorised by a constructive majority of all UN members (=internationally recognised states) in the UN General Assembly. We live  in a very different world than in 1945, and we require very different standards of international relations. 

Is supporting democracies also a strategy to establish peace? The so-called Democratic Peace Theory is a theory that democracies don't go to war against each other. Of course, it would be wonderful if we  could rely on democracy as a major peace-establisher. Democracy is surely a very important factor for  peace, but because of the lack of opportunities for democracies to fight each other, we cannot be sure  that it is the main cause of lasting peace between them. We cannot underestimate the interconnectedness  of trade in the West or undermine the role of shared cultural heritage. And – of course – existence of  real democracies in the world is relatively short. To conclude it, I would say that supporting democracy  in the world (not by force) can help to create a more peaceful world, but is not self-saving.  

Many resources are required for warfare. The European Union is a project in which the first idea was  that if the trade of countries were sufficiently connected, they couldn't go to war with one another. Would globalisation, meaning greater trade integration and interconnection of countries, lead to peace? In the EU, it works, but we cannot forget the great political integration of the bloc. Countries are usually not politically integrated. Unfortunately, because democracy is defined as the government of the people, political integration requires the legitimacy of people who feel like a homogeneous group - a nation in the best case scenario. But the potential European nation misses the thing that makes a group of people become a nation – a story that unites them. And this problem is even more significant globally.  

World-wide nation 

Not just the EU but the whole world needs a common, shared story. If everyone identifies with a story  – it can be a basic, easy thing, like just the fact that we are all equal beings (may seem obvious, but look at the inequalities in the world) – it will enable us to see everything we have in common and bridge our  differences. It is the first step to lasting peace, but it is very hard to find a uniting story, a story that is acceptable for everyone. We haven´t found it even just in Europe, because our history is full of conflicts, and to find something uniting people from all around the world – regardless of religion, race, culture,  gender, social status or anything else – may seem impossible. And - it is hard to create a world-wide nation, when we haven´t often even created nations within actual borders.  

Uniting a country is a big deal especially in post-colonialist states - colonialism created multi-national  (rather multi-ethnic) countries that caused civil wars, genocides and unbelievable suffering. If we  cannot overcome historical hatred and wrongs and are not able to see more than prejudice, we will never  be able to live in peace. 

To create a story, we have to get to know those other people who will share it with us. Travelling,  learning about different cultures, meeting foreigners – all these basic things contribute to tolerance.  

Meet and understand 

To value peace, it is also important to welcome refugees. We have to listen to stories of people  influenced by armed conflicts, believe them, and share them. Thanks to a school project, I have been in  touch with a 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who lost her only 18-year-old brother who was a Ukrainian  soldier. Peace will not bring him back home. However, it will be able to prevent other people from  dying. Her story reminds me every day of the fact that a victim of a war is a person their whole life long.  All the victims will carry their traumas forever with them.  

In the Czech Republic, there are many Ukrainian refugees. Their stories enrich our society, help us identify more with the European values Ukrainians are dying for. Especially in the beginning, we  welcomed refugees very warmly – except Romany refugees. In the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015,  when many people who fled the Syrian civil war came to Europe, Czech society was extremely unfriendly. Public spaces were full of hatred, fear, and disinformation. It is very sad and unjust that even people fleeing from war are treated differently because of the colour of skin or religion. In any case, welcoming refugees is very important to prevent further wars. If we meet them, it contributes to  tolerance and helps to build bridges between different cultures. In the Czech Republic (except in the  capital Prague), you can very rarely meet a person of a different colour of skin or religion.  

I was excited when I went to Dresden, Germany and saw such a diverse society there. Of course, it is  not easy all the time, but the necessity to get on with different people from different backgrounds is  extremely rewarding. It is much harder to bring out hate in people who are in regular contact with  diversity. However, sometimes, propaganda is so powerful that it makes people kill their own family  members, and this is the reason why we have to reduce the reach of disinformation. During the genocide in Rwanda, the major ethnic group Hutu, spurred on by propaganda, killed more than 800,000 civilians,  mostly from the Tutsi minority (5). It is an alert that information is very powerful and we should not let  hate speech spread. 

If wars become unimaginable for everyone, they will never happen again. To achieve that, we have to  build connections between us.  

Ongoing conflicts 

Even if we were able to prevent further conflicts from being launched, we have to stop ongoing wars. Especially long-lasting civil conflicts like those in Syria, Yemen or Somalia or continuing clashes in  DR Congo (with some neighbouring countries involved) that may not be solved for years to come.  However, the suffering they are causing should be stopped immediately. For such conflicts, easy  solutions do not exist. Maybe some of the countries could be divided. However, in the youngest (UN recognised) state, South Sudan, shortly after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the next civil war broke out (6). On the other hand, the second-youngest nation in the world, Timor-Leste, remained relatively stable after becoming independent from Indonesia as the solution to decades of civil war (or Indonesian  occupation; 7). Civil wars need sensible stances and solutions. Some experts also hold the view that  foreign forces should not interfere in any stance, because solutions that are not brought by the sides themselves can never be sustainable. On one hand, I don´t believe that brutal military interference, like the U.S. Gulf wars or the war in Afghanistan, would bring lasting peace. On the other hand, sometimes the world must act because we cannot ignore clear crimes against international law. 

I am not able to list every civil war and its possible solutions in this short essay. I just want to highlight  the urgency of looking for these possible solutions. Stopping civil conflicts like these would be a huge success for humanity.

Because, without peace, what else matters? I see wars as the biggest failure of the human race. How is  it possible that we allow such injustice? That we kill one another for such stupid reasons? No big ideal is worth a single life. How often did we say to ourselves “Let it never happen again!” and in a few short years, we saw the next war, the next unjust suffering? 

Yes, there are so many problems in the world. We may feel overwhelmed and consider our actions useless. Yet, if we keep looking long enough at the spaces we wish no-one should ever see, our pain  will become our power. We get the most motivation to stop it and never allow it to happen again when we work together and keep every single suffering we see deep in our hearts. Then, from the ashes, we  will rebuild a world that is more just, equal, and safe. But in our minds, the risk of the lapse will keep us aware. 

Aware of the need to save the world.

References:

1 EU: military budget by country as share of GDP | Statista. • Statista - The Statistics Portal for Market Data,  Market Research and Market Studies [online]. Copyright © Statista 2022 [cit. 20.08.2022]. Available  at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-military-defense-as-gdp-share-in-the-european union-eu-27/ 

2 Pax Romana - World History Encyclopaedia. World History Encyclopaedia [online]. Available  at: https://www.worldhistory.org/Pax_Romana/ 

3 The Military Revolution from a Mediaeval Perspective » De Re Militari. De Re Militari » The Society for  Mediaeval Military History [online]. Available at: https://deremilitari.org/2013/11/the-military-revolution-from-a medieval-perspective/

4 Timeline of WWII - WWII Foundation. Home - WWII Foundation [online]. Copyright ©  WorldWarIIFoundation. [cit. 31.08.2022]. Available at: https://wwiifoundation.org/timeline-of-wwii/

5 Rwanda genocide of 1994 | Summary, Background, Deaths, & Facts | Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica |  Britannica [online]. Copyright © Featureflash [cit. 28.08.2022]. Available  at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994 

6 Civil War in South Sudan | Global Conflict Tracker. Council on Foreign Relations [online]. Copyright ©2022  Council on Foreign Relations. [cit. 31.08.2022].Available at: https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict tracker/conflict/civil-war-south-sudan 

7 East Timor profile - Timeline - BBC News. BBC - Homepage [online]. Copyright © 2022 BBC. The BBC is  not responsible for the content of external sites. [cit. 31.08.2022]. Dostupné z: https://www.bbc.com/news/world asia-pacific-14952883