What Can We Do To Contribute To World Peace?

In the eyes of most people, armed wars are far away from our lives. It is hard for us to imagine gunshots and bombings. It is hard for us to imagine days without sufficient food and clean water. It is also hard for us to imagine injured and dead people surrounding us. However, wars are ongoing with numerous civilians and soldiers dying while you are reading this. According to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO), as of 28th February, there are:

  • 82,059 serving troops and military observers
  • 9,787 police personnel
  • 4,784 international civilian personnel (30 November 2016)
  • 9,474 local civilian staff (30 November 2016)
  • 1,470 UN Volunteers
  • 126 countries contributed military and police personnel.

Apart from these numbers above, there are many areas the UNPKO has not involved yet. Therefore, in this article, let us discuss what we can do to promote peace and stability in this world.

Where and Why

From Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, to The South China Sea, Japan-Russia Northern Territorial Dispute, and Senkaku Issue between Japan and China, we can say that our world is on the battlefield for various reasons. Most of these regions are fighting against violent extremism, other reasons consist religious disputes, maritime issues, territorial conflicts and so forth. I will list three reasons that may cause wars and conflicts, but naturally, there are many others besides following:

  • Religion

Within one state or between two states, different religious ideologies may lead to a war. Normally, it is not the religion itself being the primary cause of wars;  peace is often the highest religious aspiration. According to Encyclopaedia of War, the authors Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod made a calculation that from 1763 wars, there have been only 123 times classified to involve a religious cause which results in less than 7% of all wars and less than 2% of all people having been killed. To repeat, religions do not cause wars directly, but based on religions, extreme nationalism and ideology may lead to conflicts.

  • Territory

It is common that a dispute between two countries results from territorial conflict. A country needs more land either for living space, natural resources, and to create buffer zones between another hostile country. Most territorial disputes are caused by historical reason, for instance, the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, Paracel Islands among China and other Southeast Asian, Sakhalin Island dispute between Russia and Japan, and so on.

  • Civil War

Civil wars, for the most part, happen when there is a disagreement over who has the legitimacy to rule states. One deeper reason that causes the civil war may be the ethnic diversity. However, the Stanford civil war experts James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin drew a conclusion that “it appears not to be true that a greater degree of ethnic or religious diversity — or indeed any particular cultural demography — by itself makes a country more prone to civil war.” Based their research, as long as the country is rich enough, regardless how many ethnic groups in the state, the plausibility of war decreases.

 

What can we do

  • Personal commitment to nonviolence. Most of us are not able to join the army to go to the frontline, but as an individual, we need to insist on peacefully solving any conflicts we encounter. Speak out against prejudice and discrimination; help people in trouble. If you are a religious person, you could get involved in promoting peace through communities. If you are not, find an organization and be a volunteer that works towards peace.
  • Open resources. The public has a right to know about wars and conflicts, what is happening, and the reasons behind it. After knowing that, the public is able to move a further step to push its government to (not) intervene through UN resolution. Only the prompt of real information can guide the public to make the right decision to force the state to behave as a responsible stakeholder.
  • States ought to modernize and economically develop themselves. When a state is rich and is militarily strong enough, it will have the ability and capacity to protect its citizens and its territory.
  • Worldwide Democratization. Based on the democracy peace theory, there is a very little possibility a war will happen between two democratic states. Currently, in the world, there are 123 democracies out of 192 countries. Therefore, governments should promote democratic ideology. Theoretically speaking, the more democracies exists, the fewer wars would occur.
  • There are the methods that UNESCO propose how we can contribute to peace:
  • Train youth to connect and become involved with society;
  • Support equal opportunities and resource access;
  • Other methods such as sports and education are effective tools to develop peace and community-building.

 

Remarks

So, what can we actually do to promote world peace? On the one hand, we can offer mental support and feel sympathy for all the people who are suffering and struggling for their lives. We reiterate how important peace is and we spread our voice to make the world hear it. On the other hand, what we are doing is impossible to immediately terminate the war, solve the famine problems, and get back the lives of family and friends of victims. However, it does not mean it is useless to contribute to world peace. I believe, as gradually more people join us as peace promoters, eventually, world peace is possible.

Jieruo Li
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