Articles:
Right-click to download a pdf file. (See Note
below.)
See also Charles Knight's article:
"First Strike Guidelines - the case of Iraq": www.comw.org
Note: You need Adobe Acrobat reader to open
pdf files. If you don't already have it, click this button for
a free download:
|
The Campaign for Global Action to Prevent War
October 2002
By Randy Forsberg, International Steering Committee Member
Global Action to Prevent War is a coalition-building campaign which aims to
strengthen diverse efforts for peace and disarmament by bringing them
together. Global Action underscores the complementary, mutually-reinforcing
nature of the four main types of work for peace that are under way in the
world today:
- Groups working for nonviolent conflict resolution through mediation and
other means
- Groups working for disarmament, particularly in the areas of nuclear,
chemical, biological, small arms, and land mines
- Groups working to develop to a participatory, cooperative, demilitarized
global security system, functioning under the auspices of a reformed UN,
to replace the current hegemonic, militarized global system dominated by
the United States
- Those working to end domestic and community violence and build
"cultures of peace" within nations
In addition to uniting these disparate components of work for peace, Global
Action to Prevent War gives special attention to some aspects of war
prevention and disarmament that are not currently the subject of any major
on-going peace efforts:
- The standing conventional military forces maintained by the USA, Russia,
China, the largest industrial countries, and the key players in
longstanding regional conflicts, India, Pakistan, North and South Korea,
Taiwan, and most countries in the Middle East
- The need to make deep cuts in these forces and to reduce or end the
production and trade of major conventional weapons in the process of
transforming worldwide security policies from a hegemonic, militarized
system to a cooperative, demilitarized system
Standing conventional armed forces, and the arms production and trade that
support these forces, account for more than 90 percent of world military
spending. They also pose threats of large-scale warfare, and they are the
foundation for the spread of weapons of mass destruction. But because it
is harder to develop a consensus on alternative security options,
conventional forces, military spending, and major weapons production and
trade get much less attention than weapons of mass destruction, land
mines, or small arms.
To address the core issues of the prevention of major war, disarmament, and
demilitarization, Global Action to Prevent War proposes a phased, interactive
process that involved cumulative, mutually reinforcing steps in three areas:
- Strengthening means of nonviolent conflict resolution and prevention
- Undertaking confidence-building measures, limits, and step-by-step
reductions in conventional arms holdings, production, and trade, and
nuclear weapons
- Building confidence in the ability of the UN and comparable regional
organizations to deter and, if needed, intervene to defend against and end
cross-border military aggression and internal mass killing
The goal of Global Action to Prevent War is to build a vast coalition of
individuals, organizations, and governments, committed to moving the world as
far as possible toward ending war. We are trying to do with war what the
international community has done with slavery: to make it illegal and immoral,
rare, small in scale, and, when discovered, quickly ended through decisive
intervention by the international community. Supporters of Global Action to
Prevent War believe that with a concerted international effort, this goal can
be reached in a matter of decades.
For the program and International Steering Committee, see http://www.globalactionpw.org
Next article >
|
