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Bahá'u'lláh's Principle of Collective Security
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A general Pact on security has been the central purpose towards
which these efforts have, ever since the League was born, tended to
converge. The Treaty of Guarantee which, in the initial stages of its
development, its members had considered and discussed; the debate
on the Geneva Protocol, the discussion of which, at a later period,
aroused among the nations, both within the League and outside it,
such fierce controversy; the subsequent proposal for a United States
of Europe and for the economic unification of that continent; and
last but not least the policy of sanctions initiated by its members,
may be regarded as the most significant landmarks in its checkered
history. That no less than fifty nations of the world, all members
of the League of Nations, should have, after mature deliberation,
recognized and been led to pronounce their verdict against an act
of aggression which in their judgment has been deliberately committed
by one of their fellow-members, one of the foremost Powers
of Europe; that they should have, for the most part, agreed to impose
collectively sanctions on the condemned aggressor, and should
have succeeded in carrying out, to a very great measure, their decision,
is no doubt an event without parallel in human history. For
the first time in the history of humanity the system of collective
security, foreshadowed by Bahá'u'lláh and explained by `Abdu'l-Bahá,
has been seriously envisaged, discussed and tested. For the
first time in history it has been officially recognized and publicly
stated that for this system of collective security to be effectively
established strength and elasticity are both essential--strength involving
the use of an adequate force to ensure the efficacy of the
proposed system, and elasticity to enable the machinery that has
been devised to meet the legitimate needs and aspirations of its aggrieved
upholders. For the first time in human history tentative
efforts have been exerted by the nations of the world to assume collective
responsibility, and to supplement their verbal pledges by actual
preparation for collective action. And again, for the first time
in history, a movement of public opinion has manifested itself in
support of the verdict which the leaders and representatives of
nations have pronounced, and for securing collective action in pursuance
of such a decision.
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How clear, how prophetic, must sound the words uttered by
Bahá'u'lláh in the light of recent international developments:--"Be
united, O concourse of the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will
the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find
rest. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise
ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice." "The
time must come," He, foreshadowing the tentative efforts that are
now being made, has written, "when the imperative necessity for
the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be
universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs
attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such
ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world's Great
Peace among men... Should any king take up arms against another,
all should unitedly arise and prevent him."
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"The sovereigns of the world," writes `Abdu'l-Bahá in elaboration
of this theme, "must conclude a binding treaty, and establish a
covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable and
definite. They must proclaim it to all the world, and obtain for it
the sanction of all the human race... All the forces of humanity
must be mobilized to insure the stability and permanence of this
Most Great Covenant... The fundamental principle underlying
this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later
violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth
should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as
a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy
that government."
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There can be no doubt whatever that what has already been accomplished,
significant and unexampled though it is in the history
of mankind, still immeasurably falls short of the essential requirements
of the system which these words foreshadow. The League of
Nations, its opponents will observe, still lacks the universality which
is the prerequisite of abiding success in the efficacious settlement of
international disputes. The United States of America, its begetter,
has repudiated it, and is still holding aloof, while Germany and
Japan, who ranked among its most powerful supporters, have abandoned
its cause and withdrawn from its membership. The decisions
arrived at and the action thus far taken, others will maintain,
should be regarded as no more than a magnificent gesture, rather
than a conclusive evidence of international solidarity. Still others
may contend that though such a verdict has been pronounced, and
such pledges been given, collective action must, in the end, fail in its
ultimate purpose, and that the League itself will perish and be submerged
by the flood of tribulations destined to overtake the whole
race. Be that as it may, the significance of the steps already taken
cannot be ignored. Whatever the present status of the League or
the outcome of its historic verdict, whatever the trials and reverses
which, in the immediate future, it may have to face and sustain,
the fact must be recognized that so important a decision marks
one of the most distinctive milestones on the long and arduous road
that must lead it to its goal, the stage at which the oneness of the
whole body of nations will be made the ruling principle of international
life.
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This historic step, however, is but a faint glimmer in the darkness
that envelops an agitated humanity. It may well prove to be
no more than a mere flash, a fugitive gleam, in the midst of an
ever-deepening confusion. The process of disintegration must inexorably
continue, and its corrosive influence must penetrate deeper
and deeper into the very core of a crumbling age. Much suffering
will still be required ere the contending nations, creeds, classes and
races of mankind are fused in the crucible of universal affliction,
and are forged by the fires of a fierce ordeal into one organic commonwealth,
one vast, unified, and harmoniously functioning system.
Adversities unimaginably appalling, undreamed of crises and upheavals,
war, famine, and pestilence, might well combine to engrave
in the soul of an unheeding generation those truths and principles
which it has disdained to recognize and follow. A paralysis more
painful than any it has yet experienced must creep over and further
afflict the fabric of a broken society ere it can be rebuilt and regenerated.
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"The civilization," writes Bahá'u'lláh, "so often vaunted by the
learned exponents of arts and sciences will, if allowed to overleap
the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men... If carried
to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it
had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation...
The day is approaching when its flame will devour the
cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim: `The Kingdom
is God's, the Almighty, the All-Praised!'" "From the moment the
Súriy-i-Ra'ís (Tablet to Ra'ís) was revealed," He further explains,
"until the present day, neither hath the world been tranquillized, nor
have the hearts of its peoples been at rest... Its sickness is approaching
the stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as the true Physician
is debarred from administering the remedy, whilst unskilled
practitioners are regarded with favor, and are accorded full freedom
to act. The dust of sedition hath clouded the hearts of men, and
blinded their eyes. Erelong they will perceive the consequences of
what their hands have wrought in the Day of God." "This is the
Day," He again has written, "whereon the earth shall tell out her
tidings. The workers of iniquity are her burdens... The Crier
hath cried out, and men have been torn away, so great hath been
the fury of His wrath. The people of the left hand sigh and bemoan.
The people of the right abide in noble habitations: they quaff
the Wine that is life indeed from the hands of the All-Merciful, and
are, verily, the blissful."
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