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.
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