International Peace

What is international peace and why is international peace something people are looking for? International peace, I guess, literally means peace between nations. International peace would be a good thing. I suppose this is why people are looking for it. But is it really achievable? Can there ever be total peace between all nations? I don't think so.

The elusiveness of international peace is summed up right there in the name international peace. Peace between nations. It is the nation's government that makes peace impossible. We can have international quiet for a while but never international peace. As long as there is an us and a them, there will be no international peace. As long as there are nations with boundaries there will be no international peace. As long as there is " this is ours" and " that is yours" there will be no lasting international peace.

The impossibility of international peace is right there in the words international peace. But can it be any other way? It seems that there have always been nations upon this earth. Maybe first warring tribes, then set boundaries as nations. There was no international peace as tribes and nation states battled for land and resources. The aggression was out in the open. There was no need to court public opinion. It didn't matter what other people or other nations thought of you as long as you were winning. There was no desire for international peace. With international peace there would be no expansion. International peace would stand in the way of grabbing resources. And as long as the lack of international peace wasn't too threatening to everyone's survival and as long as there was land to be had and resources to be plundered, why would nations want international peace? They might want peace among a chosen few. They might want peace with a nation that was a serious threat to them, but it would just be an impediment.

There was no need for international peace until the lack of international peace was a threat to everyone's survival. There was no desire for international peace until the world was a sufficiently small place so that there was no possibility of taking more land and outright stealing more resources. There was no desire for international peace until the whole world could watch and see what other nations were doing that they could condemn, and maybe even band together and stop what they were doing.

So now the bigger more developed nations want international peace. They want international peace because they have gotten all that they can safely get through war and now they want international peace. There are only the small scraps left to fight over, so they take the moral high ground now and push for international peace.

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