HOW TO MAKE THE UTOPIA OF WORLD PEACE A REALITY TO AVOID THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR 3

Fernando Alcoforado*

This article represents the continuation of the article whose title is How to make planetary utopias come true, aiming at the construction of a better world [1]. This article aims to present how to make the first of the considered utopias, the conquest of world peace become a reality to avoid the proliferation of wars in the world as it has occurred throughout history and, above all, to avoid the outbreak of the 3rd World War that could lead to the extinction of the human species if the warmongering countries use their nuclear arsenals. This article is the first of 12 articles that will address the 12 planetary utopias that need to be realized in order to build a better world and contribute to the achievement of happiness for human beings, individually and collectively.

The history of humanity is, largely, a history of wars [2]. The oldest known historical records already speak of wars and struggles. It is therefore not surprising that now, at the time of the harvest of all the evil deeds generated by humanity, the number of wars and revolutions grows on an unprecedented scale, both in quantity and in intensity. The violence of conflict in our time is unparalleled in history. Twentieth-century wars were “total wars” against combatants and civilians alike. The twentieth century was arguably the most murderous on record, both in the scale, frequency and extent of warfare and also in the sheer number of human catastrophes, it produced, from the greatest famines in history to systematic genocide. All the "mega-deaths" since 1914 amounted to a total of 187 million deaths. Since the end of World War II, the world has known 160 wars in which around 7 million soldiers and 30 million civilians died.

More people were killed by wars in the 20th century than in all of previous human history combined [2]. After the Second World War, the Cold War began, giving rise to an endless series of localized wars, and so numerous that they ended up being part of our daily lives. From 1945 until the fall of the Soviet Union, the 40 years of the Cold War, about 17 million people died on the planet in armed conflicts and from 1990 to 2003 wars claimed more than 3 million lives. It is estimated that worldwide, in the last ten years, more than 2 million children have died in conflicts and another 4 million have been maimed. The sufferings, horrors and rivers of blood that flow from all these conflicts are due to so-called conventional wars. However, there is always the danger of the outbreak of "unconventional" ones, with the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Laser, acoustic, eddy (cause shock waves) and microwave handheld weapons are currently in development. Until the advent of the future Third World War, human inventiveness will continue to be predominantly applied to these weapons, always with great success. If the Third World War does indeed occur, there will be no winners or losers among the peoples, who will mutually exterminate each other.

Wars are still part of our daily lives, as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine [5] demonstrates, which highlights the purpose of the Western powers (United States and European Union), allies of Ukraine, to weaken the geopolitical position of Russia, which seeks to resume the world role previously exercised by the former Soviet Union. The insoluble Palestinian question, which has lasted since the end of World War I when the winning powers contributed to the occupation of Palestine by the Jewish people and facilitated the creation of the State of Israel to the detriment of the Palestinian people, makes the Palestinian and Jewish peoples live in permanent war. The military intervention of the United States and its allies recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya complete the picture of conflicts in the Middle East [2].

How to build a new scenario of peace and cooperation between nations and peoples around the world? This is an old challenge and thought by many philosophers as is the case of Immanuel Kant when approaching this theme in his work A Paz Perpétua (Perpetual peace) [4]. In 1795, Kant launched this booklet, which had great success with the educated public of his time. It was a project aimed at establishing perpetual peace among the European peoples, and then spreading it throughout the entire world. It was an illuminist manifesto in favor of permanent understanding between men. Kant's main objective was to eliminate war, which he always saw as something that hindered humanity's efforts towards a dignified future for human beings. How to achieve this goal? [2]

Kant proposes in Perpetual Peace the foundations and principles necessary for a free federation of legally established States which would not adopt the form of a world State, as this would result, in his opinion, in an unlimited absolutism. Kant defended this thesis because there should not be a sovereign power above national states that could interfere in their internal affairs. Kant proposes the existence of a federation of free states in which all have republican constitutions. The ultimate purpose of this federation would be, according to Kant, the promotion of the supreme good, which is true peace between States, putting an end to the disastrous war, to which all States have always turned their efforts throughout history as their main purpose [2].

Kant sought to end the “international state of nature” that characterized international relations until then. It should be noted that the concept “state of nature” was defined by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviat? (Leviathan) [3]. According to Hobbes, in the “state of nature”, the absence of Law reigns, so there is no room for justice. In this context, everyone seeks to defend their rights through force. In the “state of nature”, therefore, as conceived by Hobbes, the war of all against all reigns. The state of nature is, therefore, the state of freedom without external law, that is, no one can be obliged to respect the rights of others, nor can he be sure that others will respect his own, and much less can he be protected against acts of violence by others. In practice, even after the Peace of Westphalia signed in 1648 that put an end to the disastrous Thirty Years' War in Europe, the international relations of Kant's time did not fundamentally differ from the current ones. Today, as then, we are experiencing the “international state of nature” with the resurgence of international political violence [2].

Clausewitz's formula [7], war as a continuation of politics by other means, is currently replaced by the inverse formula: politics becomes the continuation of war by other means. Historically, peace between nations has occurred in the following situations: domination by an empire, balance between great powers, and hegemony exercised by a great power [2]. The empire happens when an imperial State holds the monopoly of violence causing the other powers, especially the subaltern ones, to lose their autonomy and disappear as centers of political decision. The state of equilibrium occurs when no great power prevails over the others. The hegemony of a power happens when there is acceptance of its leadership by other nations.

The best examples of empire are those exercised by the Roman Empire (27 BC to 476 AD) and by England from 1815 to the end of the 19th century across the world after defeating Napoleon's army at Waterloo. Until the outbreak of World War I England was the dominant empire in the world. Dissatisfied with this situation, Germany entered into confrontation with England and France for the redivision of the world. With the end of the 1st World War in 1918, the United States ascended to the status of the dominant economic power on the planet without, however, placing itself as the greatest military power that only happened after the 2nd World War alongside the Soviet Union. A situation of balance between two great superpowers occurred in the 20th century, after the 2nd World War, from 1945 to 1989, between the United States and the Soviet Union. The end of the bipolar world with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 materialized the situation of hegemony exercised by the United States in the world, which is currently threatened by its economic weakening and by the economic and military rise of China, which has stood out in the global geopolitical scenario due to its great political, military and economic influence in the Asian and international scenario thanks to the great extension of its territory (it occupies the third place in territorial dimension on the planet), a very high number of inhabitants (about 1.3 billion, the most populous in the world) and the dynamism of its economy (it is currently the economy with the highest growth rates in the entire planet). The unipolar moment of post-Berlin Wall unchallenged US hegemony is already ending [2].

Peace is defined as the absence of war. The domination exercised by the British Empire did not prevent the outbreak of the 1st World War, as well as the wars of national liberation of the peoples of the nations submitted to its domain. It is important to note that the absence of war is not related to the approximate equality of forces that reigns among the great powers preventing any one of them and any coalition of these units from imposing their will. The situation of approximate equality of forces between the great powers before the outbreak of the 1st and 2nd World War is proof that this situation did not prevent the outbreak of these conflicts. The situation of approximate equality of forces between the United States and the Soviet Union after the 2nd World War did not prevent the proliferation of wars in the world, such as, for example, that of Vietnam. The hegemony exercised by the United States after the end of the Soviet Union was unable to prevent the outbreak of wars such as those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. In order to permanently remove new risks of a new world war and for perpetual peace to materialize on our planet, it would be necessary to reform the current international system, which is incapable of guaranteeing world peace. Actions to achieve world peace were the object of the Concert of Nations in 1815, the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations (UN) in 1945, which were in vain because the great powers did not give up imposing their will on the world stage. The UN, which was constituted after the 2nd World War, has been as inoperative as the League of Nations in the mediation of international conflicts that preceded it between the two Great Wars.

Faced with the impossibility of an imperial State, balanced powers and a hegemonic power and the failure of the League of Nations and the United Nations (UN) to achieve world peace, the time has come for humanity to equip itself, as urgently as possible, with instruments capable of promoting the construction of world peace and exercising control of its destiny. To achieve these objectives, it is urgent to implement a democratic World Government that constitutes the only means of survival for the human species. In order to permanently remove new risks of a new world war and for perpetual peace to materialize on our planet, it would be necessary to reform the current international system, which is incapable of guaranteeing world peace [2][5][6]. The new international system should function on the basis of a Planetary Social Contract. The Planetary Social Contract would be the Constitution of the peoples of planet Earth. For the preparation of the Planetary Social Contract, there should be a convening of a Constituent World Assembly with the participation of representatives of all the countries of the world elected for this purpose. The Planetary Social Contract should establish the existence of a World Government.

The preservation of peace should be the first mission of every new form of World Government [2][5][6]. Its objective would be to defend the general interests of the planet, making it compatible with the interests of each nation. For this to happen, there must be a democratic governance of the world with a world government elected by all countries in the world. Its role would be to build the governance of the global economy and environment and the maintenance of world peace. Through it, the defense of the general interests of all the countries of the planet in terms of international relations would be pursued. A democratic World Government would ensure that the sovereignty of each country is respected because it would act to prevent any country from intervening in the internal affairs of others, especially with military interventions. Contrary to what many people think, the existence of a world government would not be a threat to national sovereignty, on the contrary, it would guarantee that no country would intervene in the internal affairs of other countries.

In addition to the World Government and the World Parliament, the World Supreme Court should also be constituted, which should be composed of high-level jurists from the world chosen by the World Parliament, who would act for a determined time. The World Supreme Court should judge cases involving disputes between countries, crimes against humanity and against nature committed by national States and by rulers in the light of the Planetary Social Contract, judge conflicts that exist between the World Government and the World Parliament and act as guardian of the Planetary Social Contract. The new rule of international law would be enforced by the three constituted powers: World Government, World Parliament, and World Supreme Court. World power would rest with the World Government, the World Parliament and the World Supreme Court. The World Government will not have its own Armed Forces, having to rely on the support of the Armed Forces of the countries that would be summoned when necessary. With this proposed configuration for the democratic governance of the international system, no country would be a vassal, therefore, of the world government.

The World Government would only act to make the international system evolve in an environment of peace among nations [2][5][6]. Each country must be sovereign to act within the limits of its territory and not to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries. What would not be accepted is any country intervening in the internal affairs of other countries, especially with the use of force, as has happened throughout history. The World Government?would guarantee respect for the sovereignty of the countries of the world, especially the weakest ones. The absence of a World Government is what would pose a threat to the national sovereignty of most countries because they would be at the mercy of the strongest, as has been the case throughout history. If any country compromises the peaceful environment between nations, intervening in the internal affairs of another country, the World Government would act to prevent the aggressor from consummating its purposes through diplomatic action or, in case of failure, even with the use of force. To this end, the world government would summon the armed forces of certain countries to fulfill the role of preventing any country from intervening in another using force.

To ensure democratic practice and governance on planet Earth, world power should be exercised by the world Parliament which, in addition to electing the President of the World Government, should prepare and approve international laws based on the Planetary Social Contract [2][5][6]. The World Parliament should be composed of a determined and equal number of representatives from each country democratically elected for this purpose. The President of the World Government will only exercise the command of the World Government as long as he has the support of the majority of the World Parliament. If, by majority of the World Parliament, there is a need to replace the President of the World Government this must be done. The World Government must have an organizational structure that is capable of dealing with international relations, the military issue, the global economy, the global environment, education, health, infrastructure, science and technology, among others, to dialogue with the World Parliament and the countries that are part of the international system.

Parliamentarians should elect the board of directors of the World Parliament that would have an appropriate organizational structure. The World Supreme Court should be composed of high level jurists from the world chosen by the world Parliament who would act for a determined time and who would elect the President of the Court to serve a determined term. The World Supreme Court should judge cases involving disputes between countries, crimes against humanity and against nature committed by national States and by rulers in the light of the Planetary Social Contract, judge conflicts that exist between the World Government and the World Parliament?and act as guardian of the Planetary Social Contract. The World Government will not have its own Armed Forces, having to count on the support of the Armed Forces of the countries that would be summoned when necessary.

Therefore, with this system the World Parliament would successfully legislate through a democratic process. The new rule of international law would be enforced by the three constituted powers: World Government, World Parliament, and World Supreme Court. World power would rest in the World Government, the World Parliament and the World Supreme Court. In case of need to use coercion against countries violating international law, the President of the World Government would use the Armed Forces of certain countries that would be summoned when necessary. World power would neither corrupt nor be corrupted because there would be vigilance from all the powers that be. World Government, World Parliament and World Supreme Court would act as checks and balances aimed at the efficiency and effectiveness of the international system.

In order to make global governance viable, it is necessary that, in the beginning, there is a powerful world movement in defense of world peace through a World Forum for Peace and the Progress of Humanity to be constituted by civil society organizations and governments of all countries of the world. In this Forum, the objectives and strategies for the constitution of a World Government, a World Parliament and a World Supreme Court should be discussed and established, with a view to sensitizing the world population and national governments in order to make a world of peace and progress for all humanity a reality. This would be the path that would make it possible to turn the utopia of world government into reality. Without the constitution of a democratic World Government, the scenario that unfolds for the future of humanity will be one of economic, political and social disorder, of war of all against all, and the extinction of the human species with the use of nuclear weapons by countries contending for world power.

REFERENCES

1.?????ALCOFORADO. Fernando. How to make planetary utopias come true, aiming at the construction of a better world. Available on the website <https://www.academia.edu/104881954/HOW_TO_MAKE_PLANETARY_UTOPIAS_COME_TRUE_AIMING_AT_THE_CONSTRUCTION_OF_A_BETTER_WORLD >.

2.????ALCOFORADO. Fernando. How to eliminate the wars in our planet. Available on the website <https://www.globaleducationmagazine.com/eliminate-wars-planet/ >.

3.????HOBBES, Thomas. Leviat?. S?o Paulo: Editora Martin Claret, 2014.

4.????KANT , Immanuel. A Paz Perpétua. Pocket Plus, 1979.

5.????ALCOFORADO. Fernando. How the war in Ukraine can end and how to definitively end wars in the world. Available on the website <https://www.academia.edu/73626545/HOW_THE_WAR_IN_UKRAINE_CAN_END_AND_HOW_TO_DEFINITIVELY_END_WARS_IN_THE_WORLD >.

6.????ALCOFORADO. Fernando. Global Keynesianism and world government are urgent to order the world economy. Available on the website <https://www.academia.edu/76319514/GLOBAL_KEYNESIANISM_AND_WORLD_GOVERNMENT_ARE_URGENT_TO_ORDER_THE_WORLD_ECONOMY >.

7.????CLAUSEWITZ, Carl Von. Da Guerra - A Arte da Estratégia. Editora Martins Fontes, 2010.?

* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globaliza??o (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,https://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944 , 2003), Globaliza??o e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporanea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, S?o Paulo, 2010), Amaz?nia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, S?o Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econ?mico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudan?a Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revolu??es Científicas, Econ?micas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Inven??o de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017),?Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associa??o Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade amea?ada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, S?o Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribui??o ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press,?Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022) and How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chi?in?u, 2023).??