Peace and War

We have to define the words "peace" and "war", before we can speak about them.

We often mention synonyms like love, co-operation or help when we talk about peace, whereas the words hate, death and killing express the feelings of war.
Two experts suggested that the peoples needs must be satisfied to have real peace. Otherwise they are not "at peace". If we look at this idea more deeply, it gets more interesting. A human being needs food, health, education and social contact; if somebody is too poor to have these commodities in the right amounts, is he really at peace?
But let's think more deeply: We need work, freedom, the chance to work out our own destiny.. can we be at peace if these fundamental feelings are not ours?
In my opinion this theory should show us that people who don't have a meaningful life are more aggressive and therefore more likely to start a war or a conflict. But is this really true? I don't think so. Of course a person who has two cars, a family and a big house isn't as much interested in starting a war as a person who has to fight to survive every day, because he has nothing to lose, but his life. Even if this opinion sounds logical to us, I think that we shouldn't generalize it.

Of course, no two wars have the same causes, but what is certain is that in every case there are immediate, particular sparks, which trigger off a war. Often there are older roots as well from which the conflict has grown. In fact there are three case histories, which I want to point out.

The Falklands 1982

The Falkland Islands are in the south Atlantic, 400 miles from the mainland of South America. The conflict started in 1764 when the first official colony was set up in the Falklands by some French settlers. Spain, which had an Empire in South America, immediately claimed the islands, like Britain did. This first dispute over the Islands lasted for 7 years. Finally France sold the settlement to Spain and they drove out the British settlers. But in 1771, Spain handed over the settlement to Britain, because the Spanish government decided that the cost of keeping a settlement in the Falklands was not worth it. In 1816 Argentina established her independence and claimed the Islands. While the Spanish interest in the islands now ended completely, Britain became more active and conquered this territory.
Even if the Falkland Islands have been governed by Britain since 1820, Argentina has never given up her claim to the Malvinas, which is the Argentinean name of these Islands. In 1982 the conflict escalated. The military government in Argentina faced enormous problems, because of the country's economic situation. Retaking the Malvinas by force would have been a good way of gaining popularity. So Argentinean troops invaded the islands. But Argentina wasn't the only country who faced big national problems. Great Britain with its leader Margaret Thatcher also had national difficulties which led to the resignation of the foreign minister, Lord Carrington. So Thatcher decided to retake the Falkland Islands and sent about 28 000 men to bring this invincible conflict to an brutal end. The British troops won after a hard fight.  

Northern Ireland

About 800 years ago, King Henry II of England claimed the right to rule Ireland. In the Middle Ages, Irish rulers were forced to accept overlords from England. The Irish people were, from that time, treated as inferior and so it was only a question of time when the conflict would start there. The last years many people have had to die because of bombs and shootings, because Republicans, such as the members of the I.R.A (Irish Republican Army) continue to fight for self-government of Ireland and to drive the British out of Ireland completely. Today the I.R.A is no longer at war, but splitter groups continue with the terror, though.

The Middle East

During biblical times, the Jews lived in Palestine. Their country was known as the Kingdom of Israel. But it fell to a series of conquerors and so the Jews scattered around the world. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish people were often the victims of prejudice. In many cases they had to live in separate parts of cities called Ghettoes, for example. At the end of the nineteenth century, a movement called Zionism was founded, as a reaction against anti-semitism. The aim of this new movement was the return of the Jews to Palestine.
This was the beginning of another conflict which has lasted many years up till now. So we can see that some problems emerge over and over again and it seems that human being don't learn from the errors of their history...


The Just War

Many Christians believe that there is such a thing like the "Just War". For war to be just, which means that it is morally correct to fight, five conditions must be met.

The war can only be started and controlled by the rightful authority of the State, i.e. by the government.

There must be "just cause"; Those attacked must have committed some wrong. This wrong  must be punished, or stolen land is to be recovered.

You must involve only fighting persons (soldiers), civilians, are not be harmed.

The war must be the last resort: all possible other ways of solving the conflict must have been exhausted.

There must be "proportionality" in the way the war is fought. This means, you are only allowed to use so much force as to achieve your ends, and not more.

Examples of "Just Wars", from a British point of view, have been the two World Wars, when Britain fought to safeguard the people's freedom. On the Falklands war, Mrs. Thatcher said, "We have to recover these islands" and there was much popular support for this as a "just war".

In spite of all news about bombs and wars we have to ask ourselves if the world can make peace. There are several institutions whose aims are to establish and to maintain world peace.

The United Nations

The United Nations is an international organisation. It was set up in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, when people were determined to prevent such a disaster from happening again. At first 51 countries were members, but this number has risen up to more than 160. The United Nations headquarters are in New York. The most important official is the Secretary General.

The U.N. Security Council

Whenever a conflict between two nations breaks out, the situation is discussed by the members of the U.N. Security Council. The five permanent members are: USA, UK, Russia, France, China and ten other countries which are appointed every second year by the General Assembly, and so they change regularly. The Security Council tries to use its influence to bring the conflict to an end.

The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949, creating an alliance of 12 independent nations committed to each other's defence. Four more European nations later acceded to the Treaty between 1952 and 1982. On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were welcomed into the Alliance, which now numbers 19 members.

The North Atlantic Treaty has continued to guarantee the security of its member countries. Today, following the end of the Cold War and of the division of Europe, the Alliance has transformed its political and military structures in order to adapt them to peacekeeping and crisis management tasks undertaken in cooperation with countries, which are not members of the Alliance, and with other international organisations.
The 19 member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance:

Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark France
Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Italy
USA Norway Poland U.K. Spain
Portugal Turkey Netherlands Luxembourg

Another important way to prevent war is the unilateral disarmament for a safer future. Since 1952 the U.N. Disarmament Commission has tried successfully to make agreements, mainly between Russia and the United States of America. In 1978 the "Special Session on Disarmament" was held and a "Final Document" was agreed on, which called for rapid, real progress on nuclear weapons. This was the beginning of the nuclear disarmament between the enemies in the Cold War- the Soviet Union and the USA.

Five examples of different types of warfare

Economic

.where one, or several country/ies agree to hit an enemy's economic welfare. This means that they try to affect the way that country and its people make their living: This is usually done by hitting at their trade in some way. Sometimes, it is done as a protest or to make life uncomfortable in order to make the enemy change their plans.

CBW: Chemical and Biological Warfare

Chemical warfare of the modern age began with the deaths of over 100,000 men, and over 1,300,000 injuries in the First World War. In 1925 an agreement called the "Geneva Protocol" prohibited the use of chemical weapons.. But not their stockpiling. Most modern chemical weapons are nerve agents which poison the nervous system.

Terrorism

.where people use bombings, kidnappings, hi-jackings and shootings as a means of fighting for their cause. Terrorists often claim that they are forced to act as they do, because it is the only way to attack an evil authority which denies freedom.

Fighting by proxy

Some of the worst wars since 1945- in which over 30,000,000 people have died- have been between "East" and "West", fighting on someone else's land, often using someone else's soldiers. This is known as "Fighting by Proxy". A good example of this was the war in Angola, in Africa. Here both sides believed they were fighting in their own way for Angolan freedom.

Guerrilla

.conducted by "unofficial" armies against a stronger, better equipped enemy. They often work with unorthodox methods such as "hit and run". Guerrilla tactics are often used in Latin America, in poor countries like Cuba, Nicaragua and Argentina. The latest up-to-date example is Yugoslavia where the Serbians fought with outdated weapons against the superiority NATO and USA.