(SCOOP ARCHIVING..)
"That the use of weapons ends, that wars stop..."
An Initiative Full of Life
by Mikhail Gorbachev
War or peace? This is really the ongoing dilemma that has persisted throughout the entire history of humanity. Across
the centuries, throughout the unlimited development of literature, millions of pages have been dedicated to the subject
of peace, to the vital necessity of its defense. People have always understood that, as George Byron said, war endangers
both the roots and the crown.
But at the same time, wars have continued unchecked. In most cases, when disputes and conflicts arise, reasonable
arguments have receded in the face of arguments favoring brute force. Furthermore, the legal norms elaborated in the
past and still existing until recent times considered war to be the legal way to do politics. It is only recently in
this century that there have been some changes. These have been more important since the appearance of weapons of mass
destruction, especially nuclear arms.
At the end of the Cold War, through the common efforts of the east and the west, the terrible threat of war between the
two world powers was removed. But since then, peace has not prevailed on earth. Wars continue to destroy tens and
hundreds of thousands of human lives. They drain and ruin entire countries. They increase the instability of
international relations. They set up obstacles on the road to resolving many of the problems of the past that should
already have been resolved, and obstruct the resolution of current problems that should be easy to resolve.
Today, after having comprehended the inadmissability of nuclear war - whose significance we cannot minimize - we must
take a new step, also of decisive importance: a step toward understanding the inacceptability of war itself as a way of
resolving present and future problems. So that wars can be rejected and definitively excluded from policies of
government. It is difficult to take this new and decisive step, very difficult. Because here we must speak on one hand
of denouncing and neutralizing the interests that produce wars today, and on the other hand of overcoming the
psychological predisposition of the people, and especially of the world political class, to resolving conflictive
situations by force. To my way of thinking, the worldwide campaign for a World Without Wars, which began in 1995 with
the objective of achieving at least one week without the use of armaments in the year 2000, represents an interesting
possibility in moving toward the realization of these vital objectives. In fact, the actions planned for the term of the
campaign - discussions, meetings, public presentations, publications - will allow the public disclosure of the real
origins of current wars. This will show that the real reasons for these wars completely contradict the stated reasons,
and that the motivations and justifications for these wars are false. It will show that these wars could have been
avoided by sparing no effort in a patient and persistent search for peaceful solutions to the problems.In contemporary
conflicts, wars are essentially based on national, ethnic and sometimes even tribal disputes. Often the factor of
religious conflict enters in as well. In addition, there are the wars over territory and natural resources. In every
case, indisputably, the conflicts could be resolved using political methods.
I am sure that the campaign for a World Without Wars and its planned program of actions will allow the addition of a
great force of public opinion to the quenching of existing focal points of wars. In this way the role of society -
especially of doctors, nuclear scientists, biologists, physicists - will consist not only in helping humanity understand
the inadmissibility of nuclear war, but also in manifesting concrete actions that will remove this threat from our
lives. That is to say: the potential of popular diplomacy is enormous. And this potential not only has not been
exhausted, it has for the most part not even been tapped. It is of utmost importance to create conditions to avoid the
installation of new focal points of war in the future. The existing intergovernmental institutions are no longer capable
of achieving this, in spite of taking certain measures toward it (bearing in mind the European Security and Cooperation
Organization, other religious organizations, and of course the United Nations, etc.).
It is obvious that this task is not easy. Because, in some measure, its resolution requires the renewal of politics in
the internal life of people and governments, as well as modifications in relations between countries. As I understand
it, the campaign for a World Without Wars is a worldwide campaign of dialog, within and outside of each country, across
the barriers that separate them; of a dialog based on tolerance and supported by mutual respect; of a dialog capable of
contributing to a change in political forms with an eye toward consolidating new and truly peaceful political methods
for resolving existing problems. On the political plane, such a campaign is capable of creating interesting initiatives,
directed toward establishing a common understanding for the building of a peaceful consciousness. This cannot help but
be an influencial factor in official policy.
On the moral plane, the campaign for a World Without Wars can contribute to strengthening the meaning of rejecting
violence and war as political instruments, leading to a more profound understanding of the value of life. The right to
life is the principal right of the Human Being. On the psychological plane, this campaign will contribute to surpassing
the negative traditions inherited from the past, strenghening human solidarity. That the use of weapons ends, that wars
stop, at least for one week at the beginning of the year 2000, if it is an act of conscious choice by the people of the
world, can have enormous symbolic significance. This will effectively demonstrate that humanity is able to make a
conscious choice in favor of peace.
It is clear that it will be important for all nations, for all governments, for political leaders of all countries to
understand and support the initiative for a World Without Wars, to guarantee a peaceful beginning for the 21st century.
For this I make my appeal.
The future belongs to the book, not to the sword - so said the great humanist Victor Hugo. I believe that this will be
so. But to accelerate the coming of this future, we need ideas, words and actions. The campaign World Without Wars is an
example of such in the highest degree of noble action.
March 3, 1996