Research Paper on "Global Peace Movement Its Origin, Development"

Research Paper 8 pages (2293 words) Sources: 10 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Global Peace Movement Its Origin, Development and Context And Analysis

The concept of peace does not only involve the "ceasing fire" aspect, but also a much more complex side of dissipating the economic and cultural differences between people.

Philosophers and religious leaders of all times tried to propagate their beliefs involving the central role peace plays for humanity. They were joined in their efforts by political and business leaders in modern times. The history of mankind is though populated by wars making the ideal of global peace something that is still left for the future. Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire are among the first to acknowledge the importance of peace, in a primitive form or another. Some Greek city states from antiquity recognized the priority of not going to war against each other over the gains from taking the power over another neighbor state; the pax Romana that lasted over two centuries gave the Roman Empire the best means of taking advantage of the opportunities to conquer new vast territories and to gain hegemony. These were the incipient phases of acknowledging the role peace plaid in the internal interests of a state.

The first politician who created the premises of establishing an institution for the preserving of peace as a result of international cooperation was the Duke de Sully, the man who helped Henry IV shape the history of France. His battle experience and business abilities made him a visionary in regard to international peace keeping and he wrote his "Grand Design" as an expression of his convictions regarding the idea of coalition among the European states in order to deal with the divergences among states and help settle them. His vision of a European Council for preserving peace was in fact only first put into practice three hundred years later, by the Ed of World War I, by the establishment of the League of Nations. Nevertheless, the Duke of Sully of the first statesman that worked on the ideal of preserving peace among nations.

The globalization effects today take the chore of international policy that is preserving peace globally to a completely new level. Mass destruction weapons changed the way the states that plaid a major role on the international arena had to deal with each other. The last unfortunate element that contributed to the philosophy of global peace was brought by the fight against terrorism that affected people in the most remote corners of the world along with people of the most powerful states. The United Stated have the hegemony today and therefore, their role in preserving and maintaining peace is more important than ever for their foreign policy.

The first account of a "peace plan" proposal in the United States was that of the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania, William Penn, whose proposal was based on the Quaker philosophy and resembled the idea of a council for peace the Duke of Sully put on paper under the title: "Grand Design" in the early 1600s. The transition from ideal to an actual institution was done when David Lodge founded the New York Peace Society, the first organization of this kind on American soil. Others followed it.

The end of the nineteenth Century meant the birth of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The end of the century and the beginning of the twentieth century was marked by two Peace Conferences held in Hague. The first documents was signed at the Hague Peace Conference in 1899 and entered into force in 1900 and the following were signed at the second Hague Conference in 1907 and entered into force in 1910. (Hague Convention, (http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Hague_Convention).

The end of World War I was ended by the treaty of Versailles and part of the treaty constituted the charter for the establishment of the League of Nations. The League of Nations had to " promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security" (http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/collections/league/background.html)

Unfortunately, the U.S. And some other stats refused to join it and after failing to prevent World War II, the League as dissolved in 1946.

The end of WWII was followed by the establishment of the United Nations, an organization formed primarily by fifty countries determined to contribute decisively at the maintaining of peace in the world. The UN was successful in some of its peace keeping or reinforcing actions, but it also failed in many others. The organizational form is one of the many that developed after the Second World War. There are also the efforts of the diplomats all over the world that are also contributing to the positive results of settling differences amiably and encouraging cooperation on all levels rather than jumping to war declarations.

Democracy and economical prosperity are today key players in the chance for a peaceful world. Thomas Paine and Voltaire expressed their beliefs in the power of the people as promoters of peace among nations. Democracies are now involving public opinion world wide political movements and especially into the peace movements. The terrorism and internet united people globally from different considerations but towards the same aim: for security's sake. There are some scholars and other specialists in international relations and politics writing about a new kind of peace movement after September 11 and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Victoria Carty presented a paper entitled: Protest, Cyberactivism, and New Social Movements: The Reemergence of the Peace Movement Post 9/11 at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association which examined "ways in which the Internet and alternative forms of media have enhanced the global, yet grassroots political mobilization in the anti-war effort in the post 9/11 environment"(Carter, 2005). The lack of frontiers terrorism was accompanied by that of the World Wide Web. The means of the internet are used not only by people dedicated to creating terror at an international scale, but also by people dedicated to reinforcing peace globally. The anti-war movement is now able to involve people around the world in organized efforts to create and guarantee security. One of the aspects of globalization, the interdependence it created, made people aware of new meanings of international policies and contributed to de development of new levels of solidarity. (Carter, 2005) the technological revolution enhanced the witnessing of history making through live broadcasting started with the fall of the iron curtain. The End of Cold War was televised and people could watch its follow ups from home. The internet brought the history witnessing to the next level of history making. Carter mentions some authors that support the idea of a new social movement (NSM). NSMs are based on identity-issues and operate at the grassroots level. These are differentiated from previous or "old" movements that focused exclusively on class-based issues at the structural level" (Carter, 2005)

The world extended movement against neoliberal ideologies of globalization is tackled in the book Transforming Globalization: challenges and opportunities in the post 9/11 era as support and enlightening for the understanding of new trends in social movement: "Today, in the context of increased fear in the U.S. And widespread erroneous belief by the public that Iraq was involved in 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction - a view consciously fostered by the Bush administration and their allies in the media - turning the tide will not be an easy task" (Reifer, p. 162).

Zoltan Grossmann is also presenting his opinion that converges toward those claiming that the invasion of Iraq after the 9/11 events was a form of twisting "some arguments against war" in order to prolong it (Grossmann, 2006). First the mass destruction and biological weapons Iraq was supposed to have developed and manufactured proved to have been the wrong reason for invading the country. Second, the terrorists supported by Sadam's regime were also subject to serious and numerous debates. The author uses the "civil war" argument to indicate another way the U.S. administration under Bush uses to justify the fact that after having invaded Iraq and taken down the autocratic government, the U.S. military forces continued to stay there.

Grossmann is certain that the reason of preventing the country from going through a civil war the Bush administration claims to have had was just a cover-up for an ulterior motive. He is comparing the means the U.S. administration is handling the war in Iraq with those the colonial empires used in order to rule after having conquered: divide and reign seems to be the motto. The U.S. government took the side of the Shiites against the Sunni minority. The peace keeping movements the U.S. started with some occasions are presented in this article as directed at exactly the opposite ending: internal struggles support. The invasion of Somalia just as that of Iraq is shown as conclusive examples of twisted arguments in order to keep the battle going. Grossmann draws a parallel between the "civil war" the Bush administration is willing to prevent with all costs in Iraq and that of the "civil war" Great Britain might have been willing to avoid… READ MORE

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