National security strategists are busy processing the ongoing Russia- Ukraine war. They assess the consequences of war and are developing strategies for the future. The war networks and Military-Industrial Complexes are programmed to highlight possibilities of war. The war networks tend to go into self-fulfilling prophecies because that is their raison d’etre. War networks would encourage more allocation of funds for better preparation, innovation, and arsenal build-up. The defense and security stocks have already risen after indications by European and US governments for more spending. Consequently, the weapon systems must be tested and utilized in the future. New weapons will set the course for a new war, continuing the cycle. The national security strategists learn their lessons in present and future warfare. The lessons learned by a commoner are different from aggressive and strategic mindsets. Here are seven lessons in the context of human survival and a peaceful human destiny:
- Never listen to ultranationalists: The ultra and militant nationalists of Ukraine, Russia, the US, and European nations are responsible for the Russia-Ukraine war. Each nation wanted to have a security edge that led to war. The proponents of nationalism would try to assure you that nations are eternal realities and any crime is worth committing for the nation’s empowerment. Nations are ‘Imagined Communities’ (Benedict Anderson) based on specific identities. Human identities are layered and transforming. Violence, hate, and crimes against humanity in the name of national identity are highly myopic thinking in the larger scheme of human Aggressive nationalism shapes national politics and governance to create perpetual space for politics of war and security concerns. The antagonism in conflicting nations synergizes each other and gradually involves other nations. Global politics beyond nationalism, based on global issues, including world security, is required to replace nationalist politics. Say goodbye to ultra and militant politics of nationalism.
- Curb War Networks The global military-industrial complexes the world over needs constantly recurring crises to keep nations on the toe for increasing security budgets. In the recent past, ‘the cold war was a mega project of the global warmongers. Warmongers in various nations took sides and benefitted. The USSR collapsed because of strategic thinking. The world was relieved. The warmongers quickly started looking for opportunities. The first destiny was nationalistic wars in The window of opportunity for the Military-Industrial Complex was narrow in newly established European nationalities. ‘War on Terror’ provided the opportunity taken away by the fall of the USSR. War networks required a new front after the end of Afghanistan and the Middle East. The Russia-Ukraine war is a joint venture of Russia, the US, and Europe. The warmongers assured to push the crises constantly to initiate war. The war campaign of the Western media is instrumental in facilitating and perpetuating war. The Russian media reciprocated the efforts of the Western media. The Russia-Ukraine war is neither an isolated event nor a last one. War is an unending project for warmongers. To eradicate war, we need to eliminate war networks and promote non-war networks of dispute resolution.
- Don’t believe civilizational conflict: With the end of the cold war, the war network came up with a gigantic task of ‘clash of civilizations,’ scholarly presented by Samuel P. Huntington. Henry Kissinger, in his book ‘World Order,’ freshly proposed the idea. According to the theory, the world is a perpetual war theater among irreconcilable civilizations. The first manifestation of this thinking was the ‘war on terrorism (read Muslims) and now the war on China and Russia (two other enemy civilizations). Contrary to civilizational thinking, globalization has homogenized the world more than Groups of people living in faraway regions/nations have more commonality than those living in one place. ‘Civilizational’ and ‘balance of power’ theories promote a precarious global order and condemn the world to a state of eternally divided blocks- an unrealistic and pessimistic view. ‘Civilizational theories’ always have racial and religious underpinnings. We humans have the same flexible nature fitting into any social or civilizational mold. We have and need a global human mold.
- Never fall for the psychology of war:This is difficult to think in non-conflictual terms in this age of commodification of war. Capitalism has monetized each aspect of war. We are exposed to war indoctrination all the time. The war is normalized through movies, games, literature, and news/commentary. War feeds on the fear of annihilation and destructive aggression. In normal circumstances, humans are not Hobbesian brutes. They neither fear others nor are aggressive towards them. The bunch of fearful, hateful, and aggressive elite sucks whole communities and nations into their state of mind. We must not fall for it and should not buy their justifications. Never let go of the love for peace inside you.
- Everybody pays the price of war: Few people initiate war and benefit from it, but everybody pays the price. People directly in the eye of the storm lose their lives. Millions are injured, displaced, lose their home and jobs. Today’s wars reach our bedroom and personal mobile It is so close to us. People around the globe are sad, angry, and in many cases, traumatized. War invokes primordial instincts of anxiety, fear, hate, and aggression. Modern wars happen at the cost of people of the world economically. Not just Ukrainian and Russia will pay the price, but the people of the world are paying the price in the shape of rising costs and sponsoring state war machines for future security. This necessarily means stashing funds away from non-war spending, resulting in a declined standard of living. The bulk of the people’s money went to five large US corporations in Iraq and Afghanistan war. We have yet to see who will pocket people’s money in case of the Russian-Ukraine war.
- Strengthening Peace Networks:People worldwide need to come up with a joint strategy to counter the minority war Otherwise, the war network will intermittently continue with devastating wars and endanger human existence forever. War may have its roots in our biology and psyche. It is also created and nourished in cultural, political, and economic processes. However, biology, psyche, culture, politics, and peace economy are much more deeply entrenched and more prolific. The non-war networks of society are more extensive, elaborate, widespread, and productive. If humans can end a much deeper, widespread social reality of slavery, they can eliminate the social reality of war.
- Establishing World Government: The world government is the only solution to end war permanently. The west is expanding NATO into a world force to maintain world security. The project will not work because it is based on the notion of nationalism that is constantly maximizing hard power. The precarious balance of power notion has never worked in history and has always resulted in A world government directly elected by the world’s people, bypassing nation-states, is the only solution for an ‘eternal and perpetual peace’ ( the Treaty of Westphalia used these adjectives for peace).
Conclusion:
The Russian- Ukraine war has made the Western world, especially Europe, realize that the peace in Europe they have taken for granted is based on extremely flimsy grounds. The wars on Muslim and Asian lands were too far and under control. Here is something in Europe that can go out of control. If we have to survive as a human race out of constant fear of destruction, we need to eliminate the possibility of war. People of the world must obliterate the politics and economy of war. The culture and psyche of war have to be dismantled. We have to develop global institutional governance mechanisms to wipe out war.