Is the Stage Set for a Global Anti-War Movement?

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 7 Jul 2025

David Adams | Transition to a Culture of Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service

1 Jul 2025 – This month’s CPNN bulletin descries the massive street demonstrations in the United States, Europe and Middle East against the wars and war preparations that have peaked in recent months, and it concludes with the phrase, “The stage is set for a global anti-war movement.”

The stage is set, but will the play take place?

What does history tell us?

In my history of the American Peace Movements, I showed that the each peace movement was the dialectical reaction to a new threat of war. Based on this, we can predict that the probability of a global anti-war movement increases at the same rate as the war threats that inspire it.

Since there is no indication of a reduction in the threats of war (witness the rearmament of Europe and the policies of Netanyahu, Trump and Putin) we may expect the anti-war movement to continue growing.

So far, as described in CPNN, the protests consist of street demonstrations in the US, Europe and Middle East, and desertion and emigration in Russia and the Ukraine.

But in order to be effective, more is needed from an anti-war movement.

One possibility is through the democratic means of elections, to vote for anti-war candidates.

In the past this has not usually been effective, as big money, allied with the military-industrial complex, has been able to control electoral outcomes in their favor.

Has that changed? In an earlier blog, I argued that voters are in revolt against bourgeois democracy and they reject the traditional bourgeois candidates. So far that has helped demagogue like Trump. But insofar as the anti-war movement can get access to putting their candidates on the ballot, that could change.

Is there a role for the United Nations as part of an anti-war movement?

As long as it is dominated by a Security Council with veto power by the warring nations of the world, the United Nations cannot be of much help? It needs a profound reform if it is to become effective.

Another possibility is that the militarism of the US, Israel and Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, will produce a total collapse of their economies. As some economists have long pointed out, the investment in weapons production and military bases are a net negative factor in a country’s economy. With more war and rearmament, can the dollar and the euro continue to hold their value in the coming years? It’s not sure.

The BRICS countries, with their continued economic development and movement towards other currencies, stand to gain. So far, with the exception of Russia versus Ukraine and India versus Pakistan they remain outside the wars and rearmament of the West. Will they be able to stay outside and become a force for peace?

Would economic collapse strengthen or weaken the anti-war movement? In this regard, the anti-war movement needs to make a strong alliance with the movement for food sovereignty in order to survive a global economic crash. Similarly, it needs a strong alliance with movement for climate sustainability.

The anti-war movement needs symbols and manifestes to maintain its unity and strength. In that regard, as described in my recent blogs, the Peace Manifesto 2025 could play a good role. So far it is still a dream, but hopefully its diffusion will become a reality.

All the dramatic changes mentioned above may seem utopian, but we have entered into an era of history that is characterized by radical, profound and rapid change, perhaps more than ever before. Changes that seem utopian are becoming more and more possible.

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Dr. David Adams is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment and coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the UN International Year for the Culture of Peace.  Previously, at Yale and Wesleyan Universities, he was a specialist on the brain mechanisms of aggressive behavior, the history of the culture of war, and the psychology of peace activists, and he helped to develop and publicize the Seville Statement on Violence. Send him an email.

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