By Dr. Col Dencio Severo Acop (Ret)
‘In April 1945, delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco full of optimism and hope.’ The goal of the meeting was to form the United Nations ‘to promote peace and prevent future wars’. The UN’s charter preamble read: ‘We the peoples of the United Nations are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.’ The UN charter ‘went into effect on October 24, 1945’, today celebrated as United Nations Day. This celebration is only twelve days from this writing and is ironically threatened by the turning tides of a war in Ukraine that could plunge the world into a third world war. That would be unfortunate for humanity as it would be an un-winnable war. It was precisely the un-winnability of peace by the post-WWI Versailles Treaty that led to a supposedly more effective world peace body, the UN. But today unlike at any other time in its history, the UN as a peacemaker seems irrelevant. Its sound appears muted through the threats of Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons than be humiliated by Ukraine, a Russian-infiltrated former satellite nation.
Perhaps the years since WWII were the relative golden years for world peace. Fresh from the horrors of WWII and fear of nuclear annihilation, the world was alright with the UN and the initiative of global leaders to eliminate or minimize their nuclear arsenal. Although there was the Cold War and limited wars like Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East, nations were careful not to ignite the guarantee of mutually-assured destruction or MAD. Wars were allowed so long as they were conventional. For a while, it seemed like only mad terrorists were capable of pulling the nuclear trigger for some fanatical purpose. But even that was no cause for non-alarm. A bomb is a bomb and a nuclear warhead was certainly no kiddie toy. The UN has done much to keep the peace by quarterbacking peace deals and sending peacekeeping forces. But much of it was possible due to cooperation from the world powers.
Today suddenly the playing field has changed drastically and significantly. The voice of the UN as a credible, authoritative body bent on world peace appears muted or at best muffled. The rapid advancements of technology especially in the defense and communications industries have left behind large, bureaucratic international organizations like the UN which can hardly cope with their speed. Globalization has become the new normal amalgamating the world into a global village but likewise causing ‘dislocation’ not only geographically but psychologically. As a result, the world has adapted various coping mechanisms or distractions but also addictions whether the idolatry is money, power, sugar, alcohol, online gaming, smartphones, pornography, fanaticism, etc. In short, the world is now united by globalization but is divided by its various addictions more than its traditional national (constitutional) values. Suddenly, lessons learned from WWI and WWII are all but easily forgotten as even unreal by generations who never felt their impacts. Suddenly, our addictions seem stronger than our universal values. Our environment is seen merely by greedy capitalists as money-making resource. Taiwan is seen by China as an ego prize. Ukraine is seen by Russia as political and economic fodder. Of course, there are always deluded political leaders behind the reckless moves much like Adolf Hitler. There is almost always the same theme of revenge involved too whether it was to avenge humiliation from the Versailles Treaty, the Opium Wars, or incomplete victory by the Cultural Revolution. The addiction turns into delusion. The delusion translates into unrealistic assumptions of annexing a nation in three days. All because of hallucinations not just by one man but by a network of greed and false pride across the globe. Then suddenly we are at war again. The very one thing we tried to prevent. Or at least as the current tides of war foretell. God forbid.