AT a time when the world should have been more committed to peace than ever because of the urgency of international cooperation for resolving important environmental and justice issues, the reverse has happened and there is increasing threat from very dangerous wars.
These wars are the major cause for the most serious humanitarian crisis situations in the world in which there is not only mass hunger over vast areas but also starvation deaths on a large scale.
While all wars and conflicts should end as early as possible, there are three wars which can be identified for special attention in terms of the much higher risks involved.
The Sudan civil war has seen frighteningly high bloodshed including gender violence in recent times. In addition, the risk of the conflict getting wider and involving several foreign powers as well on both sides has led to the possibility of a wider war fought with even more destructive weapons. These possibilities must be checked as early as possible and this war should not become a wider African conflict like the case of Congo earlier. The conflict should be resolved as early as possible and a reconciliation effort should go ahead along with a large-scale relief and rehabilitation effort with special emphasis on helping women victims. The United Nations should play a leading role in this, and Security Council permanent members as well as other countries should extend their full cooperation, rising above narrow considerations.
Secondly, in the case of middle-east, there’re many-sided problems but the Israel-Gaza conflict must get top priority. The way forward here is for enough international pressure to be created so that even the United States will not exercise its veto to stop a ceasefire being achieved as early as possible, to be followed by large-scale relief and rehabilitation effort for the people of Gaza. The UN should ensure that there is a clear and firm commitment for the people of Gaza to remain in their homeland.
At the same time, international efforts to resolve the issues relating to Iran’s nuclear enrichment plan should continue as best as these can, so that this does not flare again into an open war. Forces for peace within Israel should also get wider international support to strengthen them and their voice.
The Russia-Ukraine war presents the biggest challenges, both because of very high loss of life and displacement of people and the possibilities of a wider conflict including the Third World War or a very prolonged war followed by frozen conflict. Not only must the war end but in addition efforts must be made that war ends not on a note of continuing tensions or frozen conflict, but instead on a note of a genuine desire to improve relations between the two countries.
Russia and Ukraine can certainly be friends despite all that has happened in recent times, for which outside forces were more responsible than the people of the two countries. Things can still work out for peace if all sides show firm commitment to peace.
If the US shows a desire for peace, then surely European members of NATO should also do so. Forever trying to be hostile to Russia will never bring peace to Europe. Ukraine’s leaders should focus on preventing further losses instead of unrealistically trying to realise the 2022 or even the 2014 borders.
Several pragmatic scholars committed to peace have recently argued that Ukraine should accept the loss of Crimea and Donbas if it can be ensured that peace can come immediately along with international support for large scale relief and rehabilitation, and its sovereignty is ensured within a framework of neutrality and not doing anything that threatens Russia.
Ukraine should concentrate on a future of peace, stability, rehabilitation and progress with the cooperation of both Russia and Western countries. In fact, if Ukraine had concentrated on this in adherence to the neutrality contained in its constitution before 2014, it would have been a prosperous and peaceful country today, but the 2014 coup denied the possibilities of continuing on a path of neutrality, and the disastrous results are there for all to see.
It may be too much to hope that all our optimism to stop at least three wars immediately can be realised, but at least all the people and organisations committed to peace should strive to contribute to this to the extent that they can. With the possibility of an all-destroying Third World War and nuclear war coming closer in recent times, the tasks of peace can no longer be left to world leaders alone and we all have the responsibility of trying to strengthen a peace movement as much as we can.
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Bharat Dogra writes extensively on environment, development and welfare issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own, and Clarion India does not necessarily subscribe to them. He can be reached at: bharatdogra1956@gmail.com
