The Promise of World Peace

            During the past Century, the world has undergone dramatic changes that have affected the course of nations, and global society as a whole.  After the Industrial Revolution, with the increasing expansion of trade and information, markets and governments have become intertwined in ways that were not possible a century ago.  Whether through exploitation, conflict or collaboration, nations have become socially, economically, politically, and culturally dependent on each other.  Two World Wars, and countless other wars were fought over political and religious differences as nations in pursuit of power or independence enforced aggressive means of establishing their goals.
Although the process of integration has demonstrated itself to be excruciating until this point, the world is functioning increasingly under one perspective, forcing leaders to reform their foreign agendas in order to promote justice or to avoid catastrophes now made possible by weapons of mass destruction.  While some remain skeptical about the possibility of resolving age-old contentions among people, the world as a whole is undergoing an inevitable process, whereby a fundamental transformation of society is taking place in order to promote unity, on a global scale, among the diverse people of the world.  Many local and international organizations strive towards this goal today, some of which are highlighted in this research paper.
            A major contributor to the unification of governments is the United Nations.  It functions through complex operations involving peacemaking, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance.  Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the UN has worked to prevent conflicts from breaking out, and after a conflict, it has increasingly undertaken action to address the root causes of war and lay the foundation for durable peace.  Led by Under-Secretary General Kieran Prendergast, the Department of Political Affairs has as a primary objective this conflict prevention.1
UN efforts have produced dramatic results such as helping to diffuse the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the Middle East crisis in 1973.  In 1988, a UN-sponsored peace settlement ended the Iran-Iraq war, and the following year UN-sponsored negotiations led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.  In the 1990s, the UN was instrumental in restoring sovereignty to Kuwait and played a major role in ending civil wars in Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mozambique, restoring the democratically elected government in Haiti, and resolving or containing conflict in various other countries.  Other efforts to promote justice, human rights, international law, humanitarian assistance and development are an integral part of the UN, and are contributing processes to the equality necessary for world peace.1
            A great deal of specialized agencies also work with the United Nations, autonomous organizations that joined the UN through special agreements to carry out policies on smaller scales, through a variety of medium.  The World Bank and the UN Development Programme are premiere vehicles for furthering development in poorer countries.  UNICEF, WHO, the World Food Programme, and others such as the  International Civil Aviation Organization form a coherent and widespread effort to establish security, health, prosperity, justice, and as a result, cooperation and unity.3
One project of the United Nations which sets long-term pragmatic goals for the advancement of human society is the Millenium Development Goal, whereby all 191 members of the UN have pledged to achieve a determined number of goals by 2015.2  The goals such as reducing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality and spread of disease, necessitate a level of free exchange of resources, and a systematic redistribution of unbalanced power and wealth that is only possible through the elimination of tension and conflict of interest.  Therefore, the process of ensuring basic human rights to underprivileged people is indirectly contributing to the decrease of political and military forces.
            Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan in a recent press release emphasized the importance that “the international community find unity of purpose around a common security agenda… which can only be achieved if States show understanding and respect for global realities, and for the needs of others.” 1  This understanding of global realities is a difficult principle to disseminate because of the popular sentiment that globalization threatens the comfort level and stability of developed nations.  The recent fear of terrorism also creates the idea that unstable governments are best left unaided, otherwise empowered fanatic leaders will tend to use their resources in vengeful attacks such as September 11th.  These arguments, however, are stemmed from miseducation about longer-term effects of globalization.
            The disparity of wealth is so large, on a world-wide scale, that the systematic socio-economic development of Third World countries can be carried out without causing hugely sacrificial changes in the capitalist life-style of countries such as the United States.  Such conscientious efforts of foreign aid, if backed more vehemently by the First World, actually promote more secure foreign relations, since resources are being allocated for constructive development rather than enforcement of stability through tense military measures.  Since globalization is inevitably encroaching upon every land, in both positive and negative ways, powerful nations that resist the process of cooperative foreign relations are only delaying a potentially more drastic clash of interests, or even dangerously neglecting conditions of poverty that could later backlash catastrophically through the spread of disease and other afflictions caused by overpopulation and underdevelopment.
            Part of why such necessary measures to promote wide-spread human rights is met with opposition or skepticism is the disbelief that any universal standard can be established in a world with such contrasting and sometimes hostile governments.  In another recent statement, UN’s Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed this issue by saying that “if it is wrong to condemn a particular faith or set of values because of the actions or statements of some of its adherents, it must also be wrong to abandon the idea that certain values are universal just because some human beings do not appear to accept them.  Indeed, I would argue that it is precisely the existence of such aberrations that obliges us to assert and uphold common values. We need to be able to say that certain actions and beliefs are not just contrary to our own particular morality, but should be rejected by all humanity."1  This statement summarizes why actions such as the premature American invasion of Iraq are detrimental to the cause of world peace, even if results may be ultimately constructive for the Iraqi government.  If the U.S. had entered Iraq with UN support, it would have done so with a more legitimate standing in foreign relations, with the agenda of pursuing world safety, rather than appear to be defending unclear nationalist interests.  In either case, there is value in recognizing the administrative flaws on the part of the UN, in its failure to either prevent the U.S. from circumventing its policies, or in its inability to act decisively against an apparent nuclear threat.
            How, then, are organizations such as the United Nations to increasingly promote universal principles for the human understanding of the world, so that its decisions are accepted world-wide as legitimate standards of justice?  Just as many autonomous organizations provide the UN with humanitarian and developmental activity, the UN is in consultation with organizations that can offer insight towards their establishment of moral principles and a system of universal government.  The Bahá'í Faith, one of the world’s most wide-spread religions, is one such entity that has provided spiritually founded support.  On the eve of the United Nations International Year of Peace in 1985, the governing council of the Bahá’í Faith known as the Universal House of Justice released a document entitled “The Promise of World Peace” which was addressed “To the Peoples of the World”.  Presented to over 160 heads of state and government over the past 10 years, it outlines the major prerequisites for, as well as the obstacles working against, the establishment of world peace. 4
            Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith who in the mid-1800’s amidst persecution by the Iranian government, declared a message of spiritual import that applied to all humanity.  Among many of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, one affirms that:  “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”8  Efforts such as those of the UN, that today attempt to establish the development and safety of all countries are strongly linked with the ultimate goal of the unity of mankind.  The Bahá’í writings further propose that “unity is not merely a condition resulting from a sense of mutual goodwill and common purpose, however profound and sincerely held such sentiments may be… Unity is a phenomenon of creative power, whose existence becomes apparent through the effects that collective action produces and whose absence is betrayed by the impotence of such efforts.” 7(41)
As early as 1875, responding to Bahá’u’lláh’s instructions, His son‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed to the rulers and people of Persia, a treatise entitled The Secret of  Divine Civilization, setting out the spiritual principles that must guide the shaping of their society in the age of humanity’s maturity.5  The role of an entity such as the United Nations was stressed even further by Shoghi Effendi, the appointed Guardian and interpreter of the Bahá'í writings, who elaborated in the early 1900’s:6
            The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá'u'lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. This world commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples. (202)
            Aided by these spiritually founded principles and measures for societal restructuring, and by those of other religions and human rights organizations, a united effort towards building a just world government demonstrates that ideals for development and prosperity emphasized by the United Nations are close at hand.  If the people of the world are to embrace the importance of such transformations, a spiritual unification must be as much a part of the globalization of society as any other human advancement.  And with such motivational words, Bahá’u’lláh calls for individual and collective efforts on the part of mankind, to work towards these goals, with the deepest conviction that:  “These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.”8

Works Consulted
1.  United Nations Official Web Site.  http://www.un.org/  Copyright 2003.
2.  UN Millennium Development Goals web site.  http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.  2003.
3.  The UN Works.  http://www.un.org/works/index.html  2003.
4.  The Bahá’í World:  Official Site of the Bahá’í Faith.  http://www.bahai.org/  Copyright 2003.
5.  Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL:  1995.
6.  Effendi, Shoghi.  The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, Selected Letters, 2d rev. ed. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL:  1974.
7.  Various.  Century  of Light.  A Publication of the Universal House of Justice. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL:  1974.
8.  The Universal House of Justice, The Promise of World Peace: To the Peoples of the World.  Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, IL:  1984.

 

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