world peace

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World peace bell in the Volkspark Friedrichshain

World peace is the expression for the ideal state of worldwide peace , i.e. for the end of all hostilities and all wars - currently the ongoing wars and conflicts . It includes lasting freedom , justice and happiness for all people and peoples. This is often the highest goal of all politics and science. It is being pursued in a variety of ways by the international peace movement , individuals, non-governmental organizations , groups and parties. Others see it as an unattainable utopia .

Origin of the ideal

Swords to Plowshares , a sculpture by Yevgeny Wuchetich of the 'United Nations Art Collection', New York

Universal peace worldwide, as a prophecy, an idea, a goal of creation after the coming of the Messiah , was first given to the knowledge and understanding of the world through Judaism. It is said of the prophet Micah :

“He speaks right in the controversy of many peoples, he rebukes powerful nations [into the distance]. Then they forge plowshares from their swords and winemaker's knives from their lances. One no longer draws the sword, people against people, and no longer practices for war. Everyone sits under his vine and under his fig tree and nobody alarms him. Yes, the mouth of the Lord of Armies has spoken. For all peoples go their own way, each calling on the name of his God; but we go our way in the name of YHWH, our God, forever and ever. "

- Wed 4.1–4  EU

Also in Isa 2, 3–5  EU it says:

“He speaks right in the strife of peoples, he rebukes many nations. Then they forge plowshares from their swords and winemaker's knives from their lances. One no longer draws the sword, people against people, and no longer practices for war. You of the house of Jacob, come, let us walk our ways in the light of the Lord. "

The idea of world peace was away then over centuries in the ancient times linked to the arrival of a world redemption or ruler , of all the enemies to destroy and should unite all friendly-minded nations in peace. Many known mythologies and religious cults contained these elements (e.g. Mithras , imperial cult ). The desire for a mostly divine redeemer and peace- maker lived on in the later religions as well , and subsequently also in Christianity as Christ and Savior . Thus the New Testament proclaims peace on earth at the birth of Jesus Christ .

In 1824 Ludwig van Beethoven created his Ninth Symphony , in which he processed Friedrich Schiller's poem Ode to Joy . Especially in the face of times of political reaction and princely rule, it is a song of hope for a former world peace: "All people become brothers".

Common ethics and religious peace as a condition for world peace

In recent times, one of the best-known religiously motivated initiatives for lasting peace is the Global Ethic project of the theologian Hans Küng . It makes it clear that peace in the world is only possible through peace, tolerance and respect between religions and through ethical action.

The Decree on Peace 1917

The Decree on Peace was drawn up by Lenin and justified on November 8th (October 26th in the Gregorian calendar) in his speech on peace before the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies . This congress passed this first and at the same time foreign policy law of the Soviet executive on the same day . Beyond the proposal to all warring countries to end the world war and to start negotiations for a just, democratic peace, it contained a programmatic character with its demand for relations of peaceful coexistence between peoples. This project also made a deep impression on middle-class poets such as Hermann Hesse . He wrote that "the whole world is so heartily good and grateful to these Russians that they were the first among the peoples to grapple with the roots of the war".

UN charter

Since 1945, the Charter of the United Nations has enshrined the preservation and creation of world peace as the goal of all policies to which the members of the UN are committed. Historically, there has hardly ever been a time without war, so that it appears very doubtful whether and by what means a lasting peace can be created worldwide.

The essential prerequisites for this are:

  • universal recognition and effective protection of human rights ,
  • the recognition of common basic rules of foreign and domestic political action, e.g. B. the prohibition of any war of aggression and the waging of a war of defense only after examination and permission of the UN Security Council
  • the cooperation between different states , moderated by diplomacy , world organizations and / or confederations of states , with as little violence as possible,
  • the guarantee of a subsistence level for all people and almost equal life chances everywhere on earth,
  • building an energy economy that is in harmony with the earth's limited resources.

The framework recognized by most states today for achieving these goals is the UN. However, as long as it does not have its own executive power, it can only pursue its task with resolutions and is dependent on enforcement by individual member states. This systematically  favors the members of the Security Council who have been armed with weapons of mass destruction contrary to international law .

Ideological obstacles

Especially in times of the Cold War , but also in the present day of global terrorism, there were repeated attempts to divide states into peaceful and rogue ones. Above all, there is the theory that democratic states do not wage war with one another. This thesis was and is used to justify rearmament and wars of intervention.

According to some peace researchers, world peace would make the concept of individual nations superfluous. Some historians see a long-term trend indicating the end of the struggle between nation-states and a tendency towards unification. As an example u. a. called the development of Europe into the European Union in the 20th century. The ethnic wars in the disintegration process of the multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia since 1990 are considered a counterexample .

Both tendencies can be observed in other areas of the world as well: political alliances, with economic goals often playing a major role, as well as splits and divisions to protect political, ethnic and economic interests by individual groups.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Weltfrieden  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Swords Into Plowshares . In: United Nations Cyber ​​School Bus . United Nations (UN.org). 2001. Retrieved August 4, 2007.
  2. See also Matthew 10 : 34-36  EU
  3. Ruth and Walter Wimmer: Peace certificates from four millennia . Urania-Verlag, Leipzig Jena Berlin 1987, p. 132, ISBN 3-332-00095-0