Season of Peace

Editorial. Encourages everyone to make this world a peaceful place as the World Peace Day in 2000 approaches. Why war may continue to be inevitable; Number of active wars worldwide; Areas where war is imminent.

By Robert Epstein, published on November 01, 1999

My sister left recently for Liberia, where she's working with theInternational Rescue Committee to try to rebuild this war-torn land. "War-torn Liberia?" you ask. "I thought the latest war was in the Balkans, and didn't it just end?"

So much for the American news media. Liberia, it seems, is winding down from a seven-year civil war that claimed over 150,000 lives--one of every 20 Liberians--the equivalent of 13 million dead Americans. And that's not the only war you don't know about.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, there are now 27 active wars worldwide. In Turkey, more than 37,000 people have died in clashes since 1984. In Sri Lanka, war has killed nearly 60,000 people since 1983. In Angola, 500,000 people have died so far in a 15-year civil war.

The Stockholm Institute also keeps track of hot spots---areas where war is imminent. The Koreas are at high risk, and China and Taiwan are gearing up for what could be massive bloodshed. Unless the situation changes, the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir may become the world's first nuclear war.

In all, more than 20 million people--most of them civilians--have died in war since the end of World War II. What an odd, odd species we are to be so brutal to our own kind.

War may continue to be inevitable, not because humans are inherently violent--social scientists are still debating that one but because of economics. War is one the largest industries on earth, to the tune of $800 billion in expenditures per year, and it also brings enormous spoils. Witness the recent revelations about how the Nazis and various businesses profited from the Holocaust.

The enormity of war leads us either to ignore it (if we have that luxury) or to feel helpless--that there's nothing we can do to stop it. But history teaches that even the most stubborn social practices--slavery, patriarchy, feudalism and so on--can be changed. And psychology teaches us that people are peaceful as long as they feel secure and respected. With the right upbringing or the right incentives, people remain nonviolent even when threatened. So there is some reason for hope.

The United Nations has declared the year 2000 to be an international year of peace, and more than 1,000 organizations in 130 countries will celebrate January 1 as World Peace Day, Soldiers around the world will lay down their weapons on that day, and humanity will enjoy what may be its first-ever day of global peace.

With luck, that peace will last a second day, and then a third, and humanity will cast off the cloak of war forever.

Can we do it? Shouldn't we at least try?

Robert Epstein is editor-in-chief of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY and University Research Professor at United States International University in San Diego. He hosts the magazine's nationally syndicated radio program, and is the founder and director emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology at Harvard University in 1981.