07 November 2007 ~ View Comments

Win the peace.

Being Human

Peace Globe

“Don’t plan for the war unless you plan to win the peace.” Thomas Barnett

We know how to create war. We war with our neighbors. We wage war on drugs. War storms across our hearts as we see our ex-lovers. We conquer our video game enemies.

War is easy.

How do we win peace?

My country has a long history of waring. From the inception of the United States, we have warred in almost every square mile of the country.

What about the peace?

My country sucks at winning peace.

We sent the Native Americans on a journey called the “Trail of Tears“. We continue to punish the Southern states for the Civil War. Even Leonard Peltier is still in prison.

We can’t win peace inside our own country, why would we expect to win peace in other countries?

Thomas P.M. Barnett presents a practical, logical approach to winning peace in this video from the TED conference. Take some time today to watch. He’s funny, interesting, and (since he’s advised the Pentagon for decades) knows what he’s talking about.

For the sake of clarity, I hate war. I hate everything about every single war that is going on in the world right now. I hate everything about all of the wars that will start tomorrow.

The only thing I hate more than war is a pointless war, a war where peace is not an option.

It’s time for us to create a system that will win peace.

P.S. For tomorrow’s TT, I’ll return to my life – and how I create peace in my world.

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  • Slick - I wish people would make that decision.... soon.

    The CEO - Do you know the power points of the world? The Cold war and most of our foreign policy is based around control of the power points. Ironically, each of these points including Israel is an economic strong hold. For example, the land where Israel is located is one of the most important, if not the most important, economic points in the Middle East. I don't think we can separate economics from politics, politics from power, power from control, control from economics.

    The Chief - Yes, we must learn to manage (i.e., live with) war - and enhance the aftermath. Until war isn't an option....
  • While people generally love him or hate him, Richard Nixon was a foreign relations genius and actually did become an elder statesman in his later years. Richard Nixon wrote many books in the years after his presidency and one was called "Real Peace." In this book, Nixon gives a great definition of what "Real Peace" is and I have to say, it's not one that will be readily accepted by idealists but it really is the most sound (to me, anyway) definition of what real peace is:

    Peace is not an end to war; Peace is a means of living with the fact of war.

    This does not mean that we have to accept war - it means we have to - within ourselves - accept that mankind will always wage war. To think that we can take away the human element and all it's primal responses (of which war and conflict are a part) would drive the sanest person to madness.

    Just some food for thought.

    I like the site very much.
  • The CEO
    This is definitely the high octane group here. All this time, I tended to believe that war was economically based. I can hear you now saying that economics are directly equal to politics (I am greatly influenced by the Crankster who will say it for you if you want, and he'll probably quote Sir John Maynard Keynes if you don't). Keynes pointed out that countries needed to stop exporting their unemployment, his economic euphamism for saying that war was not a good way to end depressions and deep recessions, although it's certainly effective.

    To defend your position, either of you would naturally point to the Treaty of Versailles as an example of the ineffectual plan for peace, and how it led to another World War, even more vicious than the first, and I would point to the world-wide Depression that took place. And so on and so forth.

    Your comments, please?
  • I'm so out of my league here....

    You'll have peace when people, collectively, decide they want peace.
  • Odat - My gf was a Federal Court Judge. I spent much of my childhood arguing about not starting wars with people who... let's just say started wars. I realized that I cannot stop the wars. But I can make sure that peace is at least a part of the conversation. You want to go to war for peace? Show me the peace then let's talk about the war.

    Crankster - It's unbelievable isn't it? Peace is not even in the "should we stay or should we go" conversation. (rolling eyes)

    Heart in SF - The problem is that peace through warfare actually works. That's the problem. It doesn't work well, but it does work. Even the non-violent turn overs were (South Africa, N. Ireland in particular) were fraught with violence and war. My question is how do we ensure the peace when war is so easy?
  • heart in san francisco
    Most of the Native American tribes actually had peace chiefs and war chiefs to lead the people, depending upon which situation was going on, because they recognized that people had different abilities and that war and peace should never be confused with each other.

    It seems that our dominant culture has always confused the two and continues to do so as we attempt to bring about peace through warfare. This can never work, which should be obvious by now. It is sheer lunacy to do something which has never worked with the expectation that next time, it will.

    It is obscene that Leonard Peltier is still in prison for a crime he probably did not commit.
  • Thanks for a beautiful rumination on peace. I've often thought about America's war rhetoric, but haven't really considered the absence of peace in our official language!
  • Make love, not war....(to quote an old saying ;-)
    (I'll have to watch the video later, can't get it to load;-(
    Peace
  • Squirrelly - The first conversation I had about this topic was with a Canadian Poet. She was hanging out in my office while she passed through town on a book tour. She told me about the training given to Canadian Peace keepers. She told me a story about two soldiers killed by a road bomb and the decision to keep the peace keepers in open Jeeps so that people wouldn't be afraid. And look at the peace Canada keeps with it's bigger bossy neighbor. I wish I had such patience.
  • I think Canada's history while not perfect, has a few gems to teach us about winning peace. The one which always grabs my imagination involved Sitting Bull and the Sioux nation. After massacring Custer and the US 7th Calvary, the Sioux fled to Canada and who do the Canadians send to meet him,.......two Canadian Mounties. Or was it three? Certainly wasn't an army. And they told Sitting bull to respect the land of the Blackfeet and Crow. Sitting Bull was so impressed by the sense of justice that he agreed to peace.

    The other Canadian contributions to peace include the concept of Peacekeepers by Lester Pearson and the abolition of landmines.

    At the root of being able to fight for peace must be the pursuit of justice. We will fail if our agenda is tainted by anything else such as political influence or economic gain. May we indeed find a way to fight for peace in our modern but divided world. Shalom.
  • Moobs - I think the idea is to train peacekeepers to be peacekeepers and warriors to be warriors. While this is not a new concept in the UK, it's fairly novel for the US.

    FuriousBall - It's like Yogi swimming to the shore.

    Josie - That's funny. I've wondered the same thing. I've heard people say nice things about Steven Colbert - of all people. Who knows? Let's read the book together.

    The CEO - Well shucks, you do know how to make a girl blush.
  • The CEO
    OK, I'll admit that I have decided that I like you, and that when you wrote about Sartre I was impressed about the depth of knowledge you had about existentialism. I am also impressed when you let slip the amount of insight you have into Zen. When you quote Lao Tzu and it's not one of his more common quote, I get a bit more awed. My hat is off to you.

    I have decided that you are a LOT smarter than I am, and that you can do the heavy lifting making it look light and airy, and that i can go back to work abd worry about my next cup of coffee because you have everything well in hand. I want to thank you for that because you are still young and perky while I am older and definitely more crotchety.

    I am passing the Thinking Mantle on to you. You should meet Glamourpuss, the pole dancer from the United Kingdom who is quite good as a matter of fact. I shall retire to worrying about my carb-to-insulin ratios and how much longer I have to go until I need to start wearing Depends or Always thingys. I look forward to your essay on How You Make Peace. Well Done!
  • Josie
    Great video! I've never heard of this fellow before.

    Lou Dobbs was on Larry King Live tonight, talking about his latest book "Independents Day". Dobbs said tonight he doesn't think any of the current candidates will win the upcoming election, that someone will step forward in the next year who will have real leadership qualities. He doesn't feel any of the candidates, Democratic or Republic, have any leadership qualities. That's exactly what I have been saying. I think I am going to check out his book.
  • winning peace i'm pretty sure looks just like yogi swimming
  • I'm not sure anyone really knows what winning the peace looks like.
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