Disarmament and the Path to World Unity

Maria Teresa Gonzalez Esquivel and Michael Galloway

Humanity is currently facing a time of increased global tensions and conflict. Two billion people worldwide – or one out of four people – live in conflict affected areas. Protracted conflicts perpetuate dreadful human suffering, in many cases fueled by long standing rivalries and external interests. Additionally, armed conflicts in general are becoming more frequent, complex, and devastating, involving a diverse range of actors such as non-state militias, violent extremists, and organized criminal networks, all with easy access to a wide array of weapons. World military spending and arms proliferation are increasing, contributing to the death toll across the world. Globally, more lives are lost from non-conflict firearm incidents than in ongoing wars. Further, studies show that arms have contributed to making our world less safe than it was last year, and even worse, less safe than it was 75+ years ago. Disarmament, therefore, is a peacebuilding tool which supports the prevention of armed conflict and helps to mitigate its effects when it occurs.

Many nations continue to resort to the misconception that security is contingent upon the strength of force and arms rather than the power of dialogue and cooperation. For instance, some proponents of nuclear weapons claim that the utility of arms relies on their ‘deterrent’ effect and as thus are instruments of peace. This perspective is perilous, as we are currently seeing with the war in Ukraine, where the existence of nuclear weapons has not discouraged parties from sustaining the conflict. Instead, we could argue that far from preventing war, nuclear weapons have sustained distrust and worsened tensions among nations, as in the cases of Iraq, Iran, Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, or North Korea.

Nuclear weapons and overall arms proliferation thwarts peaceful conflict resolution, and negatively impacts many spheres of human life. These impacts are clearly articulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Roughly one-third of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address this nexus, including SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 8 (economic growth), SDG 3 (health), SDG 5 (gender equality), and SDG 11 (safe cities and communities).

Arms proliferation significantly diverts funds from other priority areas. In 2022, world military spending, reached $2.1 trillion, its highest level since the end of the Cold War. Among the top five spenders, we find four out of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council– United States, China, United Kingdom, and Russia. This fundamentally challenges Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations, as the cost of maintaining peace and security significantly deviates funding from what could be used for health, education, food security, economic development, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. In many cases, the deprivation of human needs acts a driver of conflict, creating a vicious cycle of sustained conflict, poverty, and underdevelopment.

For example, during the first year of the pandemic, the global economy contracted 3.1 percent. Nonetheless, arms sales of the top 100 companies increased, reaching $531 billion. To put this into perspective, in November 2021 the World Food Programme (WFP) developed a plan to prevent 42 million people from facing famine for a year. The cost was $6.6 billion. Allocating those $531 billion to the WFP plan rather than purchasing arms and military services that year, could have supported 42 million people for up to 80 years.[1]

Disarmament is also valuable for the mitigating effect it can have on arms races. Increased military spending in one nation has a spill-over effect which prompts greater spending in other nations. The war in Ukraine for instance, promotes an arms race, which extends not only to Europe but also in East Asia,  where the proliferation of nuclear weapons and missiles has increased in the Korean Peninsula and over the Taiwan Strait. Nations build up their arms as a means of deterrent, but this is often interpreted by neighbors as an escalation. Absent any sort of dialogue around arms control, this sort of miscalculation results in an endless cycle of proliferation. In such a scenario, arms are not keeping us safe, but promote more conflict. Traditional international relations theories are tools for theoretical analysis, but many do not account for the powerful and transformational effects of cultivating relationships. No matter how large the population, the economy, or the military, no nation would be able to face the current challenges alone. This is particularly the case in an increasingly multipolar international system.

For decades, disarmament has been at the heart of the United Nations work, aiming to eliminate war as an instrument of foreign policy. It occupies a key place in the United Nations Charter, which clearly states its determination “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. The UN has emphasized that disarmament is not based on a utopian vision of a world free of conflict, rather its utility relies on the potential for conflict prevention and diminishing the impacts of armed conflicts.

Disarmament is not an easy endeavor, as it requires collective global efforts to increase transparency, reduce arsenals and build trust among nations. However, as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states, “because humans created these threats, we can control them”. Today, thanks to large global efforts and significant work and engagement of civil society, chemical weapons, biological weapons, cluster munitions, land mines, and nuclear weapons are now illegal. International cooperation for disarmament is not only reflected in the several treaties and instruments to regulate, restrict, or eliminate certain weapons, but in practical cases such as South Africa, which dismantled its nuclear weapons prior acceding to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. Similarly, the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) is a civilian-led effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the region. METO has participation of the 22 countries of the Arab League, Israel, and Iran. Inspiringly, the initiative was created by 3 men from Iran, Israel, and Palestine.

Beyond all of these efforts, it is essential to reflect on what underlies arms proliferation and conflict: the challenge of International Unity. The cause of humanity's trouble has been an attitude of taking and not giving, withholding and not sharing, grasping and not distributing. This is contrary to all accepted standards of behavior in an increasingly interdependent world. The immediate problem with which all nations are faced is that of gradually offsetting hate and distrust and initiating the new techniques of trained, imaginative, creative, and practical goodwill. Goodwill practiced among groups in any part of the world, by political and religious parties in any nation, and among the nations, can revolutionize the world and lead to right and peaceful human relationships. As Dr. Jude Currivan eloquently explained in the Lucis Trust 2022 World Goodwill Seminar - ”Our current narrative has been based on a secular science of solely materialistic reality and apparent separation … our worldview of separation in many ways has driven the world of suffering, whereas a whole worldview of unified reality and unity and diversity naturally supports a world where peace is a natural outcome of a conflict, where justice and fairness and inclusion are natural outcomes of  behaviors of this whole worldview and unitive narrative that it enables to be articulated”.

As progress in science and technology continue to transform lives, we must continue forging effective partnerships between civil society, governments, and the private sector. Cooperation has the potential to counter issues of political will and strengthen dialogue. Education is also key to informing and empowering people to lend their voices to the transformation of security paradigms in such a way that widespread disarmament becomes possible. We must remember that “Unity and right human relations--individual, communal, national and international--can be brought about by the united action of the men and women of goodwill in every country."

The Cycle of Conferences Initiative is placing a special focus, beginning February 22, on the High-Level Segment of the UN Conference on Disarmament. More information available on the Cycles page.

*See also the 2020 World Goodwill Seminar on the theme The Spiritual Dynamics of Crisis on the Path to Global Cooperation and the World Goodwill Newsletter of the same title

 

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