13-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Misri baiters baying for war must understand that peace is golden
Can we instead imagine a world without arms, armies, or warfare?
Tolstoy's satire against war
Leo Tolstoy challenged the glorification of militarism in his short story Ivan the Ivan the Fool. The tale revolves around three brothers—Simeon the soldier, Tarras the merchant, and Ivan the fool—who each become kings. The Devil, envious of their success, plots their downfall. Simeon falls prey to militaristic ambitions, and Tarras succumbs to greed. But Ivan, whose kingdom is filled with simpletons, proves immune to the Devil's schemes.
When the Devil incites the King of Tarakan to invade Ivan's kingdom, his army marches to the frontier, fully armed. But they find no soldiers to fight.
Ivan's subjects welcome them with food and kindness. Baffled, the invading soldiers complain, "War is one thing, but this feels like cutting pea soup—we can't fight here anymore."
The king orders destruction, but the fools merely weep, refusing to resist. Eventually, the demoralised army disbands and retreats. Thus, while Simeon's militarised kingdom collapses, Ivan's peaceful domain survives.
The examples of Liechtenstein and Costa Rica
Tolstoy's notion—that a state can thrive without an army—may seem utopian, but it is not unprecedented.
Liechtenstein, a small European principality, offers a compelling example. Following the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Liechtenstein's army returned home. Legend has it that 80 men went to war and 81 returned—the extra man being a befriended enemy! In 1868, Liechtenstein permanently abolished its military. It maintained neutrality during both World Wars. Andreas Kieber, its last soldier, was honored with a wax statue, now the principality's sole eternal guard.
On a larger scale, Costa Rica is an exemplary nation without a standing army. In 1948, after a civil war, the country disbanded its military, redirecting defence funds to education and healthcare. The results have been extraordinary. In a region marred by instability and poverty, Costa Rica shines as a beacon of political stability, economic development, and human well-being.
According to the 2024 World Happiness Index, Costa Rica ranked first in Latin America and sixth globally. It boasts a standard of living nearly double that of its Central American neighbors. It leads the region in healthcare and education, with a 98% literacy rate and the second-lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America. The World Health Organization has ranked Costa Rica's healthcare system as the best in Central America and 36th globally. Its remarkable achievements are a testament to what can be accomplished when a nation chooses books over bombs.
Panama, inspired by Costa Rica's pacifism, abolished its military in 1989. Today, the Costa Rica–Panama border is the only completely demilitarized frontier in the world. Along with Liechtenstein and Costa Rica, thirteen other countries have disbanded their armed forces.
Can the rest of the world follow their example and move toward a complete renunciation of war and militarism?
It may sound fantastical. Yet when Jules Verne imagined a moon landing in his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, it too seemed far-fetched. If humanity could reach the moon, why not aim for a world without war? The first step is to criminalise war itself.
The illogicality of War
In 18th- and 19th-century America, dueling was a common method for resolving disputes. Duelling—a pre-arranged combat between two individuals with matched weapons—was widely accepted, even celebrated, especially among lawyers and politicians. Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, killed a man in a duel in 1806 over a bet and an insult to his wife. He was never prosecuted and went on to become president. In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton, a founding father and former treasury secretary, in another infamous duel.
Over time, as societies matured, duelling was outlawed across the world. Yet the logic of duelling—a ritualistic clash over honour—is identical to that of war, which is, in essence, a duel between nations. If duelling between individuals is now illegal, why should war between states remain legal?
The global community must move toward the criminalisation of war. This entails establishing enforceable international laws, a global government with an international police force to maintain order, and a meaningful international court for adjudication among nations. Humanity has evolved from families to clans, to tribes, to city-states, to nations. The next logical step is the formation of a global federation that includes all of humankind.
If we fail to take that step, it suggests that human development has stagnated. Given the proliferation of nuclear and biological weapons, the creation of a world government is no longer a utopian dream but a survival imperative.
Bertrand Russell's warning
Philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his essay The Future of Mankind, offered a stark prognosis. Unless there are dramatic changes, he predicted three possible futures: (1) the annihilation of life through nuclear war; (2) a regression to the Stone Age after mass destruction; or (3) the formation of a single global government capable of managing weapons of mass destruction.
"Although the last survivor may proclaim himself universal Emperor," Russell warns, "his reign will be brief, and his subjects will all be corpses. With his death, the uneasy episode of life will end, and the peaceful rocks will revolve unchanged until the sun explodes."
"We are now in the most dangerous epoch of our species' history. After living in the shadow of nuclear weapons for seventy-five years, the insatiable thirst for power has placed us in a perilous race to create an even more cataclysmic arsenal that can exterminate our entire civilisation within a few hours. We are preparing to abdicate human control over our species' existence, handing over this ultimate power to machines and algorithms. And thus, we find ourselves at the edge of a black hole, staring at extinction. When we have the ingenuity to transform our planet into paradise, why are we on a relentless march to commit collective suicide?" asks Sundeep Waslekar, President of the Strategic Foresight Group, in his book A World Without War: The History, Politics and Resolution of Conflict (2022).
"If we are imprisoned by our competing national egos, greed, and the pursuit of power, we will all sleepwalk into a war of human extinction. If we transform our mental frameworks, new technology and philosophy can help us enter an era of summum bonum," he further states.
Surely, the choice before humankind is this: a paradise on Earth or an infernal extinction. Let us decide wisely.
(Faisal CK is Deputy Law Secretary to the Government of Kerala. Views are personal.)
