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<\/a><\/p>\nAlong with the practice of war, there has been a long tradition of seeking alternatives to war as a way of settling disagreements.\u00a0 Thus, today, related to the Russia-Ukraine War, we have the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).\u00a0 However these two governmental organizations have not been able to establish a ceasefire, much less to open negotiations.\u00a0 As in other armed conflicts, there have been proposals to organize negotiations made by one country, most recently by China. There had been earlier France-Germany efforts as well as proposals by individual leaders of countries such as Turkey, Israel, and Mexico.\u00a0 Such proposals are useful in creating an atmosphere that might lead to negotiations, but none have been acted on for the moment.<\/p>\n
There is also a tradition from the early 1900s of non-governmental proposals of alternatives to war.\u00a0 The first put into practice were the Red Cross Conventions.\u00a0 If war cannot be avoided, its consequences can be made less deadly by protecting civilians, by helping wounded soldiers, by improving the conditions of prisoners of war.\u00a0 There have been many violations of international humanitarian law in the Russia-Ukraine\u00a0conflict, but no state has questioned the validity of the Red Cross Conventions.<\/p>\n
There have also been calls for peace on the part of religious organizations such as the pleas of Pope Francis, echoing Christian ethics and efforts of Vatican diplomacy in the settlement of other armed conflicts.\u00a0 Other religious leaders have made similar pleas, but no other religious movement has the diplomatic infrastructure of the Vatican.<\/p>\n In many countries, there are non-governmental organizations devoted to peace and working for alternatives to war\u00a0– generally called “the peace movement.”\u00a0 There have been in the past some impressive mobilizations, such as those in many countries on the eve of the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003 or in New York at the time of the U.N. General Assembly devoted to disarmament.<\/p>\n While peace groups have been concerned with the Russia-Ukraine war, there has not been a unified policy as to the conditions necessary for ending the war.\u00a0 Some have proposed a new European-wide security system with an end to NATO and a strengthened OSCE.\u00a0 However, the influence of peace organizations on governmental policy-making is negligible<\/span>.<\/p>\n There is alongside the peace movement but separate in function, the peace research institutions, often linked to universities.\u00a0Transcend Media Service-TMS<\/a> is a reflection of this peace research.\u00a0 There are a number of academic peace research institutions, often with their own publications.\u00a0 \u00a0There have been in the past efforts to link together institutions and individuals working on peace research, development research on what is now called “the Global South” and “Future Studies”.\u00a0 I have not seen these associations’ policy proposals on the Russia-Ukraine War, but I have probably missed many things.<\/p>\n Many have pointed to the Russia-Ukraine War as a turning point–the first war in Europe since the Second World War (if one sets aside the conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia).\u00a0 Such a turning point requires an examination of our activities, their strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 For those of us working on alternatives to war, it is imperative that we renew our efforts and find ways to increase our impact. Present governments cannot be trusted to deal with conflicts nonviolently or build peace by peaceful means. These became Civil Society’s tasks. Like war, peace is too important to be left to the generals.<\/p>\n ______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n One year into the Russia-Ukraine War, one has a “been there, done that” feeling. To settle arguments by war is not a new idea. For those of us working on alternatives to war, it is imperative that we renew our efforts and find ways to increase our impact. Present governments cannot to be trusted to deal with conflicts nonviolently or build peace by peaceful means. These became Civil Society’s tasks. Like war, peace is too important to be left to the generals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2628,442,2433,92],"class_list":["post-230687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-conflict-mediation","tag-conflict-transformation","tag-peacebuilding","tag-violent-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230696,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230687\/revisions\/230696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a><\/em>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues, and editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"