Another Look at Achieving Peace by the Year 2000

by John Huddleston

About: Three key developments in global politics since the end of the Cold War that have bearing on the issue of world peace are identified, and three actions are suggested as a necessary response by humanity. The first development has been the continuing process of globalization in terms of international trade, communications and culture, multinational corporations, migrations, environmental issues, and international crime. The second has been the experience of maintaining peace in a new environment of reduced immediate risk of a global holocaust, lower military expenditures, and fewer regional conflicts on the one hand, and major weaknesses in peacekeeping procedures and looming major risks in the longer term on the other. The third has been the failure of the world's leaders to seize the opportunity of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations to implement effective strategies for maintenance of peace in the coming century. The three responses proposed are: to strengthen the institutional framework for peace by restructuring the United Nations as a democratic federal world government; to urge the United States to provide positive leadership in achieving this goal; and to underpin the whole enterprise with systematic education of all humanity in the principle of "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."