Towards Disarmament: Part 3
nadim February 26th, 2008
In Part 1 of this series, I mentioned the recent news reports discussing the build-up of armaments and the negative reaction by governments who are suspicious of one another’s intentions. Also highlighted was the billions of dollars spent on the development of armaments worldwide, money which should rather be used to fund development efforts.
Part 2 discussed the traditional disarmament options that a fragmented world has considered putting in place. It was concluded that any efforts in this regard would ultimately prove futile without the existence of a world authority, endorsed by all nations, with the necessary strength to ensure that all conditions of a disarmament treaty are realized.
Few, if any, would agree that current international bodies have the necessary backing to achieve any kind of sustained progress. Indeed, for meaningful progress to be made, a mental shift on the part of both individuals and governments is required, such that the importance placed on national sovereignty — and only doing what is considered beneficial for one’s country — is replaced by a higher aspiration, in line with Baha’u'llah’s statement that “The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens“. The fostering of a sense of unity, and the establishment of peace, are prerequisites for lasting disarmament, and not an outcome.
J Tyson, in World Peace and World Government, notes that the Baha’i model of governance takes the best elements of Western models, but introduces certain key elements based on the concept of unity. And while this may appear strange to some at first, “anyone who observes the problems that plague existing national governments as a result of their internal disunity will readily acknowledge the value of these unifying proposals.”
In World Order of Baha’u'llah, Shoghi Effendi provides us with an outline of the manifold aspects of world governance which future generations will seek to establish. In the process of advancing towards this vision, the issue of disarmament will need to be addressed, such that we can get to the stage where nations will have willingly ceded “all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions.“
However, it should be added that Baha’is do not view disarmament or the establishment of systems of world governance as a panacea to the world’s ills, but rather as a necessary first step in confronting them.
All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity.
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 34)
Observe that if such a happy situation be forthcoming, no government would need continually to pile up the weapons of war, nor feel itself obliged to produce ever new military weapons with which to conquer the human race. A small force for the purposes of internal security, the correction of criminal and disorderly elements and the prevention of local disturbances, would be required — no more. In this way the entire population would, first of all, be relieved of the crushing burden of expenditure currently imposed for military purposes, and secondly, great numbers of people would cease to devote their time to the continual devising of new weapons of destruction — those testimonials of greed and bloodthirstiness, so inconsistent with the gift of life — and would instead bend their efforts to the production of whatever will foster human existence and peace and well-being, and would become the cause of universal development and prosperity.
(Abdu’l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 65)
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