A Global Security System: An Alternative to War

By Kent Shifferd, Patrick Hiller and David Swanson

GSS is World Beyond War's effort to describe an alternative security system -- one in which peace is pursued by peaceful means -- to replace the present war system. It describes the "hardware" of creating a peace system, and the "software" -- the values and concepts -- necessary to operate a peace system and the means to spread these globally. Key sections include:

* Why is an Alternative Global Security System both Desirable and Necessary?
* Why we Think a Peace System is Possible
* Common Security
* Demilitarizing Security
* Managing International and Civil Conflicts
* International Non-government Organizations: The Role of Global Civil Society
* Creating a Culture of Peace
* Accelerating The Transition To An Alternative Security System

This report is based on the work of many experts in international relations, peacebuilding and peace studies and on the experience of many activists.

This 3rd edition reflects new thinking and insights as well as the feedback from readers and partners. This is not just another report, but a living document that we will continually seek to improve. New in this edition is an analysis of Trump's foreign policy agenda; updated and new data on peace economics and military spending; and new or updated sections including the business of peacebuilding, demilitarizing security, multi-track diplomacy framework to peacemaking, and many other additions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: May 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781456631116

Book preview

EDITION

+SUMMARY

Resting on a convincing body of evidence that violence is not a necessary component of conflict among states and between states and non-state actors, World Beyond War asserts that war itself can be ended. We humans have lived without war for most of our existence and most people live without war most of the time. Warfare arose about 10,000 years ago (only 5% of our existence as Homo Sapiens) and spawned a vicious cycle of warfare as peoples, fearing attack by militarized states, found it necessary to imitate them; and so began the cycle of violence that has culminated in the last 100 years in a condition of permawar. War now threatens to destroy civilization as weapons have become ever more destructive. However, in the last 150 years, revolutionary new knowledge and methods of nonviolent conflict management have been developing that lead us to assert that it is time to end warfare and that we can do so by mobilizing millions around a global effort.

Here you will find the pillars of war which must be taken down so that the whole edifice of the War System can collapse, and here are the foundations of peace, already being laid, on which we will build a world where everyone will be safe. This report presents a comprehensive blueprint for peace as the basis of an action plan to finally end war.

It begins with a provocative Vision of Peace which may seem to some to be utopian until one reads the rest of the report which comprises the means for achieving it. The first two parts of the report present an analysis of how the current war system works, the desirability and necessity of replacing it, and an analysis of why doing this is possible. The next part outlines the Alternative Global Security System, rejecting the failed system of national security and replacing it with the concept of common security - no one is safe until all are safe. This relies on three broad strategies for humanity to end war: 1) demilitarizing security; and 2) managing conflicts without violence and 3) creating a culture of peace. These are the steps to dismantling the war machine and replacing it with a peace system that will provide a more assured common security. These comprise the hardware of creating a peace system. The next section, strategies for accelerating the already developing Culture of Peace, provides the software, that is, the values and concepts necessary to operate a peace system and the means to spread these globally. The remainder of the report addresses realistic steps an individual or group can take, ending with a resource guide for further study.

While this report is based on the work of many experts in peace studies, political science, and international relations, as well as on the experience of many activists, it is intended to be an evolving plan as we gain more and more experience. The challenges outlined in the first part are real, interconnected, and tremendous. Sometimes we don’t make the connections because we don’t see them. Sometimes we simply bury our heads in the sand – the problems are too big, too overwhelming, too uncomfortable. The bad news is that the problems won’t go away if we ignore them. The good news is that there is reason for authentic hope.¹ The historic end of war is now possible if we muster the will to act and so save ourselves and the planet from ever greater catastrophe. World Beyond War firmly believes that we can do this.

Contributors

Main authors: Shifferd, Kent; Hiller, Patrick; Swanson, David

Valuable feedback and/or contributions by: Russ Faure-Brac, Alice Slater, Mel Duncan, Colin Archer, John Horgan, David Hartsough, Leah Bolger, Robert Irwin, Joe Scarry, Mary DeCamp, Susan Lain Harris, Catherine Mullaugh, Margaret Pecoraro, Jewell Starsinger, Benjamin Urmston, Ronald Glossop, Robert Burrowes, Judith Hand, Kathy Beckwith, Linda Swanson, Pat Elder, David Prater, Tony Jenkins.

Apologies to those who have provided feedback and are not mentioned. Your input is valued.

Cover photo: Ralph Ziman

Layout and design: Paloma Ayala www.ayalapaloma.com

PREFACE TO 2017 EDITION

Since its publication in March 2015, the World Beyond War blueprint for ending war – henceforth AGSS - has led to a lot of feedback – positive, negative, but mostly constructive. It became clear that this is not just another report, but a living document, a movement building tool. We will continue to seek feedback for growth and improvement. The comments after two years suggest that the report is a very useful tool to get people involved in World Beyond War, but more importantly to have people think about the larger vision of ending all war within the context of their work, to inform and educate about the viable alternatives to war. All are elements which require a strategic plan for follow-up and continuation.

We hope this blueprint to ending war is timeless until our objective of a world beyond war is achieved. We also want to make sure that new developments and insights are added and discussed appropriately. We strive to find the balance between a guiding framework and the current context.

In preparing the 2017 edition of this report, we’ve listened to all feedback - much of it came out of the No War 2016 conference - and integrated as much as possible. Some changes were small, others were simple updates based on new data available, and others were more significant.

New in this edition: The Trump era - Since the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, the peace advocacy community has grown increasingly worried and has recognized an urgency to respond. The campaign promises, if kept, will be harmful to the people and planet. Even after more than six months in office, it is still hard to understand Trump’s foreign policy agenda. We are facing a tough-guy approach, where the tools of diplomacy and most of what peace advocates and experts offer are perceived as weakness. It will be crucial to counter the narrative that nonviolent alternatives to war and violence are weak. They must be presented as the strong, intelligent, less costly and effective measures they are. Many of us recognized the movement moment. A movement moment means that the way politics are shaped and will shape the United States comes from outside of traditional institutions and infrastructure.

New data - The contributions from peace research are growing and whenever possible we will integrate empirical evidence from analyses in the Peace Science Digest to support many of the arguments made. In addition, research institutions like the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Peace Research Institute Oslo, the Institute for Economics and Peace or One Earth Future Research provide data on military spending, business and security, gender and security, peacefulness or lack thereof and evidence-informed and doable practice and policy recommendations. 

New sections and updates - The business of peacebuilding, multi-track diplomacy framework to peacemaking, recruitment and existing treaties, demilitarizing security, the Right Livelihood Way and many other additions.

The world does not stop when our booklet is published. Wars are still waged just like progress is made. For example, on July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted with 122 voting in favor of the treaty. At the same time, rhetorical escalation between the U.S. and North Korea takes the nuclear weapons threat to the highest level. Of course, we are witnessing ongoing civil wars in Syria and Yemen with immense human suffering. There is work to be done, but we do not have to start from scratch.

By publishing revised editions of this report, we provide a mechanism for meaningful feedback, a sense of participation, and ownership for contributors. It allows us to highlight campaigns and developments and to interact with the readers and build community in our effort to create a world beyond war. We also know that we might not have sufficiently addressed all areas, that new insights are developed, or that we simply failed to address an important perspective. With this report as an updated tool, there are opportunities for new presentations, new outreach, new partnerships - it is crucial to move beyond the choir with our efforts and connect the disconnected. World Beyond War and other movement builders can identify areas of focus based on developments highlighted in the report. 

Contents

SUMMARY

PREFACE TO 2017 EDITION

A VISION OF PEACE

INTRODUCTION: A BLUEPRINT FOR ENDING WAR

The Work of World Beyond War

Disclaimer

WHY IS AN ALTERNATIVE GLOBAL SECURITY SYSTEM BOTH DESIRABLE AND NECESSARY?

Whose Security

The Iron Cage of War: The Present War System Described

The Benefits of an Alternative System

The Necessity of an Alternative System – War fails to bring peace

War is Becoming Ever More Destructive

WHY WE THINK A PEACE SYSTEM IS POSSIBLE

There is already more Peace in the World than War

We Have Changed Major Systems in the Past

We Live in a Rapidly Changing World

The Perils of Patriarchy are Challenged

Compassion and Cooperation are Part of the Human Condition

The Importance of Structures of War and Peace

How Systems Work

An Alternative System is Already Developing

Nonviolence: The Foundation of Peace

OUTLINE OF AN ALTERNATIVE GLOBAL SECURITY SYSTEM

Demilitarizing Security

Shift to a Non-Provocative Defense Posture

Create a Nonviolent, Civilian-Based Defense Force

Phase Out Foreign Military Bases

Disarmament

End Invasions and Occupations

Realign Military Spending, Convert Infrastructure to Produce Funding for Civilian Needs (Economic Conversion)

Reconfigure the Response to Terrorism

Dismantle Military Alliances

The Role of Women in Peace and Security

Managing International and Civil Conflicts

Shifting to A Pro-Active Posture

Strengthening International Institutions and Regional Alliances

Reforming the United Nations

Strengthen the International Court of Justice

Strengthen the International Criminal Court

Nonviolent Intervention: Civilian Peacekeeping Forces

International Law

Encourage Compliance with Existing Treaties

Create New Treaties

Create a Stable, Fair and Sustainable Global Economy as a Foundation for Peace

Democratize International Economic Institutions (WTO, IMF, IBRD)

Create an Environmentally Sustainable Global Aid Plan

A Proposal for Starting Over: A Democratic, Citizens Global Parliament

Inherent Problems with Collective Security

The Earth Federation

The Role of Global Civil Society and International Non-Government Organizations

The Economics of War Prevention

Creating a Culture of Peace

Telling a New Story

The Unprecedented Peace Revolution of Modern Times

Debunking Old Myths about War

Planetary Citizenship: One People, One Planet, One Peace

Spreading and Funding Peace Education and Peace Research

Cultivating Peace Journalism

Encouraging Religions To Abandon Holy War And Just War And To Focus On Their Powerful Ethics Of Peace

ACCELERATING THE TRANSITION TO AN ALTERNATIVE SECURITY SYSTEM

Educating the Many and the Decision and Opinion Makers

Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns

The Alternative Global Security System Concept - a Movement Building Tool

The Right Livelihood Way

CONCLUSION

BE INSPIRED

APPENDIX

A VISION OF PEACE

We will know we have achieved peace when the world is safe for all the children. They will play freely out of doors, never worrying about picking up cluster bombs or about drones buzzing overhead. There will be good education for all of them for as far as they are able to go. Schools will be safe and free from fear. The economy will be healthy, producing useful things rather than those things which destroy use value, and producing them in ways that are sustainable. There will be no carbon burning industry, and global warming will have been halted. All children will study peace and will be trained in powerful, peaceful methods of confronting violence, should it arise at all. They will all learn how to defuse and resolve conflicts peacefully. When they grow up they may enlist in a shanti sena, a peace force that will be trained in civilian-based defense, making their nations ungovernable if attacked by another country or a coup d’état and therefore immune from conquest. The children will be healthy because health care will be freely available, funded from the vast sums that once were spent on the war machine. The air and water will be clean, soils healthy and producing healthy food because the funding for ecological restoration will be available from the same source. When we see the children playing we will see children from many different cultures together at their play because restrictive borders will have been abolished. The arts will flourish. While learning to be proud of their own cultures–their religions, arts, foods, traditions, etc.–these children will realize they are citizens of one small planet as well as citizens of their respective countries. These children will never be soldiers, although they may well serve humanity in voluntary organizations or in some kinds of universal service for the common good.

No one is safe until all are safe.

INTRODUCTION: A BLUEPRINT FOR ENDING WAR

Whatever purpose the war system might once have served, it has now

become dysfunctional to future human survival, yet it has not been abolished.

Patricia M. Mische (Peace Educator)

In On Violence, Hannah Arendt wrote that the reason warfare is still with us is not a death wish of our species nor some instinct of aggression, . . . but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.² The Alternative Global Security System we describe here is the substitute. The Global Security System rejects the failed system of national security and replaces it with the concept of common security - no one is safe until all are safe. This relies on three broad strategies for humanity to end war: 1) demilitarizing security; and 2) managing conflicts without violence and 3) creating a culture of peace.

The goal of this document is to gather into one place, in the briefest form possible, everything one needs to know to work toward an end to war by replacing it with an Alternative Global Security System in contrast to the failed system of national security.

What is called national security is a chimerical state of things in which

one would keep for oneself alone the power to make war while all other

countries would be